从“冲销量”到“提效益” 品牌商家为什么在618集体加仓天猫？

This article outlines the key new shifts in China’s e-commerce industry during this year’s 618 shopping festival. The entire sector has shifted its priority from chasing sales volume to expand scale to improving efficiency and pursuing stable profitability, and a large number of brands are collectively expanding their presence on Tmall. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. E-commerce traffic growth has peaked, and customer acquisition costs have risen sharply. More than 70% of merchants now rank net profit margin as their top KPI, and have abandoned the growth model of sacrificing profits for scale.

2. Compared with content and live streaming platforms, shelf e-commerce represented by Tmall boasts lower return rates and higher actual net profit margins. It also hosts over 62 million high-spending 88VIP members, with repeat purchase rates reaching over 50% for top merchants, making it a more suitable choice for long-term stable operation.

3. The current mainstream industry model has formed a complementary dynamic: live streaming e-commerce handles new customer acquisition, while shelf e-commerce takes charge of user retention and profit generation. The entire industry is shifting back to long-term-oriented operation.

This article summarizes current consumer trends and channel shifts in China’s e-commerce industry, providing actionable insights for brands’ operational and layout planning. Core takeaways are as follows:

1. Changing operational trends: With traffic growth peaking and consumer decision-making becoming more rational, brands have shifted from blindly chasing GMV scale to pursuing stable net profit margins. More than 70% of brands now rank net profit margin as their top KPI, and have voluntarily abandoned loss-making scale expansion.

2. Key insights for channel layout: Tmall is currently the most profitable shelf e-commerce channel, with actual net profit margins ranging from 12% to 15% and return rates between 12% and 22% — far lower than those of content platforms. It also has more than 62 million high-spending 88VIP members, with repeat purchase rates exceeding 50% for top merchants, making it ideal for building long-term brand equity and cultivating brand reputation.

3. Optimal operational model: Brands can adopt a complementary model of using live streaming e-commerce for new customer acquisition, and Tmall for user retention and repeat purchases. This approach allows brands to avoid pure price competition and reallocate more resources to product R&D and brand building.

This article sorts out current industry changes, opportunities, risks and actionable operational directions for all types of e-commerce sellers. Key insights are as follows:

1. Overall industry change: E-commerce traffic growth has peaked, and customer acquisition costs have surged. The industry has shifted from the era of burning cash for scale to prioritizing actual net profit, and more than 70% of sellers now rank net profit margin as their top KPI.

2. Opportunity and risk alerts: Shelf e-commerce, especially Tmall, is currently the most profitable channel. Compared with content platforms, Tmall users search with clear purchase intent, leading to higher conversion rates, lower return losses and stable net profit margins. The platform also uses GMV net of refunds as an assessment metric, guiding merchants toward healthy operation. Pure content e-commerce, by contrast, easily leads to losses from ad spending, and sellers should be alert to the risk of collapsing sales when ad spending stops.

3. Recommended operational models: Small and medium-sized sellers with strong product competitiveness can focus on Tmall to drive profitability through repeat purchases, while larger sellers can adopt a combined model of live streaming for new customer acquisition and Tmall for user retention, balancing growth and profitability.

This article sorts out shifting consumer demand, new business opportunities and digital transformation insights for factories operating in e-commerce. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Shifts in product design and production demand: Consumers now place greater value on product quality and brand reputation, and repeat purchases are especially critical for durable goods categories. Whether factories are building their own brands or supplying other brands, they must prioritize product quality to cultivate repeat customers through word-of-mouth, aligning with current market demand.

2. New business opportunities: A large number of brands are accelerating their migration to Tmall, with the number of newly settled brands on Tmall from March to May this year surging 30% month-on-month. Whether factories operate their own brands or work as OEMs for other brands, they can align production with the demand of the Tmall channel and connect directly with brand needs.

3. Insights for e-commerce transformation: Factories entering e-commerce should not blindly follow the trend of chasing GMV by burning cash for traffic. Instead, they should prioritize stable profitability. Tmall offers free business data tools that help factories analyze user demand, optimize product design and production, and build long-term stable growth through quality-driven repeat purchases.

This article summarizes current development trends of China’s e-commerce industry and the core pain points of brand merchants, pointing out new business directions for service providers. Key insights are as follows:

1. New industry development trends: The e-commerce industry has fully shifted from being traffic-driven to efficiency-driven. Merchants no longer blindly pursue GMV scale, and instead prioritize stable and actual net profit. A large number of brands are accelerating their layout on Tmall’s shelf e-commerce, leading to surging demand for refined operation services.

2. Core pain points for brands: Content e-commerce commissions have continued to rise, growing from 40% to 60%. High customer acquisition costs, high return rates and low repeat purchase rates mean most customers acquired via ad spending are one-time, leaving brands trapped in the cycle of collapsing sales without ad spending. Profits are eroded, and it is difficult to accumulate long-term brand equity.

3. New business opportunities: Service providers can develop targeted solutions for brands’ refined operation on Tmall, repeat customer management and long-term brand equity building. Leveraging Tmall’s open business data tools to help brands cut costs and improve efficiency, this aligns perfectly with merchants’ current core demand for better profitability.

This article sorts out brands’ core demands for e-commerce platforms, providing plenty of actionable insights for platform operation and merchant recruitment. Core takeaways are as follows:

1. Shifts in merchants’ core demands: Merchants no longer only value a platform’s total traffic volume. They now attach greater importance to stable operating profits, low return losses, high-quality high-repeat-purchase customer groups, and a healthy operating environment that supports long-term brand equity building, with growing requirements for transparent, accurate platform assessment metrics.

2. Recommended platform operation practices: Tmall was the first to adopt GMV net of refunds as its core assessment metric, opens free business data to merchants for operational analysis, and guides merchants to focus on actual profitability through mechanism design. It has also built the high-spending, high-repeat-purchase 88VIP membership program to provide brands with a stable source of high-value customers, a model that has won broad recognition from merchants.

3. Pitfalls to avoid: If a platform only pursues superficial GMV scale and ignores merchants’ actual profitability, it will exacerbate merchant losses and lead to gradual merchant attrition. Platforms need to adjust their operational orientation, build a healthy ecosystem not reliant on price wars, to retain merchants and achieve long-term development.

This article sorts out the latest industry developments in China’s e-commerce sector, outlines new characteristics and emerging issues of the ongoing industry transformation, and provides rich insights for industrial research. Core findings are as follows:

1. Latest industry developments: With traffic growth peaking, the overall development logic of the e-commerce industry has shifted from chasing sales volume for scale to improving efficiency for long-term growth. More than 70% of merchants rank net profit margin as their top operational KPI. Shelf e-commerce has retaken its position as the core position for brand operation, with the number of newly settled brands on Tmall growing 30% month-on-month from March to May this year, indicating a collective migration of brands to the platform.

2. New emerging industry issues: Live streaming and content e-commerce face problems of rapidly rising commissions, high return rates, low repeat purchases and difficulty accumulating brand equity. The industry’s past blind pursuit of GMV has left merchants under severe profit pressure, and price wars have squeezed out investment in product R&D, which is not conducive to the long-term healthy development of the industry.

3. New direction for business models: The industry is gradually forming a complementary business model of live streaming for new customer acquisition and shelf e-commerce for retention and profit. Platforms are shifting to assessment mechanisms centered on actual profitability, and the entire industry is returning to long-term orientation. This is pushing merchants to reallocate resources to product R&D and brand building, helping build a healthier e-commerce ecosystem.