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Beijing-based fashion label Trinite started as what is known in China as a “Taobao brand”, selling directly to consumers solely on Alibaba’s online mega-platform. Founder Yang Cao and designer Zhang Xi have decided to forego fashion shows, using Taobao — and particularly its live-streaming platform — as a gateway to an audience. By gaining a following there, the brand has been picked up by local retailers including SND, Hug, The Republique, NoundNound, Inless and Labelhood.
Every time the brand drops a new collection, it goes to Taobao to host a series of live broadcasts. “Whether it is the inspiration of this season, the content we want to express, or the craftsmanship, live broadcasting is a very direct way to reach customers,” Cao says of Taobao Live, the integrated app founded in 2016. On these live streams, Trinite can also get direct feedback from consumers to help it make design choices. Currently, monthly sales on the platform are about 1.5 million RMB, with pieces ranging between 500 and 3,000 RMB. “The fact is, we are now more than a Taobao brand, it’s just one of our channels,” says Cao.
The “Taobao brand” crossing over to respected fashion stores is on the rise. For two decades, Chinese consumers have used the platform to purchase anything from inexpensive clothing to vitamins to electronics. On its most recent earnings call, the gross merchandise value generated by sales of online physical goods over digital marketplaces Taobao and Tmall turned positive in March; this was boosted by solid growth in the fashion and accessories category. A report in 2022 by Influencer Marketing Hub puts Taobao as the world’s biggest e-commerce player with a market share of 35 per cent; the conversion rate of the content on Taobao Live is 32 per cent.
Collectively, Alibaba Group has more than 1 billion annual active users across its platforms. More than 124 million annual active consumers each spent over 10,000 RMB on Taobao and Tmall in the fiscal year 2022. Due to its scale, the site has become associated with cheap knock-offs and copycat designs — hardly a place you’d go to buy designer names. That’s now changing. Brands such as Fax Copy Express, which was picked up by luxury e-tailer Ssense, started out by selling on Taobao. A look at the previous Shanghai Fashion Week schedule indicates that most of the brands taking part now sell on Taobao in one form or another (either through their own retail stores or a multi-brand store using it for e-commerce).
While only verified businesses can open stores on Tmall, anyone can open a store on Taobao. And as this opens a window to consumers, it offers counterfeiters ample inspiration. “It used to have a bad reputation as there wasn’t much control [on there] when it came to IP protection,” Lucrezia Seu, founder of Shanghai-based marketing agency Plush.Consulting, explains. Work has been done to stamp out counterfeiters: according to the group’s annual IPR report released in April, 640,000 rights holder accounts registered on its intellectual property protection platform in 2022. The Alibaba Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance has over 220 members representing more than 1,100 brands by the end of 2022. Considering the number of entities registered on the site (Alibaba declines to disclose figures), this is still only a drop in the ocean.
The creation of a fashion subcategory has also made designer discovery easier. Once this tag is checked, the advanced algorithm-based marketplace pushes brands into feeds such as Seu’s more frequently.
The addition of multi-brand stores on Taobao has also given the platform credibility. Shanghai’s Turight has an official store, selling names like Andersson Bell or Pushbutton from Korea as well as homegrown independent designers like Pronounce or 8ON8. Roger Miao, managing director of tradeshow Ontimeshow, says boutiques have embraced online channels like Taobao and Douyin to boost sales since the pandemic started.
Accordingly, as more designer names sell on the site, Taobao is becoming known for its agility and ease of use, according to Miao. This wasn’t always the case. Ian Hylton, president of Xiamen fashion brand Ms Min, says in the early days of selling on Taobao, “We were often asked why we would sell there. No one’s asking that question today.”
This shift in perception comes down to a “huge generational difference” in China, says Seu. Young shoppers are more open to finding new brands on new platforms. And the success of mid-market brands like Zhizhi on Taobao — which brought in over 50 million RMB in GMV on Singles Day last year, according to the brand — shows that customers on Taobao aren’t only concerned with finding the cheapest price.
Taobao is leaning in. The annual Taobao Maker Festival debuted in 2016 and this year’s rollout saw 10 cities host exhibitions. On the group’s 20th anniversary, CEO of the Taobao and Tmall Group Trudy Dai announced it will be investing in “increasing user growth and in building a prosperous ecosystem” to improve the experience for both brands and customers.
Correction: The dek of this article incorrectly referred to Taobao as a Tmall platform. It is an Alibaba platform.
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