Alibaba urges online shoppers, content creators to start ‘planting grass’, kicking off new marketing campaign ahead of Singles’ Day
- Alibaba’s 40-day Zhongcao campaign will start on October 1 across Taobao’s different channels, including live-streaming platform Taobao Live
- This initiative shows how China’s e-commerce market is now enhanced with a mix of promotions, social media content and live-streaming sessions
Zhongcao, which means “planting grass” in Chinese, also refers to local consumers’ predisposition to covet merchandise that friends or celebrities have, prompting them to make a similar purchase.
“There is an inevitable trend for merchants to participate in Zhongcao,” said Wei Meng, the general manager of Taobao’s content e-commerce business. “During this year’s Singles‘ Day, [consumers] can find the ‘shortest’ way from Zhongcao to purchase in Taobao.”
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Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sales begin
The “pick one from two” tactic, in which online merchants are forced to choose only one platform as their exclusive distribution channel, has become widespread in China, especially during shopping festivals such as Singles’ Day. Under that scheme, if a seller lists on a competitor’s platform, the operator may punish it by blocking traffic to the merchant or yanking products offline.
While campaigns are anchored on the specific products offered, marketing is enhanced with a mix of promotions, user-generated social media content, live-streaming sessions, gaming features and recommendations from influencers, among a growing array of content being incorporated by online merchants to ensure user stickiness.
The trend shows how China’s e-commerce market, the world’s biggest, continues to evolve and has become increasingly sophisticated amid stiff competition between major online retail platform operators. That has also made Singles’ Day a proxy for consumer spending in China and a barometer for the health of the economy.
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New e-commerce players, however, have been ramping up their own initiatives.
Kuaishou, for example, has created its own 116 shopping festival that will run from October 20 to November 6 this year. For the June quarter, the e-commerce business of Beijing-based Kuaishou generated a gross merchandise volume of 145.4 billion yuan, double that from the same period last year.
