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Alibaba consolidates community group buying operations under new Taocaicai brand
- Taocaicai is expected to offer more than 1 million products from around the world to community group buying users in China
- The new brand will work closely with Alibaba’s logistics unit Cainiao and food delivery service Ele.me
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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding is doubling down and escalating its community group buying operations through a new brand called Taocaicai, as competition in this growing retail market segment intensifies amid Beijing’s tightened regulation.
Consumers can access Taocaicai, where they can find more than 1 million products from around the world, on the homepage of shopping platform Taobao Marketplace and the Taobao Deals’ app.
“Taocaicai is for a better life, providing people with more affordable and good products, as well as more convenient and warm service,” said Trudy Dai Shan, head of Taocaicai and one of Alibaba’s select partners. “It should also help farmers increase their income and enable small shops to get better.”
It will work closely with Alibaba’s smart logistics operation Cainiao Network and food delivery service Ele.me, according to a company statement.
A latecomer in China’s community group buying market, Alibaba’s foray in March this year was pursued under a team called MMC. This led to the integration of Alibaba’s business-to-business platform Lingshoutong, which connected small family-run retailers and gave their businesses a tech upgrade, with the firm’s community group buying enterprise Hema Jishi. Taocaicai was established from the merger of Hema Jishi and Taobao Grocery.
Alibaba’s latest move shows that community group buying remains a hot business model in mainland China amid the coronavirus pandemic. This market is forecast to be worth about 104 billion yuan (US$16 billion) this year, up 38 per cent from 2020, according to consultancy China E-commerce Research Centre.
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