Tmall ( simplified Chinese : 天猫 ; traditional Chinese : 天貓 ; pinyin : Tiānmāo ), formerly Taobao Mall , is a Chinese-language website for business-to-consumer (B2C) online retail, spun off from Taobao , operated in China by Alibaba Group . It is a platform for local Chinese and international businesses to sell brand-name goods to consumers in Greater China . It has over 500 million monthly active users , as of February 2018. In the last few years, it has opened its features to brands, not only for online sales but also for developing brand awareness. According to Alexa Rank, it is the third most visited website globally in 2021.
52-611: Tmall.com was first introduced by Taobao in April 2008 as Taobao Mall (simplified Chinese: 淘宝商城 ; traditional Chinese: 淘寶商城 ; pinyin: Táobǎo Shāngchéng ), a dedicated B2C platform within its consumer e-commerce website. The key difference between Tmall and Taobao is Tmall is a B2C platform but Taobao is C2C. In November 2010, Taobao Mall launched an independent web domain, tmall.com, to differentiate listings by its merchants, who are either brand owners or authorized distributors, from Taobao's C2C merchants. Meanwhile, it kicked off
104-471: A US$ 30 million advertising campaign to raise brand awareness among consumers. It also announced an enhanced focus on product verticals and improvements in shopping experience. In June 2011, Alibaba Group Chairman and CEO Jack Ma announced a major restructuring of Taobao through an internal email. It was reorganized into three separate companies. As a result, Tmall.com became an independent business under Alibaba Group. The other two businesses that resulted from
156-419: A classified or auction-like system. As such, the products and services bought and sold are usually varied in type and have a short development and sale cycle. Products sold may often be used or second-hand , since consumer to consumer sales are often facilitated through auction or classified sites. Since products are usually second-hand, surplus, or used, there is seldom a long development cycle associated with
208-537: A common need. Some people wanted things, other people had things and wanted to sell them. This was the birth of classifieds . The use of classifieds is referred to as classified advertisement. Normally used in text-based print, classified advertisement is now a strong vertical market that allows customers to communicate their needs with each other. In 2003, the US classifieds market totaled $ 30.00 billion for both newspapers and online classified ad services. The oldest auction house
260-487: A customer goes to the business in order to purchase a product or service. In customer to customer markets, the business facilitates an environment where customers can sell goods or services to each other. Other types of markets include business to business (B2B) and business to customer (B2C). Consumer to consumer (or citizen-to-citizen ) electronic commerce involves electronically facilitated transactions between consumers through some third party. A common example
312-400: A fee associated with such exhibitions. Websites may also charge a commission when products are sold. With the growing use of online auctions, the number of internet-related auction frauds has also increased. For instance, a seller may create two accounts on an auction site. When an interested buyer bids for an item, the seller will use another account to bid on the same item and thus, increasing
364-568: A gross merchandise volume of RMB30 billion – about three times the amount facilitated by 360buy , its closest competitor. The site accounts for a 47.6% share of the B2C online retail market in China, followed by 16.2% of 360buy and 4.8% of Amazon.cn. According to Alexa , as of June 2021, Tmall.com was the 3rd most visited website in the world and the 1st most visited website in China. Alipay , an escrow -based online payment platform owned by Alibaba Group ,
416-482: A large set of highly sophisticated digital marketing tools. Moreover, TMall HeyDrop raffle tool and TMall Heybox’s product trial tool can be very useful for enhancing brand awareness and collect shoppers’ feedback about their newly launched items. Consumer-to-consumer Customer to customer ( C2C or consumer to consumer ) markets provide a way to allow customers to interact with each other. Traditional markets require business to customer relationships, in which
468-548: A liability statement claiming that they are not responsible for any losses or damages. Furthermore, illegal or restricted products and services have been found on auction sites. Anything from illegal drugs, pirated works, prayers, and even sex have appeared on such sites. Although most of these items are blacklisted, some still find their way onto the internet. Despite the success of eBay, numerous other online auction sites have either shut down or consolidated with other similar sites. Creating an innovative and efficient business model
520-720: A local business are indicative of C2C marketing's importance in SMB space. Most companies think of C2C marketing as the use of social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. However, in many cases, the messaging tends to be business to consumer. A study performed in Colombia with 686 surveys analyzed factors C2C users perceive as influences in the intention to use and the acceptance of a marketplace: trust, high web quality, low prices and social influence are key drivers that engage consumers to this marketplaces. Business-to-business Business-to-business ( B2B or, in some countries, BtoB )
572-449: A quick profit, and simply place their product in the market place in hopes that it will be sold. Advertising is essential towards the success of any business. In the case of customer to customer marketing, advertising often relates to online auctions and listings. As opposed to the pricey costs to advertise in media such as newspapers and magazines, products are already being promoted and publicized once users decide to officially put them on
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#1733084630371624-430: A result, smaller businesses with less capital often struggle to stay afloat. In B2B, brand reputations greatly depend on the personal relationship between businesses. On the other hand, in B2C, the business's reputation is often fueled by publicity through the media. In many cases, the overall volume of B2B (business-to-business) transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this
676-489: A year, and a compulsory fixed sum deposit gone from 10,000 yuan ($ 1,570) to up to 150,000 yuan ($ 23,500). According to Tmall.com, the price increase was intended to help weed out merchants that are too often a source of fakes, shoddy products and poor customer service. Stores that earn top ratings for service and quality from customers and high sales volumes are entitled to partial or full refunds. On January 11, 2012, TMall.com officially changed its Chinese name to Tiān Māo (天猫),
728-435: Is Craigslist. Craigslist utilizes the internet to attract a wide customer and buyer base which employs the website to list and sell items. Since the customer to customer marketing strategy is strongly focused on serving the customer, the business model of Craigslist is simple: serve the customer first. Utilizing this model, Craigslist has developed into a prime example of a customer to customer driven 'machine', which focuses on
780-499: Is Stockholm Auction House (Stockholms Auktionsverk), which was established in Sweden in 1674. Auctions however, have been recorded as far back as 500 B.C. Deriving from the Latin word augēre, which means "to increase" or "to augment". Auctions have since been widely used as a method of liquidating assets, and have evolved into many different variations. The most successful current form of auctions
832-500: Is a situation where one business makes a commercial transaction with another. This typically occurs when: Business-to-Business companies represent a significant part of the United States economy . This is especially true in firms with 500 employees and above, of which there were 19,464 in 2015, where it is estimated that as many as 72% are businesses that primarily serve other businesses. One possible argument of economics to explain
884-527: Is an online auction , in which a consumer posts an item for sale and other consumers bid to purchase it; the third party generally charges a flat fee or commission . The sites are only intermediaries, just there to match consumers. They do not have to check the quality of the products being offered. Consumer to consumer ( C2C ) marketing is the creation of a product or service with the specific promotional strategy being for consumers to share that product or service with others as brand advocates based on
936-486: Is based on the Internet, such as eBay. Most C2C websites, such as eBay, have both streamlined and globalized traditional person-to-person trading, which was usually conducted through such forms as garage sales, collectibles shows, flea markets and more, with their web interface. This facilitates easy exploration for buyers and enables the sellers to immediately list an item for sale within minutes of registering. When an item
988-421: Is clearer, it has spot sourcing contract management that offers a flat retail rate for each item sold. Time is also different as B2B has a slower process than B2C which is concluded in shorter periods (that could be minutes or days). Business-to-business generally requires an upfront investment whereas business-to-consumers do not need a business to spend money on infrastructure. The last difference mentioned here
1040-621: Is derived solely from their business to customer model utilized by businesses to post jobs and hire new workers. As such, it becomes apparent that companies who focus on this particular model and, specifically classifieds, whether online or off, are often not focused on profit; but rather, on delivery of the service or product to ensure customer to customer interaction. Internet classifieds sites such as OLX, Quikr, Loogga etc. are gaining prominence in emerging economies such as India, Brazil and Nigeria. OLX and Quikr recently enabled their users to sell cows and buffaloes in rural India C2C marketing
1092-491: Is listed on a C2C site, a nonrefundable insertion fee is charged based on the seller's opening bid on the item. Once the auction is completed, a final value fee is charged. This fee generally ranges from 1.25 percent to 5 percent of the final sale price. After the C2C site sets up the system in which bids could be placed, items can be put up for sale, transactions can be completed, seller fees are charged, and feedback can be left, while
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#17330846303711144-521: Is of critical importance to retailers. When a shopper buys a product, if it can be shared with the shopper's friends, that drives significant traffic back to the customer site. Additionally, shoppers trust user generated recommendations much higher than recommendations pushed by the retailer. Retailers like CafePress have implemented C2C marketing on their website and companies like ShopSocially are building C2C marketing platforms for retailers. Recent trends by Facebook and Wavespot that leverage free WIFI at
1196-794: Is that in B2B, lagging in the digital transformation, has to deal with back-office connectivity and invoicing a number of different partners and suppliers, while B2C results in more seamless transactions as options, such as cyber-cash, allows the business to accept a wider variety of payment options. B2B typically only allows payment via credit card or invoice, making the purchasing process longer and more expensive than with B2C. B2B, as there are normally bigger amounts involved over longer periods of time, usually have higher costs than B2C, which consists of quick, daily transactions. Businesses typically want to buy on net terms, meaning that B2B merchants have to wait weeks, if not months to get paid for their goods or services. As
1248-409: Is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving subcomponents or raw materials , and only one B2C transaction, specifically the sale of the finished product to the end customer. For example, an automobile manufacturer makes several B2B transactions such as buying tires, glass for windows, and rubber hoses for its vehicles. The final transaction, a finished vehicle sold to
1300-586: Is the preferred payment solution for transactions on Tmall.com. As on Taobao Marketplace, the C2C e-commerce platform under Alibaba Group , buyers and sellers can communicate prior to the purchase through AliWangWang ( Chinese : 阿里旺旺 ; pinyin : ālǐ wàngwàng ), its proprietary embedded instant messaging program. It has become a habit among Chinese online shoppers to “chat” with the sellers or their customer service team through AliWangWang to inquire about products, engage in bargaining, etc. prior to purchase.. Unlike online sales on marketplaces like Amazon,
1352-744: Is the retailer supplying goods to the consumer. In B2B there are business people on both sides, whereas in B2C there is normally one business person and one consumer. In the first case, the decision is pursued by need (because the other business needs it), and in the second case, they are expectations rather than needs. B2B has many sellers and different stores, whereas B2C, is usually just one supplier. B2B concentrates on raw data for another company, but B2C focuses on producing something for consumers. A B2B transaction entails direct-sourcing contract management, which involves negotiating terms that establish prices and various other factors such as volume-based pricing, carrier and logistics preferences, etc. B2C transaction
1404-433: Is the transaction pattern for the intermediate trading market. It concentrates similar transactions of various industries into one place, as it provides a trading opportunity for the purchaser and supplier, typically involving companies that do not own the products and do not sell the products. It is merely a platform to bring sellers and purchasers together online. The better platforms help buyers easily find information about
1456-864: Is vital towards success. Online auctions can be categorized into five main models: C2C, B2C, B2B, B2G, and G2P. C2C refers to customer to customer, B2C signifies business to customer, B2B refers to business to business, B2G signifies business to government, and G2P refers to government to public. In recent years, online auctions have even appealed to major businesses. For instance, Sears has reported selling items at higher prices on these auctions when compared to discounting them in stores. The success of an online auction site largely depends on six variables: interactivity, product offering, level of trust, rate of growth and adoption, networking, level of commitment, and payment options. Interactions among users are crucial and thus, websites must be accessible and easily navigable. E-mails, community boards, and feedback all aid in increasing
1508-855: The C2C site stays in the background. For example, at the end of an auction, the C2C site notifies the buyer via e-mail that he or she has won. The C2C site also e-mails the seller to report who won and at what price the auction finished. At that point it's up to the seller and buyer to finish the transaction independently of the C2C site. C2C sites make money by charging fees to sellers. Although it's free to shop and place bids, sellers place fees to list items for sale, add on promotional features, and successfully complete transactions. Many C2C sites have expanded and developed existing product categories by introducing category-specific bulletin boards and chat rooms, integrating category-specific content, advertising its service in targeted publications and participating in targeted trade shows. eBay specifically has also broadened
1560-498: The Chinese pronunciation of Tmall, which literally means “sky cat”. Tmall occupied 51.3% Chinese B2C market online product sales share in Q1 2013. In February 2014, Alibaba launched Tmall Global as a cross-border marketplace for foreign brands and merchants to sell directly to Chinese consumers. The cross-border model requires merchants no longer to have a legal entity in China nor hold stock in
1612-803: The advent of the Internet. Services such as Craigslist , eBay , Facebook Marketplace , Mercari , OfferUp , and other classified and auction based sites & apps have allowed for greater interaction between consumers, facilitating the Customer to Customer model. Furthermore, as it becomes more economical for individuals to network on the Internet via social websites and individual content creation, this marketing model has been greatly leveraged by businesses and individuals alike. There are two implementations of customer to customer markets that are credited with its origin. These are classifieds and auctions. Newspapers and other similar publications were in frequent circulation and therefore were able to be used to facilitate
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1664-623: The country. Some of the biggest flagship stores on Tmall Global include Costco from the US and dm-drogerie markt from Germany. After Houston Rockets general manager's tweet about Hong Kong , Tmall delisted any items related to the organization from its sites. Tmall.com was registered on October 17, 1997, with Alibaba Cloud Computing (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Tmall currently features more than 70,000 international and Chinese brands from more than 50,000 merchants and serves more than 180 million buyers. Tmall.com ranked number one among all Chinese B2C retail websites for 2010 in terms of transaction volume, with
1716-415: The customer selling to the customer. Revenues which support the company are derived through subsidiary channels, while maintaining the model and convenience of the site. In fact, Craigslist makes no money off the customer to customer interactions that occur on the classifieds of the website. All of their revenue is derived from portion of the website targeted at businesses. Thus, in other words, their revenue
1768-447: The enterprise's online store. Through the website, the company can promote its products vigorously, more efficiently and more comprehensively which enriches transactions as it helps their customers understand their products well. Or, the website can be created for business, where the seller advertises their products to promote and expand transactions. A good example of a vertical B2B model is manufacturers vs wholesalers. Horizontal B2B
1820-490: The fast-paced advancements in technology, auction sites must respond to these changes by staying updated. Moreover, sites also need to constantly search for business opportunities in order to expand their market. A large network of users is also crucial. Having an array of different sellers, buyers, suppliers, and delivery agents will increase the number of users, which would also raise the level of interactivity. In addition, forming alliances with different partners will also aid in
1872-402: The interactivity. With the growing need for convenience, the variety of products offered can greatly attribute to the client basis. Especially with the growing number of online frauds, trust is essential in auction sites. Users must be guaranteed that their personal information will remain secured and that they will receive their purchased product in a perfect condition and in a timely manner. With
1924-399: The internet. Potential buyers will become aware of products or services by conducting searches on the websites. Aside from possible fees and commissions imposed by the auction or listing site, advertising in this market does not require a substantial amount of money. Customer to Customer C2C marketing has become very popular in recent years. Customers can directly contact sellers and eliminate
1976-415: The levels of Business-to-Business activity is that it allows for business segmentation. B2B is often contrasted with business-to-consumer (B2C) trade. B2B involves specific challenges at different stages. At their formation, organizations should be careful to rely on an appropriate combination of contractual and relational mechanisms. Specific combinations of contracts and relational norms may influence
2028-428: The middle man. Moreover, anyone can now sell and advertise a product in the convenience of one's home – enabling one to easily start a business. Therefore, a wide variety of products can often be found on auction sites such as eBay, including second-hand goods. Since the majority of these sales occur over the internet, sellers can reach both national and international customers and greatly increase their market. Feedback on
2080-514: The nature and dynamics of the negotiations between firms. Vertical B2B is generally oriented to manufacturing or business. It can be divided into two directions: upstream and downstream. Producers or commercial retailers can have a supply relationship with upstream suppliers, including manufacturers, and form a sales relationship. As an example, Dell works with upstream suppliers of integrated circuit microchips and computer printed circuit boards (PCBs) . A vertical B2B website can be similar to
2132-484: The operation of a TMall shop requires a specialized and dedicated cross-functional team. Such a team can either be employed by the merchant inhouse or, as in most cases, is managed through a certified Tmall Partner Agency ("TP") which operates the store on an ongoing basis on behalf of the shop owner. Since 2017, TMall decided to provide merchants with a dedicated channel meant to support them with their new launches, called TMall Heybox. TMall Heybox offers vendors tremendous
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2184-455: The post of Small Business Commissioner under the Enterprise Act 2016 to "enable small businesses to resolve disputes" and "consider complaints by small business suppliers about payment issues with larger businesses that they supply." The principal difference between B2B and B2C is that the first one refers to commerce transactions between manufacturer and retailer, and the second one it
2236-551: The price. Consequently, many users have purchased products at unnecessarily inflated prices. Identity theft has become a rising issue. Scam artists often create sites with popular domain names such as "ebay" in order to attract unknowing eBay customers. These sites will ask for personal information including credit card numbers. Numerous cases have been documented in which users find unknown charges on their credit card statements and withdrawals in their bank statements after purchasing something online. Unfortunately, websites often have
2288-412: The products that are marketed via this method. However, in the case of individuals who are looking to sell a product or service they have developed to be sold on the small-scale, there is a product development life cycle. However, even when a product goes through a development life cycle when marketed in this manner, seldom does traditional marketing research occur. Oftentimes individuals are looking to make
2340-406: The purchased product is often requested to aid both the seller and potential customers. The actual buying and searching process is simplified and search costs, distribution costs, and inventory costs are all reduced. Moreover, the transactions occur at a swift rate with the use of online payment systems such as PayPal. Although online auctions allow sellers to display their products, there is often
2392-418: The range of products that it offers to facilitate trading on the site, including payment services , shipping services, authentication, appraisal, vehicle inspection and escrow services. Specialty marketplaces have also been added to serve the specialized needs of buyers and sellers. For example, eBay Motors serves the automotive marketplace, including vehicles, parts and accessories; and Half.com (now closed)
2444-463: The relationship have comparable negotiating power, and even when they do not, each party typically involves professional staff and legal counsel in the negotiation of terms, whereas B2C is shaped to a far greater degree by economic implications of information asymmetry . However, within a B2B context, large companies may have many commercial, resource and information advantages over smaller businesses. The United Kingdom government, for example, created
2496-495: The reorganization are Taobao Marketplace (a C2C marketplace) and eTao (a shopping search engine). The move was said to be necessary for Taobao to "meet competitive threats that emerged in the past two years during which the Internet and e-commerce landscape has changed dramatically". In October 2011, Tmall.com experienced two successive waves of online rioting since it significantly increased fees on online vendors. The service fees raised from 6,000 yuan ($ 940) to 60,000 yuan ($ 9,400)
2548-411: The sellers and the relevant information about the products via the website. A good example of a horizontal B2B model is bankers vs corporate lawyers. A 2022 Amazon report highlighted a "rapid transformation of B2B e-procurement in recent years", with 91% of the B2B buyers surveyed in their study stating that they preferred online purchasing. In B2B commerce, it is often the case that the parties to
2600-511: The site's success. The level of commitment in buyers and sellers also plays a role in the auction's success. Similar to the level of trust, buyers must be ensured that they receive their purchased item, and sellers must actually receive payment. Although most prefer speedy online transactions, it is beneficial to offer different payment options that will accommodate different buyers. Internet classifieds are another example of customer to customer marketing. An example of an internet classified company
2652-605: The value of the product. The investment into conceptualising and developing a top-of-the-line product or service that consumers are actively looking for is equitable to retail pre-launch product awareness marketing. There are many different classifications of marketing. From Government to Business (G2B), Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), to Customer to Customer (C2C). While many companies usually operate in one or more of these areas, Customer to Customer businesses operate only within that specific area. Customer to Customer marketing has become more popular recently with
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#17330846303712704-399: Was focused on providing a fixed-price trading environment, initially for books music, videos and video games. There are various platforms that Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce is taking place on, such as social media (e.g. Facebook, Reddit), advertisement websites (e.g. Craigslist) and online auction sites (e.g. eBay). Consumer to Consumer transactions often involve products sold via either
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