Alibaba merges Tmall and flash sales site

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has merged its B2C marketplace Tmall with its flash sales site Juhuasuan, thus reorganising its businesses to make it easier for "old-school brands and merchants" to transition to digital and omni-channel retailing and using data to target and engage customers, the internet giant commented on Friday.

Merging the two websites will meet “a need to integrate our services on our retail marketplace,” said Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang in an e-mail to employees announcing the move. “Our group should act smoothly as one person and make every effort to serve clients.”

Juhuasuan was formed in 2010 as as an independent Alibaba business and evolved over the last six years into a marketing platform for flash sales and daily deals used by merchants with virtual storefronts on Tmall and Taobao, Alibaba’s popular C2C site.

Alibaba also announced the formation of a new marketing division and a merchant operations center within Tmall. The company also established discrete business units covering platform sales in three key product categories: apparel, electronics and home decoration, and fast-moving consumer goods.

“By leveraging resources within Alibaba’s ecosystem, brands will be able to reach consumers in a cost-effective way,” the e-mail read. The company hopes for enabling “seamless business operations and marketing initiatives”. For example, according to Alibaba, a brand selling everyday consumer goods on Tmall would now have access to “one-stop services” with the ability to launch new products through a Tmall flagship store, boost daily retail sales through its online grocery platform Tmall Supermarket, conduct marketing campaigns through Juhuasuan and sell products wholesale.

“The challenge now is to maintain Tmall and Juhuasuan’s leading position in the industry, to create a retail business model that can compete in the future, and to help brands fully embrace the internet in the New Retail era,” said Zhang.

Photo: Juhuasuan website