England is mar-mar-dei, let's just go straight to the point. For better experience, read the
Chinese post please.
I've recently completed my house's renovation and with 11.11 Double Eleven around the corner, the need of filling the empty house sparked my interest in Online Shopping, particularly on the renowned 淘寶TaoBao.
My mum so happened to mentioned that a friend of her wanted to explore TaoBao yet language barrier deterred her to do so and I thought.... why not I write something since I finally have first hands experience?
Ironically,
Horse Cloud Jack Ma founded Alibaba 18 years ago and TaoBao around 15 years ago. He recently announced his retirement at age of 54, and here I am, first time writing about TaoBao.
There's plenty of such websites with guides and tutorials, but I believe none of them are written in such poor language. You are welcome.
So...
WHAT IS 淘寶TAOBAO? 天貓TMALL? AND 阿里巴巴 ALIBABA?
In the simplest terms, Alibaba is the
BOSS, mother of things that made Jack Ma rich. It is an online business platform, it comprise of B2B, B2C, C2C, payment gateway and is recently branching into InsureTech. Companies under Alibaba Group that Malaysian Consumers would have heard of are those like TaoBao, TMall (TianMao), AliPay (ZhiFuBao) and YouKu. Alibaba is also the major shareholder of Lazada, the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, since 2016.
Now, TaoBao is like a giant
Pasar Malam, like the one in Taman Connaught (Wednesday night) or the Chatuchak, but much larger. It's a marketplace for Small and Middle Business Owners or Individuals to showcase their products, like the Ebay from the Western world. People bring their kuih-muih, layout on a table (like there's no flies or dust) under the giant umbrella
awaiting customers to fall into the trap. There's no warehouse, no stock piling at TaoBao's end, people do business directly with the consumers (C2C), paying a fees to TaoBao just like renting a space in Pasar Malam from DBKL etc.
TMall (or TianMao, Cat in the Sky) on the other hand is like a giant
Shopping Mall. Flagship stores like XiaoMi or other famous brands open their Shop Lot in this mall call TMall (B2C). TianMao itself also source for suitable products in the market and put them on sale in its mall, i.e. their warehouse. This extra layer of filter is what makes TMall perceived to be more exclusive or premier over TaoBao. FYI, JD.com (JingDong) is another e-commerce platform in China. JD to Lazada is like Shopee to TMall.
In the remaining of this article,
TaoBao refers to both TaoBao itself and TMall. In fact they are almost "seamless" except that the logo on the top right corner of the webpage is different. It's like you planned to go Pasar Malam to get some nasi ayam bakar for dinner, and all of the sudden you are right in the middle of the Gardens, wearing those ah pek white color singlet + slippers.
WHY TAOBAO IN MALAYSIA?
