After Taobao's major adjustments, some merchants rushed to the point where their single products had sold more than 1 million units.

Taobao sales display rules have changed, which is a big benefit to merchants! The sales data span has been increased from 30 days to 365 days, and new dimensions such as online best-selling statistics and product attention have been added. What does this mean?

Nearly a month ago, Taobao's sales display logic, which had lasted for nearly 20 years, underwent a major change. The sales display quantity changed from 30 days' "monthly sales" to the number of "sold" units for nearly 365 days' annual sales, and the time scale was extended from months to years.

After that, Taobao actually made some new changes in the data display of search, such as adding statistics on the same product "hot sales in the whole network", re-calculating some low-priced customer orders into sales and weights, and for new products that were first listed within 30 days, there was also a data dimension of "XXX people viewed"...

Some merchants told "Tianxia.com" that under the new sales statistics dimension, the data is more diversified and the quantity has also increased. This change also affects their long-maintained business rules.

Recently, "Tianxia Online Merchants" communicated with many Taobao sellers and e-commerce industry professionals to analyze the changes brought about by the new rules.

1. Popular standard products benefited, and some sellers’ “old products became popular again”

"The higher the sales volume, the more confident I am." A merchant specializing in high-end rice brands said that the monthly sales of many products in his store were originally shown to be in the hundreds to a thousand, but now the sales volume has exceeded ten thousand.

"Business has improved since August, and the conversion rate has increased significantly." A silk scarf seller from Hangzhou, "My name is Ye Qinqin", also said that after Taobao displayed the annual sales volume, a cotton and linen scarf that was popular last year became popular again during the off-season this year, becoming this year's hot item ahead of schedule. "There is also a plaid scarf that would have sold even better if it hadn't been taken off the shelves and then put back on the link."

The sales of silk scarves have obvious off-season and peak-season. After the peak season of autumn and winter last year was included in the sales display, the store owner Ms. Ye has sold thousands of scarves in her store. Before the change, due to the monthly sales, the off-season sales display was only a few hundred. In her opinion, the "annual sales" is a display of the results of hard work and accumulation, "looking at it makes me feel more at ease."

A senior e-commerce operator told "Tianxia.com" that some small and medium-sized businesses are launching the "old products, new creations" plan on Taobao. As old products that have accumulated a certain amount of sales and a high reputation have acquired a certain weight, it is easier to achieve results by "re-operating" them.

"The most direct impact of changes in sales display is conversion rate, which then indirectly affects traffic display." A senior person in the e-commerce industry analyzed that changes in sales display will have a certain impact on product sales, but the link effect is relatively long, and the experience of different merchants varies greatly.

A merchant of a new consumer pajamas brand said that the change in sales display will help the operation of old product links to a certain extent because there is a sales base; for new links, there is actually no impact because the new link platform will have corresponding traffic support.

An e-commerce manager of a well-known wooden furniture brand said that the short-term impact on traffic is small, but in the medium and long term, the conversion rate will be improved. Due to the influence of consumers' herd mentality, products with high sales volume and high product ratings will help improve conversion and extend the life cycle of hot products.

In general, this is a favorable signal for merchants with high customer orders and long sales cycles. For clothing and sporting goods merchants with off-seasons, as well as home furnishing and home appliance merchants, the increase in sales data will still bring a certain "impact", thereby improving conversion rates.

This change has a positive impact on old merchants operating standard products in popular categories. With the support of "hot sales across the entire network" and accumulated annual sales, the sales figures of such products may be as high as 100,000+ or ​​even 1 million+, which can bring better consumer confidence, while the impact on non-standard and unpopular products is not that great - "For them, the business logic has not changed. It mainly depends on whether the product itself can impress the target customer group." Beiji, an operator of the Taobao e-commerce store of Tianxia.com, analyzed.

2. Behind the changes, stability and innovation are the keynote

Many merchants and e-commerce professionals stressed that the impact of changes in sales volume display will not change the most basic operating logic and strategy. "This is not a disruptive adjustment, but a very smooth change and transition."

"In fact, in the overall search now, any keyword is different for different people. The weight of product search display is more concerned with the differentiation of the product itself and matching the corresponding price power." Beiji said.

The change in Taobao's sales display does not affect the product sorting logic under the Taobao "sales" option page, which is still sorted according to the original 30-day monthly sales; the main change is that the product sorting logic under the Taobao "comprehensive" option page will include the product's 365-day annual sales into the search weight. In addition, comprehensive factors such as buyer reviews, store ratings and basic weights form the final ranking.

For example, when searching for the category "coffee" on Taobao, under the "comprehensive" page, a product with sales of 200,000+ may be ranked behind 10,000+. Beiji explained that the overall ranking still takes into account the advantages of the product itself, such as basic weight, discount strength and other factors. Therefore, in fact, from the consumer's point of view, the change in Taobao's sales display is not obvious.

In addition, the sales volume displayed on the comprehensive page is also calculated based on the "number of recipients" within 365 days, not the number of units sold. Clicking on the product details page will display the "number of units sold" for the product within 365 days.

The various display mechanisms show the complex growth logic within an e-commerce platform. However, for Taobao at this stage, "stability" and "innovation" are still the basic strategies.

The changes in the annual sales display will indirectly benefit old stores and old links. For new merchants and new products that are growing rapidly, establishing a competitive advantage has become a protracted battle.

The platform is also trying its best to strike a balance. It is understood that Taobao will launch new product support plans in the near future. Beiji revealed that some new product plans such as the "30-day New Product Companion Plan" have begun grayscale testing, involving categories such as clothing and beauty, and plans such as traffic promotion subsidies and cold start exclusive traffic support to support the rapid growth of new merchants are being continuously launched. Expanding more new merchants to take root in Taobao is also one of Taobao's key tasks this year.

"Tianxia Online Merchants" observed that Taobao's new product display has also changed, from the number of units sold to the level of attention, and is displayed as "XXX people have viewed it" within 30 days of the first listing.

For merchants who want to promote new products, the platform will provide corresponding support on the one hand, and on the other hand, it also encourages merchants to conduct private domain operations and content seeding. "For example, before a new product is launched, you can set up corresponding discounts for fans to gain traffic."

Many new and cutting-edge merchants with distinctive styles are breaking away from the old rules of the game of "rolling" traffic. "We attract natural traffic on Taobao and attract new customers through content and live broadcasts outside the site and in private domains," said a new and cutting-edge underwear merchant.

Ultimately, all actions must be based on product strength. As traffic competition becomes increasingly fierce, Beiji believes that in order to create explosive products in the short term, we must first take corresponding actions based on user needs. On the basis of price power, we must make differentiation and operate for precise groups of people.

"For example, trolley cases are already very common, but if there are cases with a cup hanging in the middle or armrests for female consumers, they will be more likely to become popular. Merchants need to explore trending demands and amplify selling points."

3. Actively display sales and defend against platform disputes

"Tianxia Online Merchants" found that Taobao has recently made several new changes in sales display.

For example, the product details page of some popular items will show the number of "best sellers on the entire network". According to the official introduction, "best sellers on the entire network" refers to the same product of the same model and specification sold on Tmall, Tmall Global, and Taobao platforms, calculated based on the total sales of the past 365 days.

Previously, Taobao did not accumulate sales and ratings for orders of goods with a price lower than 30% of the fixed price and a payment amount lower than 5 yuan. This is also an important reason why many Taobao agents liked to set a price of 5.1 yuan before, but it will be included in the weighting later.

In addition, if the product SKU or historical orders have a price of more than 5 yuan, then the payment orders with a price below 1 yuan that were previously not included are also having their weight restored.

These changes in Taobao allow merchants to set prices more freely, and also reduce the difficulty and cost for merchants to increase product weight to a certain extent.

Taobao is making a more comprehensive and systematic display of the platform's sales. All these changes cannot be ruled out as being affected by competition between platforms. As one of the earliest e-commerce platforms, Taobao explored and formulated the earliest e-commerce rules and gameplay, and the 30-day sales display was also based on product cycle considerations. However, this is beneficial to brand merchants to a certain extent, but not conducive to the growth of industrial belt merchants and white-label merchants, which indirectly creates soil for the rise of other platforms.

On the other hand, e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo and Douyin have long made changes in the display dimension of product sales in order to expand and gain momentum quickly. Product detail pages have long been displayed with cumulative sales, using high sales data to drive conversion. For consumers, this actually brings a different perception, and to a certain extent, it is used as a way to judge the popularity and potential of the platform.

For merchants, real transaction volume with a longer cycle can also enhance the competitiveness of high-quality and high-reputation merchants on the platform, encourage brands to provide better products and better services, and become more deeply bound to the platform and grow together.

In addition, there are more and more merchant brands operating on multiple platforms and omni-channels, and the platforms are also competing for the resources and attention of the brands.

The World Online Business noticed that the sales of a popular product of a new domestic cosmetics brand on Pinduoduo and Douyin were both in the hundreds of thousands. The monthly sales on Taobao were only tens of thousands, but after changing to annual sales, the sales figure became "more than 1 million sold". The person in charge of the brand said that after changing from monthly sales to annual sales, the brand's sales on Taobao have increased.

"It's a bit late for Taobao to take this step," said the brand manager.

Regardless, Taobao is facing the new platform competition landscape with positive changes. At a time when the overall Internet traffic is tending to be stable, how to provide merchants with a refined traffic operation and data management infrastructure is a new challenge. Taobao is also exploring more effective ways to gather traffic and improve conversion.

Author: Tianxia e-commerce

Source: Tianxiawangshang