Cloud TMall Announces 2013 Development Goals
Ebrun, 4/02/13
Alibaba Group's cloud computing e-commerce platform Cloud TMall recently announced its 2013 development strategy. Zhao Chao, of Alibaba Group's seller services business division, stated that Cloud TMall will position itself as an open cloud e-commerce services platform comprising three layers: a low-level cloud infrastructure layer, a higher-level "container" layer (used for management by third-party service providers on Cloud TMall), and an upper-level Cloud TMall market offering merchants a cloud platform for SaaS. TMall will operate Cloud TMall according to the following five principles:
1) Order Status Transparency
Cloud TMall will connect and integrate its warehouse management and ERP systems, and will allow customer service staff to access order information, order slip printing times, packaging materials used, and post-order operations - including breaking single orders into multiple orders and combining multiple orders into single orders - among other information. This information will allow customer service staff to be able to provide customers and merchants with better order data, bringing order tracking capabilities to each stage of the ordering and shipping process.
2) Clearer Financial Data
The majority of Taobao merchants are currently not clear as to their profits and losses for the current month, as Taobao offers many channels for expenditures, including its Zhitongche paid search-ranking service. This month, Taobao will open data for Zhitongche and other tools to Cloud TMall, and will connect accounts between the two platforms in the future, enabling vendors to take better control of their finances within a shorter period, and to better plan their cash flow allocations.
3) Targeted Customer Service
Previously, vendors were only able to keep track of customers' item-viewing and purchase histories, as well as information divulged by customers in chat with merchants — but were unable to track customers' actual needs or demographics. While safeguarding customer privacy, Cloud TMall will make more customer information available to vendors, allowing them to reconstruct customer profiles, make deductions, and increase the effectiveness of their targeted sales efforts.
4) Scientific Management of Sales and Stock
Previously, vendors were unable to use data to guide their operations scientifically, resulting in excess inventory or sold-out items. Cloud TMall will address this through a gradual restructuring of its units — including incorporation of services from e-commerce statistics service provider Linezing, formerly operated by Alibaba's e-commerce search site ETao.com and now part of the seller services business division — aimed at providing vendors the industry, category, store, and product data they need.
5) Providing Solutions for the Complete Industry Chain
Taobao product and service transaction models are growing increasingly diversified, including services such as online store design that are offered through Taobao's open platform. More recently, a number of electrical appliance vendors have experimented with a specialized C2B model on Taobao and TMall. "These experiments require Big Data support and connectivity," Zhao said. "Cloud TMall will continue to refine and share data as part of its support for businesses."
Editor's Note: For more background on this topic, please see "TMall Discloses 2013 Development Goals" MD 3/27/13 issue.
Keywords: e-commerce Taobao Internet strategy cloud computing Alibaba Group C2C Alibaba.com B2C logistics big data
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