TMall Announces Tighter Rules for Authorized Distribution
Ebrun, 12/20/12
Alibaba Group's B2C e-commerce site TMall has rebranded its distribution platform and launched the service under a new name, "TMall Supply and Marketing Platform" (Tianmao Gongxiao). The new platform looks to better serve branded companies hosted on TMall by putting a greater emphasis on requiring TMall merchants to produce documentation proving they are licensed brand retailers. Branded companies will now have more control over authorized and unauthorized brand resellers on TMall. At the request of branded companies, TMall merchants who are found to be reselling goods without the permission of the brand they represent will face various punishments, such as having their goods removed from the TMall store.
TMall will open up its new TMall Supply and Marketing Platform to an initial batch of branded companies in mid-January 2013. According to a source close to the company, the first batch of branded companies will include appliance brands Joyoung, Povos, and Supor, consumer electronics manufacturers TCL Corporation (000100.SZ) and Hisense (600060.SH), and Philips, among a total of 18 companies.
Editor's Note: Before the revamping of TMall's distribution platform, if a TMall-hosted store could prove that its products were genuine and provide purchase receipts, branded companies had no avenue to remove their products from TMall. As a part of the newly launched "TMall Supply and Marketing Platform," TMall merchants must receive permission from brand owners to resell products on TMall, or face removal.
Keywords: policy e-commerce Internet B2C TMall
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