Analysis of Taobao APP user system operation

This article attempts to be a systematic design guide for the activity of bringing old customers into new customers. I am not satisfied with just introducing the superficial product forms of various products. I want to reveal the essence of the activity of bringing old customers into new customers based on the underlying logic of the product. I hope it will be inspiring for everyone's product design ideas and specific practices.

The Taobao APP product has the following 5 tabs, and their functions are briefly described as follows:

1. 【Homepage】: Contains 22 vertical shopping content channels such as women's clothing, mobile phones, department stores, etc., 29 special Tmall & Alibaba module content, event promotion resource entrance, 10 billion subsidies & Taobao live broadcast & Juhuasuan & Taobao rush purchase & daily special sale & good goods & daily good store content modules, personalized shopping recommendation content module
2. 【Weitao】: responsible for the private domain traffic content module of stores and merchants, including new products, live broadcast, grass-roots recommendations, and benefits
3. [Message]: System service message interface, mainly including logistics messages, discount messages, merchant store discount group messages, service notification messages, etc.
4. 【Shopping Cart】: User can add prepaid items
5. [My Taobao]: Mainly responsible for building the personal incentive system for Taobao users, order inquiry, event promotion entrance, my channel contains 16 grouping modules and other parts

1. Changes in Taobao’s business model and user growth

Changes in business models:

We all know that the traditional Taobao business model follows the B2B model, that is, the exchange of products, services and information between enterprises through the Internet. Since starting its content monetization business model in 2016, Taobao has continued to make efforts in short videos, private domain traffic, and other aspects. The content monetization capabilities of Kuaishou and Douyin are gradually becoming more prominent. As an old e-commerce company, Taobao needs to figure out how to win this battle for traffic.

The business module before 2016 might be that if you wanted to buy something, you would go to Taobao to search, find it, place an order, receive the express delivery, and complete the transaction.

After 16 years, this traditional B2B model has been broken. Whoever owns the content will have more traffic and stronger monetization capabilities.

Taobao started its layout in 2016 and also focused on short video and live broadcast business. It first came into the public eye as a new way of shopping in the form of live streaming. On April 21, 2016, during Papi Jiang’s auction, 500,000 people watched the event through the Taobao live streaming platform. Taobao discovered that live streaming also has potential. Then we saw the emergence of IPs in the live streaming e-commerce field, such as Li Jiaqi and Viya.

I believe everyone has seen that in 2020, Taobao created a new live streaming method of "Stars Bringing Goods" and signed first-line stars such as Ouyang Nana and Liu Tao. One night in August of the same year, the short video column "One Thousand and One Nights" of "Taobao Second Floor" made its debut, focusing on the stories behind the delicious food.

With the story and the scene, that night, 340,000 Spanish mackerel dumplings, 5 tons of beef balls, 240,000 passion fruits... As the video played, the recommended products were quickly sold out. Taobao saw the potential of short videos, which was the beginning of Taobao's innovative business model.

Taobao has long planned to develop private domain traffic. From the launch of merchant groups in 2017 to live streaming by merchants to promote products to the public. What Taobao wants to build is a deep consumer center, or a community of merchants and consumers with in-depth shopping and sharing by consumers as the core. (Borrowed from the official account: Lynx’s New E-commerce Strategy) Deep buyers attract traffic by publishing buyer shows, which directs the flow of people to the shelves, completes purchases, and leaves more buyer shows.

The seemingly simple content construction has completed the transformation of Taobao's full-link content community. What we expect is that consumers endorse the merchant's products and become the merchant's seed sowers.

User growth:

From the above figure, we can break down all possible paths of user value growth:

1. Diversion-Registration-Purchase
2. Register-Purchase
3. Register - Browse graphic content (Weitao, or expert sharing) - Purchase
4. Register - Browse video content (short videos, live broadcasts) - Purchase
5. Register - Browse video content (short videos, live broadcasts) - Browse graphic content (Weitao, or expert sharing) - Purchase
6. Register - Browse video content (short videos, live broadcasts) - Browse graphic content (Weitao, or expert sharing) - Purchase - Share product reviews - Seller consultation - Build secondary graphic content - Guide re-consumption

The high-value behavior paths include:

1. Browsing content: browse graphic information, store information & credit, purchase quantity, recommendation number, monthly sales quantity, seller evaluation (text evaluation), seller show, ask everyone, delivery time, preferential activities, free shipping, shipping location, guarantee service
2. Community browsing content: seller evaluation (text evaluation), seller show, ask everyone, Weitao (like & comment), store fan group, buyer evaluation area comments & useful
3. Creative content: Post graphic/video evaluation information, comment and like buyer shows, participate in voting (Weitao), reply to buyer questions (Ask everyone & reply in the comment area)
4. Consumption: shopping, pre-sale shopping (deposit method)

2. Taobao User Value Growth Incentive System

User life cycle definition and value growth ladder

1) Taobao user life cycle diagram

2) Taobao User Profile

According to official data released on May 22, Taobao's monthly active users reached 846 million in March 2020. With such a huge user base, user operations are extremely demanding for Taobao. Based on user types, they can be divided into: passerby users, content consumption users, consumer shopping users, and loyal fan users. The same user may play multiple product user roles.

3) Refined tiered operations for Taobao users

The above can be broken down from the product modules, including users of the content business module (picture and text promotion & live broadcast & short video), users of the membership business module (88VIP), and users of the community business module (merchant module: merchant community, Weitao, etc. & official community construction: Tmall Farm, Taobao Life, etc.). These three types of users can be further subdivided. Taobao's business is mainly oriented towards consumption, and the three types of user operations are all centered around increasing GMV.

a. Content business module user operation

The content business module mainly includes three aspects: pictures and texts, short videos, and live broadcasts. Pictures and texts are the most traditional type of content consumption, and pictures and text introductions of product information are all displays of business modules.

In 2014, the pan-entertainment live streaming industry became a hot trend. Taobao gradually piloted it. In 2016, Papi held an event to affirm the value of live streaming and continued to make efforts. In the same year, it supported 500 IP merchants and created IP celebrities Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya. In 2020, Liu Tao and Ouyang Nana took the lead in launching the "Star Power" sales team. The live broadcast module during the epidemic was even jokingly called "cloud shopping" by netizens.

With the rise of short videos in the past two years, major short video websites have joined the trend of selling goods. Three different forms, what operations did Taobao do and how was it implemented specifically.

Graphics:

Directions involved in user graphic and text operations: As a traditional content consumption path, graphic and text operations still maintain a strong operational effect on content consumption. The business aspects involved include: store information introduction, Weitao store information, evaluation system, merchant chat, user comment area comments, and likes.

In terms of pictures and texts, there are two main directions: KOL sharing and user evaluation endorsement

KOL analysis: There are good products

It can be seen that in the content section of Youhaohuo, almost all the shops are recommended by experts.

Expert recommendation - enter - expert homepage - follow - jump to Weitao - click "Xiong Er Food Diary Recommends for You" - jump to the product display window.

Build a sharing community for all talents. As long as you have shopping experience on Taobao, you have the possibility of becoming a Taobao shopping expert.

Talent system operation:

1. The traffic pool is very large, and all Taobao users can become shopping experts.
2. Shop windows can inspire influencers to promote products and form a closed loop from traffic to cash flow.

User evaluation endorsement:

This needs no further introduction. Anyone who has used Taobao should know that users purchase goods - mail them - sign for them - experience them - write reviews - end shopping. The main function of user reviews is actually to complete the closed model of selling goods. Traffic - users - goods - purchase - delivery - arrival - reviews - end shopping - create traffic - buyers enter.

Refined operation of user reviews (user reviews + buyer solicitation show):

User evaluation: exclusive certification mark for high-quality evaluation + red envelope for high-quality evaluation

• Evaluation angle: Diversified evaluation dimensions - store services, logistics, and products; diversified evaluation forms - text, pictures, and videos; product dimension - prompts can be measured from multiple dimensions to help more people.
• Buyer Recruitment Show: How to play: Buyers upload high-quality reviews, and sellers recommend buyer reviews. In addition, high-quality reviews are often combined with in-store activities, for example, high-quality reviews can get coupons. The buyer recruitment show event is designed to enhance communication between users and merchants and increase stickiness.

Live broadcast + short video:

In fact, the short videos on Taobao are more like a microcosm of live streaming. Under Taobao's operating system, short videos are mostly responsible for the two aspects of live broadcast and recorded broadcast + introduction and promotion, rather than the various types of content consumption on the short video platform.

Live broadcast operation:

80% of the live broadcast viewers are women. Most of the products selected for live streaming are mainly in the two categories of beauty and clothing. The operation of live streaming is no different from other platforms. User behaviors during live broadcast: like, follow, and reward. The rewards here are different from those on other platforms. The reward setting uses Taobao's gold rush to redeem reward gifts, which can effectively drive the active users of the gold rush coin system. The live broadcasts here have added some activities operated by merchants, such as: like and win a prize for half-price gift, like and get a flash sale, like and get a coupon, etc.

Live Fan System:

I wonder if you have noticed the reduction in intimacy value when playing Taobao Live? Haha, if I hadn’t summarized this, I wouldn’t have known there was such a rule~

b. Membership business module (88VIP)

On August 8, 2018, Alibaba launched 88VIP. What does 88VIP mean to Alibaba? Why is 88 Membership Alibaba’s number one project?

88VIP is the fusion agent of Alibaba e-commerce and entertainment

Let’s start with the overall planning direction of 88VIP. The 88 membership card can be seen as a microcosm of Alibaba’s ecological layout. Its main products are the six direct-operated e-commerce brands (Tmall Supermarket, Tmall Global, Tmall Luxury, Taobao Xinxuan, Ali Health, and Meilihui) & Ali Entertainment members (Youku, Ele.me, Tao Piaopiao, Fliggy, and Xiami). At this time, the 88 Membership Card is more like Alibaba’s “one card”, locking in Alibaba’s full range of businesses and building a deeper and broader ecological system.

88VIP membership is centered around “eat/play/listen/watch/buy”. This is a change in thinking. The combination of e-commerce and entertainment no longer relies on violent buying, but on the power of entertainment, relying on more emotional, thoughtful and emotional purchasing motivations, and comprehensively improving users' purchasing power in terms of duration, experience, and platform stickiness. This is a kind of empowerment, a change that starts from the consumer's perspective.

88 Membership System

Activation requirements: Taobao value > 1000 – 88 yuan; Taobao value < 1000 – 888 yuan

rights and interests:

1. Basic benefits: 9.5% off on 6 direct-sale brands + 300 category coupons + annual membership + 9.5% off on selected brands (388) (discounts on top of discounts, can be combined with other activities)
2. Special benefits: 9.5% off Tmall pet card + 9.5% off Tmall supermarket card
3. Points redemption: Tmall points can be redeemed for corresponding discount coupons in the points redemption section

Taobao has many user growth system tasks, such as our most common gold coin system, Tmall points, and naughty points. These growth systems are mostly aimed at promoting activation and increasing user experience.

The goal of the Taobao Coin system is to help stores accurately and efficiently retain target users by giving them discounts. Taobao Coin activities advocate micro-profits and increase revenue through joint purchases and accumulation of repeat customers.

The goal of establishing the Tmall points system is to mainly build a shopping closed loop for Tmall Mall. It is based on points and is similar to shopping rebates. Points can be exchanged for coupons and red envelopes to encourage further shopping.

The goal of the Taobao Value System is to establish a Taobao member's Taobao Index, which is a subdivision of the general level concept in the original "VIP system" and divides it into three core indicators: purchase, interaction and reputation, aiming to better encourage users to participate in interaction and sharing.

c. Community business module

User operations in the community business module mainly include the following aspects:

1. Merchant module: merchant community, Weitao, etc.
2. Official community construction: Tmall Farm, Taobao Life, Nuggets Team, etc.

Merchant Module

The operation of the community business module mainly focuses on the transformation of public domain traffic to private domain traffic. Private domain traffic seems mysterious, but I understand it as traffic for personal use. How to increase free traffic, or how to convert one-time consumers into loyal users. Merchant private domain traffic is actually about generating traffic, getting old customers to repurchase, and attracting new users. Here we need to specifically mention two areas: Weitao and product community operations.

Weitao:

In fact, we boldly guess that Weitao is a product with Taobao characteristics that combines QQ space and WeChat Moments.

Weitao mainly includes six sections: Follow, New Arrivals, Live Broadcast, 61 Carnival, Recommended Products, and Welfare. From this distribution, we can analyze that the role of Weitao is to plan pre-sales, new products, activities, benefits, fan experience, and product introductions. Its purpose is to display products (window merchandise), increase sticky interactions between merchants and fans, convey brand influence, and announce activities.

Community:

As mentioned above, the gameplay of the community mainly includes several aspects: checking in to win gold coins, pre-sales of new products, coupons, group buying, and red envelope rain. Its main purpose is to increase the interaction between merchants and fan users, spread brand influence and increase stickiness and loyalty satisfaction.

Official community building

Tmall Farm:

Tmall Farm is a product that has only been launched in the past two years, and its main goal is to compete with Xixi for traffic. Tmall Farm includes two parts of gameplay: growing auspicious fruits in a lucky year and growing vegetables in Tmall Farm.

Planting Lucky Fruits in a Lucky Year

There are many ways to grow lucky fruits in Funian. You can choose to grow them yourself or invite friends to grow them together. This is also a new model of social e-commerce.

How to play:

1. Choose a fruit to plant
2. You can invite 3 friends to plant together
3. Collect blessings: You can get blessings by signing in, completing tasks, and purchasing designated products.
4. Water the blessings and grow big blessing fruits (15 processes in total, each watering has a blessing value of 6000.)
5. The fruits are ripe and will be delivered to your home free of charge.

Notice:

1. Each watering has a blessing value of 6000
2. After each watering, you can receive 1000 more blessings tomorrow.
3. As the plants grow, the more blessings they need to be watered, the more

When collecting blessings, you need to complete three types of tasks: sign-in + browsing interface tasks + purchasing goods tasks. Punching in and signing in is a necessary part of almost all task systems, which will make users feel a sense of ritual and participation. Browsing interface tasks + purchasing product tasks are actually some conversion links designed for GMV.

Tmall Farm Vegetables

This product should be designed after our once popular QQ Farm. QQ Farm is stealing vegetables, and this Tmall Farm is stealing sunlight. The role of sunlight here is mainly to upgrade the farm + exchange goods/red envelopes.

How to play:

1. Run the countryside to earn sunshine (sunlight - open land - plant - upgrade - sunshine)
2. Earn sunshine through Tmall app tasks
3. Search tasks to earn money Sunshine
4. Use sunlight to exchange for gifts

Tmall Farm is a user-operated mini-game under the Tmall APP. Game Mode 2 has an independent task system for the Tmall APP, such as collecting, adding to cart, browsing, and commenting on products. These tasks are all centered around cultivating user behaviors such as sharing between users and recommending good products to users. In the latest updates, we can see that some friends come to steal the sunshine. Isn’t this exactly the same as the scene of stealing vegetables in QQ Farm a few years ago?

Taobao Life

Taobao life is like "Miracle Nikki", this picture must be praised, it is so beautiful! ! The content is very rich and the gameplay is diverse. Conventional gameplay: sign in, change clothes, pinch your face, invite people to play together, these will not be described in detail.

Features:

• Go take photos: Set a specific scene and select the Taobao friends you want to take photos with. There are fixed scenes and topic operations.
• Draw a set: Use the card to draw rare costumes. The feeling of Miracle Nikki's dress-up game is here.
• Get clothes: This part of the gameplay is a small game combined with Monopoly. Users have a set amount of physical strength every day, and they roll the dice to go on adventures in the map. After completing a circle of the map, the next map will be automatically unlocked.

Here's a photo of me and my friends.

By analyzing this part of user operations, we can see that Taobao is no longer just a simple shopping tool. We are trying many aspects, including social networking, content operation, and combining some popular games to enrich app content and optimize user experience. This is the construction of a deeper and broader user system operation, involving Alibaba's entire product ecosystem.

Author: Hu Xiaobing

Source: Hu Xiaobing