#Laogao E-commerce Newsletter# [E-commerce Evening News on March 17]

Evening News: Tmall Expert Team recruits experts from off-site platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu; JD.com has introduced 8 major measures to reduce the burden on merchants during the epidemic; news says Alibaba lay off employees in 2022 as the hardest hit areas of local life and still expands its recruitment; Lotte Group will close its Chinese headquarters and increase its investment in Southeast Asian countries; Amazon and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum of understanding to develop the e-commerce industry...

Lao Gao provides everyone with the latest and most valuable Internet and e-commerce information every day.

E-commerce newsletter

1. In 2021, 54,000 people searched for "artificial call early" service on Taobao

According to the report on March 17, according to the World Business, 54,000 people searched for "artificial call early" on Taobao in 2021. According to incomplete statistics, there are dozens of Taobao stores that provide early call early service, and the monthly sales of the shops with good business can be 1,000 orders. It is reported that the cost of calling early on Taobao is mostly 5-15 yuan, the weekly fee is a few dozen yuan, and the monthly price is a few hundred yuan. The earlier the early period, the higher the fee. Consumers can choose to call the premature officer's gender and listen to the voice in advance to ensure that they can be awakened by their favorite voices. In addition to manual early calls, there are also sellers on Taobao who provide special services such as accompanying agents, self-discipline supervision, and repairing dolls. (E-commerce News)

2. The Tmall Expert Team recruits experts from off-site platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu.

According to the news on March 17, according to "The Most Talk", Alibaba-Tmall Expert Team has recently begun to recruit experts from off-site platforms including Douyin, B station, Xiaohongshu and other websites. This may mean that in addition to investing in first-line MCN institutions such as Qianxun and Ruhan, Alibaba will also have to go to do MCN business in person. According to this notice called "Popular Network-Tmall Official MCN Expert Recruitment Plan", the expert operation organization is led by the Alibaba-Tmall Expert team. Relying on Tmall's rich resources and data capabilities, it creates post-link value for the Human Ecology and provides integrated content operation and data insight solutions for the brand. (E-commerce News)

3. JD.com introduces 8 major measures to reduce the burden on merchants during the epidemic

According to March 17, in order to help merchants who cannot ship due to the epidemic reduce store losses and reduce operating costs, JD.com has introduced eight major policies for merchants, including JD.com's delivery discounts and warehousing fee reductions, interest-free funding support, and delayed delivery exemption. (E-commerce News)

4. Kuaishou e-commerce launches the first "live room size assistant" function in the industry

According to Bianniushi, recently, in order to further improve consumer purchasing experience, improve live broadcast room efficiency and payment conversion, Kuaishou E-commerce launched the industry's first "live broadcast room size assistant" function, using algorithms to quickly link customer problems and size configurations to achieve quick response. It is reported that merchants can log in to the customer service robot workbench to add a size chart to activate and associate products. After activation, when consumers consult about size-related issues in the live broadcast room, the system will send the size chart to activate. (E-commerce News)

Internet news

5. News says that Alibaba layoffs in 2022 local life are the hardest hit areas and still expands its recruitment

According to 36Kr, it was learned from many people close to Alibaba that from the end of last year to the present, some of Alibaba's business groups have been continuously reducing their personnel. Recently, some business units have received layoff instructions allocated by the group, and layoffs will be implemented in proportion. Secondly, Hema and Taocai also have a certain proportion of personnel optimization. However, Taobao e-commerce has not affected it, and its operations, R&D and other positions are still being recruited; in addition, Alibaba Cloud and Cainiao Logistics are not within the scope of this layoff, but the HC of Alibaba Cloud's main departments has been frozen. (E-commerce News)

6. Kuaishou cracked down on illegal solicitation behavior in the tourism industry in March blocked 3,545 illegal videos

According to March 17, today, Kuaishou issued an announcement on cracking down on illegal solicitation behaviors in the tourism industry. It is understood that in March 2022, Kuaishou blocked a total of 3,545 illegal videos. Kuaishou encourages users to provide corresponding operating qualifications through the marketing channels provided by the platform and publish marketing content, obtain marketing benefits in a compliant way, and eliminate any opportunistic behavior. (E-commerce News)

Cross-border newsletter

7. Amazon and Saudi Arabia sign a memorandum of understanding to develop the e-commerce industry

March 17th news, according to foreign media reports, the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Investment announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Amazon to develop the country's e-commerce field. The department said on Twitter that the agreement signed on March 15 is part of the government's plan to develop the local e-commerce industry and attract sustainable investment in Saudi Arabia. The department did not disclose further details about the agreement. It is reported that since Amazon launched its Saudi Arabian site in 2020, it has been committed to optimizing the basic logistics measures at that time and expanding the local distribution network. As of now, Amazon has created 1,500 jobs for the region. (E-commerce News)

8. Indian food delivery platform Zomato provides Blinkit with $150 million loan

March 17th news, according to foreign media reports, Indian food delivery platform Zomato will provide Blinkit with a loan of US$150 million, which the company said will be provided to Blinkit at an interest rate of 12% per year. "This loan will support GIPL's capital needs in the short term and meet our goal of investing $400 million in fast commercial business in India in the next two years." It is reported that Zomato invested $100 million in Blinkit last year, holding about 10% of the company's shares, with a valuation of more than $1 billion. Currently, Blinkit has 30,000 employees and has opened 450 new warehouses and dark stores to improve its Q-commerce program. (E-commerce News)

9. Indian e-commerce Flipkart opens third grocery distribution center in Bangladesh

March 17th news, according to foreign media reports, Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart announced on March 15th that it will open its third grocery distribution center in Amta, a suburb of Bangladesh. The company said the distribution center will further increase infrastructure requirements for regional small and medium-sized enterprises, sellers and local farmers to expand the market. As of now, Flipkart's total area of ​​all grocery distribution centers in the area is 380,000 square feet, creating more than 2,000 jobs. Eastern India has become the main high-growth region of Flipkart, with Flipkart grocery stores currently serving 1,800 cities and 10,000 PINs in 23 states. (E-commerce News)

10. Lotte Group will close its headquarters in China and increase its investment in Southeast Asian countries

According to South Korea's "Chung Fu Ilbo", Lotte Group is about to dissolve its Chinese headquarters and increase investment in Southeast Asian countries. It is understood that Lotte Group entered the Chinese market in 1994 and established its China headquarters in Shanghai in 2012. Lotte Holdings, Lotte Shopping and Lotte Chemical hold 70%, 15% and 15% of the shares respectively. Relevant sources from Lotte Group said that the group made the decision to dissolve the Chinese headquarters at the end of last year and expected to complete all processes in the first half of the year, but this does not mean that the Lotte brand bid farewell to the Chinese market, and Chinese projects such as Lotte Chemical will continue to be promoted. (E-commerce News)