---
title: "Alibaba Retail Link's \"April 1 New Policy\": \"Burning Bridges\" or \"Necessity\"?"
description: "Alibaba Retail Link's policy change may not be wrong, but the backlash from some partners has undoubtedly thrust it into the spotlight. As April 1 approaches, Alibaba Retail Link is facing intense scrutiny over its new \"Retail Link City Partner Promotion Service Agreement,\" which requires all individual partners to sign by the deadline or face termination of their access to the Lingxiaobao platform."
author: "新经销刘少德"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-03-31"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/RwXVRg1nohB0z3iKwmjjjg"
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---

# Alibaba Retail Link's "April 1 New Policy": "Burning Bridges" or "Necessity"?

> Alibaba Retail Link's policy change may not be wrong, but the backlash from some partners has undoubtedly thrust it into the spotlight. As April 1 approaches, Alibaba Retail Link is facing intense scrutiny over its new "Retail Link City Partner Promotion Service Agreement," which requires all individual partners to sign by the deadline or face termination of their access to the Lingxiaobao platform.

**Alibaba Retail Link's policy change may not be wrong, but the backlash from some partners has undoubtedly thrust it into the spotlight.**
As April 1 approaches, Alibaba Retail Link has been pushed to the forefront of public opinion. The cause is the upcoming full implementation of the "Retail Link City Partner Promotion Service Agreement." According to current information, Retail Link requires all individual partners to sign the new agreement before April 1. Those who fail to sign by the deadline will have their access to the work platform software Lingxiaobao automatically terminated, effectively removing them as partners.
In simple terms, if individual partners wish to continue cooperating with Alibaba Retail Link, they must sign the new service agreement led by the latter. This has caused dissatisfaction among many top individual partners (typically 3-5 star partners), who have expressed their protest through WeChat groups, QQ groups, and other channels.
So what exactly is different between the new service agreement and the old one that has been in place?
**The upcoming new service agreement**
"The main change is in income," an insider at Alibaba Retail Link told New Distribution.
"The income structure for individual partners has become similar to that of contracted employees, but without a formal contract. The new agreement clearly stipulates the number of stores each partner must visit daily, traffic introduction, super task completion, store sell-through, and target task completion. If these are not met, Retail Link will impose fines. Previously, Retail Link mainly assessed sales and sell-through stores, and as long as store survival was ensured and orders were placed, partners could earn high income."
Previously, a city partner's salary income = product commission + bonus. In the new agreement, the income structure for city partners is adjusted to basic service fee + product commission = salary income. This undoubtedly touches the interests of a large number of people.
Take beverages as an example: in traditional retail stores, beverages are a major category and often the fastest-moving. Moreover, beverage brands are highly concentrated, and small store owners are more price-sensitive. In this context, not only Retail Link but most B2B platforms, in their early stages to quickly capture market share, offer significant price promotions on beverages. However, beverages are often the most "thankless" category for platforms: low average order value, high fulfillment costs, and limited profit contribution. **When the market is large enough, B2B platforms gradually reduce subsidies for such categories and shift focus to overall operational profit.**
Notably, Lin Xiaohai officially announced at the Alibaba Retail Link strategic launch event on September 3 last year that Retail Link had grown into the industry's leading FMCG B2B platform after more than three years of development.
"Initially, the commission for beverages was 7‰, then it dropped to 2.8‰, and after the new Retail Link agreement, this commission will be even lower. Previously, it was easy to earn over 10,000 yuan a month; now I'd be grateful if I don't get deductions," one individual partner complained to New Distribution. This to some extent reflects the income changes for some individual partners after the new agreement. Especially for those who use beverages as a door-opener for stores, ensuring long-term store activity through long-tail products has become a key consideration.
**City Partners' "Struggle"**
For individual partners, without a fixed base salary and social security, the high income from commissions has been the driving force behind their service to millions of traditional retail stores. The implementation of this new agreement will inevitably lead to the loss of some veteran partners, especially 3-5 star partners, which is a huge loss for Retail Link, which needs professional capabilities to serve stores. Although the stores served by individual partners can be quickly taken over by enterprise partners, the resulting service gap is hard to fill in a short time.
Retail Link does not pay social insurance for partners, nor does it constitute an employment or labor relationship. Essentially, partners are no different from Didi drivers, and the high income from commissions has been the main factor fostering stickiness between partners and the platform. After the new agreement, the decline in income will inevitably reduce the stickiness between partners and the platform. Partners already have high turnover; without higher basic incentive guarantees, this will further increase turnover.
Moreover, most partners are frontline sales personnel with some experience in the FMCG industry. Although they are young, many face major life issues such as marriage, buying a house, and having children, and they face significant survival and life pressures. Without stable income security and insurance, joining Retail Link as an entrepreneur is inherently a gamble. But the April 1 new policy has made most partners realize that this kind of entrepreneurship is fundamentally different from personal entrepreneurship, greatly reducing their sense of security.
In the early stages of market expansion, Retail Link offered high subsidies. Once user stickiness and usage habits are established, reducing or canceling subsidies inevitably makes partners feel like they are being "killed after the donkey has finished grinding." The unilateral commission reduction policy has indeed disheartened many veteran partners, and a large portion may leave due to dissatisfaction. However, the signing condition is that they cannot participate in competitors' projects within six months, which means most employees may consider that their existing resources and qualifications cannot be reused in their next job, so they have to "swallow their anger."
**Retail Link's "Helplessness"**
Market policy changes are just the surface; understanding the shift in corporate strategic focus through policy changes is perhaps more valuable for industry participants.
For Alibaba Retail Link, the new retail experiment has entered its third year. In the early stages, relying on capital subsidies and a human-wave tactic to quickly expand was understandable. But after becoming the industry's leading B2B platform, issues such as how to use digital tools to make brand product distribution more efficient, new product launches faster, how to help retail stores purchase more conveniently, and truly improve the efficiency of the entire FMCG distribution chain have become problems that Retail Link and Lin Xiaohai must face.
Especially in a cooling market, with DianShang Interconnection exiting due to financing failure and Tencent-invested Huidianyun ceasing operations, Retail Link inevitably faces enormous cost and revenue pressures.
In addition, small store owners are becoming younger and more receptive to the internet, and the penetration of B2B in retail stores has rapidly increased. In this context, the role of individual partners, who are responsible for installation, B2B promotion, and teaching store owners how to use the platform, is destined to decline. For individual partners, the primary consideration should be how to create greater value for the enterprise through skill improvement and achieve mutual benefit, after all, no one can rest on their laurels forever!
**In this regard, Zhao Bo, founder of New Distribution, believes:**
"
No company keeps idle people. No one can sleep on their laurels. Huawei's spirit of 'strivers' makes this clear.
Although Alibaba is a large company, internally Retail Link is still in its startup phase. The excessively high income of top partners, high corporate costs, and uneven wealth distribution are not conducive to the better development of Alibaba Retail Link.
Retail Link faces enormous cost pressures. And as stores have gradually accepted B2B, the promotional role of partners has significantly diminished. Obviously, Retail Link cannot afford to offer such high incentives to fatten partners who are no longer as important.
On a startup platform, without good guarantees, high income can indeed attract some participants. But good stores are occupied by early arrivals, and new entrants' income is insufficient, making it hard for them to stabilize and have motivation.
The value of B2B to small stores is not just products, but also services, brands, finance, systems, and other multiple values. Overemphasizing product distribution commissions is actually not conducive to partners improving their other capabilities.
In the future, Retail Link will definitely focus on serving the downstream of the industry chain. Before gaining good control of the downstream, the upstream is inevitably the current service target. But fundamentally, it is not the ultimate service target. So, on a deeper level, relying on partners for promotion and sales may just be a temporary promotional tool for Retail Link. From a value perspective, for B2B, Retail Link should cultivate store business consultants rather than partners. Partners are essentially shared salespeople for brands, serving brands. If partners are too strong, it can actually interfere with store operations.
"
**What do you think about Alibaba Retail Link's new policy?**
**-END-**


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