---
title: "Brands Shift in Droves, Making 'Tmall and Its Peers' Suddenly More Attractive"
description: "Ahead of this year's 618 shopping festival—an event originated by shelf-based e-commerce—merchants are once again voting with their feet, shifting their operational focus toward shelf platforms. A leading domestic channel distributor told reporters that brands have been signaling a clear pivot back to shelf-based e-commerce since the start of the year, with some profit-strained brands even publicly endorsing this shift."
author: "侃见财经"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2026-06-13"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PXEUTGlC01114zXqkM2Tzg"
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# Brands Shift in Droves, Making 'Tmall and Its Peers' Suddenly More Attractive

> Ahead of this year's 618 shopping festival—an event originated by shelf-based e-commerce—merchants are once again voting with their feet, shifting their operational focus toward shelf platforms. A leading domestic channel distributor told reporters that brands have been signaling a clear pivot back to shelf-based e-commerce since the start of the year, with some profit-strained brands even publicly endorsing this shift.

Ahead of this year's 618—a shopping festival that originated from shelf-based e-commerce—merchants are once again voting with their feet, increasing their operational focus on shelf platforms.
"From the year-end performance review meetings to the April 618 strategy meetings, every brand signal I've attended or learned about has been very clear: they are tilting back toward shelf-based e-commerce," a leading domestic channel distributor told reporters. Brands have been making choices in their investments since the beginning of the year.
Some brands under profit pressure are no longer content with just actions; they are even breaking their silence to publicly endorse shelf-based platforms.
Sun Huaiqing, chairman of Marubi Biology, recently told a Shanghai Securities News reporter that the company will prioritize ensuring stable growth of its more profitable shelf-based e-commerce, shrink loss-making business segments in content e-commerce, and continue to expand the scale of profitable segments.
"This year, all growth must be premised on profitability. Even if loss-making businesses and channels can bring scale expansion, we resolutely will not do them."
In the first quarter of 2026, Marubi Biology achieved operating revenue of 881 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.09%; net profit attributable to the parent was 101 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 25.20%. Profit has become the key factor forcing companies to pivot.
Marubi is not alone. The profit dilemma has recently been concentrated in the financial reports of various brand companies. E-commerce bosses have suddenly discovered that investors no longer buy the previous strategy of "measuring by GMV and riding on fake orders"—although it looks prosperous, the superficial glamour on the books cannot bring profit figures to performance reports.
Pressure from the financial and capital markets has also quickly transmitted to enterprises. A founder of a certain clothing brand reportedly made a harsh statement at an internal meeting: "Whoever dares to inflate GMV this year, I will fire them."
"The times are changing," an e-commerce agency serving multiple brands told us. The word "profit" has become the key bargaining chip in the reshuffle; whoever does not calculate the account of operational efficiency will feel the heavy pressure of being abandoned by the era.
This makes this year's 618 particularly important—it is the first 618 where brands collectively calculate operational efficiency, and it marks the beginning of a new stage for the e-commerce industry. The fact that "Tmall and its peers" have become more attractive also means that an era of blindly worshiping traffic has come to an end.
**Collective Pivot: Go Bankrupt or Go to Tmall?**
In this wave of pivoting, Zero Memory is a typical representative.
Over the past three years, this new sleep brand, which rapidly rose through short videos and livestream commerce, once achieved an average order value of over 400 yuan and annual sales exceeding 400 million yuan.
But this year, the brand's operator, Yang Kang, said: "In the previous two years, we deeply cultivated content e-commerce and achieved good growth. This 618, we want to redo Tmall and go where brands can best be built."
The shift is not limited to emerging brands that grew from content platforms; top brands are also moving quickly.
Three Squirrels was once seen as a model of traffic play, with 70% of revenue coming from online. In 2024, it staged a comeback through influencer livestreaming, returning to a revenue scale of 10 billion yuan.
But financial data shows that in 2025, Three Squirrels' revenue contribution from Tmall increased, while its dependence on content e-commerce dropped by more than 40 percentage points from its peak.
Pop Mart, the first stock in the trendy toy sector, also shows this trend. In 2025, its Tmall flagship store's growth rate and share were significantly higher than content e-commerce channels like Douyin, and it explicitly proposed to "strengthen differentiated operations for customers on Tmall and JD.com flagship stores."
A "2026 618 Promotion Expert Meeting Minutes" on Xueqiu shows that over 60% of brands have flat or slightly increased 618 budgets on Tmall, with increases ranging from 5% to 15%.
Even white-label and industrial belt merchants who once thought Tmall was not suitable for them are changing their attitudes.
A brand manager from a women's shoe industrial belt in Dongguan said they would reduce the proportion of influencer livestreaming and cultivate their own brands on traditional e-commerce platforms. "Previously, we produced whatever styles influencers liked; now we want to create our own product lines and build our brand on Tmall."
At the same time, more new brands are choosing Tmall stores as their frontline online position. Official Tmall data shows that from March to May 2026, the number of new brands入驻 Tmall increased by 30% month-on-month.
This wave of入驻 covers almost all players, from international big names to emerging domestic brands.
Balenciaga opened dual beauty stores on Tmall, Kodak collaborated with Pop Mart's IP Xiaoye to launch trendy apparel, Silicon Valley sleep tech company Eight Sleep chose Tmall as its first stop in the Chinese market, and jewelry brand MIKIMOTO and Japanese high-end pet stroller brand AIRBUGGY have also joined.
More and more merchants are returning their focus to Tmall, driven by more merchants calculating their efficiency accounts.
"We actually have no choice," a new brand that just opened a store on Tmall told reporters. The traffic game is no longer affordable; he faces only two options: "go bankrupt, or go to Tmall."
**If You Don't Calculate, You Die? Brands Start to Be Frugal**
In this efficiency account, profit is increasingly suffocating more merchants.
"This year, I dare not inflate GMV; the first KPI is to protect profit," a clothing brand seller's words echoed the sentiments of many merchants.
In the past, merchants expanded GMV across various channels for growth, but after heavy investment, they found that profits and revenue were far from matching.
In 2025, Three Squirrels had revenue of 10.189 billion yuan, but its non-GAAP net profit was only 49.4 million yuan, a year-on-year plunge of 84.53%; Fuerjia's 2025 revenue was 1.893 billion yuan, with non-GAAP net profit of 337 million yuan, down 44.13% year-on-year; Marubi Biology's 2025 revenue grew 16.48%, but net profit attributable to the parent plunged 27.63%.
This explains why merchants are turning their attention to shelf-based e-commerce: although the decision-making chain is longer, shelf-based e-commerce has a more certain business model.
"On Tmall and JD.com, as long as you plan well, it's hard to lose money," a brand operator told reporters. Relevant data shows that JD.com's self-operated net profit margin is about 7%-9%; Tmall channels can even reach 12%-15%, and this is the final result including promotion fees, commissions, and return losses.
Many factors contribute to the huge profit gap. For example, Zhou Yan, founder of beauty brand Opeilai, said at a forum at the end of 2025 that influencer livestreaming commission rates are getting higher. "In 2024, a 40% commission might have been enough; by 2025, it basically needs to be 60%."
In addition, the huge difference in return rates is also a key factor causing profit gaps.
Data shows that the return rate for search scenarios on shelf platforms is usually 12%-22%, lower for beauty and slightly higher for apparel; while the return rate for livestream scenarios is generally at least 50%, and for women's clothing livestream e-commerce, it can even exceed 90%.
This is why when merchants start to be frugal, the previously underestimated shelf-based e-commerce suddenly becomes more attractive. It may not create as many miracles, but it wins in stability, controllability, and certainty of making money. When the e-commerce industry collectively enters an era of low growth, this characteristic makes shelf-based platforms the hot potato again.
In this era of uncertainty, certainty itself is the greatest value. Because as traffic dividends gradually fade and customer acquisition costs become unaffordable, the e-commerce industry is irreversibly shifting from scale effects to operational efficiency.
**The Era of Repurchase**
Now, China's internet population has basically peaked. According to QuestMobile's "2025 China Mobile Internet Autumn Report," as of September 2025, the total internet user scale reached 1.269 billion, a year-on-year increase of only 2%.
As the overall market enters a stock era, the cost of acquiring new customers in e-commerce has become expensive. At this time, the industry is ushering in a new era—the era of repurchase.
In this era, whoever has strong product strength, a complete service system, and a comfortable purchasing experience will have the core competitiveness to bring "repeat customers."
A beauty brand seller said that one of their core goals for this 618 is to have repeat customers account for more than 35% of purchases. Because "new customers are too expensive; we are now more willing to spend money on old customers. The cost of maintaining an old customer is only one-fifth of acquiring a new one, but the profit they bring is several times that of a new customer."
In the view of many merchants, although various channels can be the first choice for acquiring new customers and building awareness, ultimately, to achieve stable and lasting operational efficiency, shelf platforms like Tmall are still needed.
Yang Kang of Zero Memory also believes: content e-commerce can only solve the problem of "being seen," but cannot solve the problem of "being trusted."
He found a common phenomenon: many users, after being influenced in livestream rooms, will specifically open Taobao to search for the brand's Tmall flagship store, check the number of followers, reviews, and sales to verify authenticity. If these indicators are low, users will hesitate or even give up purchasing.
In fact, such behavior has almost become a routine action ingrained in the genes of Chinese online shoppers for years. Because only by having a compliant store on platforms like Tmall, along with supporting marketing and after-sales services, can a merchant be considered a legitimate business and build the basic confidence for online shopping.
At the same time, Tmall also has a complete membership system, CRM tools, and user data capabilities. Merchants can repeatedly reach old customers through 88VIP, store memberships, points systems, and other methods, turning one-time transactions into long-term relationships.
Data best illustrates this. The aforementioned "2026 618 Promotion Expert Meeting Minutes" shows that Tmall members' repurchase rate is about 38%-45%, and for categories like beauty and health, it can even exceed 50%.
High repurchase ultimately brings higher operational efficiency. As the primary battlefield for brand operations, Tmall is also becoming the platform with the best operational efficiency for brands. For companies that want to upgrade from "traffic brands" to "mind-share brands," Tmall has almost become an essential "ID card."


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