---
title: "Company Not Authorized, Distributor Opens Taobao Store Privately: How to Manage?"
description: "Distributors open online stores for various reasons, but with the shift in e-commerce traffic stages, unauthorized online selling disrupts the market. This article outlines methods to catch and manage such activities, and proposes a five-step approach to integrate these online sellers into the official system."
author: "黄润霖"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-05-30"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/company-not-authorized-distributor-opens-taobao-store-privately-how-to-m-355dd7b9/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/company-not-authorized-distributor-opens-taobao-store-privately-how-to-m-355dd7b9.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-JI2NmrVBoNjMEi59T0ubg"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%85%AC%E5%8F%B8%E6%B2%A1%E6%8E%88%E6%9D%83-%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86%E7%A7%81%E8%87%AA%E5%BC%80%E6%B7%98%E5%AE%9D%E5%BA%97-%E6%80%8E%E4%B9%88%E7%AE%A1-355dd7b9.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/company-not-authorized-distributor-opens-taobao-store-privately-how-to-m-355dd7b9/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Company Not Authorized, Distributor Opens Taobao Store Privately: How to Manage?

> Distributors open online stores for various reasons, but with the shift in e-commerce traffic stages, unauthorized online selling disrupts the market. This article outlines methods to catch and manage such activities, and proposes a five-step approach to integrate these online sellers into the official system.

Why do distributors open stores online? Is it because selling online is profitable? Is it because selling online is easier than opening a physical store offline? Is it because the cost of selling online is lower? Five or ten years ago, people might have said so, but those who still say this today are either those who caught the right wave in the e-commerce dividend and gained a head start, or those who are foolishly preparing to fill a pit.

In many articles, I have mentioned the five stages of Taobao (Tmall) traffic development: the grassroots brand stage (2003-2005), the Taobao brand stage (2005-2008), the traditional brand stage (2008-2013), the overseas brand stage (2013-2018), and the international luxury brand stage (2018-future). Only e-commerce operators who catch the right wave in these five stages have the opportunity to reap the dividends of e-commerce traffic development.

As brand distributors, especially category distributors, they could make a living during the grassroots brand and Taobao brand stages of e-commerce, and some even did very well. When the traditional brand stage arrived after the rise of Tmall, the traffic dividend window had shifted. Distributors who followed the trend to go online naturally became "those who foresee and understand, those who are slow to react and fail, and those who are unaware and consume."

Many people ask me, can we still open stores online today? I say this question is like asking whether we can still open a business today; it doesn't hit the nail on the head. Because asking whether the online business can still make money is meaningless. Today, even in the earliest wholesale channels, those who do well are still making money. E-commerce is just a channel; whether you can make money depends on each person's way of doing things.

But many of our distributors open online stores without clearly thinking about the "way of doing things." They have a simple logic: "One pig is raised, two pigs are watched." Whether they open an online store or not, the offline costs are still there. Under the "zero-cost store opening" hype, opening an online store is just like raising two more pigs in the same pigpen.

In that case, without an offline physical store, the online "zero cost" cannot be supported. For distributors opening online stores, who is the root and who is the branch is clear at a glance. When distributors privately open online stores, fundamentally, even if online and offline conflict, they cannot lose their offline base. Grasping this fundamental point, there is a way to resolve the issue of distributors privately opening online stores. Secondly, online and offline are originally complementary sales methods. Whether through product differentiation or service differentiation, consumers can have an additional choice to pay for. So, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Of course, it's a good thing! What sales management needs to do is not let "black stores" that are not included in the management system disrupt the market, turning a good thing into a bad thing.

Why is it difficult to manage cross-regional selling and price undercutting now? In the past, when a distributor was caught with stolen goods, they would at least have to think twice before accusing others of cross-regional selling or price undercutting, because they might not have evidence in hand. Now, when you try to deal with cross-regional selling or price undercutting, a distributor can shut you up with one sentence: "Look at the online store XX, their prices are much lower than ours. Manage them first, then talk to us!" At that moment, the salesperson's heart, which wants to kill the enemy but has no power to return to heaven, is shattered into pieces by these distributors.

Offline sales implement a regional distribution system, while online sales are actually a national retail system. Can a regional salesperson crack down on privately opened online stores? Definitely not! Because privately opened online stores disrupt the national market. If the headquarters has no attitude, regional personnel cracking down on privately opened online stores is just a drop in the bucket. So, is it enough to rely on the manufacturer to crack down on privately opened online stores? No, opening online stores is a demand of distributors. Relying solely on suppression treats the symptoms, not the root cause. The final result is that the more you fight, the more there are. You close one store, and the distributor changes their ID and opens two more. You can blacklist two, and they can open eight.

So, how should we deal with distributors privately opening online stores? Based on our past experience, we need to grasp both ends and be firm on both: on one hand, strictly crack down on privately opened online stores, making them have no place to survive online and no place to stand offline, so that the gain is not worth the loss; on the other hand, adapt to the trend of networking. Even if the dividend period has passed, treat it as a channel. Through product differentiation, packaging differentiation, and service differentiation, distributors become true brand output points, not just sales points. Online provides traffic for offline, and offline provides services for online. As Yu the Great tamed the floods, the key is to channel, not block.

**How to Catch Distributors Privately Opening Stores?**

Actually, catching cross-regional selling and price undercutting online is easier than offline, and you can catch them accurately if you really want to. No matter who privately opens an online store, who is the front puppet, and who is the backend supplier, the method is simple, crude, but absolutely effective:

**Step 1:** Go to that online store and buy something. The more items in the shopping cart, the more you look like a big customer, and the store owner will naturally be more attentive. If you're lucky, you can first ask: Are your goods genuine? The other party will definitely tell you they are authentic. Then you ask: How can you prove it? The store owner will naturally try every means to prove they are from a regular channel. If you encounter a not-so-smart customer service, the manufacturer's staff can basically guess which distributor is opening the online store based on the customer information.

**Step 2:** Of course, chat records alone are not enough to prove who is cross-regional selling or price undercutting. You need to solidify the evidence. How? Buy the goods! There are two ways to buy: one is to buy like an ordinary consumer, making a normal quantity purchase.

The second way is more ruthless: directly choose a hot-selling product and buy as much as the inventory allows. Many distributors have loopholes in their inventory management. When you check the warehouse, you find insufficient inventory, so they either transfer goods or order from the company. As long as it's an order for that type of product in that region, delay it as much as possible. Delay it for 7 days, and the Taobao store will be delayed in shipping. Consumers will complain, and the distributor will be troubled by Taobao first. Alternatively, the manufacturer can make special marks on this batch of goods to further solidify the evidence.

**Step 3:** After receiving the goods, complain to Taobao that they are counterfeit. After Taobao's customer service intervenes, the store must provide purchase documents and proof to Taobao, and these documents and proof will also be provided to the buyer. With these documents, you can naturally trace the source to the offline customer.

At this point, you have the store URL, product prices and images, chat records, shipping address on the express waybill, and Taobao's purchase channel proof. This is a complete set of evidence for cross-regional selling and price undercutting. After this battle, distributors, especially brand distributors, will probably behave themselves for a while.

Of course, for official platforms like JD.com's self-operated, you can send a letter to JD.com as the manufacturer: "The products sold on your self-operated platform are not supplied by our company's regular channel distributors. The authenticity of the products is unknown, and the products sold do not enjoy the company's normal three-guarantee service, etc." Once this letter is sent, the products will probably be removed from the shelves immediately.

**How Can Offline Enterprises Incorporate the Online Stragglers?**

Through the above methods of catching price undercutting and cross-regional selling, you can basically clean up those Taobao stores hidden in the corners. But can you use this method to completely ban online sales? It's impossible to ban them completely. As the saying goes, "The wildfire never quite kills them; they spring up again with the spring wind." As long as there is theoretical profit, distributors will take risks.

I divide the incorporation actions into the following five steps:

**Step 1:** Recall the distributors who are already selling online and those who plan to enter the network to the company for a special meeting. Announce the company's network development plan, Tmall official flagship store, product differentiation plan, and network distribution management rules, so that distributors feel that it's better to surrender openly than to sell secretly.

**Step 2:** While announcing that they become the first batch of network distributors, require them to jointly abide by price order and product system. Products already sold offline should gradually exit online (give a transition period), and require distributors to sell new network products, turning the network into a window for new products. Of course, at this time, you also need to collect a network order deposit from them. Whoever doesn't play by the rules will be dealt with.

**Step 3:** Network distributors should not pay the deposit for nothing. They can become regional distributors for various official websites of the enterprise, and the manufacturer and distributors share the profits. For durable consumer goods like home furnishings and building materials, network distributors can also sign up as regional service providers. For multiple customers in the same region, bidding can be used.

**Step 4:** Separate product charges from service charges. How to charge for services? Durable consumer goods refer to products that require additional services after the sale to be used better, such as building materials. In the past, many building material products, in order to compete on product and price, offline stores provided all value-added services for free, which actually reduced service quality. Because some services are gifts (like delivery), but some services are commodities (like installation services). Charging for commodities is natural. For products available both online and offline, the online price must be higher than offline. This "higher" means the sum of the physical price plus service price is greater than offline.

For example: Online X product bare price is 1000 yuan, "door-to-door installation" charges 100 yuan.

Offline the same product including installation totals 1000 yuan.

**Step 5:** Turn the network into a new product platform, with prices starting low and then rising. The network should become a platform for promoting new products, not for competing with offline business. That is, new products must be sold online first, and all network distributors are also promoters of new products. When a new product comes up, the price has an obvious advantage through discounts. Once it is promoted online and ready to be introduced to offline outlets, the online price of the new product should be raised, and the offline price should be cheaper than online, prompting consumers to go to offline stores, achieving online-to-offline traffic guidance. Online customer service should also learn to guide consumption:

"Dear! The bare price of MX350 is 2499 yuan!"

"Are you kidding me? I saw your physical store selling it for only 1880 yuan!?"

"No mistake, dear. Our online price is unified. If you need installation, you'll need to select 'door-to-door installation' and pay an additional 100 yuan."

"Why is your online price more expensive than offline?"

"Online and offline are both channels. Different channels naturally have different prices! Dear!"

What do you think? Will consumers buy online or go to physical stores? Of course, once the new product is stable in offline sales, the online product should be removed from the shelves and other new products promoted.

Turning the network into a new product platform ultimately aims to achieve interaction between online and offline. Even network distributors should pay attention to offline sales. When new products move from online to offline, the physical stores of these network distributors can also become main outlets for new product sales.

-END-

The best FMCG distributor learning platform in China
Focuses on providing professional, practical, and applicable tutorials for enterprises and distributors
Committed to helping Chinese FMCG distributors grow rapidly
**The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry**
Reply with the red number below to get the corresponding content
Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base
| **001** Excellent article selection | **002** Distributor market operation | **003** Terminal visit management | **004** Sales supervisor skills | **005** Sales improvement techniques | **006** Channel expansion | **007** Managing distributors | **008** Distributor development | **009** Distributor internal operations management | **010** Team management | **011** Efficient distribution techniques | **012** Sales manager's eighteen skills | **013** KA operation methods and strategies | **014** First lesson for new salespeople | **015** Internet, brand | **016** Distributor B2B transformation |
[Long press QR code to follow]


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671