--- title: "Taobao Brands Disappear from the Double 11 Battlefield" description: "As Double 11 shopping festival kicks off, Taobao brands that once dominated sales rankings have faded, replaced by international giants and emerging new brands. The rise of Gen Z consumers and new channels like live streaming have left these brands struggling to stay relevant." author: "道总" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2021-11-10" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/taobao-brands-disappear-from-the-double-11-battlefield-aa9122b0/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/taobao-brands-disappear-from-the-double-11-battlefield-aa9122b0.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JgEa_VfCQiYjToIqIc9eIQ" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E6%B7%98%E5%93%81%E7%89%8C-%E6%B6%88%E5%A4%B1%E5%9C%A8%E5%8F%8C%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%80%E6%88%98%E5%9C%BA-aa9122b0.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/taobao-brands-disappear-from-the-double-11-battlefield-aa9122b0/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Taobao Brands Disappear from the Double 11 Battlefield > As Double 11 shopping festival kicks off, Taobao brands that once dominated sales rankings have faded, replaced by international giants and emerging new brands. The rise of Gen Z consumers and new channels like live streaming have left these brands struggling to stay relevant. Source: Daototal Rational (ID: daotmt) At midnight on November 1st, the annual Double 11 shopping festival officially opened its first wave of final payment. Countless consumers flooded e-commerce platforms, eagerly spending, and soon topics like "Taobao crashes," "final payment," and "refunds" hit the hot search. Live streaming rooms were also bustling. On the first day of Tmall's Double 11 pre-sale, Li Jiaqi's live stream achieved a cumulative transaction volume of 10.653 billion yuan, while Viya's reached 8.252 billion. Additionally, by 24:00 that day, including Estée Lauder and Lancôme, Taobao Live had generated 5 live streams with over 100 million yuan and 69 with over 10 million. "Watching live streams, adding to cart, paying deposits" seems to have become the new "trilogy" for consumers during Double 11. Amidst the noise, new brands quickly broke through, and international giants dominated various rankings. However, the once-glorious Taobao brands appear to be silent. After all Taobao brands fell off sales rankings last year, they have even less presence this year. Double 11 remains lively, but the protagonists in the spotlight have changed time and again. **The Rise and Fall of Taobao Brands on Rankings** Handu Yishe, Liebo, Inman, Qigege, Yujifang, AFU Essential Oil, Mofashi... Since Uniqlo successfully snatched the top spot from Handu Yishe during Double 11 in 2015, these once-familiar names have gradually disappeared from major Double 11 rankings. Looking at clothing rankings alone: In 2013, among the top 10 women's clothing sellers on Tmall during Double 11, traditional brands and Taobao brands each took half, with Handu Yishe, Liebo, and Inman all on the list. In 2014, Handu Yishe ranked first in women's clothing, but no Taobao brands appeared in men's clothing. In 2015, Uniqlo surpassed Handu Yishe, and international brands began to dominate the rankings. Similar to the clothing sector, the cosmetics industry once gave birth to three major Taobao brands: Yujifang, AFU Essential Oil, and Mofashi. However, since 2016, they have never re-entered the Tmall Double 11 TOP 10 list. Taobao brands have been declining, and by last year's Double 11, they had "lost everything." That year, Handu Yishe, the only Taobao brand lingering in the Tmall women's clothing top 10, also fell off the list, officially marking the full retreat of Taobao brands. Coincidentally, during this year's 6.18 event, Handu Yishe's sales were only one-fifth of what they were in 2017. The decline and silence of Taobao brands during Double 11 essentially represent a counterattack by traditional international brands. However, after brief clashes and subsequent conquest, the real enemies of Taobao brands are no longer these international giants but the endless stream of new brands. Especially as live streaming becomes the core scenario for consumers spending during Double 11, Taobao brands seem even more endangered. Looking at this year's Double 11 live streaming data: In Li Jiaqi's live stream brand rankings, L'Oréal held the top spot with over 2.34 million pre-sale items on the first day, followed by Chando, Zhiben, Xiangyiben, and Osmanthus. Among best-selling single products, three new domestic brands—Chando, Zhiben, and Youshilan—won with low prices and high volume. Viya's live stream covered a broader range of categories, with brands like Dr.Yu, L'Oréal, Olay, Colorkey, ubras, and Li Ziqi ranking high. Thus, in vertical areas like masks, makeup removers, and cleansers, Taobao brands have disappeared, replaced by new domestic brands. Even Taobao brands' own live streams seem to make little splash. Earlier, Handu Yishe streamed 37 times on Douyin in the past 30 days, with total sales of 1.625 million yuan, averaging only about 43,900 yuan per live stream. To date, it has only 620,000 followers on Douyin. This year, during the first wave of Double 11 pre-sales, according to Yio data, Taobao Live generated 5 live streams with over 100 million yuan and 69 with over 10 million, with merchant self-broadcasts accounting for over 85%. Looking at transaction volume rankings, many well-known Taobao brands did not make the list. From 2010 to 2016, Taobao brands took five or six years to traverse the path that traditional brands took decades to walk. But from 2019 to now, new brands have completed the journey in even less time, leaving Taobao brands with "no way out." **Young Gen Z Doesn't Know Taobao Brands** Taobao brands were born on Taobao but are also trapped by the constant emergence of new brands on e-commerce platforms like Taobao. They have long sensed their fate tied to platform traffic changes but have found no way out. Zhang Liaoyuan, founder of Three Squirrels, said 2018 was his most anxious year: "We found there were problems, but we didn't know where they were." During Double 11 in 2012, Three Squirrels opened the traffic entrance by investing in direct traffic ads and diamond booth homepage ads. After its founding, it ranked first in food sales during Double 11 for seven consecutive years, but in 2017, its Double 11 sales growth slowed. Zhao Yingguang, founder of Handu Yishe, also stated in a speech, "The internal cycle and the Gen Z consumer group have ended the traffic era." The end of the traffic era for Taobao brands is partly because platform traffic has gradually shifted toward international and new brands. Meanwhile, the traffic dividend within Alibaba's e-commerce system is also fading, making customer acquisition costs increasingly high. On the other hand, the rise of Gen Z consumers means a reconstruction of people, goods, and venues. Combined with changes in old and new channels, the entire consumer market has shifted from "people finding goods" to "goods finding people." But Taobao brands remain stuck in old channels, causing them to lose Gen Z. For example, on Xiaohongshu, data released by Kantar in 2020 showed that 44% of Gen Z users said they had been "planted" by influencers and made purchases. In China, from online planting to online consumption has long become a new habit for young consumers during Double 11. Taobao brands have attempted omnichannel marketing, but with little success. On Xiaohongshu, attention to Taobao brands and new brands is polar opposite. Taobao brands like Handu Yishe typically have fewer than 100,000 followers, e.g., Handu Yishe 69,000, Mofashi 98,000, Yujifang 69,000. In contrast, new brands like Perfect Diary have millions of followers, e.g., Perfect Diary 2.007 million, Heytea 275,000, Pop Mart 297,000. Not only Xiaohongshu, but short videos also play a significant role in helping new brands break through. However, Taobao brands' marketing on Kuaishou and Douyin has been underwhelming. Taobao brands have almost collectively lost their voice on new consumption channels, leading to a lack of presence among Gen Z. Many young consumers have never even heard of Taobao brands like Handu Yishe or Yujifang. Take Handu Yishe as an example: Phoenix Net Fashion once conducted an online survey. On whether Handu Yishe is still fashionable, 61% of netizens said no, 25% had never heard of the brand, and only 12% believed it had fashionable genes. Handu Yishe, once chosen by 50 million young women, is now abandoned by 320 million Gen Z users. This is a microcosm of the predicament all Taobao brands face. **Survival of the Fittest: The Inescapable Fate of Taobao Brands** In 2016, Handu Yishe officially applied to list on the New Third Board, and in July of the same year, it became the "first Taobao brand to go public." By 2018, Handu Yishe announced it would terminate its New Third Board listing and, by August, prepared for its first IPO attempt. However, in May this year, GF Securities announced that due to Handu Yishe's plan to adjust its capital operation methods and timing, the listing guidance was terminated by mutual agreement. Handu Yishe's bumpy listing process reflects the collective decline of Taobao brands in recent years. Brands like Inman, Liebo, and October Mom also withdrew their IPO applications after submitting them. Although Lilang, Three Squirrels, and Yujiahui successfully listed, they have been questioned by capital due to poor performance and profitability. As early as 2016, over 50 Taobao brand merchants jointly submitted IPO applications. To help these brands go public, Tmall announced the establishment of a special "Assisting Merchants Listing Office" to handle listing matters. Now, the glory of Taobao brands is long gone. With higher listing thresholds, the value of these merchants to Alibaba has further diminished, seemingly leaving no reason to support Taobao brands. Of course, Alibaba has tried to "save" Taobao brands. Besides helping them list, Alibaba also held the New Retail Platform Merchant Conference, where it unveiled a major strategy for offline expansion, leading a group of Taobao brands into offline channels. According to the plan, Taobao brands would have 100 independent counter experience stores within a year, developing offline channels to truly walk on two legs. However, this project lasted only one year before it was abandoned due to various reasons. Alibaba's thinking was not wrong. The biggest flaw in Taobao brands' development is over-reliance on Taobao and online channels. If they could open up offline channels and build a more recognized brand, they would significantly reduce survival risks. But it has been proven that even though many Taobao brands attempted offline expansion, it brought not improved performance but operational pressure. In 2018, Handu Yishe opened its first brand experience store in Hangzhou. Because online and offline were not effectively linked, it ultimately made no splash. Earlier, Inman opened its first physical store in Guangzhou, expanding to over 30 stores at one point, but eventually had to close them all. In 2015, it attacked offline again, aiming to open 10,000 stores by 2020, which has not been realized. Three Squirrels is considered a relatively successful Taobao brand in offline expansion. As of the first half of this year, offline channel revenue accounted for about 40% of total revenue. However, according to the latest financial report, in the first three quarters of this year, Three Squirrels' net profit was 442 million yuan, up 67.35% year-on-year, but total operating revenue fell 2.23% to 7.07 billion yuan. The growth in offline revenue cannot offset the decline in online revenue, which is Three Squirrels' awkward position. Taobao brands, lacking Alibaba's resource support, are no longer the stars of the Double 11 consumption carnival. They have to survive in the cracks between international giants and new brands emerging in various fields. Offline expansion may be the only way out for now, but it is not necessarily a path to survival. In the future, perhaps more and more consumers will completely forget these Taobao brands, and more new brands will push the current protagonists out of the spotlight, just as new waves continue to wash the previous ones ashore, endlessly. **Are you "watching" me?** --- ## 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