Alibaba’s flagship shopping site starts biggest revamp in 7 years

The overhaul, which includes the launch of new features and changes in existing functions, will be the “biggest update in seven years” of Taobao’s web version, according to a press release on Monday by Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba’s domestic e-commerce unit.

The group says it aims to improve the experiences of both consumers and merchants by simplifying the website’s layout and providing a smoother search and buying process. Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.

Alibaba’s CEO Eddie Wu Yongming, who also took over as chief of the e-commerce unit in December, has pushed for the company to sharpen its focus on consumer services and experiences, as it faces off against rivals, including budget shopping platform operator PDD Holdings and short-video app operator ByteDance.

While Taobao already runs a popular app, Alibaba data shows that the web version of the platform draws a unique group of visitors. Nearly 40 per cent of daily visits to the website are made by younger users, such as university students, white-collar workers, designers and programmers, the company said.

Under the website’s initial revamp, Taobao has extended the time users can maintain their login status and begun displaying discounted prices in the shopping cart. It also relaunched an online forum in Taobao called Taojianghu, which existed in the early days of Taobao.

Taobao said it will continue to explore the “unique advantage of large screens” in the next stage of the overhaul, allowing the web and app versions to complement each other to optimise user experiences.

This year’s event is closely watched by market analysts as a barometer of consumer sentiment in China, where the economy has been facing a host of post-pandemic challenges, including lacklustre domestic demand and a prolonged property slump.

In a separate move, Taobao and Tmall announced on Monday they will no longer run a presales event, which in past years allowed consumers to make a deposit on goods they wanted to buy to guarantee a low price during the actual sales period. Instead, this year’s event will include two sales period, beginning at 8pm on May 20 and 31, respectively.

Alibaba’s major rival JD.com, which initiated the 618 festival in 2010, also cancelled its presales this year, according to multiple Chinese media reports.