Alibaba’s Tmall waives annual service fee, Taobao eases ‘refund only’ policy

Tmall, home to mostly established brands and retailers, will scrap its annual software service fee from Sept. 1, which was previously between 30,000 yuan ($4,145) and 60,000 yuan for sellers across categories, Alibaba’s main e-commerce unit Taobao and Tmall Group (TTG) announced Friday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Existing Tmall sellers who have paid the service fee in advance will receive a refund, while new sellers who join the platform after September will have the fee waived.

In a separate announcement, Taobao said its refund-only policy will be optimized to give established sellers greater independence in handling customer refund requests.

For sellers with an experience rating of 4.8 or higher, Taobao said it would not proactively intervene to support consumer refund requests. Instead, it would encourage buyers and sellers to negotiate, according to a statement from TTG. For stores with lower ratings, Taobao said it would grant them varying degrees of autonomy.

Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao remains the largest consumer-to-consumer shopping platform on the mainland. Photo: Shutterstock — Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao remains the continent’s largest consumer-to-consumer shopping platform. Photo: Shutterstock

According to TGG, while this policy protects consumer rights, it is also being exploited by some “bargain hunters” who “infringe upon the legitimate rights of businesses”.

Taobao’s latest move aims to “create a more positive and healthier e-commerce ecosystem by ensuring consumer rights while improving the business environment,” TTG reported.

TTG’s initiatives reflect the group’s efforts to increase support for retailers in the face of increasing competition from a major domestic rival JD.com and the challenge from younger platforms like PDD Holdings‘ Pinduoduo AND ByteDance-property Douyin.