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Some background info: I'm tech lead for a german shop on tmall.hk, and indeed this time, the numbers are crazy. What you have to know though is that B2C shoppi
by MrBuddyCasino 10y ago
Some background info: I'm tech lead for a german shop on tmall.hk, and indeed this time, the numbers are crazy.
What you have to know though is that B2C shopping on Alibaba is extremely promotion driven. You have a very flat curve most of the time, and then on promotion day, you've got lots of sales. Everyone is waiting for the special deals.
The way this works is that people can buy or sign up for all kinds of different vouchers, rebates and coupons and whatnot, which they can only use during the promotion, which is typically 24h. This will of course affect your margins, but the volume is high, so it can be worth it.
On the technical side, the APIs are astonishingly bad. I suppose this is the result of building this very quickly, and it has grown ever since. I don't know how they manage to maintain it.
- NKCSS 10y agoJust curious; why would a german webshop have hong kong tld?
- wodenokoto 10y agotmall is a website like amazon or ebay where sellers can setup a shop and sell to consumers.
- skinnymuch 10y agoParent comment's question is still there. Why does the site have an HK tld. Unless I'm missing something.
- alaskamiller 10y agotmall.hk is Taobao, OP is saying he manages IT for an account based in Germany on tmall.hk
- skinnymuch 10y agoAh yeah that's what I missed. Thanks
- tzakrajs 10y agoI think they are implying that the domain name and site are localized for the region. For example: ebay.com,ebay.com.hk amazon.com,amazon.com.hk tmall.com,tmall.hk
- MrBuddyCasino 10y agoExactly, sorry - should have explained this. While aliexpress etc. are similar to Amazon marketplace, the tmall.hk site is geared towards trusted, foreign brands and big shops. You can setup a very distinctively looking shop, maintain your brand and standing out completely from the surrounding hosting site. You are not allowed to open a tmall.hk shop unless you are a globally recognized brand or a shop that makes at least xx million € of revenue a year, its more or less invite only. Its a premium platform. The reason Alibaba did this is that chinese people don't trust their own brands and shops, so for certain goods where safety is important and luxury goods they flock to foreign brands.
- wodenokoto 10y agoI didn't know about this distinction. Thank you for elaborating.
- est 10y agoI think it's because tmall.com was overwhelmed by Chinese brands. Chinese people usually think HK stuff was more wester like, so a .hk tld stands for foreign goods.
- ngokevin 10y ago> On the technical side, the APIs are astonishingly bad. I suppose this is the result of building this very quickly, and it has grown ever since. I don't know how they manage to maintain it. I visited Alibaba HQ last month. People seemed pretty worked and driven by deadlines which can decrease their code quality. The teams I talked to didn't do much testing.
- MrBuddyCasino 10y agoThat figures. China (Bejing) is 7 hours ahead of german time, yet I've noticed that my Tmall contacts are replying to messages when it is really late at night for them, sometimes excusing themselves that they have dinner right now. On 11.11 many are on duty for 24 hours. Off topic, but in contrast to americans, german people are often frowning and complaining a lot - even though we really don't have much cause, in comparison. Friendliness and positivity are some of the things I really appreciate about the USA. Treasure it!
- ngokevin 10y ago> On 11.11 many are on duty for 24 hours. For sure, Alibaba is working all hands on deck and burning the midnight oil right now. And yeah, I hope the nation can continue being positive and empathetic, and even grow more friendly in that regard.