No price traps, get rid of 'one-time shopping', Taobao Factory's 'Star Brand' wins over new white-collar workers

Zebra Consumer Xu Ji

The pet supplies brand "pidan", which joined Taobao Factory less than a month ago, set a daily sales record of 3 million yuan with one of its cat litter products.

Without pre-sales, Taobao Factory, which focuses on direct supply from industrial belts, launched the "Double 11"现货开售 at 8 p.m. on October 21. Before 24:00, more than 50,000 manufacturers achieved over 10,000 orders, with "Star Factory Brands" accounting for 66%, driving Taobao Factory's first-day sales on Double 11 this year to double compared to last year.

Behind the soaring numbers are factories scattered across the country. Unlike before, this year they are quickly flocking to Taobao Factory, leveraging this industrial e-commerce platform to achieve a leap from white-label to star factory brands amid severe competition, taking a crucial step toward branding.

What cat litter sells 3 million yuan a day?

Seeing this question, one can't help but ask: Are there more cats, or is Taobao Factory just that good at selling?

This year's Tmall Double 11 saw the rise of pet spending. In the first hour of the kickoff, 15 pet brands on Taobao Tmall surpassed 10 million yuan in sales. Within four hours of the sale, 658 brands doubled their sales year-on-year, and 659 brands doubled their order volume year-on-year.

The enthusiasm of young people for pet ownership has fueled a massive pet economy.

The "2023-2024 China Pet Industry White Paper" shows that in 2023, there were 51.75 million pet dogs and 69.8 million pet cats. The "post-90s" and "post-80s" are the main pet owners, while among new pet owners, the "post-00s" account for the highest proportion at 43.7%. In 2023, the average annual spending per pet dog was 2,875 yuan, and per pet cat was 1,870 yuan.

So, what cat litter could Taobao Factory sell for 3 million yuan a day?

The cat litter brand "pidan" is a "Star Factory Brand" merchant that joined Taobao Factory on September 30 this year. On October 21, the first day of Taobao Factory's Double 11, a newly upgraded mixed cat litter product under pidan set a daily sales record of 3 million yuan on the platform and, with Taobao Factory's support, entered Li Jiaqi's Double 11 live broadcast room.

The fundamental reason for the hot sales is that Taobao Factory's direct brand hosting can quickly aggregate a precise audience seeking cost-effective products. The advantage of the supply chain allows it to source goods at the lowest prices.

As a pet supplies brand that has secured multiple rounds of funding, pidan witnessed the potential and explosive power of the cost-effective market by participating in Taobao Factory's Double 11, redefining Taobao Factory as "not just good for white-label products but also for exploring factory and brand labels."

It's not just "pidan"; over 50,000 factory brands achieved over 10,000 orders within four hours of Taobao Factory's Double 11 launch, with "Star Factory Brands" accounting for 66%, becoming the core contributors to this year's sales.

These "Star Factory Brands" cover categories such as home goods, textiles, small appliances, food and fresh produce, 3C digital products, and outdoor travel, with items like electric bike windshields, soybean fiber quilt cores, and hot pot bases becoming popular hits.

As winter approaches, Taobao Factory's consumers are preparing for a cost-effective season.

How can a hit product be created in 3-7 days?

The hot sales of the cost-effective "pidan" cat litter are just a microcosm of Taobao Factory's popularity this Double 11.

But why can Taobao Factory create a hit product so quickly?

Taobao Factory's accumulated user base of over 300 million is the foundation for rapid product scaling. Its M2C model ensures that its users are more precise compared to other e-commerce platforms.

A chance purchase of "3 items for 3 yuan" turned young Li Yun (pseudonym) into a heavy user of Taobao Factory. "Three yuan for three items, delivered to your door, and they all work fine—what more could you ask for?"

Since then, she has turned to Taobao Factory for all her daily needs. "I don’t care much about brands; as long as it suits me," is Li Yun's attitude toward life.

Like Li Yun, many "post-00s" college students, young professionals, and renters in first- and second-tier cities have become Taobao Factory users due to their shared pursuit of affordable, quality goods.

They share a profile: price-conscious, fond of alternatives, and making "smart-brain"消费决策. At the same time, they are willing to pay for emotional value beyond functional consumption, making them more receptive to domestic products and emerging factory brands.

Thus, on Taobao Factory's platform, users care less about "brands" and more about whether the product's quality and price meet expectations.

Taobao Factory's M2C model supports factories in listing products directly, using a semi-hosted approach to quickly expose cost-effective goods to interested consumers. This is the solution to consumers' demands for "everything" in an intensely competitive e-commerce landscape.

Luggage manufacturers in Xingan County, Jiangxi, have already reaped the benefits of Taobao Factory.

Xingan County, a small inland city in central China, is one of the country's four major luggage industrial belts, with nearly 600 luggage factories producing over 55 million pieces annually.

Compared to the other three major luggage industrial belts—Shiling in Guangdong, Baigou in Hebei, and Pinghu in Zhejiang—Xingan County, despite its large output, is positioned in the mid-to-low end with limited profit margins. It urgently needs a new opportunity to drive industrial upgrading.

In June and July this year, several leading luggage factories in the area joined Taobao Factory tentatively and quickly witnessed the platform's explosive potential.

Dibo Luggage initially listed only four or five products on Taobao Factory as a test, but one retro suitcase quickly gained traction. In just two to three months, its sales on Taobao Factory matched those on platforms it had been operating on for years.

Around the same time, Kajieo Luggage chose to list a retro-style suitcase priced at around 100 yuan in pastel colors on Taobao Factory. In just over ten days, it achieved a stable daily sales volume of 100 to 200 orders. By the end of September, Kajieo had nearly 20 products listed, with two or three becoming hits, averaging nearly 40,000 yuan in daily GMV over the past 30 days (monthly average of 1.2 million+).

Kajieo's owner, Zeng Bikai, reflected that while only one out of ten links might succeed on other platforms, on Taobao Factory, one out of three or four could become a hit.

Taobao Factory's recently released "New Force Industrial Belt Report" shows that compared to September last year, Xingan's luggage industrial belt saw a 1,824% growth in sales volume. As a new county-level industrial belt, it has grown into a TOP 15 county-level industrial belt with monthly sales exceeding 10 million yuan.

In the past, factories in a product's supply chain did the heavy lifting for the least profit. They didn’t interact directly with users and were mostly poor at operations. Under the semi-hosted model, Taobao Factory's category operators guide factories in quickly launching new products based on data collection and consumer trend insights.

A Taobao Factory representative stated that the platform deeply participates in product selection from the stage of consumer demand insight. New products receive a wave of traffic for testing within a day or two of listing. If the product can handle the traffic, its 权重 rises. For competitive products, the fastest time to hit status is 3-7 days.

Industrial redemption amid competition

In recent years, amid the trend of 消费降级， almost every industry has been battered by price wars.

In price wars, factories are often the first to be squeezed. Without profits, factories struggle to survive, resorting to lowering product quality to cut costs，陷入恶性循环。

As an industrial e-commerce platform, Taobao Factory goes against the grain，深入全国产业带， leading tens of thousands of factories in 逆势升级 through its semi-hosted model.

As of the end of September this year, Taobao Factory has added 80,000 manufacturers. This Double 11, it introduced nearly 1 million new products across food, clothing, and daily use categories，极大地丰富了消费者的购物体验。

Why are factories from various industrial belts flocking to Taobao Factory? Ultimately, because they can both sell and profit.

Over the past six months, Taobao Factory has helped nearly 100 industrial belts achieve monthly orders exceeding 1 million and nearly 200 belts exceed 500,000 orders.

Even COFCO Tomato, the world's second-largest and Asia's largest tomato company, is developing more consumer-facing products during the industry's 低谷期， reaching households via Taobao Factory to achieve 跨周期布局。

Taobao Factory directly connects with 源头厂商，工厂直供，精简了商品流通链路. As a platform, it doesn’t profit from product markups but charges service fees based on the modules factories choose.

This unique business model helps merchants cut costs, with the savings directly 转化为利润. Importantly, part of this profit is reinvested by 源头工厂 into product R&D and quality, ensuring continuous 迭代和升级。

On one side, consumers want better, affordable goods rather than 绝对便宜; on the other，源头工厂 seek to escape 恶性竞争。

Taobao Factory's solution is the "Star Factory Brand" plan, which elevates white-label products to mid-to-high-end status. Through 官方背书的厂牌标识，绿色通道快速入驻， and 专属流量等 12 项权益， it helps 源头白牌产业升级转型。

The plan aims to create over 10,000 Star Factory Brands across 100 industrial belts in 2024, especially during Double 11, generating 100,000+ new hits.

The 红利 has attracted 优质供给 like Sam's Club waffle 代工厂，大嘴猴平替行李箱工厂，全棉时代平替工厂， and 慕思乳胶床垫代工厂 to join Taobao Factory.

Within four hours of the October 21 launch, nearly 70% of "Star Factory Brands" achieved over 10,000 orders, doubling first-day sales and proving the value of the initiative.

After all, on the supply side, every factory owner dreams of branding. And on the 消费 side, everyone wants to live their best life without breaking the bank.