E-commerce Business Strategy Analysis and Inspiration: Taking Taobao as an Example

Taobao is a network retailer which founded in May 2003 and now is the most popular online retail platform in China with nearly 500 million registered users. More than 60 million people visit Taobao everyday and over 48000 items are sold every minute on this platform. During the expansion progress, Taobao has transformed from a C2C network market into a worldwide E-commerce trading platform including C2C, group purchase, distribution and other electronic commerce modes. And its future strategy is focusing on community, content and local. This article studies service and business model of Taobao from five aspects: service description and market context, service supply chain, quality of service, service management system and risk management. An analysis of the present situation of Taobao reveals that it has formed its unique business pattern and raises problems and suggestions. For Taobao stepping into cross-border E-commerce, the article analyses its strength, weakness and points out the direction of its future.