Taobao, one of the e-commerce services based in China, is now looking at ways to compete with services like Shein and Temu. As one of the measures for it, Taobao will start introducing free shipping to several countries, starting August 3, 2024 - for clothing purchases.
Among the countries that will be involved in this pilot program are Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and even Hong Kong. A special category will be displayed on the Taobao page listing various items with this free shipping support. Taobao is expected to offer only clothing items under this program for now.
Taobao is expected to subsidize the shipping costs, and not affect sellers on the platform.
In addition to Taobao, specifically for the Malaysian market as well, Alibaba has their own e-commerce platform offering through Lazada. Since Lazada covers a wide variety of product categories, Taobao's move to focus on free shipping for clothing is not expected to have a major impact on Lazada.