Alibaba revamps gift-giving feature on Taobao marketplace to fend off Tencent competition
After placing an order, the buyer sends a virtual gift card with passcode to the recipient, who has to claim the goods within 24 hours
The Taobao marketplace run by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding on Wednesday revamped its gift-giving feature to make the process easier for buyers, days after rival Tencent Holdings introduced a similar improvement on its WeChat super app.
Taobao’s gifting feature, located beside the “add to cart” and “buy now” buttons at the bottom of an item’s page, allows a user to purchase for others without asking for their shipping address.
After placing an order, the buyer sends a virtual gift card with a self-compiled passcode to the recipient, who has to claim the goods within 24 hours by filling in the correct passcode and providing delivery information.
It marks a major revamp of the previous gifting function that only allowed buyers to purchase an additional unit for others when checking out. The gift card could only be shared via Taobao, whereas under the new system it can be sent to any online shopping or social platform, including WeChat.
To entice users to try the new feature, Taobao is offering a 15 per cent discount for some gift purchases.
