Turning a small interest into a big business, Taobao Education's "Creator Growth Plan" provides special training for creative merchants

“ In 2017, my cultural and creative company had just been established for one year. Others said I was a craftsman. I thought to myself, what do you know? I couldn’t sleep at night and I couldn’t sell my products.” Liu Wenhui is the founder of Wanfeng Culture and the pioneer of mortise and tenon building blocks. He used the mortise and tenon structure of ancient Chinese architecture in the fields of cultural and creative industries and toys.

On July 15, at the launch of Taobao Education's "Creator Growth Plan", Liu Wenhui , as the first "senior", shared his story of turning a small interest into a big business . Now, he has set himself an annual business target of 20 million yuan.

The "Maker Growth Plan" is mainly aimed at "creative merchants" represented by stores participating in the Maker Festival . It will help imaginative young merchants thrive in the e-commerce track through free , zero-threshold special courses and store diagnosis .

In addition, the creative creators will also share their expertise in design , creativity, and circles with more business friends through Taobao mini-classes. The "Creators Say" series of courses is now available on the official Taobao Education website.

Caption: The "Creator Says" series of courses is launched on Taobao Education's official website

“Hobby Business” Opens Up New Track

When Liu Wenhui, a senior student , found that there was still a blank in the Chinese market for mortise and tenon building blocks, he was extremely excited and plunged into product design and development. However, after the product was launched, he was once worried that "the product could not be sold".

At first, Liu Wenhui promoted his products through his WeChat Moments every day, but suddenly realized, "Only my friends and family can see my mortise and tenon building blocks every day, which is definitely not okay." In 2017, Liu Wenhui opened his Taobao store, named "Wanfeng", and he planned to establish connections with more potential consumers through the store. Gradually, one or two pieces were not enough to sell. When he sold 1,000 pieces a month, Liu Wenhui realized that "interest has really become a business on Taobao." At the end of 2019, Liu Wenhui achieved a monthly transaction volume of 1 million. "I couldn't handle all the orders, the inventory was gone, and everything was sold out."

The consumer tree behind "mortise and tenon joints" has also quietly grown on Taobao. Taobao data shows that in the first half of this year, "mortise and tenon joints" were searched more than 1 million times on Taobao, and more than 35% of people placed orders for related products. Not only are mortise and tenon joint building blocks and unlocking toys popular, but mortise and tenon joint structured dining chairs, dining tables, sofas and other furniture are also in high demand.

Caption: Huang Lei, General Manager of Alibaba Taobao Education Division

Nowadays, it only takes 3 minutes to open a store on Taobao . The average age of Taobao store owners is only 26 years old. Turning hobbies into business on Taobao has become the first choice for many young people to start a business . "How to enable young people with good ideas to more flexibly and efficiently manage products, supply chains, and marketing promotions actually requires more simple and clear business knowledge and operation methods , which is why Taobao Education continues to invest in merchant training. " said Huang Lei, general manager of Alibaba Taobao Education Division .

Simple learning helps small interests turn into big business

At the launch of the "Maker Growth Plan", Yunke , an e-commerce practitioner with 18 years of experience and a Taobao education lecturer, examined the stores at this year's Maker Festival one by one. "Most Maker stores sell niche products, so they need to take advantage of their high verticality and find the corresponding circles through Taobao to accumulate fans and members, and then rely on communication fission and the gathering of like-minded people to find more ' insiders ' . "

As a "three-time veteran" of the Maker Festival, Classical Puppets has firmly grasped this "knowledge point", and fans have become the "intangible assets" of this creative store.

This brand, whose main products are Lolita-style clothing , has opened a store on Taobao for 15 years. For several consecutive years , it has achieved a single-day turnover of over 10 million on Double 11. The brand's founder Huashan said, "The total number of fans of the store has reached 1.82 million, and the brand has a very strong appeal among Generation Z users." However, 15 years ago, only a few people knew about Lolita and the two-dimensional world . Now her store can receive 30,000 to 40,000 "traffic" every day . The key is to become a good fan and find "insiders".

Note: Taobao education lecturer communicates with the creator

Since the beginning of this year, the official, free, and zero-threshold "Taobao Mini Course" has covered the business links and community groups of Taobao merchants online, providing guidance for specific problems in the business of merchants. In the past quarter, it has been actively learned by merchants more than 3 million times. Young shopkeepers are learning "knowledge points" like watching videos , and easily mastering the " secrets of opening a store ." At the same time, Taobao Education is also providing differentiated official free courses and services for merchants with creative characteristics, content-based, industrial belts, corporate services, etc., to help high-quality entrepreneurs from different backgrounds do business better on Taobao.

" Creativity is already a probabilistic thing, so I hope we can take fewer detours when doing business. " said a creator merchant at the scene.

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