Last month online sharks fin trader Alibaba.com and parent company Taobao.com put out a press release stating "Taobao.com announced to its 400 million online members that all shark fin products will be banned from trade on Taobao.com starting 1, Full release here.
As we have reported this week we attempted to purchase sharks fin from the Alibaba.com web portal to test the effectiveness and real world reality of that press release.
After 7 days and less than 30 minutes of time spent we were able to source over 80,000lbs of dried sharks fin from sellers worldwide. Clearly this represents a massive roll out failure on the part of Alibaba.com and parent company Taobao.com
Here are our observations concerning areas that "with little effort" Taobao.com and Alibaba.com can make improvements-drastically reducing the sales of sharks fin and educating the public at the same time. Education would represent a big win for Taobao.com and Alibaba.com
Taking the lead in educating seller and consumer on their web portals would represent a worthy and admirable leadership stance. We would be the first to commend them.
Purchase Side Changes
1. When doing a search for "sharks fin" or any variations thereof Alibaba.com could initiate a pop up with the rules and regulations regarding sharks fin sales. We will suggest they build a "Red Site", listing "by section" items that are banned from sale or trade.
2. When signing up as a buyer Alibaba.com can use this process to direct the buyer to their "Red Site" using consumer drill down sales models they have identified internally.
Sales Side Changes
1. Sellers of all shark products and seafood products should receive warnings that are posted to each sellers site on Alibaba.com automatically. For example if you arrive at seller X's sea product site there's a link to the new "Red Site" with a warning about sharks fin sales.
2. Sellers are given a one strike policy. If sales of "Red Site" items happen and are verified they (seller) are banned forever.
These are a few positive and lasting changes that would have an immediate effect. Taobao.com and Alibaba.com could, if serious about banning the sale and trade of sharks fin, make these simple and industry leading changes within the month.
2 comments:
Red Site Now! Red Site Now!
Great idea why didn't I think of that?
It's never a good idea to break from the pack. Then again we never ran with the pack in the first place.
Alibaba.com can continue to evolve, we hope they do, and will be the first to seriously congratulate them when they have stopped sharks fin from being traded on their sites.
To those who say it "cannot be done", or this is a "free speech issue"?
With all due respect,please get off the playing field while the game is still in progress.
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