Detailed explanation of merchant star levels of Alibaba International Station and its self-marketing strategies

Overview and importance of merchant star levels

Alibaba International Merchant Star Rating is a tiered system designed to evaluate merchants’ ability and willingness to serve overseas buyers. This system comprehensively considers the performance of merchants on the platform and divides it into five levels, with five stars being the highest level. The star rating not only reflects the service quality of the merchant, but is also an important basis for the merchant to gain the trust of buyers. The star rating evaluation standards cover many aspects such as merchant power (customized scenarios), product power (quick transaction scenarios), marketing power, transaction power, and guarantee power.

Star rating rules

The evaluation of merchant star level is based on the performance of four major ability items. Each ability item has a full score of 100 points. The specific score requirements are as follows: 1 star to 5 stars are 60, 70, 80, 85, and 90 points respectively. The weights of each indicator under the four major abilities are different, and the final score is calculated comprehensively. In addition, if the basic service indicators do not meet the standards, such as the average response time exceeds the specified time, the score of the capability item will be limited to the lowest score of the next star rating.

The star rating is conducted once a month, based on the data performance at the end of the previous month, and is updated on the 5th of each month. High-star merchants can enjoy more platform resource tilt, including but not limited to significant improvements in traffic, exposure, clicks, feedback, and order acquisition. Buyers will also evaluate high-star merchants higher.

Self-marketing tools help merchants grow

In order to help merchants better carry out self-marketing activities, Alibaba International Station provides a variety of tools, such as discount marketing, coupons, SNS intelligent sharing, video marketing and live broadcast marketing, etc. Among them, discount marketing is a common promotion method. It attracts buyers to place orders by setting limited-time discounts and improves the order conversion rate.

Discount Marketing Rules

• Discount information for active products will be displayed on the product details page.
• Currently, only direct ordering products are supported to set discounts.
• The “Direct Limited Time Discount” applies to qualifying orders, i.e., non-sample orders, within the validity period, and in sufficient stock.
• The product payment part of the order amount can enjoy discounts, but does not include logistics costs.
• If there are multiple limited-time discounts for the same product, the one with the greatest discount will be displayed.
• Discounts and coupons can be used in combination. The discount will be deducted first and then the coupon will be used.

Setup steps

1. Enter the My Alibaba backend and find the “Discount Marketing” option under the “Merchant Self-Marketing Center”.
2. Create a new event and fill in basic information, such as event name, time, crowd, etc.
3. Manually add active items and set corresponding inventory and discounts.
4. After completion of creation, you can view discount information on the product details page.

Merchants can flexibly use these tools according to their own needs to increase store exposure and sales.

By having an in-depth understanding of the star rating mechanism of Alibaba International Station and the application methods of self-marketing tools, merchants can better optimize their service processes, enhance market competitiveness, and achieve business growth goals.