Thread by @lillianmli

1) Chinese e-commerce homepage UX analysis.

I took screenshots of Taobao, Pinduoduo and JD’s homepage and ran them through a translation layer so it’s not perfect. But I’ll explain what they are

Let’s go through each of them in turn. Taobao first:

2)With super apps, the landing page should be thought of a the control panel.
As such top two rows are leading to other Alibaba products - these include Tmall (more upscale Taobao), Tmall international (overseas goods), Tmall supermarket, Flying pig (travel booking) and grocery

3) There’s also functions like voucher, gold coins (loyalty points) and categories.

You also the see the prompt message at the top, which always highlight the deals of the week for you to browse.

There’s also the live-streaming portal, which is TikTok like.

4) E-commerce platforms also realise that they are half entertainment platforms. As such the rest of the screen is then partly AI curation suggestions based on your (or my in this case) purchase and browsing history. The AI is very good, I mostly just buy off what they suggests

5) This is also precious advertising inventory space and merchants will pay to be displayed to relevant consumers (esp on Taobao who doesn’t take transaction fees on the platform)

6) Pinduoduo Home Screen.

We see the similar two role button front page. The small circle prompt is my outstanding buying groups that I’ve been invited to participate in

7) PDD’s features are more driven towards getting additional bargains. We can see time limited discounts, vouchers, goods for under 9RMB (<$1). But also newer products like PDD finance and pharmacy.

8) Things that get top billing is still Duoduo Groceries and the billion subsidies which are newer strategic areas for PDD. Billion subsidies is where PDD have verified higher end goods that’s subsidised, in a bid to move up the consumer perception and value chain

9) They have a button specifically for live-streaming section of the platform. Which highlights how much of a distribution channel this medium has become.

And unlike Taobao, they have a single row recommendation screen. Potentially since their SKUs are less varied

10) PDD’s edge has been their gamification element, the large red button at the end of screen says ‘shake for cash’. A game to get the user’s attention

11) JD’s home page. They are known for their electronics and it’s not a surprise that gets repeated billing throughout the page.

But you can also see that they call other categories like groceries, supermarket (FMCGs) and clothing

12) JD’s differentiation has been their 1P logistics, as such they offer 1hour home delivery as an option.

We’re seeing repetition of subsidies, coupons and live-streaming portals here as well.

13) similar to how Facebook, Twitter, Amazon all have a menu selection on the left side of the homepage. The Chinese mobile landing have converged on the two rows of buttons.
I know to the western viewer these UX looks very cluttered, but one gets used to it quickly

14) Afterall, in the age of superapps, I don’t really want to click through different links.

Something else is that all these platforms have visual / camera search built in. Alongside with the AI curation, it signals to me that they are covering both high and low intent buying