In China’s e-commerce platforms, Tmall has long been the core destination for premium brands. As Alibaba’s flagship marketplace, it not only brings together world-renowned global names but also serves as a vital stage for emerging brands to showcase themselves and grow.
In recent years, however, with consumer demand becoming increasingly segmented and diverse, mid-tier brands have faced mounting competitive pressure. These brands often occupy a delicate position : they struggle to leverage brand equity to gain the profit margins of leading brands, yet they also find it difficult to compete with lower-tier brands purely on price and volume.
This “strong at both ends, squeezed in the middle” dynamic has left many mid-tier players wavering in their strategies. Some even fall into price wars, eroding their long-term competitiveness. To address this challenge, Tmall launched the Thousand Stars Initiative in 2025, offering mid-tier brands fresh solutions and new pathways for sustainable growth within China’s e-commerce platforms.
Brand Support Initiatives on China’s E-Commerce Platforms
According to Tmall, the Thousand Stars Initiative is designed to address the key challenges mid-tier brands face in traffic generation, conversion, and new product incubation. It offers a comprehensive suite of support measures across China’s e-commerce platforms.
Official reports from Alibaba show that by the second quarter of 2025, brands participating in the initiative achieved remarkable results: overall sales grew by more than 30 percent year-over-year, with 317 brands doubling their quarterly growth rate and 373 brands securing the top spot in trending categories.
What makes the program even more impactful is its tailored approach. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all model, the initiative provides differentiated strategies based on brand type. For brand-driven merchants, the focus is on new product incubation and building robust membership ecosystems. For transaction-driven merchants, Tmall emphasizes category keyword optimization, blockbuster product creation, and precision search recommendations to boost conversion efficiency.
Lowering Consumer Decision-Making Costs on E-Commerce Platforms
One of the biggest challenges for mid-tier brands in marketing is how to quickly build consumer trust. The Thousand Stars Initiative helps brands lower the entry barrier for trial through modules such as Tmall U-First and New Product Sampling, which are widely used across China’s e-commerce platforms.
Take the beauty industry as an example. Emerging brands often face hurdles due to high price points and complex shade ranges, which increase decision-making costs for consumers. By distributing trial-sized products at scale, shoppers can test texture and shades before committing to purchase, significantly reducing the risk of trial and error. This approach also lays a strong foundation for high-conversion moments during major shopping festivals such as 618 and Double 11.
In addition, new products often lack user reviews and authentic feedback at launch. To bridge this gap, the Thousand Stars Initiative leverages KOL testing and content displays to generate early endorsements. This enables brands to quickly build credibility and establish a complete cycle of trial, sharing, and conversion on China’s e-commerce platforms.
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Data-Driven Product Innovation
Within the Thousand Stars Initiative, the Tmall Innovation Center (TMIC) plays a pivotal role. By providing market insights, product design support, and testing, TMIC helps brands capture emerging trends while reducing trial-and-error costs.
A prime example is the women’s fashion brand wana try. Leveraging TMIC’s market and consumer data, the brand incorporated adjustable shoulder straps and pockets into its dress designs, directly addressing practical pain points in everyday wear. The results were impressive: the category’s average order value rose by 45 percent year-over-year, and the brand’s omni-channel sales share reached 27 percent, enabling it to achieve true differentiation in the competitive landscape of China’s e-commerce platforms.
The Best-Seller Playbook for Transaction-Driven Merchants on China’s E-Commerce Platforms
For transaction-driven merchants, search traffic is the lifeline. Unlike leading brands that rely heavily on branded keywords, mid-tier merchants depend more on category or model keywords to capture traffic.
Take BKZ Home Textiles as an example. Consumers often search for general terms such as “curtains” or “blinds” before entering the store. By leveraging precise category keyword search mechanisms, BKZ successfully directs this traffic to its hero products, which then drive sales across the broader portfolio. According to the brand, its conversion rate on Tmall is 30 percent higher than the industry average. This is a clear demonstration of how mid-tier merchants can thrive on China’s e-commerce platforms.
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For many mid-tier brands, the real bottleneck is not product quality, but rather the lack of traffic resources and mature operational expertise. Through the Thousand Stars Initiative, Tmall brings the operational resources and data capabilities once exclusive to leading brands down to mid-tier merchants. This empowers them to build systematic methodologies across critical areas such as product incubation, user conversion, and pre-sale preparation for major shopping festivals.
As competition in e-commerce continues to evolve, mid-tier brands that tap into Tmall’s resources and mechanisms can break free from the “stuck in the middle” dilemma. More importantly, they can achieve sustainable growth within niche categories on China’s e-commerce platforms.
At STAiiRS, we have been deeply rooted in the China market for years, specializing in end-to-end marketing strategies and growth solutions for brands. If you are looking for a breakthrough on Tmall, helping your brand escape bottlenecks and unlock sustainable growth, get in touch with STAiiRS. Together, we will power your success in China’s dynamic e-commerce landscape.
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