What products can participate in the industrial belt clearance? Are there any requirements for product sales volume? How much inventory should be reported? From 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM on August 14, an online Q&A session for merchants was held by Taobao Clearance staff regarding the upcoming Taobao Industrial Belt Regional Clearance – Quanzhou Special Event, scheduled for August 30 to September 2.
This regional industrial belt clearance includes seven categories: apparel, undergarments and accessories, shoes and bags, home textiles, children's clothing, and more. It is jointly organized by the Quanzhou Economic and Trade Commission and the Taobao Clearance Channel, and co-hosted by the Quanzhou E-commerce Association and the Shishi E-commerce Association.
The products are targeted for spring, autumn, and winter seasons.
It is understood that the online registration portal for the Taobao Industrial Belt Clearance – Quanzhou Special Event opened on August 15 and closed at 6:00 PM on August 19. Merchants must meet certain qualifications, including holding valid product sales qualification certificates for the brands they are selling, having a store open for ≥90 days, with physical product transactions accounting for ≥90% of total sales, a store rating of ≥4.6, no serious violation deductions, and no record of penalties for artificial sales boosting.
In addition to the above requirements, Taobao Marketplace stores must also have a seller credit rating of four diamonds or higher, and must have joined the “Consumer Protection Service” and offer a seven-day no-reason return policy.
The discount rate for items submitted for clearance must be 30% off or lower, and must be lower than the historical lowest price; product ratings must be 4.6 or higher; except for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, nationwide free shipping must be set; promotional images must have a white background, no logos, and no watermarks; items must be off-season products and must not have tiered pricing.
However, regarding the definition of off-season products, Taobao staff clarified that it is not limited to winter, but includes products from spring, autumn, and winter. This means that products such as long-sleeve T-shirts and knitwear, which are suitable for spring and autumn, can also be registered.
Registered products must have an inventory of no less than 50 items.
Additionally, this clearance event has requirements for the inventory of registered products, which must be ≥50 items, with no upper limit set. However, according to the relevant requirements of the Taobao Clearance event, during the event period, product prices, inventory levels, and free shipping status will be locked and cannot be changed. The clearance event includes one day of preview and four days of sales. Even if products sell out during the event, they must remain locked for four days and cannot be modified.
“This means that if too few items are registered—for example, a product is listed with only 50 units, and it sells out on the first day—merchants won’t be able to add more stock, resulting in the next three days’ worth of traffic being wasted.” For this reason, Taobao staff recommend that sellers carefully consider the quantity of products listed at the time of registration.
Although the minimum inventory requirement is 50 items, this clearance event does not have any requirements for the historical sales volume of registered products. However, considering conversion rates, Taobao staff suggest that merchants carefully select products for clearance. Sellers should analyze which products have been bestsellers in the past and whether their quality can stand up to scrutiny before registering. “This is a rare opportunity—each store can only register five products, so choose the best ones possible.”
Avoid the 7-Day Activity Fatigue Period
What kinds of products are more likely to pass the review? Taobao staff stated that clearance products must be discounted at 30% off or lower, and the clearance price must be lower than the historical lowest price. Since multiple merchants may register the same product, Taobao staff recommend that the higher the cost-performance ratio of the clearance product, the greater the chance of system approval.
Regarding the “store activity fatigue period” that many merchants are concerned about, Taobao staff explained that the fatigue period is calculated from the day the current event goes live until the day the next event goes live, with a minimum interval of 7 days. For example, if a store participated in an event on August 1, the earliest it can participate again is August 9. Therefore, “before registering for the clearance event, avoid participating in other Taobao promotional activities during the same period to prevent disqualification and missing out on the opportunity.”
Additionally, since this event is focused on clearance from the Quanzhou region, it requires that the product shipping address or brand registration location be within the counties (cities, districts) of Quanzhou.