Miravia: another AliBaba marketplace

The tentacles of the Chinese company reach practically every conceivable corner. In the area of eCommerce alone, it has stores that go far beyond alibaba.com. For example: Taobao, Lazada, Tmall and, of course, AliExpress.

 

Thanks to such diversification, AliBaba can control eCommerce at virtually every level:

 

 

But it goes much further: it is also present in alternative means of payment, logistics, cloud computing services, marketing platforms and even ticketing services for events.

AliBaba has decided to add a new addition to its rich ecosystem. Its name is Miravia and it is already getting a lot of attention.

 

It is an offer that, on paper, is different from what AliExpress offers. Why? Well, basically because it focuses on another segment with a different positioning. It is true that it is still a horizontal marketplace with a broad spectrum in terms of categories and products, but it is more selective in terms of the brands that sell through the platform.

The positioning of its vendors is in ranges ranging from medium to high. Strategically, it seems that they are not so happy with the joke "what you order on AliExpress vs. what you get", so they want to address other segments in which more recognized brands than the classic Chinese seller who is anonymous in our borders are in charge.

 

That is why you will see that in Miravia most of the brands have a good reputation and fame (Adidas, Calvin Klein, Lego, Disney, Maybelline, Ecoalf...).

We have talked about positioning and that, indirectly, is already talking about strategy. It is clear that they want to reach an audience that is not as sensitive to the stimuli offered by AliExpress or, directly, that distrusts this marketplace.

 

From the sellers' point of view, it also seems attractive to be on a platform with the financial and technological heart of AliBaba, but with a better reputation in the eyes of the public.

 

But let's go back to their way of attracting customers, which we have not yet highlighted everything important. Basically, they focus their strategy on promotions, good return policy and a very powerful app.

You only have to visit the website to see the highlights of their promotions, especially flash promotions, which are, by definition, especially ephemeral.

 

You will be able to find many products with significant discounts, but with a maximum validity of 24 hours. To stimulate the sense of urgency, you will see that there is a countdown timer, which shows how much time you have left to get that price on your purchase.

Additionally there is a tab where we can see the next flash promotions before they are activated. What do we get with this? Generate recurrence, expectation and customer loyalty.

 

The discounts they are getting right now are quite aggressive, so price is another of the purchase drivers they use right now. We emphasize "right now" because we do not know if this is a market penetration policy or if it will be maintained over time.

Their return policy is simple but no less striking: you have 30 days to return your products (sold by Miravia, so it does not apply to third parties).

 

This is basically double the standard withdrawal period required by law, making it a good way to stand out from other competitors and, at the same time, circumvent the bad service reputation it may have for some people who know the origin of Miravia.

The truth is that the app works quite well, both on iOS and Android. Its navigation is efficient and they have given it a certain touch that could remind us of a social network, since we can say what our favorite products are by clicking on a heart icon in the style of Instagram or TikTok. In fact, there is a section called "Discover" that is very reminiscent of Facebook stories.

 

In addition to the above, there are two things that catch our attention. 

 

The first is related to the idea of social networking, and it is quite noticeable that they have wanted to give their huge inventory and the categories they manage a common thread, a certain lifestyle. This is present on the website, the app and, of course, in the tone and content they publish on their social profiles.

 

The second noteworthy feature is that many of the discounts are linked to the use of the app. We understand that this makes sense from the point of view of the opportunities it gives us to control this channel and devices that even allow us to send notifications.

We will find out. At the moment it is a proposal somewhat different from those typical of AliBaba. Its mere existence will surely help us to draw conclusions that we can apply to our online store or, why not, even become a complementary sales channel to explore.

 

Although attention: on paper everything is very good, but in the weeks that it has been operating at full capacity there is an indicator that is not the most positive: the user reviews against its service. They are quite recurrent on portals such as Trustpilot and on social networks. They may be initial mismatches, but they can also turn into a reputation problem that is difficult to overcome.