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The views expressed in this article represent the author’s personal opinions. SSPAI has only made minor edits to the title and formatting.Preface

At the end of September 2024, driven by interest and a sense of potential, my spouse and I registered a company and opened a Taobao store. It’s been over a year since the company was established, and the shop has now been in operation for a full year.

For details about why we decided to open a Taobao store, how we set it up, our initial business strategy, and the early challenges and operations we faced, you can refer to our first post at the following link.

This article will focus on what we’ve learned over the past year of running the shop — the new insights we’ve gained, and our future plans going forward.

Operational Review of Our Taobao Store’s First Anniversary

Let’s start with the economic indicators. In 2025, the total payment amount was about 200,000 RMB, which includes some sales that were refunded immediately after payment and some that were returned after delivery. The actual sales revenue was roughly 180,000 RMB.

In the early stage, we kept manual bookkeeping for our handmade products, but later gave it up because it took too much time. At present, we are uncertain about the exact profit — our accounting is rather imprecise. The overall gross profit margin should be around 12%–15%, which means, conservatively, that our Taobao store generated about 20,000 RMB in net income over the past ten months.

Of course, we also listed the same products on two other platforms, whose sales volumes were roughly similar to those on Taobao. Roughly estimated, our total combined business income over the ten months of this year was around 35,000–40,000 RMB.

Next, let’s look at the Taobao store ratings. Most customers don’t leave reviews, so the majority are default positive ratings, with only a few neutral or negative ones. Over the year, out of about 1,000 orders, there were roughly 6–8 neutral or negative reviews, so after quality exemptions, our base score remains stable.

The logistics rating is relatively poor because we use the cheapest default shipping option, and there’s no realistic way to improve that score. The service assurance rating mainly suffers because, as the customer service representative, I often respond within three minutes during regular working hours, which isn’t fast enough according to platform standards.

Indirectly, this means that running the shop doesn’t demand too much mental energy. For neutral reviews, we fully respect the customer’s freedom of expression and never ask for deletions. For negative reviews, we usually make one phone call to explain the situation — whether the customer revises it or not is up to them.

In terms of logistics, we prioritize convenience over cost, choosing not to spend extra money. As for customer service, we reply when available, and hope that most customers are straightforward buyers who purchase without much back-and-forth.

Here is the ratio of positive and negative reviews from customers who left feedback within the past 180 days. Most of them are default reviews. Since we don’t sell counterfeit products and don’t fake positive reviews, I believe that most stores which allow authentic, non-intervened feedback would show a similar ratio.

In terms of marketing, we still don’t participate in any of Taobao’s major promotional events and haven’t done any paid traffic campaigns. In 2025, we expect to pay Taobao around 1,000 RMB in service fees (roughly 0.6% of total sales). These fees will be refunded in 2026 as marketing vouchers, at which point we plan to experiment with some promotional activities.

This year, there have been some fluctuations in supply, mainly relying on my technical ability to identify products and locate low-cost sources from competitors in the market. As a result, part of our supply chain cannot be considered stable, and we must constantly invest effort in sourcing. This technical skill is essentially our core competence — without it, we would have become just another undifferentiated seller.

In terms of market trends, our niche belongs to the food industry with a gift-oriented nature, so sales peak around the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese New Year, with both sales volume and profit margins increasing during those times. Conversely, June 18 (618) and Double 11 (Singles’ Day) are our off-seasons — partly because large shops discount similar products, and partly because we don’t join promotional campaigns or pay Taobao extra fees, meaning we don’t receive traffic boosts.

Regarding competition, some keen competitors noticed our model this year and adopted similar sales strategies, driving price wars. For a low-barrier Taobao shop, such market shifts are to be expected. We continue to monitor trends and adjust our products and pricing dynamically, though we won’t lower our already modest profit margin of around 10%.

Our advantage lies in customer retention — we have a decent repurchase rate, with several loyal, well-paying customers making consistent repeat purchases. By maintaining consistent quality, we can secure high-quality repeat buyers, ensuring a portion of our income comes from low-effort, steady sales.

As for other operating expenses, the main cost comes from outsourced accounting services for the company. Since most customers don’t request invoices, our overall expenses remain relatively balanced, though not perfectly matched. After all, our company is still very small and hasn’t attracted attention from tax authorities.

In 2025, we received two business complaints, both filed by professional counterfeit reporters. The first incident was resolved under a first-time violation exemption, while the second required compensation and settlement with the complainant. These cases consumed additional time and energy, but also offered insight into a side of society we hadn’t encountered before.

Overall, our business model is relatively mature and stable. Specifically regarding the Taobao store, the expected annual profit for 2025 is around 25,000 to 30,000 RMB, indicating a stable operating environment, though further growth may be limited. As the external environment evolves, we may face new risks, while new opportunities remain unclear for now.

From our perspective as operators, losses are unlikely, but in the long term, risks outweigh opportunities.

Subjective Expectations for Operating the Taobao Store

As reflected in our review of operations, the store is currently in a stable state—not thriving, but surviving. It doesn’t require much daily effort, yet its sales volume remains limited. The only visible path to further expansion would be to add more SKUs and find new suppliers, but the business lacks scalability through human resources. We cannot simply hand the store over to others for management; it still requires hands-on involvement, meaning what we earn is essentially hard-earned income.

At this stage, the store can continue running, but since we don’t see new growth opportunities, our motivation isn’t particularly strong. In the future, when the effort no longer feels worthwhile, we may consider closing the store, especially since we’re about to transition from a two-person household to a family of three.

If we want to do better, we’re hoping to encounter a good opportunity—something that could lead to improvement in our business model or profitability, rather than continuing to make only modest, labor-based income.

If we don’t make changes or updates, the business will gradually decline due to fluctuations in supply sources. However, if we do make changes, it will require more time and effort. Ultimately, my goal is for the Taobao store to eventually generate some degree of passive income, though this remains difficult to achieve at present.

What Have We Gained After One Year of Running Our Taobao Store?

Gained a Certain Amount of Financial Income

The financial return isn’t huge, but it does cover part of our daily expenses—for example, our child’s future milk powder and diapers. With both of us spending a small amount of time and effort each day, we can manage these costs. Running a Taobao store won’t make us rich, but it certainly allows us to earn a modest side income.

Gained Additional Social Insight

Before starting the store, I never had such a strong understanding of the e-commerce world from a seller’s perspective. Now, even for unfamiliar products, I can roughly judge whether prices are reasonable based on their sales models. Previously, as ordinary employees, we never had to deal with business administration complaints, but through handling them, we’ve learned about how laws and regulations are applied in real situations and gained a clearer view of grassroots administrative logic in modern society.

Improved Family Collaboration

Throughout the store’s operation, our teamwork and coordination as a couple have continuously improved. We share a common goal, make mutual contributions, and experiment with different business strategies. This collaboration has deepened our understanding of each other’s way of thinking, helped us work more cohesively, and taught us how to communicate and resolve differences more effectively.

Broadened Our Perspective on Income

The store’s small-scale profitability has shown us that income doesn’t have to come solely from full-time jobs. It’s a practical example that allows us to rethink our approach to work and time investment, providing a more comprehensive foundation for evaluating our future energy allocation and career focus.

Acquired Practical Skills

We’ve also developed several practical abilities, such as quickly understanding customer psychology from just a few messages, creating and reviewing financial records, and gaining a thorough understanding of shipping costs and logistics pricing. Running the store has indeed helped us improve in multiple skill areas.

Conclusion

That’s the full review of our store’s operations from all perspectives, along with some thoughts about the future.

If I were to summarize the experience of running a traditional e-commerce store, I’d say it’s an ordinary project with limited income—not a trendy opportunity, and it earns hard work money. Still, I believe we’ve gained a lot throughout the process, and it has been a valuable way to turn our skills into income.

That’s all for this record. If there are any significant changes in the future, I’ll likely share another update.