Taobao to Launch Exclusive Customer Service for Elderly ahead of Double 11 Shopping Festival

Alibaba‘s e-commerce platform Taobao will update its version for elderly people ahead of Tmall Double 11, the annual Shopping Festival will kick off pre-sales at 8 p.m. on October 24.

The exclusive human customer services will be available for Taobao users when they switch to the updated elderly mode, helping to protect customers rights and effective refunds. The new elderly version also adds functions such as shopping for vegetables and medicine, and provides free pharmacist consultations for users who buy medicine.

Double 11 pre-sales and sales have been advanced to 8 p.m this year. This means that elderly users no longer have to stay up late to participate, which has further stimulated their enthusiasm.

Nowadays, more and more retired senior app users enjoy the convenient and preferential online shopping experience. According to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in February, as of December 2021, the number of internet users aged 60 and above in the country reached 119 million, and the internet penetration rate reached 43.2%.

Although a considerable proportion of elderly netizens consume online, unlike young people, silver-haired spenders often need more guidance and help, especially in the process of returning and exchanging goods. That’s the major reason why the exclusive human customer services are specially offered in Taobao elderly version.

The current Taobao’s elderly mode now mainly consists of three parts: information simplification, font enlargement, and voice assistant. The core is to help elderly people read information more clearly when they visit Taobao, operate more easily, and shop more conveniently.

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Many netizens commented, “Taobao’s elderly mode makes it easier to teach our parents to shop online”; “Elders also have shopping needs”; and, “Post-2000s generation feels pretty good to use the elderly mode.”

Taobao has previously launched a number of functions that provide convenience for the daily life of the elderly, such as larger fonts, simpler operation methods, and the function of buying medicine through pictures of used medicine bottles. Taobao also specially reminded users that the function is intended to simplify the medicine-buying process, instead of serving as professional treatment from doctors.