First, their target customers are different. Alibaba is aimed at wholesalers, while Taobao is aimed at ordinary consumers. This is the biggest difference. Because of the different types of customers, their marketing methods are also different. Retail customers are one-to-one transactions, with a short transaction cycle, all completed on the platform. Wholesale customers purchase in large quantities, with a long transaction cycle, and half of the transactions will be conducted privately. If you only think about doing a one-time transaction with them, you will never do a good business. Therefore, operators who switch from Taobao to Alibaba need to change their thinking, because the marketing methods are different for different customer types.

· Secondly, their marketing methods are also different. Taobao has many marketing methods, which are dazzling. Pure on-site marketing includes direct trains, event Taobao customers, live broadcasts, etc., not to mention the diversion of Weibo and short video platforms outside the site. But Alibaba does not have these marketing methods, because if you only need wholesale, you don’t need to use those dragnet marketing methods. On the Alibaba platform, natural search ranking is the most important because the customer type is the most accurate. But this ranking is divided into free and paid. You must not apply the marketing methods outside Taobao to Alibaba, because they are completely different.

·Third, the staffing is also different. To do Taobao, you may need an operation, an art designer and several customer service staff. But on Alibaba, you don't need so many staffing. If you equip operations, art designers and customer service staff at once, you will definitely lose money. The simplest staffing is to start with an operation. On Alibaba, customer service is called a salesperson, and there is no need for customer service staff who can only ask and answer questions.

Because on Alibaba, smart salespeople are needed to judge the identity of customers, whether they are retail customers or wholesale customers, and salespeople are required to follow orders and maintain old customers for a long time.

·Fourth, their development paths are also different. Operating Taobao requires comprehensive capabilities, otherwise you will be left far behind by others. The development prospects are broader, but operating Alibaba is prone to bottlenecks. If you reach this bottleneck, you can either choose to start a business or expand the operation of other platforms.

·Fifth, the platform selection is also different. If you want to pave the way for your own entrepreneurship faster, you can choose the Alibaba platform because it is simple and easy to use, and the cost of starting a business is also lower. If you want to improve your operational capabilities in an all-round way, you can start with Taobao, because the competition is fierce. Once you do it well, you can quickly realize the freedom to buy a house and a car. The difference between Alibaba and Taobao lies in the target customers, marketing methods, staffing, development path and platform selection.