(Yicai) March 18 -- Alibaba Group Holding's online business-to-business platform 1688 said it will cancel its "refund only" policy starting late this month, following suit other Chinese e-commerce sites in optimizing relevant strategies to improve the business environment for merchants.

When handling transaction disputes related to product quality, 1688 will make judgments based on accounts' integrity, the wholesale marketplace announced yesterday. Merchants meeting certain requirements will have the platform provide subsidies to buyers and not bear any related costs, it added.

Buyers will not be required to return the products after receiving the subsidy, with other refund requests to be handled by merchants independently, 1688 noted.

Addressing the "refund only" issue requires platforms to continuously optimize rules, reasonably distinguish product categories and applicable scenarios, and increase entry barriers, said Zang Yi, chief executive and chief analyst of iiMedia Research Group.

In addition, platforms must set up and constantly improve a complaint-handling mechanism for merchants, fully incorporate feedback from sellers and buyers, strengthen innovative risk control systems to identify "malicious refund only" requests through big data, and enhance protection for top merchants and consumers, Zang added.

Over the past six months, several major Chinese e-commerce platforms have shifted their stance on "refund only" issues to boost their protection for top merchants. Alibaba's Taobao began optimizing its strategy last July, with the platform no longer intervening in such requests for stores with a comprehensive experience score of more than or equal to 4.8.

Taobao intercepted over 400,000 unreasonable "refund only" requests per day over the two months after implementing its new optimization strategy, it noted.

Short-video platform Kuaishou Technology terminated its "refund only" service on Dec. 2. PDD Holdings' discount shopping site Pinduoduo unveiled five new measures to optimize its policies in January, ceasing active intervention in top merchants' refund requests.

Editor: Martin Kadiev