6.18 no carnival: e-commerce, sellers, consumers, who is tired?

6.18 no carnival: e-commerce, sellers, consumers, who is tired?

Yang Lingling

2021-06-19 12:24:05

Source: Times Weekly

In addition to e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Tmall, short video platforms such as Kuaishou and Douyin will compete on June 18 this year.

The shopping spree atmosphere of June 18 is gradually fading at a speed that people can perceive.

“This year’s situation is not optimistic.” On June 18, the person in charge of a certain furniture brand in Foshan confided to the Times Weekly reporter that he was not satisfied with the market performance on June 18 this year, and the company’s operations seemed to have entered a bottleneck period.

“This is the first e-commerce shopping festival after the regulation is finalized. All platforms appear to be cautious.” On June 18, Cui Lili, executive director of the e-commerce research institute of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, told Times Weekly that the market is fair and strong. Under supervision, the success or failure of competition depends on whether businesses and platforms can provide genuinely conscientious services.

In the early morning of June 19th, JD.com announced that the cumulative order amount from June 1st to June 18th at 24:00 exceeded 343.8 billion yuan, setting a new record. However, after Tmall announced the cumulative order amount for the first time last year, it did not Re-publish relevant data.

Source: Visual China

In addition to e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Tmall, short video platforms such as Kuaishou and Douyin will compete this year.

On June 19, Xiaolu, a post-90s office worker, told Times Weekly that she recently prefers to use Douyin to buy things compared to ordinary shopping platforms.

“Shoes, bags, snacks, hairpins…buy everything. Watching Douyin late at night is simply poisonous.” Xiao Lu said.

Say goodbye to the era of “choice one out of two”, merchants have more power to speak, no longer need to choose between platforms, omni-channel operation has become the new normal. At the same time, consumers have become more critical, and shopping needs have been extended from products to services that complement the products. Consumer experience has become an important indicator of their reference.

Compared with last year’s gunpowder, June 18 this year is more like a secret battle of practicing internal skills and defensive as the offensive. This also puts forward higher requirements for e-commerce platforms. On the surface, it is calm, and it has actually entered a new stage of e-commerce competition, turning to a deeper level of game.

Merchant multi-scenario cross-platform operation “This year’s 6.18 battle is good. Today is the last day and the most critical day. The data is still being updated and statistics.” On June 18, Guangdong Roman Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. Chairman Yan Youchun told Times Weekly reporters. The 6.18 promotion is a long-lasting rally. On May 20th, Tmall announced that June 18th this year will kick off on May 24th and last until June 20th. On the same day, JD.com also set the June 18 event time as May 24th to June 20th. Source: Visual China In the early morning of June 19, JD.com released the 6.18 battle report, but Tmall did not release relevant data. Some insiders once told Times Weekly reporters that compared to the order amount, they hope that major e-commerce platforms will announce the payment amount (order amount-unpaid amount), and even deduct the net GMV of the return amount seven days after receipt. The data is more transparent. Compared with the pursuit of sales figures, the focus of major platforms seems to have shifted this year. On June 18, Mo Daiqing, director and senior analyst of the Online Retail Department of the E-commerce Research Center of Net Economics, told Times Weekly that the regulatory authorities have been anti-monopoly and anti-“choice of two”, e-commerce platforms, merchants and users have all been Forced to return to reason. In this context, on June 18 this year, it can be clearly seen that the e-commerce platform’s focus on businesses has changed, from squeezing the profit margin of businesses to shifting from squeezing the profit margins of businesses to standardizing operations and serving businesses. At the same time, businesses also value sustainable development, brand building and private domain traffic. Compared with previous years, multi-scenario cross-platform operation has become a new trend on June 18 this year. Merchants can operate on traditional e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD. They can also focus on short video live platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, and invest different resources according to the performance of different platforms to maximize profits. For example, “Doctor Low Card”, which has 1.03 million fans on the Douyin platform, opened a Taobao store in June 2020. After a year of operation, it has accumulated 132,000 store fans; Sanhe, Zhihu and other typical brands that rely on Pinduoduo, Currently, it also operates flagship stores simultaneously on Tmall. According to the sample of branded retail enterprises collected by Yibang Think Tank during the 6.18 promotion period, 67.2% of the enterprises believed that Tmall was the most important platform in the 6.18 event. In terms of resource placement, it is estimated that Tmall, JD.com and Douyin are the platforms with the most investment by businesses based on data. Although there is no “choice one”, Tmall and JD.com will focus more on services, and Douyin and Kuaishou have also joined the battle, but at the consumer level, many users say that the charm of 6.18 has been overdrawn. Lost in the big promotion. “Now there are many shopping channels and various shopping festivals. I have no feelings for 6.18.” On June 18, Huang Miao (pseudonym), who lives in Yichang, Hubei, told Times Weekly reporters that he recently bought two pairs of sneakers. But it was mainly because of the need to buy shoes, and did not consider whether to catch up with 6.18, and the discount of 6.18 was not much larger than usual. On the same day, Ren Wen (pseudonym), an employee of the real estate company, told Times Weekly that he stocked some daily necessities and bought electrical appliances during June 18. Ren Wen believes that, compared with the complicated discount schemes in previous years, although the discount is not strong this year, the algorithm is obviously much simpler. The core of competition shifts to content and services “It is undeniable that this year’s June 18 is indeed a bit quiet, and there are fewer high-profile marketing and brand promotion activities on various platforms. Part of the reason is that the regulatory authorities have stepped on the brakes on the e-commerce industry.” Mo Daiqing said. The seemingly cooling June 18 is behind an unprecedented change in e-commerce. “Consumers have become more rational. If e-commerce platforms want to retain merchants and consumers, they must return to their platform positioning. That is to create a fair and honest market transaction environment and provide merchants and consumers with convenient and efficient warehousing, logistics, payment and settlement, After-sales and other transaction supporting services.” On June 19, Hu Qimu, a senior researcher at the Digital Economy Think Tank, analyzed the Times Weekly reporter. Turning complexity into simplicity has become a major change for 6.18 this year. “This year Jingdong brings the simplest 6.18 in history.” At the launch conference, Han Rui, vice president of Jingdong Group and head of the platform business center of Jingdong Retail Group, took simplicity as the key word of Jingdong 6.18 this year, and said Super tens of billions of subsidies, hundreds of billions of discounts and tens of billions of consumer coupons will be introduced. Tmall has advanced the time of buying in the early morning, simplified the preferential rules, and directly changed the complicated cross-store order to full reduction, and launched a list for users’ reference. Pinduoduo continues its minimalist gameplay as always. No pre-sale or deposit is required. Users can get more discounts as long as they place more orders. For merchants, the platform’s shop-opening rules are also simplified. For example, new Taobao merchants can open a shop in 5 minutes by searching for “open shop” on Taobao App, and they can also be exempted from deposit; in order to improve the efficiency of merchants’ entry, JD.com has launched the “open shop before review” channel, and also ask third parties Merchants provide financing and loan services. From the perspective of platforms, merchants and consumers, it is obvious that 6.18 has upgraded from a “marketing war” and “price war” to a “content war” and “service war”. “Under the background of digital transformation, merchants and brands are all choosing a platform + private domain traffic operation compound mode.” Cui Lili told Times Weekly. This mode is characterized by the fact that merchants use large platforms to make brand voices and festival promotions. The repurchase and customer communication links and frequent customer maintenance are mainly through private domains. Cui Lili believes that in the context of strong supervision, the success or failure of e-commerce platform competition depends on the ability to provide truly conscientious services. “The core of the platform competition has become the ability to attract consumers and the ability to serve merchants. At the same time, what is being tested at the supply chain is the ability to test technology, data and other service capabilities.” Cui Lili said. The content on this website (including but not limited to text, pictures, audio and video), except for reprinting, are all copyrights of Times Online. Reprinting, linking, reposting, or other use is prohibited without the authorization of a written agreement. Anyone who violates the above statement will be held accountable by this website. For other media, websites or personal use, please contact Mr. Ding on this website: chiding@time-weekly.com