Small and medium-sized businesses "promotion fatigue"

Author/IT Times reporter Shen Yibin

Editor/Hao Junhui Sun Yan

Double 11 in 2024 came earlier than before.

At 8: 00 pm on October 14th, Taobao, Tmall, JD.COM and other e-commerce platforms started this year’s double 11 event, about 10 days earlier than last year.

This year, the eyes of various platforms are more focused on merchants. Taotian Group said that this time, double 11 will provide businesses with a more certain business environment on the premise of ensuring adequate supply of low-priced and good goods and consumer experience; JD.COM also said that it is necessary to make brand businesses sell well, grow and earn money. In addition to the "tens of billions of subsidies", Pinduoduo has offered "tens of billions of relief" to businesses.

Judging from the record on the first day of launch, the head brand took the lead, and the sales of home appliances and beauty brands such as Haier, Midea, Little Swan, L ‘Oreal and Xiulike rose sharply, exceeding 100 million.

However, for some small and medium-sized businesses, the frequent promotion frequency of major platforms this year has made them feel a little "aesthetic fatigue" towards double 11. A number of small and medium-sized businesses told the IT Times reporter that from the data on the night of the event, there was not much increase than before, and the effect of this "longest in history" double 11 remains to be tested.

This year, double 11 "belongs" to businesses.

On October 14th, the "longest in history" double 11 was fully launched.

Compared with last year, this year’s low-price war in double 11 is a little lighter, and common propaganda words such as "the cheapest" and "the lowest price in the whole network" have disappeared. Interconnection has become a hot word this year: Taobao can place orders directly on WeChat, and Jingdong Logistics can be used for delivery and return. Meituan Takeout and Meituan Hotel officially settled in Alipay applet; Merchants have become "fragrant cakes" again, especially Taobao, which has launched a series of measures to "reduce the burden" for merchants.

The first optimization is "refund only". At the end of last year, Taobao launched the "Refund Only", but it was constantly adjusted due to the carnival of the Wool Party. After eight months of implementation, Taobao revised the "Refund Only" rule, so that merchants with an experience score greater than or equal to 4.8 can negotiate on their own, and the platform does not interfere with the received refunds. At the same time, Taobao launched the "Refund Only" recognition model. Up to now, it has intercepted more than 400,000 unreasonable "Refund Only" orders on average every day.

At the same time, Taobao launched an upgraded version of "Return Treasure" for freight insurance, aiming at reducing the return cost for merchants. According to Taobao’s calculation, during the period of double 11, "returning treasure" can bring up to 58% cost reduction for some businesses. In addition, for all Taobao live broadcast merchants, Taobao will also reduce the one-year live broadcast technical service fee.

These measures made Lin Yun (pseudonym) feel a lot easier. Lin Yun (pseudonym) is an e-commerce boss who works as a body-building sportswear in Tmall International. Every year, double 11 participates. "We belong to Tmall International, and the freight insurance rate for returning goods is generally 1%~3% of the price of goods. The cost of overall freight insurance generally accounts for 3%~5% of sales."

This year, the platform will no longer charge freight insurance. For Lin Yun, where the return rate and the risk rate are not high, this part of the cost is a proper profit.

However, Lin Yun hasn’t felt the dividend of interconnection for the time being. The target customers of sportswear he runs are basically young people and middle class, while the groups that Taobao "lacks" in WeChat are more elderly people and sinking people who only use WeChat and WeChat to pay, which is more beneficial to businesses covered by Pinduoduo.

Or because of this, Pinduoduo, which has always been "partial" to consumers, has also increased its preferential treatment for businesses on the Double Eleven this year. The "10 billion reduction and exemption" plan will reduce the promotion service fee, technical service fee and deposit of high-quality merchants in the coming year. In addition, Pinduoduo also exempted the transfer fee for logistics in remote areas, and the technical fee for all orders after use was reduced from 1% to 0.6%, and the store deposit was also reduced from 1000 yuan to 500 yuan.

Some businesses can’t afford "the longest in history"

Besides connectivity, "the longest in history" is also one of the most important labels in double 11 this year.

Simply combing, at 10: 00 a.m. on October 14th, Vipshop will take the lead in "off-peak" sales. On that night, Taobao and JD.COM launched the double 11 Promotion simultaneously. As early as October 8, Pinduoduo took the lead in announcing the opening of double 11 activities; On the same day, Tik Tok also announced that it would enter the pre-sale promotion (pre-sale), while Aauto Quicker e-commerce launched the pre-sale promotion on October 10th.

Changing the promotion season from week to month, and then to longer, means that platform merchants spend more and more time participating in activities, and the price should be kept low for a long time, which makes some small and medium-sized businesses a bit unbearable.

Zhu Ling (a pseudonym), a Shanghai e-commerce boss who makes high-priced clothes, gave up this year’s double 11. She told the IT Times reporter that although the platform released many preferential policies this year, it still benefited big businesses. "We are engaged in clothing, and September to November is the peak season. If we don’t participate in double 11, we won’t be anxious about traffic. On the contrary, we won’t cause sales pressure because of activities."

What makes her a little tired is that the effect of "the longest 618 in history" in the first half of the year is not ideal. This year’s "618 Promotion", also known as "the longest in history", has been going on for nearly a month since it was launched on May 20th. Although Zhu Ling’s store participated in the activity, although the traffic increased, the return rate also increased, and the overall sales volume was even less than that in a normal month. In addition, endless returns and after-sales made her stores in short supply even more stressed.

Lin Yun still participated in this year’s double 11, and the activity strategy is that all commodities can be fully reduced, and individual commodities participate in the pre-sale. However, the first day of Tmall’s booming data has nothing to do with him.

According to the data of Tmall platform, in the first 30 minutes after the sale at 8: 00 pm on October 14th, 20 brands of Tmall beauty brand exceeded 100 million yuan, and 8 single products exceeded 100 million yuan. The turnover of 42 brands including Xiaomi, vivo, DJI and Fuji doubled compared with the first day of pre-sale last year. However, although the store traffic in Lin Yun has increased a lot, there is little difference from the pre-sale volume in peacetime, and most buyers just look at it.

"Tmall International has promotional activities almost every month, and daily sales and activities have consumed a lot of users’ purchasing power. Moreover, the previous strategy of raising prices by SKU and then lowering prices to participate in activities is no longer feasible, but there is no traffic and no profit without lowering prices." Lin Yun is quite annoyed.

"The double 11 cycle is best shortened to 7 to 10 days." A month-long promotion means that stores in Lin Yun should keep their prices low for a whole month. If there is not enough sales, Lin Yun is worried that the overall profit of the stores will drop.

Reporter’s observation: although the "lowest price" is not seen, it has become a dark battle.

Although the "lowest price" disappeared in the whole network this year, all e-commerce platforms have tried their best to attract businesses and attract consumers, but in any case, price is still the most effective weapon.

In their respective non-dominant projects, Taotian and JD.COM are fighting each other.

This year, the number of commodities participating in JD.COM’s 10 billion subsidy has increased fourfold, especially "non-dominant" commodities such as clothing and beauty cosmetics, and many international brands such as Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and MONCLER have settled in JD.COM. In terms of clothing, JD.COM offers 50% discount coupons for clothing, and enjoys full 300 yuan minus 50 yuan when shopping across stores.

Taotian, on the other advantageous projects in JD.COM, such as 3C and household appliances, issued a number of stall concessions, such as "3C Digital Voucher" with 980 yuan minus 100 yuan, "Home Appliances Premium Voucher" with 2980 yuan minus 300 yuan, and "Home Appliances Premium Voucher" with 5980 yuan minus 600 yuan.

In the most important channel of low-priced products-factory direct sales, both sides also compete for "good quality and low price". A week before the opening of double 11, Taobao launched the "Amoy Select" column, which was built into the App in the form of a self-operated flagship store. Its positioning was to provide a dedicated traffic window for cost-effective sources, and the presentation form and target users of the page were similar to those of Amoy Factory.

JD.COM has launched a "factory goods subsidy of 10 billion yuan", which not only has the support of merchants’ flow and price subsidies, but also the number of goods in the 9.9 package channel in factory goods logistics has increased by two times compared with that in double 11 last year. In addition, JD.COM announced that it will recruit at least 10,000 purchasing and marketing personnel in the next three years, and bring back more cheap and high-quality products.

The live broadcast is also an important channel for price competition of e-commerce platforms. Taotian’s strategy is still to rely on Li Jiaqi, Luo Yonghao and other head anchors. When you turn on Taobao Live, you will find that the words "Red Packet Rain" will appear in the upper right corner of many live broadcast rooms, ranging from 10,000 yuan to 100 million yuan. Li Jiaqi Live Room only distributed 500 million yuan red envelopes on the first day after the launch of double 11 from 14th to 15th.

JD.COM, which has no big live broadcast, seems to be "infatuated" with the digital people live broadcast track. During double 11, the digital people created by JD.COM will be open to brand merchants for free. The most explosive thing is that the "JD.COM Purchasing and Selling Staff" who played a public contest with Li Jiaqi played again, and the JD.COM supermarket purchasing and selling live room announced that it would broadcast live simultaneously with Li Jiaqi, and then offered a 10% discount on the price of the Li Jiaqi live room.

Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting, believes that the "price war" of e-commerce platforms is indeed continuing. However, in the long run, major e-commerce platforms will re-examine the differences in category advantages, experience and services, and increase investment with emphasis to form differentiated competitive advantages beyond price.

Typesetting/Ji Jiaying

Photo/Taobao JD.COM Oriental IC

Source/IT Times WeChat official account vittimes

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　　Li Youbin, Li Xiaoran and ZhangFeng yi starred in 45 episodes of the TV series "The Name of the Law" with the theme of the rule of law, which landed in the prime file of Beijing Satellite TV on the evening of April 14th. This drama is the first TV series in China that reflects the rehabilitation of wrongs and wrongs, and is adapted from a real case.

　　subject matter

　　"The Name of Cause" originated from a real case.

　　The theme of "rule of law" has always been a "rich mine" that needs to be developed urgently in the film and television industry. It was originally said that such a theme was a "desert forbidden area", but Zhao Dongling, a national first-class screenwriter, and directors Shen Yan and Liu Haibo "gnawed" this hard bone together. The Name of the Cause of Law is just such an excellent work based on real cases, focusing on restoring social truth and humanity.

　　"The Name of the Law" tells the story of Li Youbin’s criminal police officer "Ge Dajie", whose friend died in the line of duty while chasing the suspect, and was "angry" and "wrong", which indirectly led to unjust, false and wrong cases. However, due to the imperfection of the judicial system at that time, the prosecutor played by ZhangFeng yi had to compromise the reality even if he had doubts. After many years, the new generation prosecutor "Zou Tong" played by Li Xiaoran worked together with the lawyer, and the grievances of many years were finally settled.

　　The drama interweaves the changes of the times and the love of children in a thrilling plot. The plot is from shallow to deep, which is shocking and fully shows the progress and development of Socialism with Chinese characteristics’s legal system.

　　topic

　　Pay more attention to the impact on "victims"

　　The contradiction between "love" and "law" is an eternal topic. "Everyone will make mistakes, and everyone has something unknown ‘ Secret ’ 。” Zhao Dongling said, "I am more concerned about the ‘ Emotion ’ With ‘ Life ’ , especially ‘ Victim ’ One party. "

　　At the time of fairness and justice, when the wrongs are settled, even if the legal correction has been completed, the torture of everyone’s conscience, mind and spirit has just begun. Ge Dajie, who was "misjudged" because he was carried away by anger, Xu Zimeng, who was crowned as "the son of a murderer" since childhood, or Xu Zhiyi, who was imprisoned for several years and "acquitted", were not "wrong", but their lives were completely subverted. This is also the most vivid and delicate part of Zhao Dongling’s works. "Some injuries can never be cured. A unjust, false and wrong case affects not only one person, but also changes the fate of generations."

　　figure

　　Zhao Dongling: Law is my natural interest.

　　Zhao Dongling has been working for nearly 30 years, and has created many well-known film and television masterpieces. Among them, Defending Passion, On the Way to School, China Land, Red Sorghum and other works have won the Best Screenplay Award in China Watch Award, Flying Award, Golden Rooster Award, Magnolia Award and other awards. In fact, Zhao Dongling is also inextricably linked with "law". No matter her works "Fox Hunting" and "Cold Case" or many proposals put forward as deputies to the National People’s Congress, they are all around "law".

　　The name of the law is Zhao Dongling’s favorite and painstaking work in recent years. "Law is my natural interest." She bluntly said, "I can’t stop this love, it is like a brother to me." As long as the subject matter related to "law" is concerned, Zhao Dongling will have a boiling passion, willing to immerse himself in creation at any cost, and will explore and try whenever there is an opportunity. Zhao Dongling also pointed out that at present, some works related to the theme of law and rule of law in the market lack "rationality". She bluntly said, "If you really want to write this kind of theme well, you must make great efforts to study and learn relevant legal knowledge."

　　Due to the particularity of the subject matter, the whole team has taken great pains to keep the political correctness and ensure the authenticity and rigor of the script when creating the book.

　　At the beginning of writing the script, in order to better grasp the legal details, Zhao Dongling went deep into the judicial organs to learn about the internal settings and workflow. "The procuratorate will check and guide my writing work at all levels." She said, "The changes I got at that time were as many as a few pages, and I memorized them all." Whenever she has free time, she will study hard and never "let go" of any laws and regulations. All the "crimes" and "treatments" in The Name of the Cause of Law have corresponding provisions in the Criminal Law and the Criminal Procedure Law. "Our laws are constantly improving, and the script will always be updated with the laws and regulations," Zhao Dongling said with a smile. "I am also ‘ Half a legal person ’ Yes. "

　　Not deliberately discrediting or praising.

　　Restore the truth through truth.

　　In-depth research and experience in the early stage also inspired Zhao Dongling. "There is no unjust, false and wrong case that someone deliberately did or planted." She pointed out that the proportion of misjudged cases is decreasing year by year, and "the judicial system of the country is gradually improving." Therefore, in The Name of the Cause of Law, Zhao Dongling did not deliberately "smear" or "praise": "A complete ‘ The wicked ’ May cause ‘ Everyone crusades ’ 。” However, she expressed the hope to restore the truth through truth. "Human nature is good, and I don’t want to win applause by grandstanding." For Zhao Dongling, life itself is a "three-dimensional", full of conflict and full of beauty. "How to show this ‘ Contradiction ’ Is the most critical, through ‘ No bottom line ’ It is not realism to exaggerate the evil of human nature or to create false happiness and harmony. "

　　"The Name of the Law" is the most difficult script of Zhao Dongling’s scriptwriting career. The outline of the story has been repeatedly changed for fourteen drafts, and it took her a year to complete the whole script, which is called "Aauto Quicker" in the scriptwriting industry. When writing the first six drafts, I broke my train of thought and felt "struggling" and didn’t know how to continue to finish. That time was "gray" for Zhao Dongling.

　　Zhao Dongling said frankly: "I once doubted myself and even felt desperate. But in the end, everyone’s affirmation of the story gave me great encouragement. " It is not only a difficulty in the creation of the script, but also the work is faced with layers of checks in the process of review, and the news has been broadcast several times, but it has not been realized. It was difficult for her to calm down her excitement when she learned that The Name of the Cause of Law was finally booked on Beijing Satellite TV. "The waiting process is too long for me, and this tormented mood can’t be compared with the pain of creation."

　　This group/reporter Yang Wenjie

　　Overall planning/full estate