This year's "Double 11" has been launched, and major online shopping platforms have started hot promotional activities again, and have promoted simplified rules to allow consumers to easily get discounts.
However, the reporter found that the "discounted price" is not easy to obtain. Some prices seem cheap, but they are more likely to be expensive if you are not careful. Consumers still need to "compare the goods" when purchasing.
same store and same product, why are there three prices in three days?
This year's "Double 11", many platforms have provided "30-day price guarantee" services, promising the lowest price during the event. But the reporter found that the prices of some commodities fluctuated significantly, and there were even three prices for the same shop and the same product in three days.
htmlOn October 24, the reporter purchased several meal replacement foods in a certain healthy food JD self-operated flagship store, including two boxes of "pre-meal tablets". After counting various discounts, the actual payment is 44 yuan per box.
When the reporter wanted to purchase the product on October 25, it rose to 99 yuan per box, which was more than twice the actual payment amount the day before, and the promotion also changed. Regarding this price difference, the store customer service believes that there may be a platform coupon when placing an order the day before, but the customer service is not clear about how to obtain the same coupon again, so it is recommended to get a few coupons first and then place an order.
On October 26, the reporter opened the product page for the third time and found that a new discount was launched. At this time, two boxes of the same product were purchased, and the price of a single box was 78 yuan.
The same situation also occurs in some Taobao stores.
On October 24, the reporter saw in Taobao's "Juhuasuan 10 billion subsidy" that a skin care product official flagship store is promoting a "toothing essence" with the words "50% off for official flags" printed on the product page, and the price after the subsidy coupon is 319 yuan.
But click on the link to enter the purchase page, and the price became 640 yuan.
Customer Service explained that the "10 billion subsidy" activity has ended, so there is no half price discount. But the reporter returned to the homepage of "10 billion subsidies", and this product is still in a prominent position in the "big brand subsidy hall". It seems that the platform's promotions have not been updated in real time.
So, if a consumer purchases a product that claims to be subsidized at the original price, can he get compensation based on the promise of "buying expensively, you must compensate"? The brand customer service clearly stated that it could not compensate.
Strangely, on October 26, the reporter entered the "Juhuasuan 10 billion subsidy" again and found that the promotion of this product has begun again, but the price has become 354 yuan. The group starts from 00:00 on October 27, and it is impossible to buy it in advance.
Why do the same store and the same product have three prices in three days? In the final analysis, the promotion methods of platforms and merchants are too complicated. Looking at the promotions on major platforms, in addition to the main promotional "cross-store full amount reduction", there are also varieties such as "group purchase price", "flash sale price", "pre-order price", and "special price for the first two hours". There are also many types of coupons, including general coupons, category coupons, brand coupons... they are dazzling. Overall, consumers may be able to get affordable, but because the price changes too quickly, there is still great uncertainty as to whether they can buy the cheapest one and whether they can enjoy 30-day price protection.
Therefore, it is recommended that consumers compare prices more when purchasing, pay more attention to product price changes, and pay attention to screenshots and save evidence so that they can enjoy the promises such as "lowest price" and "price protection" given by the platform.
"discount price" may be the "original price", and "limited time" is just marketing
In this year's "Double 11", due to too many promotional activities, the platform and some merchants' customer service cannot figure out what discounts there are.
On the homepage of major online shopping platforms, many official flagship stores of clothing brands have launched advertisements of "40% off for Double 11 Carnival". Click the link to enter the store, but cannot find products to participate in the 30% off event. Customer service of many stores said that the "average price of products participating in the event starts at 40% off", but the specific products are 40% off. They just suggest that reporters browse and urge to place orders themselves, but cannot give specific products.
test also found that some merchants have launched "limited-time discounts" and used the countdown to attract consumers to place orders quickly.But are these "limited time offers" really cheap?
On October 23, in a Taobao Blue Crown store, a dress priced at 88 yuan attracted the attention of reporters because there was a line of small words next to the price: "Recover 759 yuan after 7 hours and 30 minutes." According to this calculation, the limited-time discount price is only 10% off the original price.
But when the reporter opened the product page again on October 24, he found that the price of 88 yuan has not changed, but the small words next to it have become "Recovered 759 yuan after 14 hours and 49 minutes." As of press time, the price of this dress is still 88 yuan, and it comes with a prompt that "recovering 759 yuan after xx hours".
similar "pseudo-limited discount" is not an isolated case. "New products are limited to half price", "limited time discount", "last xx days", "recover xx yuan after xx hours" and other products are not uncommon on online shopping platforms. Merchants take advantage of the psychological desire of consumers to miss discounts to place orders. In previous years, all sectors of society have paid close attention to the phenomenon of "false discounts" or "raising prices first and then discounts" in "Double 11"; but judging from the large number of "limited time discounts" that have appeared this year, regulatory departments and platforms should also restrict this new behavior of deceiving and misleading consumers.
Question source: Tuchuang Creative Image Editor: Yong Kai
Source: Author: Bai Lu Ren Chong
