The just-passed 6·18 online shopping festival (also known as: 6·18) once again brought surprises to the market. As of 23:59 on June 18, the cumulative order amount of JD 6·18 in 2022 JD 6·18 exceeded 379.3 billion yuan. This news undoubtedly injected a booster to improve the decline in my country's consumption since this year.
So, what are the differences between this year's 6.18 and previous years? What are the new consumption trends? Will rational consumption replace retaliatory consumption become the mainstream trend of my country's consumption recovery? In addition, can 6.18 become a key link in the further rebound of my country's consumption?
To address these topics, Beijing News Shell Finance invited Jiang Zhao, an expert from the Institute of Distribution and Consumption of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute; Chen Yinjiang, deputy secretary-general of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society; Li Zhiqi, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the Beijing Municipal CPPCC, vice chairman of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, and chairman of the Zhenxing International Think Tank, Li Zhiqi, together participated in the roundtable discussion.
Jiang Zhao, an expert from the Institute of Distribution and Consumption, Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce. Photo provided by the interviewee
Chen Yinjiang, Deputy Secretary-General of the Consumer Rights Protection Law Research Association of the Chinese Law Society.
Li Zhiqi, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the Beijing Municipal CPPCC, vice chairman of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, and chairman of the Zhenxing International Think Tank.
. What are the differences between and 18?
Beijing News Shell Finance : According to your observations on , what are the differences between this year 6/18 and previous years? What are the new consumption trends?
Jiang Zhao: Compared with previous years, the promotional activities of this year's June 18 Shopping Festival are more intense and last longer, and the people are more enthusiastic about participating. Some platforms have carried out activities one after another as early as late May.
6·18 Shopping Festival consumption reflects the following four new trends: First, the popularity of green and low-carbon consumption has increased. Consumers' green environmental protection concepts are constantly improving, and they are increasingly inclined to buy products with energy-saving and environmentally friendly characteristics. Energy-saving home appliances, new energy vehicles, , etc. have become popular consumption.
Second, the trend of sports and health consumption has been strengthened. With the increase in health awareness among our residents, a fitness boom is emerging. Data from some platforms show that the search volume of products such as smart fitness mirrors and leg clipping tools has increased rapidly.
Third, consumption of pre-made dishes, fast food products and other products has become new highlights. Affected by the epidemic, people have developed the habit of cooking and dining at home. Pre-made dishes and other products are more convenient and have a variety of varieties to provide consumers with a better experience.
Fourth, preventive healthy consumption has become a hot topic. The public's emphasis on health is constantly increasing, and sports drinks, health-care functional beverages, smart massage equipment, health products, etc. have received more attention.
suggests that platform companies and merchants strengthen the utilization of consumer big data, deeply explore consumers' segmented needs and emotional demands, and actively adopt digital marketing methods such as IP content marketing, short video marketing, experiential marketing, community marketing to attract consumers to add relevant goods and services to the shopping cart, and use limited-time consumption coupons, shopping rewards and other methods to encourage users to clear the shopping cart, and promote the growth of residents' consumption.
Chen Yinjiang: Generally speaking, this year's June 18 is more standardized than in previous years, the promotion rules are more transparent, the promotion content is clearer, the promotion methods are more humane, and the phenomenon of "fake discounts" and "fake discounts" have also been significantly reduced. Consumers are also more rational. They do not place orders when they see discounts, but purchase according to their actual needs.
The pre-sale problem of
this year is relatively prominent. For merchants, the pre-sale model can identify customers in advance to avoid backlog of goods. But for consumers, this model poses many risks. On the one hand, the pre-sale merchant may not have prepared the goods before, but will temporarily produce or purchase goods based on the pre-sale order. If there is a problem in a certain link in the production chain, consumer rights may be damaged, such as the supply of goods exceeds demand, production cannot keep up, and delivery may be delayed. On the other hand, the pre-sale time is too long, which may affect the normal use of consumers, and it is even impossible to rule out that there will be a significant price reduction after placing pre-sale orders.
Therefore, merchants should fully consider the fairness and rationality of the pre-sale rules, and cannot set pre-sale rules such as long pre-sale period, no refund of pre-sale products, and no refund of pre-payment funds. Because these rules obviously exclude or limit the rights of consumers and reduce or exempt the responsibilities of merchants, they are unfair and unreasonable standard terms, commonly known as "undignant terms", and are invalid standard terms.
Li Zhiqi: I have classified consumption data and have several major characteristics. First, products for home consumption are sought after, such as game consoles, large-screen TVs, VR glasses, projectors, etc., which is growing relatively fast, indicating that everyone's home time has increased and the demand for games has increased, which has triggered a sales boom in products; home appliances have attracted attention, such as fresh air conditioners, sweeping robots, radio frequency beauty instruments, air fryers, heating water purifiers, etc., which are growing relatively fast; daily necessities such as peanut oil and milk have grown significantly.
Second, outdoor consumption data is relatively good. After the epidemic prevention and control, staying at home for a long time has caused the transaction volume of camping products to increase by year-on-year, such as trailers, tents, , self-heat pot , etc. to increase by 2 year-on-year.
Third, health consumption is more outstanding. During the epidemic, everyone attaches importance to healthy consumption, so nutritional health care and medical device products, such as hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, alcohol and other products increased year-on-year.
The fourth is that seasonal consumption is relatively prominent. For example, the transaction volume of sunscreen increased year-on-year. The weekend is Father's Day, and the transaction volume of men's clothes, belts, and gift boxes doubled. The last point is that quality consumption is popular, industry-leading companies, big brands, and high-end brands have performed outstandingly.
Beijing News Shell Finance : What marketing suggestions do you for 6·18? How should companies use the online shopping festival to further increase their company's turnover? In addition, in 6·18 shopping, how should consumers protect their own rights?
Li Zhiqi: 6·18 promotion is becoming more and more important to platform companies, manufacturers and consumers. The platform can obtain consumption data growth, manufacturers can take advantage of the opportunity to better promote brands and products, and consumers can also get benefits. This is the fundamental reason why shopping festivals such as June 18 and "Double 11" have been popular for many years, and it is a win-win promotional festival.
In recent years, 6.18 and "Double 11" have gradually become slow, which is inseparable from consumers no longer paying for simple cheap prices. Consumer choices are becoming more and more rational, especially under the epidemic, everyone's consumption potential has been suppressed to a certain extent, and slowing consumption is the general trend. However, companies should still study the craze of online shopping festivals brought about by platform economy companies.
First, the repeated epidemic has led to further hindering offline business, consumers' consumption habits have changed, and the elderly consumer group has gradually moved online. Online is an important growth point for enterprises and more resources are needed. Second, online consumption has gradually become the first battlefield for new product testing, especially products with young consumer groups as the main targets. Through online new product releases, collecting and analyzing data, guiding corporate business decisions, forming a new decision-making closed loop, making the cost of enterprises reaching consumers lower and products and services more accurate.
Chen Yinjiang : First of all, although there are many discount promotional information during June 18, consumers should still remain rational and purchase goods and services according to their actual needs.
Secondly, there may be many pop-up advertisements and other promotional information during June 18. Consumers should not be confused by some advertisements of unknown origin. They should choose formal platforms and regular merchants to consume, and carefully check the merchant’s business license and related business qualifications. If it is a live broadcast sales model, the operator's real name should also be marked in a prominent position in the shopping live broadcast room to prevent consumers from being misled by the anchor's traffic.
Third, when consumers participate in the 6.18 discount promotion or pre-sale event, they must understand the promotion rules in advance and carefully check the specific information of the product price, model, configuration, etc., such as whether the merchant promises the pre-sale price to be the lowest price, and whether there are different models or reduced configurations for discounted products.
Fourth, for some promotional rules such as discounts, especially information that merchants make special commitments, consumers should take screenshots and retain evidence to facilitate protection of rights when problems arise in the future.
Fifth, when consumers receive products, they must promptly check whether the products are consistent with the publicity and whether there are product quality problems. Without affecting the secondary sales, consumers can return the goods without reason within 7 days after receiving the goods; if the goods do not match the publicity or have quality problems, consumers can collect evidence to protect their rights according to law; if they fail to negotiate with the merchant, they can complain to the consumer association or market supervision department, or they can protect their rights according to law by applying for arbitration or suing in court.
Consumers no longer simply pay for cheapness, and rational consumption has become the mainstream
Beijing News Beike Finance : Some people believe that the recovery of consumption under the epidemic should be rational consumption replacing retaliatory consumption. Do you agree with this view?
Chen Yinjiang: Indeed, we can see that consumers' current consumption behavior is more rational. They will not simply hoard a lot of goods at once because they are cheaper, resulting in expired, waste and other phenomena. There are many factors behind this.
First of all, the e-commerce market was mixed in the early days, and some consumers were deceived due to impulsive consumption and suffered losses. As the e-commerce market gradually matures, consumers' consumption mentality becomes more and more mature, and they gradually develop the habit of rational consumption.
In addition, due to the combined influence of factors such as the normalization of epidemic prevention and control and the slowdown in economic growth, consumers' mentality of living a tight life is becoming more and more obvious, and their consumption behavior is becoming more cautious and rational.
Overall, rational consumption will still be the mainstream, and retaliatory consumption may occur in local areas such as tourism and travel. If the subsequent epidemic prevention and control situation further improves, consumers' travel needs may be released in the short term, but there will not be much changes in the daily consumption field.
In addition, some personalized consumption habits developed by consumers during the epidemic may continue. For example, many people used to order takeout or go to restaurants to have dinner, but after the epidemic, they may be more accustomed to buying pre-made dishes . Even if the epidemic prevention and control situation improves, such consumption habits may be retained.
Li Zhiqi: There are several reasons for . First, after the epidemic was brought under control in 2020, a round of retaliatory consumption did occur. At that time, everyone's expectations for future consumption were relatively optimistic. At that time, catering and tourism received a new round of rapid rebound. But the impact of the epidemic has developed to this day, and this optimistic atmosphere and expectations may no longer be so prominent. During our investigation, we saw that many catering companies across the country reported that there was no retaliatory consumption this time, which is directly related to the changes in people's consumption psychology due to the current epidemic.
Second, the development of e-commerce in recent years has largely met the needs of mass consumption, and it is not easy to make consumers have the impulse to consume today. Consumers are increasingly demanding on product selection and quality, and consumers' mentality is gradually returning to rationality and no longer blindly following the trend of purchasing. Third, the current amount of residents' savings is growing, the amount of financing loans is declining, and consumption is more cautious. Therefore, returning to rational consumption has become the general trend, and enterprises must also adapt to the new pace.
consumption rebound is expected. How should enterprises plan to make the second half of the year?
Beijing News Beike Finance : National Bureau of Statistics data shows that the total retail sales volume in May was significantly higher than in April. Is this exceeding expectations? Why can the total retail sales in May be recovered well? Will 6·18 become a key link in the further rebound of my country's consumption?
Jiang Zhao: The total retail sales in in May was significantly higher than in April, in line with expectations.Judging from the historical laws of previous years, May has entered summer. Under the "summer economy", residents' demand for shopping, catering, travel, tourism, entertainment, etc. has increased, and night consumption, camping consumption, homestay consumption, etc. have increased. Therefore, the overall consumption performance in May over the years has been better than that in April.
In addition, since May this year, the central and local governments have introduced a package of consumption policies to promote , such as reducing and exempting car purchase tax, issuing people-friendly consumption coupons, and increasing efforts to help enterprises alleviate difficulties. At the same time, the epidemic prevention and control situation in various places has improved, and the production and living order of residents has gradually returned to normal. The temporarily suppressed consumption demand has gradually been released, which has effectively promoted the recovery of total retail sales.
Overall, large-scale online shopping festivals such as 6.18 have a strong role in promoting consumption in my country. During the online shopping festival, many local governments provide policy support such as shopping subsidies, and merchants have launched discount activities. Online bloggers have carried out various live streaming activities, creating a good consumption festival atmosphere, providing residents with many benefits and conveniences, and enhancing residents' enthusiasm for consumption. It is worth noting that during the June 18 Shopping Festival, many local party members and cadres appeared in the e-commerce live broadcast room, turning into salesmen, taking the lead in helping local specialty products find sales channels, and contributing to promoting the growth of local specialty consumption.
Follow-up, with the continuous efforts of consumption promotion policies and the improvement of the accuracy of epidemic prevention and control, offline consumption such as catering dine-in, leisure and tourism will gradually recover, and optional consumer goods still have great growth potential, and the growth rate of total retail sales may turn from negative to positive, and the consumption growth prospects in the second half of the year are promising.
Chen Yinjiang: 6·18 will indeed stimulate some consumer demand. Because of the preferential price of goods, consumers may increase the purchase of daily necessities during the June 18th period, or take the opportunity to replace large-scale products such as computers and home appliances. This will indeed promote my country's overall consumption, but this promotion is short-term and limited. Therefore, it cannot be said to be a key link in promoting a rebound in consumption. To truly boost consumption and promote consumption, on the one hand, we must implement a number of policies to stabilize growth and employment issued by the central government to local governments to stabilize everyone's money; on the other hand, enterprises should also increase the research and development of goods and services, provide consumers with more personalized and diversified high-quality goods and high-quality services, and better meet consumers' yearning and demand for a better life.
Li Zhiqi: Review of consumption in the first half of the year, except for the relatively good performance during the Spring Festival, the data performance in other months was not as expected. June is a link between the past and the future. If the contribution of sales cannot be increased and a strong support point cannot be formed, the work and efforts to be done in the second half of the year may be more difficult.
Therefore, whether government departments or enterprises, they all pay attention to the time point, and continue to further consolidate the sales tasks or growth targets that were not completed in the first half of the year, and at the same time lay out the consumption recovery in the second half of the year. In terms of this node, June 18 has become the mid-year consumption observation point, and it is necessary to summarize and adjust in a timely manner to guide enterprises to make more systematic and scientific arrangements for consumption growth in the second half of the year.
How to smooth things and flow into the focus
Beijing News Shell Finance : Express logistics is a major factor affecting the shopping experience of consumers . Since the beginning of this year, the epidemic has been repeated, and the corporate logistics chain has been greatly challenged. Previously, some cities have faced problems such as poor logistics. . How should you solve this type of problem ? . In the normalized prevention and control of the subsequent epidemic, how can further avoid similar situations?
Jiang Zhao: ensures smooth express logistics and plays a positive role in ensuring market supply, promoting online consumption and supporting enterprises to resume work and production. On June 8, the State Council Executive Meeting clearly proposed to further open up the major arteries and microcirculation of transportation and logistics. Among them, ensuring smooth express logistics is an important link.Under the normalized situation of epidemic prevention and control, it is recommended that local governments ensure normal traffic flow of trucks, avoid supply interruptions, and provide appropriate subsidies for epidemic prevention and disinfection of express logistics companies, guide express logistics companies to strengthen disinfection of the working environment and normalized nucleic acid testing of employees, and reduce the potential risk of virus transmission during express transportation. Financial and insurance institutions are encouraged to actively develop supply chain finance, logistics insurance and other services, and further strengthen support for express logistics companies. At the same time, express logistics companies can use smart terminals such as smart express cabinets to carry out innovative models such as contactless delivery to minimize the adverse impact of the epidemic.
Li Zhiqi: During our research, there was a strong appeal in the logistics field. Many logistics companies said that "there is pressure to accept orders, and there is pressure to not accept orders." They must fulfill their contracts when accepting orders and send drivers and vehicles to other places. They may not be able to come back due to the local epidemic prevention and control policy, or they must undergo quarantine for more than 7 days when they come back. Therefore, there are not enough trucks and drivers, and there are still multiple rounds of inspections along the way, which reduces logistics efficiency and increases costs.
In this regard, we believe that there are two points that need to be paid attention to. First, we must make more use of digital epidemic prevention capabilities, such as the pass code is not recognized, and many cities require local testing and uploading and updates. It should be emphasized that "one code leads the world" and use digital capabilities to complete the epidemic prevention tracing of logistics vehicles and personnel. It should not be broken into separate links, otherwise it will increase social costs and further affect the realization of the goal of resuming work and achieving production.
The second is that traditional traffic supervision methods must be adjusted and optimized. For example, under the epidemic, the setting of supply whitelists needs to prevent unfair and unfair situations. There are also vehicle passes. The relevant departments issue logistics passes to buyers and sellers, but the logistics companies in the middle do not have passes. Because of the movement of drivers and vehicles, some departments will think that there is no way to solve the tracking problem and can only solve the problem of local control. This problem requires unified policies and procedures to solve. At present, the situation of "nine dragons governing water, each managing one section" in the logistics field is present, which has a lot to do with the supervision model and needs to be adjusted as soon as possible. Because whether it is to ensure supply or market entities, we must first ensure smooth logistics, which is particularly important.
Beijing News Shell Finance reporter Pan Yichun Chen Weicheng Editor Yue Caizhou Proofreading Lu Qian
