This is 6.18 in the absence of a top anchor, and this 6.18 is destined to be extraordinary.
As the largest shopping festival of the year, 6.18 was given the expectation of boosting consumer confidence under the epidemic. It also shoulders the mission of clearing inventory for merchants and driving platform sales.
But compared with previous years, this year's 6.18 is particularly "calm". Although JD.com has held the launch meeting of the 6.18 e-commerce shopping festival and released a battle report, Tmall, which is also a leading e-commerce company, did not hold a press conference. It only released 25 merchant relief policies in the early stage, and its battle report exceeded 100 million yuan has not been released.
At the same time, internal employees of Alibaba revealed that the 6.18 promotional ornaments were rarely seen in Alibaba Park this year. In previous years, there were incentive slogans, "decisive drums" and "barley" that indicate "big sale" was distributed during major promotions.
E-commerce platform Since May, it tends to promote the platform's work in ESG (i.e., environment, society and governance), merchant relief, etc. The shopping festival is gradually decreasing its "ritual sense", the front line is lengthened, and the grand occasion of staying up late to grab orders no longer exists. Experts said that the role of the 6.18 Shopping Festival is to promote consumption and boost confidence with high-quality and low-cost goods, to activate market demand to drive service employment, and to increase transaction purchases to solve market entities of small and medium-sized enterprises. We must not only focus on the present, but also jump from the current situation and June 18, focus on combining short, medium and long-term, and provide a realistic path for further releasing consumption potential and promoting the continuous recovery of consumption, so as to stabilize the basic consumption through comprehensive innovation and quality improvement.
simplified discount rules and not staying up late has become an industry consensus. Merchants’ pre-sales have attracted attention
In previous years, in e-commerce shopping festivals such as June 18 and Double 11, consumers would hold their mobile phones and wait until twelve o'clock in the evening, holding their "eyelids" to start grabbing goods and paying the final payment. In recent years, it has become an industry consensus to prevent consumers from staying up late. From starting pre-sales to early to 8 pm, the "front" has been continuously stretched.
This year, JD.com and Tmall announced the launch of the June 18 event in May, and the pre-sale and rush purchase time were fully advanced.
JD.com and Tmall 6·18 events were officially opened at 8 pm on May 23 and 8 pm on May 26 respectively. The first wave of Tmall's rush starts at 8 pm on May 31, and the second wave of rush starts at 8 pm on June 15. JD.com's 6.18 activities are divided into "pre-sale period", "good start", "scene period" and "climax period". Not only pre-sales, but also the final payment and the price release of all categories are all opened at 8 pm on different dates.
What consumers are most concerned about is the discount discount. Every time the e-commerce shopping festival comes, some consumers will complain that they are confused by the "price game" of e-commerce.
This has also attracted the attention of regulatory authorities. On June 2, when the e-commerce 6.18 shopping festival was in full swing, the State Administration for Market Regulation announced the "Regulations on Clear Price Marking and Prohibiting Price Fraud" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations"), which refined and clarified the rules for clear price marking, and supplemented and improved the standards for identifying some price violations and corresponding legal responsibilities. This regulation will come into effect on July 1, 2022.
In terms of clearly marked price tags, the "Regulations" clarify the main price elements that operators should mark when selling goods or providing services and the pricing principles they follow. In terms of price fraud identification, the specific requirements of operators when conducting price comparison, discount, and reduction activities are clarified, and typical price fraud behaviors that are prohibited are listed; in terms of legal liability, the principle of excessive penalties is adhered to, and while clarifying the applicable penalties for violations of clear price tags and other price violations, the circumstances for lenient, mitigation or non-punishment are stipulated in accordance with the law.
The State Administration for Market Regulation also issued a statement on June 18 to point out price fraud. Under strict supervision, the platform has also begun to simplify preferential rules this year. The "deposit discount" discount that many consumers can't understand in previous years was cancelled by Tmall during this year's June 18 event, and replaced by a more intuitive full discount price reduction. In other words, while consumers pay the deposit, they can see the actual amount of the final payment of the product.
JD also adopts rules such as cross-store discounts and no need to receive coupons. From 8 pm to June 20, some products will be placed directly, with a discount of 50 yuan for every 299 yuan spent.
is not only online, but also 6.18 activities are also extended to offline to meet consumers' immediate consumption demands.Taking JD.com as an example, it has joined hands with millions of offline physical stores to achieve online and offline synchronous activities, bringing consumers an instant consumption experience of "hourly delivery" or even "minutely delivery".
It is worth noting that on the eve of June 18 this year, the pre-sale mechanism launched by many merchants has attracted widespread attention.
With minute-level online shopping services becoming the norm, some consumers began to ask why some e-commerce sellers "have to wait ten days and half a month to ship a short-sleeved shirt"?
is actually not just 6.18. Adopting pre-sale method has become a way of playing for many merchants: some clearly mark the delivery within 7 days or 15 days after ordering; some merchants even do not specify the delivery time; some merchants have too long pre-sale time; no delivery time or arbitrarily change the delivery time, etc. are also frequent; some merchants wait for the first batch of shipments to return and exchange the first batch of shipments before shipping; or wait until the pre-sale amount is received before placing an order to produce, and produce it according to the situation or inform it that there is no goods.
Beijing News Beike Finance reporters found that some operators have become accustomed to using their business advantages to lock in consumers in advance and transfer market risks. The hardest hit areas are generally in "clothing" and other sectors.
An e-commerce practitioner told the Beijing News reporter, "The inventory backlog of clothing companies has always been serious, so many stores will now adopt the pre-sale model to pass on the pressure of (inventory) to consumers." According to him, "The clothes received by many consumers are actually the return and exchange of the first batch of shipped products."
Regarding the chaos caused by pre-sale, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee called on e-commerce platforms not to overdraw brand reputation and destroy the market atmosphere. Merchants should take effective measures to find the "greatest common divisor" of pre-sale interests and consumer rights protection. In response to the more prominent unfair format clauses such as the non-refund of advance payments, non-refund of goods, and non-receiving complaints and bad reviews in pre-sales, enterprises should conduct self-inspection and self-correction; standardize the pre-sale process, fulfill obligations such as providing real and comprehensive information and product quality assurance, and protect consumers' right to know and right to choose.
Deputy Secretary-General of Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee said that products can be pre-sale, and quality service and trust must not be overdrawn. Merchants’ marketing methods are emerging one after another, and the consideration of transferring operating costs and risks may be understandable, but attention should be paid to the degree of control and the balance of consumer rights. If the company can achieve accurate prediction and rapid response capabilities, and reasonably arrange production plans and safe inventory, it can effectively avoid violations in pre-sales.
Relief has become the main theme and focus on environmental protection. Beijing's consumption power is firmly at the forefront of the country.
JD internal data shows that during the 2022 JD.com period, in 2022, Beijing ranked second in the country in the purchasing power rankings of 31 provinces/municipalities/autonomous regions, Beijing ranked second in the country, city consumption power ranked first in the country, unit price ranked first in the country, and upward amount ranked fourth. The impressive consumption power ranked first in the country.
Under the epidemic, this year's June 18th was given the expectation of boosting consumer confidence, and shouldering the mission of increasing merchants' sales. Many merchants said in an interview, "I will wait for June 18 to increase sales and clear inventory in the first half of this year."
Zhu Keli, founding director of the National Research Institute of New Economics, said that due to the impact of the epidemic on June 18 this year, consumers generally chose to hold their pockets tightly. The previous big promotion methods were difficult to play a role, and the marginal effectiveness of such consumer festivals itself is also decreasing year by year.
Beijing News Beike Finance reporter found that many merchants still have certain expectations for this shopping festival, but compared with the situation where the platform once publicized big promotions and war reports, this year's June 18 is particularly "calm".
Although JD.com has held the launch meeting of the 6.18 e-commerce shopping festival as always and released a war report, Tmall did not hold a press conference this year, but only released 25 merchant relief policies in the early stage, and the war report exceeded 100 million yuan has not been released.
Ali internal employees revealed that 6.18 promotional ornaments are rarely seen in Alibaba Park this year. In previous years, when there are major promotions, the "decisive drum" is hung, and the "barley" that indicates a "big sale" has disappeared this year. Starting from May, the platform tends to promote the platform's work in ESG, merchant relief, etc.
This year, there are 25 Tmall 6.18 merchant measures, covering 5 aspects - financial subsidies, logistics clearance, traffic subsidies, special measures for the epidemic, and technological upgrades. This year, Taobao and Tmall’s assistance measures for merchants on June 18 are more than twice the number of Tmall Double 11 last year. At the same time, we also cooperated with financial institutions to help merchants borrow money at low interest rates and receive money in advance.
Taobao and Tmall this year pay more attention to service construction and assistance, and have specially set up a smooth service channel for merchants: the platform rules will continue to be updated dynamically, and consumer complaints caused by the epidemic will be exempted from penalties, and indicators such as timely collection rate and refund and return processing will not be assessed. Risks such as "scalpers sweep goods", "bad review extortion", and "peer attacks" will be intercepted in real time. Merchants will receive reminders or warnings if they misplace categories or set prices. The problem that needed to be solved by human customer service in the past can now be solved in a few seconds through the self-service processing of the "Merchant Service Hall".
Similarly, JD.com has also released 30 "three reductions and three optimizations" merchant support measures, which will reduce pressure and relieve the burden on small and medium-sized merchants through "reducing costs, reducing assessments, reducing risks, optimizing rules, optimizing efficiency, and optimizing services".
"The technical service fee for new merchants in some categories is returned up to 100%, the store warranty fee is reduced by up to 80%, and the platform usage fee is returned up to half a year." During this year's JD.com 6.18 promotion, JD.com merchants can also improve user shopping experience and satisfaction by opening service tools such as freight insurance, price protection, rapid review, and lightning refunds, while also reducing customer service inquiries and disputes. Among them, the minimum order for small-piece freight insurance is only 0.01 yuan per order during JD.com during the 6.18 period.
JD Retail CEO Xin Lijun clearly put forward indicators, saying that he will help small and medium-sized merchants increase their input-output ratio on JD.com at least 20%. In addition to the relief of
, e-commerce platforms have also released ESG reports and related data on the eve of the June 18 Shopping Festival. For example, JD.com has proposed the "Carbon Reduction 2030 Action Goal" from the fields of green operations, low-carbon supply chain, sustainable consumption, etc., that is, to work with partners to build an industry-leading rooftop photovoltaic power generation capacity ecosystem by 2030; replace and update logistics vehicles with new energy logistics vehicles by 2030; plan to achieve 100% environmentally friendly and renewable packaging materials by 2030; it is expected to promote more than 80% of upstream brand enterprises to carry out environmentally friendly packaging research and development by 2030; by 2030, we will help thousands of industries through digital transformation and upgrading of industries to improve the carbon reduction efficiency of digital technology.
Xin Lijun said at JD.com's 6.18 launch meeting that this year's JD.com's 6.18 is destined to be a different 6.18. The impact of factors such as the sudden outbreak of the epidemic in 2022 has made the importance of the supply chain more widely and deeply understood by society, industry and consumers. Compared with the big promotion method, he also talked more about ensuring the stability of the social supply chain and other related content at the 6.18 launch meeting.
In response to this, Zhu Keli said that in the above context, e-commerce platforms emphasize ESG and relief, which is to a certain extent, considering that to boost domestic demand and consumer confidence, we must first stabilize the industrial chain and supply chain supported by the backend. Due to the repeated impact of the epidemic, offline supply chains are still recovering. Therefore, the platform provides relief to small and medium-sized merchants, which can restore and enhance merchants and users' confidence, which is conducive to stabilizing the consumer ecosystem expectations.
The shopping festival where the top anchors are absent, the "iron-kill" platform
is different this year on June 18, and it is also because of the absence of the top anchors, so they are covered with a veil of unknown origin.
For the previous live streaming industry, Li Jiaqi and Weiya are the most inconsistent elders and sisters. Thanks to the huge traffic tilt and support of the platform, and the outbreak of the live streaming industry under the influence of the epidemic, the two have successfully emerged and carried the mission of as emerging forces to stimulate platform consumption. By the first day of Double 11 in 2021, the two achieved a total sales of over 18 billion yuan, which once became an industry legend.
This year, Weiya disappeared in the live broadcast room due to tax evasion, and Li Jiaqi also absent from June 18. Since this year, live broadcasting and selling goods has no longer become the focus of platform promotion.
In the industry's view, the era of giants has passed, and live streaming is a universal and universal industry, rather than being controlled by individuals.In addition to Weiya and Li Jiaqi, the top anchors on other platforms are gradually moving away from the focus.
Douyin’s top e-commerce anchor Luo Yonghao left the market on the occasion of the June 18 Shopping Festival and announced that he would withdraw from the social platform and start a new business. Simba, the leading host of Kuaishou’s goods, also announced on June 16 that Xinxuan Group was led by Dandan, the other anchor of the company, and Simba was absent from June 18 for the first time.
But "there are talents in the world" may be a summary of the fate of the business, the anchor may flow, and the platform is still "iron".
During this June 18 shopping festival, New Oriental's Oriental's live broadcast room unexpectedly went out, and its anchor Dong Yuhui quickly came out. According to data from the third-party data platform Chanma, the single-day GMV selected by Oriental has exceeded 50 million yuan. The popularity of live streaming sales has also driven New Oriental's stock price to rise.
While the top anchors are gradually leaving the market, the platform urgently needs new faces to continue to drive sales. Dong Yuhui's out-of-the-box is due to the role of multiple factors, which shows how the platform promotes it. This may be a strategic demand for platforms with peak traffic.
The absence of the top Taobao anchor, the number one in Douqiu left the market, and the emergence of Oriental Selection became a special color for this 6.18 shopping festival.
supply chain is recovering on the way, experts: should price, logistics, distribution and other links More attention
As of press time, the leading e-commerce platform only released the battle report, that is, during the June 18 Shopping Festival (20:00 on May 31 to 24:00 on June 18), the platform's cumulative order amount reached 379.3 billion yuan.
Liu Yi, vice president of Xiaomi Group China, said: "This year, June 18, compared with previous years, we face greater pressure. Whether it is products or channels, consumers' demand has also changed significantly compared with previous years." A related executive of Alibaba revealed at a performance meeting held in May that after experiencing the impact of the epidemic, merchants have great enthusiasm for consumption festivals like June 18. The enthusiasm of merchants has been good compared with the same period. As time approaches, consumers' enthusiasm gradually becomes more prominent, and the platform has also introduced relevant measures to support merchants to use this node to achieve better sales results.
Ma Qiji, director of the Digital Marketing Research Institute of China Business Advertising Association, told the Beijing News Beike Finance reporter that the market background of this year's June 18 is the recurrence of the epidemic, the resumption of work and production of enterprises and the recovery of supply chains, and the lack of significant improvement in employment and residents' income, the overall calm market for the commercial retail and service industry is under the three constraints:
Therefore, 6·18 plays three roles, including promoting consumption and boosting confidence with high quality and low price commodities, activate market demand to drive service employment, and increase transaction purchases to solve market entities of small and medium-sized enterprises. However, no matter what, it is difficult for this year's June 18 to show the grand and vigorousness of the past.
Ma Qiji believes that whether it is a government commercial department, a consumer rights protection organization, or a commercial retail organization or a brand merchant, during this year's event, pay more attention to the quality and safety of goods/services, pay more attention to the consumer rights in price, logistics, distribution and other links, and be cautious in the content and forms of marketing, promotion and advertising, and pay attention to a more gentle and soothing method in complaints and complaints, avoid stimulation of the emotions, psychology and behavior of consumers and relevant personnel in the service chain, and effectively implement relevant laws and regulations.
At the same time, considering the current instability and uncertainty of the epidemic, he reminded that transactions have increased significantly during June 18, and epidemic prevention measures and verification of logistics and distribution links and personnel must be strictly and specific, remind and restrain the daily movement and behavior of delivery personnel, and cooperate with the requirements of community epidemic prevention measures, so as to avoid accuses, restrictions and dislikes from the government and the masses due to this part of the personnel causing a new epidemic.
Zhukli also said that the logistics and supply chain as the new economic infrastructure face a major test and has also become one of the variables in this year's June 18. In order to ensure user experience, e-commerce platforms must further maintain the supply chain and refine their operations, strive to fulfill their contracts for customers, and fight the turnaround battle of June 18.
He also mentioned that to truly solve the difficulties and bottlenecks in the consumer field, in addition to providing assistance to small and medium-sized businesses, policy relief measures are also needed.We must not only focus on the present, but also jump from the current perspective and June 18, focus on combining short, medium and long-term, and provide a realistic path for further releasing consumption potential and promoting the continuous recovery of consumption from the perspective of comprehensively promoting consumption. We must use comprehensive innovation to improve quality and stabilize the basic consumption market, and continuously enhance the comprehensive ability of consumption development by improving the support system. This will not only help promote the continuous expansion of the consumption field and the continuous upgrading of the consumption structure in recent years, but also have a predictable positive impact on specific consumption fields, especially key consumption sectors.
Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Cheng Zijiao Editor Chen Li Proofreading Yang Xuli
