Source: Cosmetics Watch
On January 14, because of the sale of "1 cent promotional mask" on the Meituan platform but refused to ship, and insulted consumers as "mad dogs" in the Douyin live broadcast room, Watsons was pushed on Weibo hot search.
As of press time, consumers have launched collective complaints on the black cat complaint platform, and the number of complaints about this incident has reached 1140. The topic entry of "Watson's 1 cent to buy a mask activity is questioned and cannot be played" also rushed to the Weibo hot search list, with more than 50 million related readings and continuing to ferment.
Excerpted from Weibo
In response to this matter, Cosmetics Watch contacted Watson officials for the first time, but did not receive a reply. On Watsons China's official website, Weibo and other official platforms, no relevant responses have been given.
01
High-quality efficacy products appeared in the innovation exhibition for 8 years of precipitation, skin care technology into the "space 2.0 era" research and development strength to support
The "out of stock" mask appeared in the live broadcast room
Consumer inquiries are verbally abused
Cosmetics Observation learned that the cause of this matter is that on January 11, Watsons launched a mask promotion on the Meituan platform, and consumers can buy a Jasmine Belis wedding dress hydrating mask or SNP Eros Ocean Bird's Nest Hydrating Ampoule Essence Mask (limited to 5 boxes per person) at a price of 0.01 yuan after using coupons.
After placing an order, many consumers have received SMS reminders that "the goods are ready, please pick up at the store", but most consumers have not mentioned the goods when they arrive at the store.
Subsequently, the consumer called 400 to contact Watsons customer service, and the customer service gave the delivery commitment again after registering the order number and collecting the shipping address. However, a few days later, Watson changed its mouth to "the goods are out of stock" in the text message, asking consumers to apply for refunds.
Screenshot from the black cat complaint platform, courtesy of consumers
According to a number of consumers on the black cat complaint platform, the product only supports offline stores to pick up goods after placing an order, but most stores say that "the product is out of stock". One consumer said that he went to pick up the goods very early, and the store manager clearly said that he was "out of stock", "but the goods are on the shelves." The store manager put away the mask in front of me, and then used the system to send a message to notify me that I was out of stock. ”
Not only that, on January 13, some consumers found in the "Watsons China" live broadcast room that the products claiming to be "out of stock" were being sold normally at a price of 89 yuan / 3 boxes. This move caused consumer dissatisfaction, and some people entered Watson China's live broadcast room to ask about "mask delivery problems" in the comment area, but they were insulted by the anchor and blocked by the backstage staff.
According to the video review, the anchor publicly accused consumers of "biting like a mad dog just for a penny of things", and said "I want to kick and kick in my live broadcast room, I don't welcome you, you don't use it, kick you are happy", and another behind-the-scenes staff raised his voice, "You are cheap and don't recognize it, you don't come to this bite.".
Many consumers also said in the complaint article that Watson anchors called consumers who participated in mask promotions as "beggars", which made them quite uncomfortable.
On the Xiaohongshu platform, a blogger posted that Watson's store had received a notice from within the group on January 11, that is, a solution to the "pick-up" incident. As can be seen from the notification document, Watsons characterized the previous incident as "Meituan Dianping channel order oversold", and required the store to perform the normal picking contract with inventory according to the order time, and click "out of stock feedback" if there is no inventory; if there is a customer to the store for consultation, the store will send a small gift to appease the customer, and guide the customer to call the customer service phone to follow up the order.
Cut from the Little Red Book
However, some consumers posted that they were not satisfied with this solution, "Before the store with goods deceived that there was no inventory, now there is no goods, no one knows, do not rule out the store will still say 'no goods' to deceive us." ”
According to the information of the anchor account "Watsons China", its blue V certification is "Wuhan Watsons Personal Products Store Co., Ltd.", with 1.644 million fans, more than 4,000 stores in China, and the live broadcast frequency is about maintained at twice a day.
At present, Watsons officials have not yet responded, Watson customer service responded in a media interview that due to system abnormalities, consumers who ordered "1 cent promotional mask" in Meituan can only cancel their orders, and said that this is the only solution given by Watsons at present.
The customer service also mentioned that in response to this abnormal situation, Watsons will also ask the relevant departments to investigate. As for whether the anchor will be dealt with insulting consumers, customer service said it is not clear.
Meituan also responded that "the price of goods is set by the merchants themselves, and the 'wool' has nothing to do with the MEituan." At present, meituan is negotiating with Watsons on the '1 cent promotional mask' incident, and the results of the consultation have not yet been agreed. ”
02
There are many crises
After the incident, it triggered heated discussions among netizens on social platforms such as Weibo. Cosmetics observation search found that most netizens have a negative evaluation of Watsons, "this company culture is very casual", "can't afford to play", "Watson must apologize".
At the same time, consumers are implicated in complaining about Watson's side. For example, "I have not entered Watson's stores for many years, and the shopping guide mouth is too broken", "when I buy it, I say it is the promotion price, when I check out, I say that it is the original price, and I have not experienced it", "I know every day to sell my own brand".
Search for "Watsons" on zhihu, such as "How does Watsons make consumers black for a lifetime?" "What is it like to be fooled by Watson's shopping guide?" There are thousands of answers to the topic.
Watsons, which is deeply plagued by negativity, has not been optimistic about its performance in recent years. According to the financial report, in 2016, Watson's operating income in China was HK$20.914 billion (about 17 billion yuan for the people), showing a decline in performance for the first time. In the following years, Watson's operating income in the Chinese market has increased, but the profit growth rate has not improved.
In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the total revenue of A.S. Watsons China was 16.739 billion yuan, down 19% year-on-year. During the same period, A.S. Watsons China's same-store sales fell by 21.8%, which is the fifth consecutive year of decline in addition to 2019.
According to the financial report for the first half of 2021, Watson's sales in China were 9.641 billion yuan, up 32% year-on-year, which is the largest increase in the Chinese market in the past five years. However, industry insiders pointed out that this increase performance is also related to the company's low base affected by the epidemic in the previous year.
Along with the decline in performance, there is also Watson's filter in the brand's heart. Especially for cutting-edge beauty brands, Watsons is no longer the best channel choice. In November 2021, some media reported that the domestic makeup brand Orange Duo withdrew from the two Beijing Watsons stores that had been stationed.
"Watsons has to pay a high settlement fee, but also has to endure deductions of up to about 35% and a three-month account period. In contrast, the new batch of beauty collection stores generally have more friendly account periods and discount terms, and often adopt a buyout model, and the profit and loss is not borne by the brand side but by the collection store. A cutting-edge brand leader told Cosmetics Watch.
Perhaps aware of the problem, Watsons began reform in 2017, including digital upgrades, storming the online launch of online official stores, mini programs (Watsons cloud store) and other channels, cooperating with Cainiao, Ele.me and other cooperation to expand delivery services, supporting self-pickup, flash delivery, mail and other services.
In order to meet the aesthetics of young consumers, Watsons has also transformed the store in three aspects. The first is to reduce the number of domestic brands and private brands, introduce Korean makeup brands such as LUNA and the SAEM, and increase sales of explosive products. The second is to use more trendy makeup elements to decorate stores, attracting young people to take photos and punch cards. Third, Watsons reshaped the image of store shopping guides through training and improved the service level of shopping guides.
However, judging from consumer feedback, this reform does not seem to have been recognized by the market.
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"The live broadcast room is a public opinion field"
Watsons is not the first to be complained about by the company for "improper words and deeds" in the live broadcast process.
In 2020, an anchor of a foreign-funded brand supported Xiao Zhan in the live broadcast, resulting in an intensification of the contradiction between the brand and netizens. Subsequently, netizens focused their gunfire on the brand, demanded a large area of supplementary invoicing, and complained to the consumer association and tax departments that the customer service did not respond to the invoicing.
In October 2021, another makeup brand was also besieged for hiring an influencer to mock its brand spokesperson during a live broadcast. In the end, the brand issued an apology on the official platform and terminated the cooperation with the company of the two anchors involved, which calmed public opinion.
"The threshold for beauty brands to select live broadcasts and anchors should be raised." When talking about similar incidents, the person in charge of a beauty brand bluntly pointed out, "Live broadcasting is now a matter of concern to the whole people, and the public's requirements for the quality cultivation of anchors have become higher and higher, and the brand's temporary inattention is an extremely serious impact on the reputation and consumers accumulated over the years." ”
In fact, "inappropriate speech by anchors" is only one of the reasons why brands are caught in negative public opinion on live broadcasts. Relevant data show that in 2020, the national 12315 platform accepted a total of 25,500 "live broadcast" complaints and reports, of which "live streaming with goods" appeals accounted for nearly 80%, an increase of 357.74% year-on-year.
The information of the "315 International Consumer Rights Protection Day" in 2021 also shows that "live streaming with goods" has become a new hot spot for consumer complaints. In the "Analysis of Complaints Accepted by the National Consumer Association in 2020" released by the China Consumer Association, live streaming with goods has become one of the 11 major consumer complaint hotspots.
According to the incomplete statistics of cosmetics observation, in 2021, more than 10 beauty brands have been complained by consumers because of various problems during the live broadcast, of which "the product is true or false", "price", "delivery speed" and so on are the main "complaint points".
For example, in the beauty brands that participated in the pre-sale of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast on Double 11 last year, Ti Jiating was collectively complained about because of the "price" problem, and L'Oréal also fell into an unprecedented "brand crisis" because of "price".
"Many brands only see the doubling of sales brought by live broadcasting, but they do not see that live broadcasting puts forward high requirements for brand operation capabilities, from the maintenance of different channel prices to a small after-sales service, which may cause the life and death of enterprises." A brand e-commerce director said.
Taking Watson's incident as an example, first it was impossible to pick up the goods, and then the anchor insulted consumers. Compared with e-commerce, in fact, live broadcast requires brands to respond faster, live broadcast is usually centralized delivery, whether it can be delivered on time, whether the data middle office can dock orders, are all tests. Many brands of live broadcast room is often tens of thousands of people online, a little problem is not handled well, is a public opinion field. Said the above-mentioned person.
In this regard, some insiders suggested, "Brand building is not easy, live broadcast channels are worth entering, but we must be fully prepared, do not rush to do live broadcasting, otherwise lose consumer trust, and many years of accumulation will be destroyed." ”