Image source @ Visual China
Wen 丨 Photon Planet, Author 丨 Wen Yehao, Editor 丨 Wu Xianzhi
At a time when Internet giants are invading each other's hinterland, second-hand e-commerce seems to have set off a new war.
Last year, Jingdong's upper limit idle trading platform "Whale Place", all things new students (love recycling) to the United States listed, e-commerce new army Douyin, Kuaishou also cooperated with platform institutions to enter the idle trading track.
Compared with the increasingly hot second-hand e-commerce track, the capital market has still not been able to get out of the downturn. According to Orange IT data, the number of financing in the domestic second-hand e-commerce field has shown a downward trend since 2015. This can be explained by the fact that there are fewer and fewer new players, and it can also be considered that it is no longer a good business.
Although the financing winter of last year has picked up, compared with the peak of the annual financing of up to 48, the number of track financing in the past two years has remained in single digits, and the attractiveness of the second-hand e-commerce track has not been the same as before. And behind the influx of giants, what new stories can be told?
The second-hand e-commerce chaos war began
At present, the era of Internet dividends is fading, and when the stock market arrives, the business of the giants seems to have come to an end.
Under the dilemma, all kinds of players have been struggling to find the so-called second growth curve, Ali to Taote into the sinking market, with "cat enjoyment" benchmarking Jingdong self-operated at the same time, Pinduoduo, Jingdong is also counterattacking ali market, to each other's main track to fight has become a common strategy of many players.
Ai Media Consulting data shows that from 2015 to 2020, the scale of second-hand e-commerce transactions in the mainland increased from 4.59 billion yuan to 374.5 billion yuan, and according to the "2021 China Idle Second-hand Transaction Carbon Emission Reduction Report", the transaction scale of second-hand idle goods in 2020 has exceeded one trillion yuan, and the figure will reach 3 trillion yuan in 2025. At the moment when the Internet dividend has peaked, the overall environment is relatively friendly to second-hand e-commerce.
Based on this, a number of enterprises have deepened their layout and entered the battlefield in an attempt to divide up this huge market that has not yet been exploited.
However, coveting and coveting, the business of second-hand e-commerce is not as easy to do as imagined. An industry insider pointed out: "There are two main reasons behind the cold capital market, one is that the head of the industry tends to solidify, and the other is that the idle trading market is difficult to grow explosively, and there are still uncertain factors such as business models." ”
This is true, according to Analysys data, as of April 2021, the industry penetration rate of idle fish active people is as high as 86.8%, while the second-ranked turn penetration rate is only 12.4%, idle fish sits on a large scale of users, and the gap between idle fish and players behind them is huge. According to idle fish data, the number of its users has exceeded 300 million, and the monthly active population has exceeded 100 million.
Although there is still a huge gap between the 300 million user volume and the generalized e-commerce crowd, the special nature of second-hand e-commerce is different from the sinking market that once had a huge user gap, even if a group of players how to exert their strength, it is difficult to reproduce the commercial miracle that once pinduoduo relied on "rural encirclement of the city".
Therefore, idle fish, as the absolute head of the industry, has basically eaten the domestic idle trading user population. However, this does not mean that it is difficult for players to have a chance, and the user volume is important, but for the second-hand e-commerce track that has been repeatedly caught in the commercialization of the road, making money is the last word.
At present, the business models of domestic second-hand e-commerce platforms are different. Idle Fish focuses on the C2C model, providing basic services such as platform and certain limits of protection for both parties to the transaction, and the specific transaction details are negotiated by the buyer and seller; the transfer is the main C2B2C model, and the platform as an intermediary will test the authenticity and quality of the goods - very Yao Jinbo.
In addition, the C2B model of love recycling and redistribution from the C-end market, as well as the B2C of finding a beautiful machine, are also the main ways of playing second-hand e-commerce. Competition is becoming more and more fierce, there are so many commercial models, and the second half of second-hand e-commerce has fallen into a chaotic war.
The end of the road in the shadows
In the chaotic war, the turn of the second place in the track for many years and the almost changing business model is worth talking about.
At the beginning of its establishment, the rotation was the same as the idle fish, which mainly played the C2C model. At the end of 2018, the founder of Idle Fish once said: "The specific profit model of Idle Fish is inconvenient to disclose, but it will certainly not charge trading commissions." ”
Obviously, the idle fish backed by the Tao e-commerce has the "bottom" of not taking commissions, the former can not only provide a huge user base and traffic for the idle fish, but also supplement the source information of second-hand goods, in a sense, this is also a closed loop, the players in the track obviously do not have this "daddy".
The "rules" of no commissions were set, and other players had to grit their teeth to comply. For the latter, how to make a profit has become the first problem that needs to be solved.
Based on this, although the rotation also has huge traffic advantages, it always lacks a stable path to monetization. Therefore, from platform inspection to recycling, self-operation, and turning has been walking on the road of realization, there are many wild moments.
Around 2019, the transfer launched the "professional seller" qualification to attract C-end sellers to join in the way of increasing exposure, and once it became a "professional seller", the transfer will take 15% of the fee from its transaction order.
This move aims to explore the profit entrance of the C2C model, and there is nothing wrong with the way to exchange the sample for exposure. However, with the development of time, the transfer from whether users can choose whether to become a "professional seller" has gradually changed to a platform-led compulsory certification, if the user does not authenticate a "professional seller", it will not be possible to release some categories of idle goods, everything seems to have changed.
Although at present, the "professional seller" has been taken offline, this past that is a little ugly seems to reflect the difficult situation of the C2C second-hand e-commerce platform in addition to idle fish. Under the dilemma of realization, it is natural to escape.
Therefore, for several years, few players have dared to challenge the C2C field where idle fish are entrenched.
Looking at the second-hand e-commerce platform that has entered the market in recent years, Whale Place joint pat and love recycling, mainly reselling Jingdong orders and recycling, help sales and other businesses; Jitter fast second-hand e-commerce is relying on the high traffic of its own short video platform to find exports in a cooperative way. Everyone seems reluctant to fight with idle fish head-on on the C2C battlefield.
Departing from the C2C model means that it is gradually drifting away from the comprehensive second-hand e-commerce. Losing the C-end self-trading market with a wide range of categories, each platform can naturally only choose the vertical class as a path, relying on C2B2C, C2B and other models to achieve commercialization.
However, due to the characteristics of idle goods, there are not many vertical categories available for second-hand e-commerce platforms.
At present, mainstream second-hand vertical e-commerce is mainly concentrated in 3C digital, luxury goods, fashion and other aspects. The above categories have two characteristics: one is that the cake is large enough, and the other is that the unit price of customers is relatively high and there is enough profit space.
Therefore, although the current discussion around subculture fields such as Chao play and Hanfu is endless, the niche attribute also determines its natural disadvantages in terms of user volume and non-standard products, so it can only be included in the category of interest e-commerce differentiated by comprehensive second-hand e-commerce such as idle fish.
Taking 3C digital products as an example, its C-end market is huge, and the platform does not have to worry about the lack of users. Electronic product brands are relatively concentrated and rarely fake, and the quality inspection cost borne by the platform as a middleman is relatively low.
The same logic, placed in the second-hand luxury track is also established, but the problem of fake goods in the luxury field is serious, and the platform needs to consolidate key scenarios such as identification and detection.
In May 2021, second-hand luxury e-commerce "only two" completed tens of millions of dollars of C round financing; in June, second-hand luxury e-commerce "Fat Tiger Technology" completed a $50 million Series C financing, this track seems to have signs of heating up last year.
However, at this stage, the second-hand e-commerce high-quality vertical category always exists only in a few areas, the cake is not hungry enough for the players to divide, not to mention that the track leader idle fish has begun to consolidate its moat through "idle fish premiums" and "recycled treasures", and the second-hand vertical track will also usher in a breakthrough battle.
Second half, "Attack the Heart"
Entering 2022, the second-hand e-commerce track seems to show signs of recovery.
In January this year, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce and other seven departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of waste material recycling system", and the "Internet + second-hand" model has been encouraged at the national level. However, at this stage, the domestic consumer market still lacks user education, and the fundamentals have not changed.
Among the many factors affecting the mentality of the consumer market, the trust problem is undoubtedly the key to the competition between players who are intensifying in the internal volume. As we all know, most of the idle goods are non-standard products, and the information between buyers and sellers is difficult to symmetrical, which leads to disputes between users in the process of second-hand transactions.
For lightweight C2C e-commerce, the characteristics of the model have led to the fact that they often cannot provide quality inspection for goods as an intermediate link in the transaction.
Taking Idle Fish as an example, at present, its main way to enhance user trust is to increase the authentication channel, as an Idle Fish seller, you can endorse your own credit by certifying Sesame Credit, transaction evaluation system, binding personal Weibo and other dimensions. Obviously, Idle Fish relies on Ali's rich, mature and multi-level trust system, and has a greater advantage in this regard.
However, standing in the chaotic second-hand trading market, even if idle fish has a strong endorsement channel, it is inevitable to fall into a crisis of trust.
Taking the post-transaction scenario as an example, the path chosen by Idle Fish is entrusted to the "Idle Fish Small Court", which mainly resolves disputes that may exist in the process of second-hand transactions through voting by users outside the platform.
However, just as the so-called road is one foot high, the magic is high, and experienced fraudsters can easily attack ordinary users by understanding the mechanism and reducing dimensions, which has led many users to complete the user education that Idle Fish should have undertaken in the way of "paying tuition".
For second-hand e-commerce platforms that follow the C2B2C and C2B models, their platforms are born as part of the transaction link with the ability to screen out scams.
However, in this mode, the platform itself is deeply bound to the credit system, and once there is a problem in the transaction process, the platform will face a greater favorability crisis than the C2C platform.
Wang Rui had bought an iPhone on the transfer, but because he was not adapted to the Apple system, Wang Rui planned to sell it in the form of consignment after a short experience.
However, as a quality inspection platform, the transfer of the assessment report issued before and after its purchase-consignment is very different, even if it is recycled, the final recovery price of the transfer is seriously depressed compared with the estimated price, which makes Wang Rui miserable and vows never to transfer again.
Wang Rui's experience is not unique. At present, whether it is the head platform idle fish, turning, or subdividing vertical love recycling, temple library, etc., are highly criticized on the black cat complaint platform, as of October 2021, the total number of idle fish complaints has approached 30,000, and the transfer is close to 40,000.
Questmobile data shows that from May 2019 to May 2021, the transfer DAU continued to fall by nearly 40%, and the decline was so severe that it may be related to its own credit crisis. Also caught in the double crisis of business and credit, there are vertical e-commerce platforms such as Secoo.
Recently, there are rumors of bankruptcy, and at the end of last year, Secoo also announced that it had received a nasdaq delisting warning, and this dilemma may not be inseparable from the promotion of many fake goods storms.
In recent years, the pace of offline layout of second-hand e-commerce platforms seems to have accelerated. Idle Fish and Recycling Treasure launched a small station for idle fish for offline scenarios, and Love Recycling accelerated offline expansion with a heavy asset model.
In this regard, He Cong, founder of Seven Tails Technology, once told the media: "Second-hand platforms are keen to open physical stores, and the biggest benefit is to increase customer flow while shortening the transaction chain." And offline stores are more conducive to brand promotion and build trust with users. Therefore, for second-hand e-commerce platforms with curled business models and intensified competition on the track, the importance of user minds has gradually become prominent.
It can be seen that in the second-hand e-commerce track where standardization and standardization have not yet formed, the second-hand e-commerce platforms that are under the shadow of idle fish are gradually realizing that the past traffic playing method is no longer applicable. Although C2B2C, C2B and other models are a good way to make a profit, at the moment when the competition pattern is intensifying, the business models of various platforms have converged, and credit construction has gradually become the key to "attacking the heart", or the survival rule under this scuffle.