Zhongxin Jingwei, April 4 (Zhao Jiaran) "The clothes Bought in winter are almost in the summer and have not yet been shipped, is the pre-sale testing my loyalty to the store?" "Who says the customer is God?" The current seller is! Recently, the topic of pre-sale of Internet celebrity e-commerce has triggered a lot of discussion, and many netizens have gradually lost patience with the pre-sales that can be seen everywhere.
Is the pre-sale a helpless move of the merchant, or is it a loophole behavior that transfers the risk? Lawyers said that unilateral delaying or even ultimately not delivering the goods is a serious breach of contract. In this regard, the industry recommends further strengthening supervision and smoothing complaint channels.
Winter sweaters have not been received in the spring, how annoying is the ultra-long pre-sale?
The term "pre-sale", as the name suggests, means that consumers need to pay in advance before the product is launched, and the merchant does not put it into production and shipping until the pre-sale reaches a certain amount. In the increasingly convenient and fast e-commerce platform, the pre-sale practice was originally limited to some complicated products, but recently the pre-sale phenomenon has become more and more intense.
Yue Shan, a white-collar worker after "post-95s", admitted that after experiencing several super-long pre-sales, she has blocked the word "pre-sale" from her online shopping career.
"I placed an order for a shirt on the e-commerce platform on March 2, and the sales interface did not show the pre-sale word, but after payment, it showed 'April 1 shipment', and after waiting for a while, I saw that the merchant did not ship, so I refunded." Spring in Beijing is already very short, if you want to wait a month to receive the goods, you have to press the bottom of the box if you can't wear it a few times. "Yue Shan said that the pre-sales she has experienced are as little as one or two weeks, and as much as more than two months." This situation directly led to my enthusiasm for online shopping greatly reduced. ”
Bao Ma Qianqian encountered many pre-sales situations when buying clothes for her children. "I bought a small dress through a WeChat mini program in January, but it was written that it would not be shipped in April." Qianqian said that due to the long pre-sale time and the rapid change of the child's size, many parents are not sure of the size of the pre-ordered clothes, and some merchants also marked the pre-sale as "if there is no inventory, do not accept any code replacement requirements after shipment because of the delay.". "For some handmade works, this is almost a consensus in the circle, and many merchants will put forward many requirements."
It is understood that the current online sales of goods for pre-sale labels are different. Some merchants clearly mark the product title, some attach a line of small print to the product description, some note the delivery time when adding to the shopping cart, and the most difficult for consumers to accept is to display the shipping date after payment, and even change the delivery time again and again.
"If the pre-sale time is clearly informed in advance, I can still accept it, but if the pre-sale is not informed at the time of purchase, or the labeling is not obvious, it will cause a big psychological gap." Qianqian said.
On social platforms, the topic of "hating pre-sale" has exceeded 7.4 million views, and netizens have complained about the form of pre-sale and super-long pre-sale. "So annoying pre-sale! Don't put it on the shelves if you don't have stock? "Has not been shipping, urging customer service replied that the delivery time is uncertain, but the return is too cheap for them!" "Everything has to be pre-sold, I'm afraid it's all used to it!"
Social media screenshots
According to netizens, today's pre-sale period has changed from 7 days and 10 days to 14 days, 30 days or even 45 days. Ran Gaoming, the debater of "Strange Story", also complained on the short video platform: "Merchants do not want to backlog goods, I understand, but the sweater I bought in February shows that it was shipped before April 10th, what is this meaning?" Are you short of real wool, or are you missing my 'stupid wool'? ”
Merchants: The cost of pressing goods is large, and the data is high before they dare to make it on the shelves
It is not only consumers who speak on this topic, but also businesses. Some merchants bluntly said that they were under greater inventory pressure, so they had to use the pre-sale method.
Mr. Li of Chengdu is the manager of an online women's clothing store, talking about pre-sales, he told Zhongxin Jingwei that merchants are often more anxious than consumers to ship, mainly women's clothing, especially winter clothing, the cost of goods, warehousing and maintenance is higher, once the pressure of goods involves larger funds. "Because the factory has a minimum order quantity limit, we dare not do the goods casually, and only after the fan base has warmed up, the order data will be on the shelves and start production."
"The general e-commerce sellers are divided into two kinds of purchase and goods, the purchase of the store follows the upstream wholesaler, they can not influence, sometimes it is difficult to ship according to the expected time; and their own goods merchants, from fabric selection to production, shipment of many links, a link problem may increase the delivery of several days." Mr. Li further explained that the normal delivery period of his own store is about one week, but in case of fabric logistics and other issues, it may be extended to 10-14 days, so in most cases, the amount will be prepared in advance and consumers will be clearly informed.
At present, there are already platforms to supervise and restrict ultra-long pre-sales. According to media reports, Pinduoduo's products with a pre-sale period of more than seven days are not displayed on the platform first; previously, Taobao also had regulations that pre-sale products were not displayed first.
Mr. Li said bluntly that there was once an Internet celebrity merchant who was late in sending out the goods due to the replacement of the factory by himself, resulting in many complaints and was finally punished by the platform. "Consumers can use the description of the product detail page and the commitment of customer service as evidence, and if they do not ship beyond the promised date, they can file a complaint with the platform."
Industry: Call on e-commerce platforms to improve the early warning mechanism
In response to the situation that some merchants unilaterally postpone or even cancel delivery after setting up pre-sales, Li Min, a senior partner at Shanghai Hansheng Law Firm, told Zhongxin Jingwei that according to the Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law, if consumers do not violate the shopping principles stipulated by the merchants, the merchants unilaterally modify the delivery date and unilaterally withdraw the order without communicating with the consumers and obtaining their consent, which is a serious breach of contract, and the merchants should bear the liability for breach of contract and compensate for the losses according to law. Consumers can protect their rights by negotiating and settling with merchants, giving feedback to sales platforms, complaining to consumer associations and market supervision departments, and filing lawsuits with courts.
Fu Yifu, a senior researcher at the Star Chart Institute of Finance, said in an interview with Zhongxin Jingwei that the reasons for the repeated extension of the pre-sale time are more complicated. "Some merchants use the pre-sale model as a means of marketing publicity and traffic growth for the purpose of pursuing profits, and while delaying the delivery of goods while enjoying the reduction of inventory pressure, they do not have to bear losses such as returns and exchanges, and in the end let consumers pay for the ultra-long pre-sale, which is obviously suspected of merchants passing on risks."
Fu Yifu said that objectively speaking, the pre-sale of this way of selling and ordering production has its rationality, which can help stores alleviate the pressure of cost and inventory to a certain extent, but in actual operation, if the delivery time is postponed again and again, it is bound to have a negative impact on the shopping experience of consumers, and may even damage their legitimate rights and interests, which is not conducive to the healthy development of the industry.
Li Min also believes that the ultra-long pre-sale is an unreasonable measure, which simply increases the shopping risk of consumers, but does not bring any shopping convenience to consumers. "Consumers often pay the full amount or the so-called 'deposit' during the pre-sale, and during the pre-sale period, once the consumer's shopping needs change, it is often the loss itself."
In view of the blind pre-sale of some merchants and malicious delay in delivery, Fu Yifu suggested further strengthening supervision. "Relevant departments should strengthen the supervision of e-commerce platforms and strengthen rigid constraints on platforms and merchants; at the same time, they should smooth complaint channels and simplify the handling process." In addition, e-commerce platforms should also establish an early warning mechanism to timely discover the bad behavior of ultra-long pre-sales, and use credit rating management, blacklists and other means to urge merchants to rectify as soon as possible, and then help the e-commerce industry to develop more highly. ”
"The platform should limit the maximum pre-sale period and not list products that exceed the maximum pre-sale period." At the same time, the platform should require merchants to clearly regulate the price, duration, quality, delivery date, return conditions and other aspects of the pre-sale goods on the sales page. Moreover, the platform should establish a convenient complaint channel. Li Min suggested. (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
(At the request of the interviewee, Yue Shan and Qianqian are pseudonyms in this article)
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