On April 13, Yicai learned that Jingdong Logistics adjusted the establishment of four major business departments and canceled seven regional companies, and just a day ago, JD Retail launched the organizational reform of the procurement and sales unit, canceled the business group level, changed the business group to a business department, the original business group leader served as the head of the business department, and the business units under the original business group that managed many commodity categories will be divided into many procurement and sales combat units according to specific categories.
JD.com started its biggest structural adjustment in five years, and when JD.com coordinated its self-operated and tripartite merchant teams, the integration of Ali Tmall and Taobao happened to be more than a year.
Between "separation and integration", e-commerce platforms make delicate trade-offs between organizational collaboration, efficiency and business competition. "Adjustment" seems to be becoming the keyword of e-commerce platforms in 2023. Between the continuous switching of independence or coordination, e-commerce platforms are eager to use change to drive development.
One question is, what does this differentiation mean for their respective ecosystems?
JD.com: The biggest adjustment in 5 years
This reform of JD Retail focuses on the procurement and sales system, does not involve other business areas for the time being, and this organizational change will not involve personnel optimization. The rights and responsibilities of each procurement and sales combat unit have also changed greatly, and they will have greater rights such as business decision-making, management, personnel appointment and dismissal. At the same time, each combat unit is no longer divided into self-operated and tripartite merchant teams, but fully coordinates all businesses under this category to promote further "equal rights" between self-operated and tripartite merchants.
At the end of last year, JD.com had a round of adjustments to its organizational structure: the 3C home appliance business group was split into two, and the three major business units of computer digital, communication and home appliances were adjusted into the home appliance business group and the computer communication business group; The Home Furnishing Division, which was formerly part of the Fashion Home Furnishing Business Group, merged with the Home Appliance Division to form a new Home Appliance and Home Furnishing Business Group.
According to Yicai, one of the most obvious purposes of this organizational change is to streamline the management level and improve organizational efficiency. JD Retail currently has tens of thousands of employees, and after the adjustment of the procurement and sales business, from ordinary employees to CEOs, there are only three levels at most. Industry insiders commented that JD Retail's adjusted organizational hierarchy will be the flattest among teams of similar size in the industry.
Zhuang Shuai, an expert in the retail e-commerce industry and founder of Bailian Consulting, told the first financial reporter that from the perspective of this structural adjustment, the most important change is to reduce the reporting level and change the original organization from large to small. The purpose of the adjustment is to activate organizational vitality, accelerate decision-making efficiency, and enable various business units and categories to strengthen the competitiveness of the industry.
Subsequent JD Group's JD logistics and other businesses will also undergo similar organizational restructuring, and another reason why JD.com has made many changes in recent months is the return of Liu Qiangdong. A Jingdong employee told the first financial reporter that the activity of tens of billions of subsidies was "Dongge came back in December last year and began to layout, benchmarking Pinduoduo".
At the end of 2022, Liu Qiangdong clearly pointed out at the Jingdong business management training meeting that Jingdong should adhere to the principles and values of experience first and customer first, and adhere to the core business philosophy of "cost, efficiency, products, price, and service", especially proposed to adhere to low prices, the core weapon of retail, and required to accelerate the speed of organizational renewal and promote the comprehensive implementation of the management system adapted to the business philosophy. Liu Qiangdong said, "Low price is the most important weapon for our success in the past, and it will be the only basic weapon in the future." ”
Zhuang Shuai believes that the current competitive pressure of JD.com is relatively large.
JD.com did not disclose user data in its fourth-quarter 2022 financial report, and the industry is speculating about the possibility of negative user growth, and the pressure on revenue growth is increasing. The core of this adjustment is to resolve internal contradictions to cope with the comprehensive competition brought by Tmall Taobao, Douyin e-commerce, Pinduoduo, Meituan's retail business and offline innovative formats (discount stores, membership stores, etc.). For example, Pinduoduo's revenue and profit growth in the past two years have exceeded the industry growth rate, and it is possible that it will surpass JD.com this year, Douyin's live streaming e-commerce has exceeded a trillion scale, and the growth rate and scale of Meituan's instant retail business have also exceeded that of JD.com.
Star map data shows that on Singles' Day last year, the total transaction volume of comprehensive e-commerce represented by Tmall, Jingdong and Pinduoduo was 934 billion yuan, an increase of 2.9% year-on-year. The total transaction volume of live streaming e-commerce represented by Douyin, Diantao and Kuaishou this year was 181.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 146.1%.
In terms of forecasting the general environment, Xu Lei, CEO of JD.com, said that consumption is currently in a recovery period, and the problem of unbalanced pace of consumption recovery in the short term will still exist, and it will take time to return to the pre-epidemic situation, "We have also communicated with many brands, and their views on this year are also relatively cautiously optimistic." ”
Ali: "Fusion" has limited effectiveness in dealing with external competition
With the division of each business unit under the original business group into many procurement and sales combat units according to specific categories, and each combat unit is no longer divided into self-operated and three-party merchant teams, each combat unit fully coordinates all the business under the category at the same time, and "independent" and "coordinated" appear at the same time in JD.com's current round of adjustment.
Often pulled out for comparison, is the old player Alibaba, which has recently promoted a round of "1+6+N" organizational change.
In January 2022, Dai Shan, President of Alibaba China's commercial division, announced a new round of organizational restructuring of Alibaba China's digital business sector in an all-staff letter, mainly focusing on the "integration" of Taobao and Tmall. While maintaining the dual-brand operation, the Taobao business group and the Tmall business group were integrated into three centers, namely the user operation and development center, which was responsible for Xuande; The merchant dimension established an industrial operation and development center, which is responsible for blowing snow; Set up a platform strategy and operation center, which is responsible for Sihan.
In this adjustment, Alibaba's business landscape ended the organizational framework that deliberately distinguishes between individual merchants represented by Taobao and brand merchants represented by Tmall. However, due to the news of Chuixue's departure, it has triggered the outside world's association with the possible split of Taobao Tmall.
Yicai learned that in addition to Chuixue who is about to leave due to personal reasons, the main persons in charge of other functional departments are all the former relevant persons in charge of Taobao Tmall to maintain the continuity of strategy and work. After Alibaba's 1+6+N transformation, Taobao Tmall Business Group has completed the organizational structure design, and some Alibaba Group middle office teams such as customer service and technology have joined Taobao Tmall Business Group in the adjustment to promote the overall coordination and execution capabilities of future business groups.
Li Chengdong, founder of Dolphin Think Tank, told First Finance and Economics that from an industrial point of view, the changes that occurred after the "integration" of Taobao Tmall were not obvious. In his view, the integration of Taobao Business Group and Tmall Business Group into three centers is mainly to cope with external competition, but from the actual results, users still migrate to live streaming channels and platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou. The depth of operation of the entire Taobao Tmall industry is still limited, and Pinduoduo's rooting in the upstream will still make Ali feel passive, and the adjustment may change some internally, but from the outside, there are not many changes felt.
However, Li Chengdong still affirmed that "integration" is the right choice for Taobao Tmall. Taobao Tmall is actually targeting the same customer group, and Li Chengdong believes that the integration allows Taobao Tmall to avoid some "left-handed fighting" as much as possible when the traffic is open, which is difficult to do when the two business modules operate separately.
But the problems before Ali remain acute.
A merchant who runs multiple stores on Taobao and Tmall at the same time told CBN that in the "horse race" between Tmall and Taobao stores, his Taobao stores have been marginalized. Now his Tmall store has a higher unit price and more channels to show, Taobao stores have little room for survival, and traffic comes more from low prices. "You search for a product, and most of the stores that expand in front are Tmall." The merchant said that after the merger of Taobao Tmall, he felt that Taobao traffic did not increase but decreased, and it was more difficult to create explosive items.
"Now Tmall has a tendency to absorb Taobao's customer traffic, and it is becoming more and more obvious that the entire Ali retail is developing towards branding, and merchants are forced to pour into Tmall." The above-mentioned merchants said that the traffic of his Tmall stores has indeed increased, and after one or two of the store's explosive models, the total turnover has increased by more than 50%. However, the increasing "brand" attribute of Taobao Tmall coincides with the survival squeeze of "small merchants", and it is difficult to say whether this is the change that Dai Shan wants to see when he merges Taobao Tmall.
It doesn't look like a split between Tmall and Taobao will happen anytime soon. However, "division" and "combination" have their own benefits and costs.
In the constantly adjusting territory and architecture of e-commerce platforms, it still takes time to verify what changes can bring.
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