The annual 618 promotion finally came to an end after being lively for half a month, compared with last year's crazy campaign aimed at boosting consumer morale, this year's major e-commerce platform promotion methods can be described as simple and rude, unprecedented strength. Under the new cycle, stimulating consumption vitality and seeking business increments have become the key to the breakthrough of various e-commerce platforms.
At the same time, as the first event with e-commerce as the main scene after the recovery of consumption this year, this year's 618 not only accelerates the further recovery and expansion of the traditional consumption field, but also promotes the creation of new products, new services and new scenarios, accelerates the formation of a development pattern of consumption leading supply and supply creating demand, and more effectively meets consumption and releases consumption potential.
E-commerce is simple to play and the investment is increased
The annual 618 E-commerce Shopping Festival ended in the "radicalization" of e-commerce platforms doing their best. Although some media reported that this year's 618 has returned from a feverish miracle of consumption to a dull daily life, from the data released by major e-commerce platforms and brands, this year's 618 is still lively to some extent, and the consumption potential that has been silent for a long time is accelerating its release.
As of June 18, the results of each leading e-commerce company have been announced one after another. According to JD.com data, the number of new products, new brands and new categories on the shelves this year has increased significantly, and the contribution rate of new product growth to overall sales has increased by more than 30% compared with the same period last year. Suning Tesco data shows that during the 618 period, the sales volume of fresh air and healthy air conditioners in the county market increased by 86% year-on-year, and the sales of dishwashers, integrated stoves and built-in ovens increased by 89%, 61% and 143% respectively.
On the afternoon of June 18, data released by Taobao Tmall Group showed that during the 618 period this year, the number of merchants publishing short videos on Taobao every day increased by 55%, and the number of influencers increased by 200%; The average number of daily viewers of short videos on Taobao increased by 113%, and the number of views and watch time doubled.
Unlike the various complex subsidy paths in previous years, various platforms have abandoned the "brain-burning" games that have been spit on countless in previous years, and have returned to the simple and crude "price war", which has been ridiculed as the most vol. 618 in history.
It is reported that since the opening of this year's 618 promotion, low-price concessions have become the focus of competition on various platforms. Not only does JD.com have tens of billions of yuan in subsidies, but Taobao has also launched a 10 billion subsidy "breaking through the bottom price" action, and the main products have opened the application channel of "buying expensive and must be compensated", while each platform also attracts merchants to participate through traffic incentives, joint subsidies and other forms.
It is worth mentioning that at the 618 kick-off meeting of various e-commerce companies in May, Dai Shan, CEO of the newly established Taotian Group, said that this year's 618 will definitely make a historic investment in user scale and user development. Xin Lijun, CEO of JD Retail, said that this year's JD 618 is the largest investment in the entire industry. Pinduoduo shouted the slogan of "618 every day", and Kuaishou, Douyin and new e-commerce player Xiaohongshu also joined this "lowest price" competition...
At the same time, this year, consumers do not need too many "routines" to directly get low-priced benefits - Vipshop's "one piece of immediate reduction does not need to make up orders", Taobao Tmall's "full 300 minus 50 cross-store full discount", Douyin e-commerce's "every 150-25 cross-store full discount" and other promotional offers are "within reach".
"This year, various platforms such as JD.com, Taobao, Pinduoduo, Vipshop, etc. have increased various subsidies, and the gameplay is simpler. There is no need to burn brains like in previous years, focus on fighting for low prices. Mo Daiqing, senior analyst of the online retail department of the e-commerce center of NetEconomics, said that the "low price" and "no routine" of this year's 618 have become the "main theme" in marketing.
Behind the most volume, what exactly is the volume
"A more obvious change this year is that the platform hopes that merchants will exchange price advantages for traffic." A Jingdong store told reporters that this year's 618 has changed compared with before, consumers' demands, they not only pursue low prices, but also pursue high-quality, cost-effective, high-experience goods and services.
Jiang Han, a senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, said frankly that this year's 618 has indeed reached the most volume in history, and e-commerce companies need to attract consumers through continuous promotion and price wars in the fierce market competition.
Therefore, e-commerce companies need to look for new growth points and market opportunities. "This kind of competition in price wars is particularly obvious, not to mention the current consumption tendency has also changed." Hong Yong, associate researcher of the E-commerce Research Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, also said that this is the inevitable result of market competition, and only businesses that adapt to market changes and consumer needs can survive and develop.
In this regard, Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of Zhejiang University International Business School, believes that after e-commerce enters the stock market, price power competition is a strategy for platforms to seize the market under the trend of high overlap of consumers. On the one hand, it is the subsidy of e-commerce platforms, on the other hand, merchants exchange price for volume, and do a wave of marketing to improve brand awareness by reducing prices. For e-commerce platforms, price wars also bring traffic to the platform, so platforms often give the lowest possible shopping festival price by binding with merchants.
However, despite the huge subsidies invested by major e-commerce platforms, experts have said that for e-commerce platforms, the low-price strategy may have a certain effect in the short term, but in the long run, this strategy is unsustainable.
"Because the low-price strategy will reduce the profitability of the enterprise, affecting the development and sustainability of the enterprise." Therefore, e-commerce platforms should seek a more sustainable development path, such as improving the purchase experience and loyalty of users by improving service quality and product quality. Jiang Han said.
In this regard, Xu Ran, CEO of Jingdong Group, believes that the ultimate cost performance is not an absolute low price. "For us, low price is a systematic comprehensive capability, which is rooted in the optimization of the supply chain, and behind the appearance of low price is based on lower operating costs and higher operational efficiency of the supply chain, in order to achieve a win-win situation for rebate consumers and enterprise development."
How e-commerce is looking for new growth
Growth has become a difficult problem in the e-commerce industry.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in January ~ December 2022, the total retail sales of consumer goods in mainland China 439733 billion yuan, down 0.2% year-on-year. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, the growth rate of online physical goods retail sales in mainland China in 2022 will be 6.2%, an increase of 2.7 percentage points over the previous year, but the growth rate is still lower than that in 2019. From this point of view, corporate anxiety is not because it is not growing, but because the pace of development has slowed down.
The search for a second growth curve is imminent.
"Reducing the cost and efficiency of the supply chain and leveraging new increments with innovative technologies is especially important today." Industry insiders pointed out.
"From JD.com's point of view, stable and deterministic service and supply chain are the core capabilities of JD.com to traverse the cycle." Xin Lijun said frankly that with the changes in user behavior habits in recent years, the form of experience has also undergone tremendous changes, a large number of offline enterprises have online demand, need digital capabilities, and give birth to a new format of high integration of online and offline, "The entire supply chain system, online and offline integration There are many ways to play, you can innovate." ”
"In the long run, the competition between e-commerce will be more intense and complex." Jiang Han believes that in addition to price factors, e-commerce companies also need to pay attention to the construction of user experience, service quality, brand image and other aspects. At the same time, with the continuous development of consumer innovation, new technologies, new models, new products, new channels, etc. continue to emerge, and e-commerce enterprises also need to continuously improve efficiency and reduce costs in logistics, supply chain, etc., in order to enhance their competitiveness.
In this regard, Hong Yong also said that as the trend of consumption upgrading continues, e-commerce platforms need to meet the diversified needs of consumers by providing more offers and choices, in addition to grasping consumers' preferences and pain points through precision marketing and personalized recommendations.
As an important part of the mainland's digital economy, the Tianyan inspection report shows that the mainland's e-commerce transaction volume has maintained rapid growth, from 8 trillion yuan in 2012 to 42.3 trillion yuan in 2021, with an average annual growth of 20.3%.
It is undeniable that e-commerce platforms play an irreplaceable role in driving consumption and promoting production at nodes such as the 618 promotion. "First, it is conducive to improving consumers' enthusiasm and willingness to buy, and second, it brings new consumer groups and sales to merchants." Hong Yong said that this is an important stage of the recovery of the consumer market, and businesses are looking at the gradual recovery of consumer purchasing power. It can be seen from the performance of 618 platforms that consumers have higher and higher requirements for quality of life, and consumption in subdivided fields has performed well, which is expected to become a new growth point to drive consumption.
Source: Global Network