Jingdong "tore up" Li Jiaqi, and no one cared about that oven
It's another year Double 11, really tired.
But at noon on October 24, when the gong was about to sound, the topic of "Jingdong Procurement and Sales Shouting Li Jiaqi" climbed on Weibo's hot search, which suddenly made the smoke of Double 11 have new "materials" other than blood shopping.
Jingdong, Li Jiaqi, casually throwing a name can win the attention of the whole network even on weekdays, not to mention in the current fierce battle of Double 11. And Hai's appliances, sandwiched between Jingdong and Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, were also "forced" to heat up when the small kitchen appliances were getting cold.
Hai's lawyer's letter, JD.com "tore up" Li Jiaqi
This year's Double 11, in the face of consumers who have long been tired of the promotion, platforms and influencers have begun to "return to the basics" and concentrate on playing the "low price" card.
Tmall shouted "low price on the whole network", Jingdong is "really cheap", and Li Jiaqi, who is still squatting in many girls, directly played the slogan of "low, low, low, low".
But the limit word "lowest price", no matter where it is, is absolutely unspeakable.
One of the important reasons why the topic of "Jingdong Procurement and Sales Shouting Li Jiaqi" has aroused heated discussions is also related to the possibility of price reduction of the head anchor who has been controversial.
Jingdong procurement and sales personnel, whose WeChat name is shown as "Self-operated Baking Group Chu Sanfeng", disclosed in the form of a post from Moments that the reason why he received a lawyer's letter from the brand Haishi was precisely because a certain oven of the brand of Jingdong was lower than the price of the Taobao live broadcast room, resulting in the brand having to pay huge liquidated damages for the "reserve price agreement" signed with the expert.
Source/Weibo @新浪科技
His small essay uses "LJQ" to point directly at Taobao anchor Li Jiaqi, and even said that "now I finally understand why the price of Hua Xizi can't come down before", and also questioned the possibility of breaking the law by this kind of head anchor making the brand have to "choose one of the two".
Hai's real-name report letter, lawyer letter to JD.com, chat records, etc. began to go viral on the Internet, and there was even a disclosed Li Jiaqi company's "Mei ONE live broadcast promotion service contract" showing that if other channels were higher than the price of the live broadcast room, it would be compensated 2 million.
The chat records of the staff leaked by the brand Fang Haishi at noon on the 23rd showed that the incident did originate from Li Jiaqi's live broadcast, "Jingdong forced the price to follow, and deliberately made the price of the product low", "Jingdong oppressed the brand side to make us have no way back". According to his statement, Hai's sent a lawyer's letter on the 22nd, but JD.com still restricted the background authority of the merchant on the 23rd and forced a 5% discount for live broadcast items.
Mei ONE, which was "involved" in the confrontation between the two parties, also had to respond that there was no "reserve price agreement" and a binding clause requiring brands to "choose one of the two", and the pricing power of the live broadcast room belonged to the brand.
On the evening of the 24th, Haishi issued a statement on the official Weibo saying that no reserve price agreement was signed with Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, and the Jingdong sales personnel said that the price reduction was subsidized by the platform did not exist, "The loss of each oven sold at a lower price is borne by the Haishi brand."
Source/Weibo @海氏Hauswirt
On the 25th, the incident escalated again, Li Shuai, vice president of Jingdong Group and head of Jingdong Home Appliance Home Appliance Business Department, responded in the form of a circle of friends, "Some top anchors deprive consumers of the right to enjoy real low prices for their own selfish interests", and demanded to boycott the "whole network floor price" agreement and overlord clause.
Double 11 has just begun, and this business war "Rashomon" is still continuing.
Jingdong and Hai Clan can be said to have their own opinions, and Li Jiaqi and Mei ONE, who were trembling not long ago because of the Hua Xizi incident, are even more cautious in their words and actions. It looks very lively, but at the beginning of the question - who did Hai's breach of, how much "huge compensation" was produced, and Hai's product that was sold at half price, whether the discount was paid by JD.com or Haishi, there is no answer for the time being.
However, the "Hai's" that has been repeatedly appearing with hot search topics such as "Hai's brand side requires JD.com to restore normal prices" and "Haishi Electric responds to real-name reporting JD.com" has finally been noticed: How come I have never heard of this brand before?
"Hai, the oven brand I just met today"
"What brand is Haiji? Hisense? Haier? Why don't you say the full name, it's so urgent! "Netizens who simply eat melons are simply confused when they stare at the hot search.
Even Li Xin (pseudonym), an interviewee who has studied baking, because he has not yet eaten this wave of melons, his first reaction when he first heard the "Hai's" in the question was that he said that Haishi Hainuo, who sold masks? It wasn't until she clicked "oven" that she suddenly realized, "I use Haishi, and the baking school where I used to take classes also used this brand." ”
Compared with small home appliance brands such as Subor, Jiuyang, Midea, and Xiaoxiong, Hai's sounds really strange to ordinary consumers. But when it comes to selling ovens, Hai's is by no means a nobody.
Figure/Figureworm Creative
Founded in 2009, this company is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of baking appliances. According to the promotion report released by Hai's official Weibo, last year's Double 11 was a hit, Hai's oven single product won the Tmall/Jingdong dual-platform TOP1, and this year's 618 also took the first place in the oven category on Tmall.
In this incident, the product that Haishi said was sold by JD.com at a 5% discount is "Hai's third-generation C40 electric oven", on the consumer content community "What is worth buying" App, the price trend record of the product shows that the price of this year's 618 promotion period was 719 yuan, but the daily selling price on October 22 was displayed as 699 yuan, and on October 23, which triggered the "war", the historical low price of 319 yuan appeared.
Image source/what is worth buying App screenshot
The more than three hundred yuan saved by consumers in this 5-discount promotion, JD.com said that it was subsidized by its own platform, and Haishi said that it was borne by the brand, but it is clear that this price is indeed not the normal price of the product. What is worth buying App in the comment area of some netizens commented that this is a kind of "artificial bug price".
At present, this 40-liter capacity oven is displayed as "sold out" in the flagship store of Haishi Kitchen Appliances JD.com, and remains out of stock. The customer service said that there is "no latest activity notice", and it is expected that there may be an update after 8 pm on the 31st. Except for another 12-liter oven that also showed "out of stock" at 898 yuan, all other ovens (40 liters) were priced at more than 1,000 yuan.
Mumu, a bakery practitioner and director of "M.Y. Cakes Bakery", said that household ovens are usually less than 1,000 yuan, and the capacity is relatively limited. As far as her understanding of the professional oven market, the general activity price is about 9% off the daily price, unless it is a defective product, prototype, etc., it is normal and unlikely to have a 5% discount low price.
As for Hai's, "it is an ordinary brand in the baking circle, and the function and price are directly proportional. As far as I know, many baking studios will use this brand of oven, of course, it is also related to brand promotion and agents. Mumu commented in a rather objective tone.
Haishi may still be "head and face" in professional baking appliances, but as far as household ovens are concerned, it is an indisputable fact that "firepower" has faded.
According to Yan Leyu, deputy director of research of Oviyun Network Xiaodian Big Data Business, the boom of the oven can be traced back to 2016, and then it continues to grow in fluctuations until it falls into a downward trend after 2021.
Around 2016, it was the era when the "non-demand" kitchen appliances such as ovens began to be popularized. Minmin, a consumer of small kitchen appliances, said that at that time, home baking was a ritualistic thing, and the oven was fashionable enough, the key is that the price of two or three hundred yuan is still affordable, which is a "small luxury" that many people can enjoy.
At that time, not only consumers like Minmin would take the initiative to buy ovens, but also many units and institutions would distribute ovens as benefits and prizes, and ovens began to enter ordinary people's homes.
The defeat of the oven is accompanied by the decline of the entire kitchen appliance, and the core contradiction is also the same: they are not "really needed".
"No one eats grilled meat or makes bread every day, even if it's just to bake sweet potatoes, and not everyone can afford to wait for an hour," says Minmin.
Sure enough, the oven hit rock bottom. According to data from Oviyun.com, in the first half of 2023, the retail sales of ovens fell by 37.2%, ranking second only to the 41.6% decrease in air fryers.
Mumu said that baking is very simple, and many oven operations are also very foolish, especially during the epidemic, many people "follow the trend", but now they are idle idle fish. In addition, the kitchen appliances themselves iterate quickly, and the oven also has many similar alternatives, "it is normal for ordinary household ovens to abdicate."
However, the decline in sales of air fryers can be justified, after all, it is more suitable for households, retail sales are large enough, it is a short-term demand suppression under a high base, and no one will buy air fryers every year. However, the retail sales base of the oven is not large, even less than the soy milk machine, and its sharp decline is embarrassing.
In Yan Leyu's view, the decline of the oven does have to mention the "heavy damage" caused by the air fryer. As a new category, air fryers are the perfect alternative to low- and medium-end ovens because they are more efficient than oven cooking, more diverse cooking ingredients and more space-saving.
The air fryer can fry everything, so the oven naturally takes a back seat, not to mention that the air fryer in some people's homes is not often taken out.
Small kitchen appliances are being abandoned?
The decline of the oven may be just the tip of the iceberg, behind which the iceberg of small kitchen appliances is melting.
According to data from Oviyun.com, from January to September 2023, the overall retail sales of small kitchen appliances (including 13 categories such as air fryers and small ovens) were 38.86 billion yuan, down 9.6% year-on-year, and retail sales were 188.6 million units, down 0.5% year-on-year.
However, this is far from the first time that small kitchen appliances have declined, in 2022, the retail sales of small kitchen appliances will be 52.03 billion yuan, down 6.7% year-on-year; Retail sales were 220.49 million units, down 12.7% y/y.
Why are small kitchen appliances not on fire?
Source/Oviyun.com
Behind this is the reason for the change of the external environment. Yan Leyu analysis believes that in 2020, when kitchen appliances are relatively hot, there is a key word "home economy". When people have to stay at home, kitchen appliances briefly become "just needed", and when the epidemic is over, people continue to go out of the house and change the scene and way of eating, kitchen appliances are bound to lose their aura.
A series of follow-on effects of this is that the frequency of using small kitchen appliances becomes lower, and thus the frequency of purchases decreases. At the same time, given that the quality of small kitchen appliances is generally not low, and there is no need to frequently replace them, the frequency of purchase naturally becomes lower.
Small kitchen appliances may also have a life cycle, and after a vigorous purchase, it is likely to usher in a cooling-off period.
Yan Leyu also mentioned that factors at the level of consumer psychology also hinder people from buying small kitchen appliances to a certain extent. For example, in recent years, small kitchen appliances have been subdivided, and a small household appliance often only meets one demand, so many small kitchen appliances are shelved after a few uses. The fate of "eating ashes" again and again has made the purchase of small kitchen appliances encounter resistance.
Flora, who is keen to buy small kitchen appliances, said that when buying small kitchen appliances, it represents an imagination of a good life, but after buying it, she finds that real life does not tolerate fantasy.
"When you've had the pain of cooking and found that small kitchen appliances just look beautiful, inertia is human nature, and after you taste the sweetness of ordering takeout or going out for a meal, small appliances are completely a decoration," says Flora.
In the eyes of consumers such as Flora, small kitchen appliances were once a "must-buy", but ultimately they will not be "essentials".
However, it is interesting that in the small kitchen appliance category, although most of them are in the stage of retail sales decline, such as ovens, air fryers, wall breakers, etc., there are also a small number of categories that are still quietly growing.
For example, the electric steamer, which has the highest increase, increased by 29.3% year-on-year in the first half of 2023, and the coffee machine, which ranked second, increased by 16.1% year-on-year.
Why are these two small kitchen appliances bucking the trend?
In Yan Leyu's view, the outstanding performance of the electric steamer lies in its "multi-functional upgrade", in the past, people's cognition of the electric steamer was limited to steaming food, but the upgraded electric steamer covers multiple functions such as frying, roasting, steaming, and shabu, which can meet the daily use under general circumstances.
For coffee machines, in addition to the joint promotion of many brands, the important reason is that the coffee drinking scene in the home has become a "new demand", and the coffee machine has almost no substitutes, and it can enter life as a "new category".
In fact, from the electric steamer and coffee machine, you can also glimpse some new opportunities for small kitchen appliances: either to do more down-to-earth upgrades, or to do transformative new products.
Perhaps, for a long time in the future, the consumption of small kitchen appliances will not be able to escape the label of "rational consumption".
Small kitchen appliances that once relied on appearance and social topics are bound to enter the stage of involution hard power, after all, this generation of consumers is not so good to "fool".
Author: Qu Boyang Liang Tingting
Editor: Tennessee