Douyin began to specialize in the management of hype refunds
Douyin finally made a move.
A few days ago, the Douyin e-commerce operation team successively issued two "Special Governance Announcements on Speculation and Refund Behavior".
Douyin governance hype refund behavior Source: Douyin E-commerce Learning Center
It is mentioned that some creators on the platform speculate data by swiping refund orders, or induce users to place orders and pay through abnormal marketing methods, but in fact, they cannot all perform the contract at the preferential price, resulting in a large number of user refunds, which has a negative impact on the platform's consumer experience and the platform's fair and just business environment.
Therefore, in response to this kind of behavior, Douyin will continue to carry out special governance and increase the punishment of malicious cheating and illegal creators.
Specific measures include reducing exposure, warnings, deducting credit points, and restricting e-commerce permissions. Depending on the severity of the situation, if there is a serious impact on the user experience, or if there is circumvention of platform rules, the e-commerce authority will also be directly closed.
It is worth noting that this is the first time that Douyin e-commerce has carried out special rectification of "hype refund behavior", which is of great significance for the standardized development of the industry.
In the announcement, Douyin also listed a number of typical violations and violation scenarios in detail. This includes creators using their own accounts or manipulating other accounts to swipe refund orders, inducing consumers to place orders and paying for refunds and swiping data through cashbacks, gifts, etc., requiring users to place orders and pay first and then participate in lucky draws through "snapping auctions", "drawing free orders", "drawing half price", etc., and swiping transaction data such as fictitious price comparisons, false publicity, and illegal gameplay, which seriously affects the user experience and causes users to refund their money.
Typical violation scenarios for hype refunds Source: Douyin E-commerce Learning Center
For example, the tacit behavior of "swiping orders" in the e-commerce industry, whether it is merchants placing a large number of orders and refunding, or guiding consumers to place orders and then refund through various methods, etc., are typical "swiping orders and speculating returns";
There are also false propaganda by anchors, exaggerating the value of goods, fictitious comparison prices, etc., resulting in consumers only finding out that they are expensive after placing an order and choosing to refund, which is a "fictitious price comparison and speculation";
In addition, the common gameplay methods such as holding orders and fast payment in the live broadcast room do not clearly convey clear information to users when promoting benefits (price reductions, coupons), or explain too quickly, which shortens the user's decision-making time. As a result, a large number of refunds are made after users make impulsive purchases, which is also a hype refund behavior......
On the whole, including false publicity of product materials and effects, acting and hyping in the live broadcast room, etc., as long as it affects the user experience and causes a large number of refunds from users, it may be suspected of hyping refunds - now it is the direction of Douyin's key rectification.
The return rate remains high, and impulse purchases are the root cause
When consumers shop online, they will inevitably encounter situations such as clothes that do not fit well, and the materials are different from their imagination. As a basic consumer right, "return" is originally a normal behavior.
But the problem is that in addition to the objective factors, there are more and more external factors that have greatly increased the return rate - this phenomenon is especially prominent in the live broadcast e-commerce industry.
The "2020 China Live E-commerce Industry Research Report" has pointed out that the average return rate of live broadcast e-commerce is 30%-50%, which is higher than the 10%-15% return rate of traditional e-commerce.
In addition to the platform in order to improve the shopping experience, the platform continues to reduce the cost of return and exchange for consumers, the deliberate hype of merchants or anchors in the live broadcast room triggers impulsive consumption, which is also a factor that cannot be ignored.
In July last year, there were media reports that the return rate of Douyin jewelers was as high as 90%, and it also rushed to the hot search. Although the relevant person in charge of Douyin e-commerce quickly refuted the rumors, he only said that "the jewelry and jade products on the Douyin e-commerce platform, whether it is a live broadcast scene or a shelf scene, the overall return rate is at the average level of the industry."
"Douyin jeweler return rate of 90%" rushed to the hot search Source: Weibo
As for how high the so-called "industry average water level" is, Douyin did not give an exact figure.
As the saying goes: "You don't see color under the lamp". Not only jadeite, but also all kinds of jewelry and antiques are easy to misestimate their color and overestimate their value if they are placed under the light.
Allowing consumers to understand products in a more intuitive and all-round way is a major advantage of live streaming e-commerce. But once the anchor takes advantage of the consumer's subconscious of "seeing is believing", only shows what he wants to show to the consumer, supplemented by various tempting words, it is easy to stimulate the consumer to place an order impulsively.
The same is true for the apparel category. This category, which already has a high return rate in the e-commerce industry, is the same as jewelry and jade, due to the large number of SKUs and strong personalized features, consumers need to actually experience it before they can make a final decision. If the publicity in the live broadcast room is far from the real thing, consumers will naturally choose to return the goods.
Just recently, there is a topic that has also aroused great concern in the e-commerce industry: the return rate of the popular "new Chinese" clothing in the past year is as high as 80% in the live broadcast room.
According to Tech Planet, a new Chinese clothing entrepreneur said that when she and her team recently reviewed the operation data, they found that the return rate was as high as 80%, which was double the return rate of 30%~40% for normal search and browsing orders. And merchants must meet the minimum inventory required by the live broadcast room to expand inventory, and it often happens that the inventory that was just cleared yesterday is filled with returned goods this year.
Obviously, such a high return rate is also a burden for merchants. Merchants spent a lot of money to invest in the stream, but in the end they were crushed by the high return rate, and such stories are not new in the live broadcast room.
In August last year, at the "Douyin E-commerce Open Day - Consumer Experience Special" event held by Douyin e-commerce, Wen Wei, the person in charge of Douyin e-commerce consumer experience, said that from the perspective of the industry, the return rate of the live broadcast scene is indeed higher than that of the shelf scene, mainly because the shopping goals of users in the shelf scene are clearer. However, Douyin's global interest e-commerce includes two scenarios, and from the perspective of the platform, the overall return rate is the industry average.
Wen Wei, head of consumer experience of Douyin e-commerce Source: Douyin e-commerce
"Secondly, of course, we want consumers to be able to buy a product that they are satisfied with right away, but this is really unrealistic in some scenarios. For example, Wen Wei said that in categories such as jewelry and jade, clothing, etc., in view of the strong personalization of the goods themselves, consumers need to receive the goods and experience them before they know whether they are suitable, so there is a demand for return and exchange.
From this point of view, standardizing the daily business behavior of anchors and merchants may be able to alleviate the current dilemma faced by live broadcast e-commerce from the root.
Say goodbye to false prosperity, live broadcast e-commerce began to squeeze out the water
Huang Zheng, the founder of Pinduoduo, once famously said: "Our core is not cheap, but to meet the psychology of users taking advantage."
Today's success of Pinduoduo verifies the effectiveness of this underlying logic. From the perspective of the live broadcast e-commerce industry, "satisfying the psychology of users taking advantage" is also an important driving force behind the live broadcast room to increase the conversion rate.
This is also why even though the platform repeatedly orders and continues to govern violations, there are still many anchors who defy the law and stimulate the audience in the live broadcast room to place orders through marketing methods such as holding orders and false price comparisons.
However, as various platforms pay more attention to the user's shopping experience and the gradual popularization of freight insurance, the return and exchange costs of consumers continue to decrease, and the high return rate has become a "boomerang" thrown by these merchants, and finally falls back on their heads.
Therefore, it is actually very simple for live broadcast e-commerce platforms to further reduce the return rate, that is, to increase the cost of merchants when they are returned. For example, the special governance launched by Douyin this time has an unprecedented degree of punishment for malicious cheating and illegal creators, which can play a certain warning role in the live broadcast promotion.
In addition, the return rate can also be used as an assessment indicator of product quality, which can also have a good effect.
For example, Kuaishou e-commerce will assess the "quality return rate" indicator of goods, specifically in the order received within 14 days from the payment date, the number of orders whose first refund is due to product quality problems within 14 days from the payment date/the number of orders signed within 14 days from the payment date, and will carry out special rectification of the goods with high return rate and merchants.
After the new regulations came into effect on March 15 this year, the statistical caliber of "product return rate" excludes two types of product return orders under specific conditions: allergies, decay/deterioration, less effective than expected, and shortage, mainly considering the particularity of the "use first, pay later" and the newly launched "fruit and vegetable purchase with confidence" service scenario.
It is foreseeable that under the consensus of the industry to seek long-term development, it is urgent for live broadcast e-commerce to reduce the return rate, and various platforms are squeezing out the water in GMV as much as possible.
However, it is also worth noting that some anchors receive commissions based on the sales of goods they bring, and how much they return after selling them is not within their consideration.
Therefore, if you want to make a "qualitative change" in the return rate of live broadcast e-commerce, you may also need to carry out a deeper change in the form of cooperation between merchants and talents.
Author | Li Songyue