The back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves, and the front waves die on the beach. No one thought that Master Li Ao's limerick poem could be used today to describe Alibaba, which once had innovation and change as the main theme. Ma Yun, who used to talk about "subversion" every day, can't understand that his company may be "subverted".
E-commerce retail (Tmall, Taobao, Taocaicai, Hema Xiansheng, etc.) is Alibaba's basic disk, which extends and creates Alibaba's current huge business empire, which contributes about 60% of Alibaba's revenue, and has become shaky, with revenue of 5653.32 yuan in fiscal 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 1.7%. In other segments, except for the international trade business, which was positively affected by the lifting of the epidemic, which rose by 13.3% year-on-year, the growth of other businesses did not exceed double digits. The market value in 2023 will be as low as 1,395.8 billion yuan, a historical low, and the market value was once surpassed by Pinduoduo.
Pinduoduo's revenue in 2023 will be 247.639 billion yuan, although the total amount is lower than Alibaba's retail industry, but its year-on-year growth is as high as 90%, and the market value in 2023 will reach 1,376.8 billion yuan, with an annual growth of more than 91%.
Why is this happening? When interviewed by Norway's sovereign wealth fund, Tsai Chongxin reflectively said:
"Because we forgot who our real customers were. Our customers are users who shop using our app and we don't give them the best experience. So in a way, we're kind of self-defeating. Tsai Chongxin said that Ali must first admit his mistakes and reshuffle personnel.
Fortunately, Tsai Chongxin was able to discover this problem in time and had the courage to bear the mistakes, but it does not mean that Ali, a big business monster, can quickly complete the transformation, and there are too many challenges and uncertainties that need to be faced.
However, from the perspective of users and consumers, I would like to talk about my most intuitive feelings about Alibaba's retail e-commerce business in recent years.
User shopping habits have really changed. As a senior online shopper, to be honest, I haven't used Tmall and Taobao shopping for more than two years, and this is when I wrote this article, I deliberately opened the shopping record and looked at it, and our last transaction record was: September 16, 2021
This is the shopping record on Tmall, as for Taobao, I should have deleted it a long time ago, so what is the online platform where I shop now?
Snacks are bought on Douyin, there are many types, and when I swiped the video, I suddenly came up where the anchor was eating, quack and fragrant, I couldn't help but click on it and place an order, and the price was real Hui.
Simple daily necessities are bought in Pinduoduo, such as socks, my lover and I hate washing socks the most, I basically buy more than 100 pairs of socks at a time in Pinduoduo now, and throw them away after wearing, one pair a day, it may be a bit luxurious, but the price is really cheap, liberating the bad experience of washing socks. And all the other small items of life, all from here.
Quality things are either bought on JD.com, or they can be bought on vertical e-commerce platforms. Hadron's Jingdong does have higher requirements for quality,For example, lovers buy cosmetics、Simple jewelry,Clothing、Shoes,Household appliances、Bedding, etc.,There is also a guarantee,After-sales is also very fast,But it has also declined in the past two years,I think this is a problem that JD needs to think about,Differentiation is very important。
For other needs, we bought them through offline stores, such as large electrical appliances, more valuable items, and so on.
The above is basically the current shopping habits of me and my family, that is to say, basically do not touch Tmall and Taobao, if a large number of original Ali users, like me, directly or slowly give up their platform, this is a fatal blow to Ali.
So why is there such a change in my shopping habits?
First, the shopping experience of Tmall and Taobao is too poor. Let's take a look at the interface, the comparison is clear at a glance:
Screenshot of the homepage of the relevant platform
The above is my search for "men's shoes casual shoes" on Tmall, Pinduoduo, and Jingdong Mall ,The screening interface presented,That is, I want to buy the type I want,Products that can meet my individual needs,You can see very clearly from the screenshot above,There are very few first-level screening columns on the left side of the Tmall screening page,And the settings can't meet my screening needs at all;Pinduoduo screening page on the left side of the first-level screening column14(There are some screenshots below),You can basically meet my personality needs;The most first-level screening columns are Jingdong,I deliberately took two pictures and put them together,More detailed。
This is one of the most important reasons why I am reluctant to use Tmall for shopping, and it is also very much in line with what Mr. Joe Tsai said, the user interaction experience is too poor.
Second, there is the problem of user stickiness. Pinduoduo has too many marketing activities, and there are many tricks, the most famous is "cut a knife", how many users are crazy to forward? How many people have been attracted to download their platform? There is also the "use first, pay later" pushed out behind their home, I can buy and use first, pay later, and I can further experience the product by extending the receipt. The other is the flexibility of payment, which provides a variety of payment methods, including WeChat payment and Alipay, which can also cover the usage habits of more user groups. At the same time, there are many gift coupons and so on, in short, all kinds of activities emerge in an endless stream, and they have not stopped, which can continue to improve and increase the user's repurchase and stickiness.
On the other hand, Tmall and JD.com, in addition to one 618 and Double 11, these activities are not only done by the two of them, all platforms will do it, and there are not many other activities that can mobilize the enthusiasm of users, which has caused the loss of a large number of users.
The above is my personal response to Mr. Tsai Chongxin's statement that Ali's backwardness is based on the loss of user experience. To sum up, that is, the decline of Alibaba's retail e-commerce business, understood from the perspective of users, is based on the price of goods, shopping experience, and user stickiness and other issues.
This may also have a lot to do with the business models of different platforms, Ali's e-commerce platform, which pays more attention to merchant advertising and promotion, needs to buy a large number of advertisements to make stores and products in the front, and like Pinduoduo, it is more likely that your goods are low in price, and the likelihood of being in the front is greater, and the input-output ratio of advertising is lower.
Of course, there may be many complex issues, I am not an e-commerce expert, I can't give too many responses, I can only put forward my views from the perspective of individuals and users, but no matter what, we don't want Ali, an enterprise that has made outstanding contributions to the development of the Internet and e-commerce, to fall into the situation of being "slapped to death" by the back waves in the future, but this requires Ali people to really understand the needs and habits of users, change and innovate new business models and user experience, so as to appear "the back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves, The situation that the front wave is higher than the back wave".
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