Source: Uncle Almighty
During this year's May Day holiday, it is said that train tickets are more difficult to grab than the Spring Festival.
The consumption enthusiasm driven by travel has increased instead of decreasing.
Under this large consumption node, major e-commerce companies have started a "traffic war".
Uncle saw that there was a platform to attract traffic through the "big guy digital human live broadcast", and netizens said: "It's so real"!
Some platforms put the focus of "traffic competition" on "users".
For example, Tmall 88VIP.
On April 22, Tmall announced that 88VIP can achieve "freedom of return".
This is a major upgrade for 88VIP rights this year.
Specific upgraded services include, but are not limited to:
(Swipe up and down to view the benefits of 88VIP Shopping Monthly Card)
Uncle makes a simple "translation":
1. Go shopping on Taobao casually, and you don't have to worry about "paying postage for returning goods if you buy too much". 88VIP can return unlimited packages for shipping!
2. If you book a hotel on May Day, 88VIP has the rights and interests of "Marriott Gold Card" and "Hilton One Stay".
3. In addition to the annual card, 88VIP launched a shopping monthly card for the first time, and as long as you pay 8.8 yuan in the first month, you can also enjoy the upgrade of core rights and services such as "unlimited return package freight" and "Hilton One Residence Upgrade".
In the era of traffic, shouldn't the "e-commerce war" refer to the "Beijing Auto Show" and the "Thousand Model War" to create events and topics through public relations to compete for traffic?
"88VIP", what kind of elixir is contained in the "treasure gourd"?
Uncle analyzes from 3 angles.
1. Why choose before May Day?
This is because:
Under decentralized traffic, the "e-commerce war" is undergoing great changes, and it is better to be "user-oriented" than "traffic-oriented", because the essence of "traffic" is users.
Uncle gives a simple example.
Some time ago, the uncle saw that a user complained about a certain brand's products on Xiaohongshu and had some problems. As a result, the editor of this brand quickly replied to the user, not only inviting the user to be the brand's experience hall, but also giving away some additional products.
When many brands are anxious about how to find KOLs and KOCs in Xiaohongshu, in fact, brands should pay more attention to users' "complaints" in Xiaohongshu, and how to transform "complaints" into "satisfaction" is the essence of social traffic competition.
From this entry point, looking back at Taotian's strategy, it is relatively clear.
Before May Day, it is not a traditional e-commerce promotion node, but the "momentum" of online and offline consumption during the May Day holiday is clear. Taotian took advantage of this node to choose to focus on upgrading the "88VIP" membership rights and interests to "pamper" users, and the goal was to rehearse and store water for the "traffic battle" in the second half of this year.
2. Why should we "pamper" users?
Because the nature of competing for traffic is changing. Whether it is people, goods, or full-link marketing, or grass planting methodology, the essence of everything is user value!
In the past, it was "low price + low quality", and more attention was paid to the "pre-sale" value. Now, it is "low price + high quality", and pay attention to "pre-sales and after-sales" at the same time. Because consumers' pursuit of high cost performance has always existed, but the goal is to meet the "high quality" of life.
Therefore, "pampering" users, providing a variety of discounts and benefits, and then solving the pain point of "high postage for return and exchange" is equivalent to dispeling user concerns at both ends of "pre-sale and after-sale", and effectively supporting the habit reshaping of "users love to visit Taobao".
In February this year, Taotian Group proposed that in the coming year, the platform will increase investment in improving the core user experience to support Taotian Group to regain growth and consolidate its market leadership, and at the same time, emphasized the "user-centric" platform strategy!
There are so many Taotian users, why choose 88VIP members first?
3. Why choose "88VIP Member"?
Because, 88VIP members are the "highest value" user group of Taotian system.
88VIP users themselves are the most valuable group of people in the entire Tao system. It not only has high-frequency consumption, high customer unit price and high repurchase rate, but also has a "strong grass planting force" on major social platforms and content planting platforms. Only by "pampering" this group of people first can there be traffic spillover effect and word-of-mouth effect.
Data shows that in 2023, the number of 88VIP members has exceeded 32 million.
From this point of view, Taotian platform's emphasis on "88VIP members" users seems to be a kind of transformation, but in fact, it is more like a return, and it is also a subversion of "traditional production relations", allowing consumers to regain the happiness of "buying, buying, buying".
Based on this strategy, we see that the "88VIP Shopping Monthly Card" was launched at an ultra-low price of "8.8 yuan in the first month", which, on the surface, directly lowered the experience threshold of "88VIP" rights. From the perspective of "growth", Taotian hopes to effectively drive the growth of new users and open up a broader "traffic pool" for the platform by "giving consumers actual services and rights".
To sum up, the uncle will make a simple summary.
Before May Day, Tmall announced a comprehensive upgrade of 88VIP's membership rights, and the "marketing strategy" behind it may be:
1. The "traffic battle" of e-commerce platforms has returned from "competing for advertising traffic" to "competing for pampered users";
2. 88VIP members with more than 30 million users are not only the most valuable user group on the Taotian platform, but also can help Taotian "plant grass" and expand the "traffic pool" on more social platforms.
3. From "low price + low quality" to "low price + high quality" consumer demand upgrade, the reverse requires the platform to completely dispel users' consumption concerns in "pre-sales and after-sales", and "unlimited return package freight" is just needed, and the extremely low threshold of "8.8 yuan in the first month" just complements the strategy of 1 and 2 to achieve a positive cycle.
Therefore, we must not underestimate the butterfly effect brought about by such a "service upgrade".