Second-hand e-commerce wants to "change the sky"? Multiple platforms are aiming for trade-ins

　　Exclusive article by China's well-off network

　　Text: "Xiaokang", reporter of China's well-off network, Yuan Shuai

　　For second-hand e-commerce, its old recycling model is very mature, so "what to change" and "how to change" have become important thresholds to determine whether the "replacement" business can be implemented.

　　With the increasing prosperity of consumer culture and the rapid development of science and technology, whether it is clothing, books, mobile phones, home appliances, in addition to large goods such as housing and automobiles, the upgrading speed of various products used by people is getting faster and faster, and a large number of waste products have become an urgent problem to be solved. In the context of the executive meeting of the State Council deliberating and adopting the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in", many e-commerce companies have launched trade-in business, which not only provides consumers with convenient and economical shopping options, but also promotes the development of circular economy and green consumption.

　　"New" market Xianyu, which has been focusing on reselling old things, is now aiming at the "new" market, seamlessly connecting its business with Tmall, a subsidiary of the parent group Alibaba, and extending its business tentacles. Photo by Ning Ying

　　Multiple platforms are aiming for trade-ins

　　The traditional consumption model is often "one-time use and then discard", resulting in a lot of waste of resources and environmental pollution. The emergence of trade-in business actively advocates consumers to recycle waste products and trade them through second-hand e-commerce platforms, so as to finally realize the reuse of resources. This not only reduces the need for new resources and reduces environmental pressures, but also brings economic benefits to businesses and individuals. The second-hand e-commerce platform focusing on the trading of idle goods has expanded the trade-in business, which has greatly promoted the formation of people's habit of green consumption and realized the closed loop of circular economy in the consumption field.

　　Xianyu, which has been focusing on reselling old things, is now aiming at the "replacement" market, seamlessly connecting its business with Tmall, a subsidiary of the parent group Alibaba, and extending its business tentacles. During the "Double 11" period in 2023, Xianyu and Tmall launched a "trade-in" activity for home appliances and mobile phone digital categories to promote users to replace old home appliances with high energy consumption. Consumers recycle their old mobile phones through the "worry-free selling" channel on the Xianyu homepage, and will receive an additional subsidy of 200 yuan for every 1,000 yuan, with a maximum subsidy of 800 yuan. Coupled with the deduction amount of the old machine, converted, an Apple mobile phone can be purchased at a minimum of 3.7% off. In addition, consumers can trade in the old for the new national standard first-class energy efficiency appliances within the scope of the activity, and can save up to 630 yuan through double subsidies, and can get additional green consumption vouchers. This move has boosted the platform's home appliance trade-in transaction volume by 20% year-on-year, and mobile phone trade-in transaction volume by 191.4% year-on-year.

　　This is not the first time Xianyu has tried to trade in the old for the new,During the "help sale" activity carried out in September last year,Xianyu also tested the waters and launched"iPhone15Trade-in"Program,Users who participate in the Xianyu gang sell old machines,Have the opportunity to obtain the qualification to buy new on Xianyu,After the official sale of Apple's official channels, you can buy it at the official price on Xianyu。 In this regard, Ding Jian, president of Xianyu, said that the "trade-in" policy can encourage consumers to replace old products and buy new products that are more environmentally friendly, energy-saving and efficient, which will greatly expand the circulation scale of idle items and usher in a new round of upward cycle in the idle trading industry and even the entire circular economy.

　　Tmall, which is also part of Alibaba, also announced last month that it will invest 500 million yuan in 2024 to increase the trade-in subsidy for joint merchants, expand the scope and intensity of subsidies, and expand the team to support 1,800 districts and counties across the country to deliver new and old goods. At the same time, the scope of trade-in will be expanded to home decoration and home furnishing categories, with more than 100,000 new products.

　　Not only is the Ali department represented by Xianyu optimistic about the trade-in market, but the live broadcast platforms Douyin and Kuaishou have also successively launched different preferential levels of "trade-in" services for major appliances and 3C products, and even the official websites of Suning Tesco and Gome have also joined the "trade-in" army. Last month, JD.com announced that it would invest 6.5 billion yuan in 2024 with its partners to support a new round of large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods. At present, JD.com's trade-in service has covered more than 200 sub-categories, covering more than 95% of the country's cities, towns and other regions. JD.com expects that in 2024, the number of users participating in the trade-in of home appliances will exceed 20 million on the JD platform, and at the same time, the number of old household appliances and household appliances recycled through this service will also reach a staggering more than 30 million units.

　　According to Meituan data, as of March this year, the search volume of "trade-in" services on the platform increased by more than 60% year-on-year, and the search popularity of trade-in for mobile phones, computers, home appliances, jewelry and other products is relatively high. As of March 12, the number of merchants offering trade-in services on the platform increased by 300% year-on-year, and group purchase sales increased by 150%. With the rise of trade-in business, more and more e-commerce platforms are joining this field, and the competition is becoming increasingly fierce. In order to maintain their market position, second-hand e-commerce platforms need to continuously innovate their business models and improve their service quality.

　　For what? How to change? How much can you change?

　　With consumers' recognition of the concept of green consumption and the continuous growth of the second-hand e-commerce market, the development prospects of trade-in business are very broad. For second-hand e-commerce companies that have a large number of idle commodity resources, as well as a complete logistics system and recycling mechanism, their old recycling model is very mature. Then, "what to change", "how to change" and "how much can be changed" have become important thresholds to determine whether the "new" business can be implemented. In order to solve the problem of traffic monetization, the recycling platform "Re-life", which was all the rage in Beijing, expanded the business of exchanging old clothes and second-hand books for daily necessities and supplies such as rice, flour, grain and oil. One of the major advantages of this business process is that when the staff recycles the items, they can directly deliver the items redeemed by the user on the mobile phone platform to the door, and complete the two businesses at one time, which is also beneficial to energy conservation and emission reduction.

　　It is undeniable that since the platform started as a recycling business, the "trade-in" daily necessities have not been able to get a low price, in other words, if users use the trade-in model to purchase on "re-life", they will pay higher fees than physical supermarkets or professional e-commerce platforms such as Meituan Maicai and Seven Fresh. At that time, the person in charge of "Re-life" explained this phenomenon that "the quality of the vegetables and fruits we sell is better", but consumers who can choose to trade in the old and new models are often more inclined to the cost-effectiveness of the goods, rather than just the quality. It took more than a year for "Relife" to enter its "golden age", with 250,000 registered users, 20,000 daily active users on mobile, and covering nearly 1,000 communities in Beijing, with a community penetration rate of 30% and an average daily order volume of 8,000. However, due to the failure to solve the bottleneck of trade-in, coupled with the subsequent financing problems, "re-living" eventually disappeared from people's vision.

　　In the actual operation process, second-hand e-commerce platforms also face trust problems. Some consumers have doubts about the quality and safety of second-hand goods, which restricts the development of trade-in business to a certain extent. In order to solve this problem, second-hand e-commerce platforms need to strengthen product quality supervision and improve consumer trust. At present, there is no unified standard for trade-in business in terms of product evaluation and recycling process, which may lead to large business differences between different platforms and affect the shopping experience of consumers.

　　In this regard, Ding Jian said that on the one hand, Xianyu will cooperate with relevant departments to further promote the standardized development of the idle industry. On the other hand, it will also explore a new model of convenient recycling in the digital community, and at the same time use digital capabilities to help the recycling industry upgrade its recycling methods and product technology. At the 2023 China International Trade in Services Conference, Xianyu participated in the drafting of two carbon reduction group standards, one of which is the group standard of "Technical Specifications for Project-based Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions, Resource Utilization Process in the Field of Circular Economy, and Recycling of Waste Products on Internet Platforms", which is a standardized exploration around recycling scenarios.

　　At present, the recycling service on Xianyu has covered 64 categories such as mobile phone digital, home appliances, used clothes, and used books, and door-to-door recycling can be realized in 100 cities across the country. At the beginning of this year, Xianyu also piloted the first recycling store in Hangzhou, which serves users in the surrounding area and the same city in the form of a community store, providing them with services such as consignment and recycling of physical items, covering categories such as daily consumer goods, mobile phone digital, large furniture and household appliances and even automobiles. In the past year, the number of multi-category circular orders on Xianyu has increased. Among them, the number of recurring orders generated by home appliances increased by 11% year-on-year, and the number of recurring orders generated by mobile phones increased by 17% year-on-year. As a new business model, trade-in not only promotes the development of circular economy and green consumption, but also provides consumers with more shopping options, so that people can enjoy new goods while getting the recycling value of old goods and reducing shopping costs.

　　("Xiaokang", exclusive article of China's well-off network)

　　This article was published in the late April 2024 issue of Xiaokang