Recently, there was a big incident in the express delivery industry.
During the May Day period, Pinduoduo was exposed to the main operating company of Duoduo Grocery Shopping won the express delivery business license. On the same day, its stock price rose by more than 10%. The market's attention to Pinduoduo's express logistics can be seen.
So, what is Pinduoduo going to do in logistics with the new express brand "Pinduoduo Station" after winning the express business license? Will it have an impact on today's express delivery market pattern?
Two years ago, the "pause button" was pressed
First of all, let's talk about Pinduoduo being exposed to obtain a license for express delivery business.
According to the inquiry on the official website of the State Post Bureau, Shanghai Yucan Information Technology Co., Ltd. has obtained a license to open a service station to operate express delivery business (except letters), which is valid until September 20, 2028, and the express service brand is "Pinduoduo Station", with a registered capital of 3.5 million US dollars.
In fact, the name "Pinduoduo Station" and Shanghai Yucan Information Technology Co., Ltd. (that is, the main body of Duoduo Grocery Shopping Operation) make this matter worth pondering.
Why? We have to start with the end war caused by Duoduo grocery shopping two years ago.
In 2022, I don't know if you still remember that more than a year of grocery shopping, it can be said that you have been singing all the way and being prosperous. Relying on financial resources to enter the end market, at that time also launched Duoduo Station, signed cooperation agreements with express companies such as Zhongtong, Yuantong, Shentong, and Post, and established a sign-off system.
Especially at that time, Duoduo bought groceries: for the stock of the site, provide software, provide express collection and delivery technical solutions, do not draw commissions, do not intercept the pickup code, and there is no terminal brand, all information is sent back to the express company.
Duoduo Station, which does not charge SMS fees, does not need to download fixed apps, does not draw commissions, and has subsidies, has immediately gained a large number of site support, and the daily order volume has exceeded 31 million in just one month. This had a huge impact on the end pattern at the time.
Many post station companies and express cabinet companies immediately alerted and launched a counterattack to defend themselves, such as prohibiting franchised sites from using the Duoduo grocery system, public opinion warfare, etc.
Among them, in the battlefield of public opinion, there is an attack on Duoduo Buy, that is, there is no express business license qualification. At that time, some media said that some insiders said that the Duoduo grocery system did not have the license to operate express delivery business.
After this battle, Pinduoduo's layout on the end was paused that year.
Two years later, it won the express business license
And today, two years later, Pinduoduo won the express business license, and it is reasonable to guess that it may restart the terminal development.
It is worth noting that Pinduoduo has not only won the license in the Shanghai area, the official website of the State Post Bureau shows that the business of Pinduoduo Station is also distributed in Nanjing, Guangxi, Shandong, Shanxi and Hunan, and many companies such as Nanjing Yucan Information Technology Co., Ltd. and Guangxi Yucan Information Technology Co., Ltd. have also obtained the license for the service station to operate express delivery business (except for letters).
Previously, Pinduoduo's logistics capacity building was more focused on the construction of cold chain logistics, warehousing and distribution and other supply chain systems, and at the end, it mainly adopted third-party cooperation methods, and established good cooperative relations with SF, Zhongtong, Yuantong, Yunda, J&T, postal and other express delivery companies.
Although there is a certain degree of control in the key links, the control is still slightly weak at the end.
And Pinduoduo, which won the express delivery business license in many regions in one fell swoop, is obviously able to do more in the "last mile".
So why this point in time?
Latecomer pressure
This brings us back to the current e-commerce competition landscape.
At the end of November last year, Pinduoduo's market value once surpassed Alibaba's and became the largest Chinese concept stock in the U.S. stock market.
Not long ago, in March this year, Pinduoduo released its fourth quarter and annual results report for the year ended December 31, 2023. According to the financial report, Pinduoduo's annual revenue in 2023 will be 247.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 90%. The net profit was 60 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 90%.
The growth rate of 90% year-on-year is unrivaled among today's e-commerce companies. There is a lot of pressure on several others, so it has also caused the entire industry to enter a price war again. JD.com and Ali have followed up with the low-price strategy.
This also puts pressure on Pinduoduo, and once the rival's low-price strategy works, the inherent market share will inevitably be siphoned off. Especially when the price of the opponent is pulled to the same level as yours, other supporting services have become the key to winning the market.
Logistics happens to be an extremely important part of it, and it is the weak link of Pinduoduo compared with its peers.
There is no doubt about the ability of Jingdong Logistics, 211, home delivery, etc. have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, covering all towns and villages in the country in the layout of the sinking market.
The rookie has also carried out the integration of the business department before, and the original rookie post station and rookie village were merged into the rookie terminal & App business group, and also worked together with Taotian in January this year, hoping to form an integrated collaboration of business flow and logistics in the sinking market.
At this time, Pinduoduo revealed that it won the express business license in many places, and set the express brand name as "Pinduoduo Station", and had to guess the pressure of Pinduoduo in the logistics supply chain, which is to continue the terminal network expansion that was not completed 2 years ago? Or is it the rise of a new courier force?
Is Pinduoduo Station defensive or offensive?
At present, the market information is limited, just from the naming point of view, the "post station" is more inclined to the positioning of the end layout of the sinking market, or there will be more actions on the end of the network.
Express expert Cai Weiyang believes that Pinduoduo's move is likely to be a strategic resource reserve and a defensive layout.
From the perspective of starting the layout of the post station again, the post station has its own ability to absorb traffic, because the collection point and the express company do not have the authority to know the pickup code, and only the system provider can provide it, and the system will master the right to obtain and intercept the pickup code, which can force consumers to use a specific APP to obtain traffic, and then realize the traffic through traffic; At the same time, the management ability of the post station system can also be realized through the pickup code, short interest fee, commission and other ways; In addition, the data management of parcels on various e-commerce platforms can also provide data analysis support for associated e-commerce enterprises, so as to make better decisions, which has great data value.
However, judging from the development history of e-commerce, the final direction is the same way. So from the perspective of higher-level e-commerce competition, will Pinduoduo also have the basis for self-construction or self-operation of key links to win the express delivery business license in the future?
Once the underlying market is stable, the platform will inevitably extend its tentacles to new areas, get new growth poles, and achieve new growth scale. At present, Pinduoduo's largest chassis is still sinking into the market, and it is unknown to invest a certain amount of energy in the field of high value-added in the future, and the corresponding need to match high-quality logistics resources, at this time, it needs its own logistics force that can be controlled.
From this point of view, on the basis of the economic express delivery of J&T, a reliable ally, Pinduoduo Station may also become its controllable ability to improve the quality of logistics in the future.
However, whether it is defense or offense, we still need to see the specific landing action of Pinduoduo Station, and I look forward to it.
Author | Zhou Yanqing
Source | Logistics Salon
This article is the author's personal opinion and does not represent the position of Logistics Salon