文 | Claire
At the end of April, Taobao and JD.com successively announced that 618 would cancel the pre-sale mechanism this year and sell directly in spots.
In previous years, the pre-sale activities have attracted a lot of complaints to Taobao JD.com, such as more expensive pre-sale goods, increased the price of the final payment, and too long delivery time. The original intention was to allow consumers to enjoy more favorable products, but the result seriously affected the shopping experience of consumers.
Under the drastic reform of Taobao and JD.com, we are about to usher in the "simplest 618 in history". Netizens applauded, saying that the pre-sale mechanism will only make them "less and more reluctant to buy", and if the platform is "less routine and more sincere", they can "directly buy their favorite products without worrying about the problem of capital occupation and long waiting during the pre-sale". There are also a small number of netizens who expressed regret, "You can book your favorite things during the pre-sale, and it will be much cheaper to pay together with a large amount of red envelopes in the end." ”
In 2010, it was the third time that JD.com held the 618 event, and 618 began to scale up that year, but the rules of the event that year can also be described as "simple and rude": full reduction, member discounts, free shipping, and point rewards, almost all the rules of the event are constituted. Ten years later, Jingdong 618, which has reached its peak in 2020, consumers already need to face very complex game rules such as pre-sales, store coupons, category coupons, seckill activities, giveaway activities, and full reductions when purchasing.
In the past 15 or 6 years, the shopping festival experience of Chinese consumers has been like a "roller coaster": at its peak, the cumulative order amount of JD 618 in 2020 was 269.2 billion yuan, and the sales volume of Taobao Double 11 in 2021 reached 498.2 billion yuan, setting a new global online single-day sales. In recent years, despite the pre-sale mechanism and the longer and longer activity period, it can still ensure that Taobao JD.com delivers a good report card, but it is difficult to hide the decline, and the weight of the carnival in the hearts of consumers has plummeted, and more and more consumers say that they do not want to do complex math problems anymore and do not want to wait for a long pre-sale period.
Nowadays, Taobao Jingdong does not pre-sell, has it really become a relief for merchants and consumers?
How to play without pre-sale?
Take the pre-sale rules of JD 618 in 2023 as an example:
The pre-sale campaign lasts from May 23 to June 3, and consumers need to pay the deposit before 19:20 on May 31, and then pay the balance by 23:59:59 on June 3.
It is true that the advantage of the pre-sale game is that the platform will limit the price of the pre-sale product to not be higher than the spot selling price during the event, and on this basis, there are also ways to play such as deposit reduction and deposit inflation, so that you can enjoy a cheaper price as a whole; But what consumers are tired of, in addition to the illegal operation of some merchants, is mainly that people are unwilling to involve too much time and energy when buying things, and many consumers with instant shopping needs also have to cooperate with platform activities and extend their waiting time.
Let's take a look at what are the 618 rules this year after Taobao and JD.com cancel the pre-sale?
In terms of Taobao and Tmall, May 20-May 31 is the first wave of activities; May 31 - June 20 is the second wave of the event, after Taobao began to build momentum at the end of April. The rules of the event have also returned to the "refreshing" mode, with only two basic gameplay methods: official instant discount + cross-store full reduction. In addition, Tmall has put forward requirements for merchants to deliver goods, such as free shipping and price protection in China's non-Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan regions, and more consumer-friendly requirements.
In terms of JD.com, starting from 20:00 on May 31, a special period, a climax period and a return period will be set up, and cross-store full discounts will be provided at the same time, and consumers can superimpose various coupons such as East Coupons and Beijing Coupons.
Of course, in order to boost sales, while canceling pre-sales, Taobao and Jingdong have also made other actions to stimulate sales, mainly around two words - low price.
Taobao and Tmall extended the overall activity cycle of 618, grabbing consumers' attention with multiple rounds of small activities before the official event. For example, from April 23rd to April 28th, an unprecedented "Taobao 10 Billion Spike Festival" was created, and under the official subsidy, consumers called the price "really fragrant". From May 6th to May 10th, the "Taobao Anniversary" activity was launched, and almost every day there were various promotional methods such as seckill, buy gifts, 5% off, and free orders.
Jingdong will focus on the official activity period, and after the 618 event officially starts on May 31, it will launch a subsidy day activity of 10 billion yuan; On June 2nd, June 3rd, and June 8th, single-day activities such as 9.9 Free Shipping Day, Super Live Day, and PLUS Member Day were launched respectively.
In any case, it has become an established fact that Taobao and JD.com, the two "first-generation e-commerce tops", cut off pre-sales. The former attracts consumers to place orders with high-frequency and continuous activities; The latter is to attract users by centralizing, low price, and combining logistics advantages to create a free shipping day.
With the left hand improving the consumer shopping experience and the right hand providing cost-effective goods, Taobao and JD.com stand in the middle to find the best solution.
The shopping platform is de-noded
Is it an inevitable trend?
Looking back on the past, why can Double 11 and 618 become shopping nodes that affect the whole people?
In the first few years, online channels were just being born, and consumers were exposed to a richer selection of products on online platforms, and cheaper prices for the same choice. In the years when the big promotion began to take shape, it happened to be accompanied by consumers' gradual establishment of trust in Taobao and JD.com, and the big promotion did provide consumers with benefits. Coupled with the lack of competition, "Taobao Double 11" and "Jingdong 618" have become two either/or options in the minds of consumers.
Another reason is that in the 2010s, Chinese residents ushered in a wave of consumption upgrades, and the large amount of stimulation of Internet commodity marketing information also deepened this consumerism to a certain extent. A 2013 survey by France's Ipsos survey company found that in 20 countries, "Chinese people are the most enthusiastic about substances." A clear signal is that there are endless spending stalks: people who go crazy to buy and buy on Double 11 are called "consumption bungee jumping"; People who don't spend much on Double 11 are collectively called "Double 11 Xiao Wu"; People who rush to pay in the first second of the settlement of the balance on Double 11 or 618 have a common slogan: "Chong, the tail payer"......
However, Chinese consumers seem to have cooled down overnight, JD.com and Taobao are no longer the "only two choices" for shopping, Double 11 and 618 have lost their appeal to them, and consumerism has gradually been replaced by popular terms such as "minimalism" and "low-materialism". The 21st Century Business Herald "Double 11" Consumer Behavior Research Report shows that consumer attitudes are becoming more and more rational, during last year's Double 11, 59.03% of respondents said that "there is no budget, order some must-buy products, and other optional products are with fate".
In Douban's "Minimalist Life" group, about #How do you practice minimalist consumerism? #话题讨论量多达1 8000+.
This actually reflects the consumption status of some Chinese. The new generation of Chinese consumers has come out of the hail of product advertising and realized that their core needs are reasonably priced goods; However, the pre-sale mechanism is obviously contrary to the core needs of consumers, and it is easy for consumers to fall into the trap of "buying for the sake of making up, buying for the sake of buying", which requires them to pay a lot of extra time and energy for the act of shopping itself. In this way, the end of the pre-sale mechanism is an inevitable drive driven by the change of consumer shopping psychology.
Let's look at the supply side. In the past, consumers still had a sense of freshness about 618 and Double 11; Last year, covering large and small tracks, Taobao had an average of 5 or 6 promotional festivals every month, and 200-20 and 300-50 became a year-round norm. Not to mention, the era of Taobao and JD.com's "two dominances" has long ended, Pinduoduo's tens of billions of subsidies, Douyin's live shopping and short video shopping, and Xiaohongshu's grass economy are all eating consumers' wallets in daily life. For example, in 618 this year, major platforms have officially announced the 618 strategy one after another, with Kuaishou shopping carnival for 42 days, Douyin investing tens of billions of traffic, and Xiaohongshu providing "three upgrades and 100 million subsidies" for stores......
After the whole platform is creating its own big promotion carnival, "there is a road in the world, and when there are more people walking, there is no road." "It has become imperative for Taobao Jingdong to de-node, or to transform traditional shopping nodes. And the cancellation of the pre-sale is just the beginning.
There are two keys to the e-commerce race:
Experience, price
The e-commerce platform promotion activity, after 20 years of joy for the guests and hosts, staggered to a fork in the road. At the fork in the road, the cancellation of pre-sales is only the tip of the iceberg of the changes made by Taobao and JD.com.
"Consumer experience" is one of the key directions of Taobao platform. For example, Taobao recently announced the largest comprehensive revision of Taobao Taobao.com in the past seven years. The person in charge of the Taobao website said, "Upgrading Taobao is part of Taobao's global experience optimization." Among them, Taobao relaunched the early forum "Taojianghu", which is probably also intended to enrich the communication and interaction of consumers and even increase the weight of content.
The most direct experience of consumers is that the rights and interests of Taobao 88VIP have been upgraded: "88VIP unlimited return package freight". Prior to this, 88VIP could only enjoy a few 5 yuan return shipping vouchers per month. From May 7th to 10th, 88 members will have the opportunity to enjoy offline experience activities of international brands such as Tiffany and Vacheron Constantin.
Of course, while Taobao offers more interesting services to consumers, some inherent problems remain unresolved. For example, some netizens think that Taobao's after-sales service is not good and so on.
On the other hand, in order to attract members, JD plus members launched the "enjoy first and pay later" last year, that is, enjoy the low price of members first, and then pay membership fees after a year, how much you save, and 149 membership fees are capped.
The measures of the two platforms show that in the future, as the competitiveness of various e-commerce platforms tends to be similar, consumers have more and more choice, and the platform will retain consumers through better "consumer experience" and membership rights, and cultivate consumers' shopping habits and loyalty, which will be one of the key points of competition among major domestic e-commerce platforms in the future.
Another change is the "low price". Taobao held the 10th anniversary free order activity from May 6th to May 10th, because of the simple gameplay and successful answers, you can get a free order opportunity of up to 9999 yuan, which has attracted the attention and participation of hundreds of millions of people.
Jingdong canceled the pre-sale on Double 11 last year, opened a low-price play, and simultaneously carried out the "10 billion subsidy" and "9.9 free shipping day" activities. Compared with last year's 618, during the Double 11 period, sales performance in all aspects have been significantly improved. As mentioned above, Taobao's "10 billion seckill festival" was also launched for the first time last month.
epilogue
Referring to Amazon, the core advantages of being able to grow into an e-commerce brand that has passed through the time cycle are: first, customer service, continuously optimizing service capabilities for Prime members, including return and exchange policies, after-sales guarantees, etc.; Second, a strong Amazon logistics and distribution system; Third, the ability to keep pace with the times, under the impact of short video platforms such as TikTok, Amazon is also actively deploying short videos, and this year it is also constantly optimizing its AI technical capabilities.
And these cores are also indispensable for Taobao, JD.com and all Chinese e-commerce platforms in the long-term competition in the future.