The 618 war is imminent, Ali is betting on the e-commerce sector with all its might, making efforts on Taobao web version, and preparing to fight to the death with Pinduoduo.
Pinduoduo has been deeply engaged in tens of billions of subsidies, and has won an absolute dominance in overseas markets, blossoming inside and outside the wall, becoming the first heavy stock of Hillhouse HHLR.
Here comes the question, what about JD.com?
JD.com, like Ali, has changed their coaches, but they don't seem to have found a clear direction until now.
If you make an analogy with today's JD.com, I think Suning was the best reference.
In 2015, Suning, who was at its peak, bought Shuntian Football Club, and then spent a lot of money and played Jinyuan football with Xu Jiayin.
I don't know if it was influenced by Lao Xu, Suning changed from focusing on the field of electrical appliance sales to "doing everything".
Xu Jiayin is engaged in football and real estate, and Suning is engaged in it.
Ali engaged in new retail and opened small stores, and Suning immediately followed up to open small stores.
Meituan engages in offline group buying, and Suning also has to follow the layout.
Jingdong is deeply involved in express logistics, and Suning acquired Tiantian Express.
Wanda will build Wanda Cinema, and Suning will build Suning Cinema.
Logistics, finance, science and technology, real estate, cultural and creative and sports, Suning has launched an all-round attack to try to bloom.
But the question is, what about later?
In this era, it is difficult for enterprises to have a foothold in the industry without a business "specialized, special and new".
The core of Pinduoduo is low price, the core of Ali is market accumulation and status, what is the direction of JD.com?
Now JD.com is also doing everything.
360 engaged in Internet financial lending, and JD took out JD Finance.
Meituan is engaged in food delivery, while JD.com has entered the food delivery industry.
Xiaomi started to engage in automobiles, and JD.com also announced in-depth cooperation with Xiaomi to help Xiaomi cars open up the retail field and improve Xiaomi's logistics efficiency.
Baidu and iFLYTEK engaged in large models, and Jingdong did not fall behind, and released the "Yanxi large model".
The live broadcast did not fall behind, and Liu Qiangdong's "AI clone" personally brought the goods, but now there is no sound.
In 2022, Liu Qiangdong was angry at JD.com's internal meeting, angrily criticizing JD.com for losing its low-price advantage, saying:
"If it goes on like this, sooner or later it will become the second Suning."
Dongge's cognition is very clear: Jingdong is Suning.
In contrast to Jingdong's attack, Liu Qiangdong's worth.
Since 2021, Dongge's ranking on the "Hurun Global Rich List" has been declining, from 54th to 427th, compared with last year, the ranking has dropped by 291, and his wealth has shrunk by nearly half.
used to compare the market value with Pinduoduo, but now I find that Pinduoduo is already as high as 2 Yao Ming.
Although Liu Qiangdong has returned to the C position since last year, criticizing executives, changing executives, and reintroducing the low-price strategy, it is difficult for JD.com to raise its voice whether it is market feedback or financial report data.
Taking last year's financial data, JD.com's annual revenue in 2023 will be 1,084.7 billion yuan, an increase of only 3.7% year-on-year, of which the revenue of daily necessities will decrease by 4.8% year-on-year to 332.425 billion yuan.
In comparison, Alibaba's growth was 9%, and Pinduoduo's was 90% (thanks to the expansion of overseas markets).
Dong Ge did not work hard, he reflected on himself, "There are so many problems, of course, I mismanaged, I blame myself very much." ”
The recent expansion in short videos and e-commerce live streaming is also a self-breakthrough.
However, others have already had these gimmicks, and it is difficult for JD.com's every popularity to be transformed into its own competitive intensity.
Although Dong Ge also criticized the executives for deviating from the core of the business strategy, insufficient consideration of cost, efficiency, and experience, he also wrote internal letters many times to encourage the brothers.
But this kind of criticism and substitution does not give people a feeling of rebirth like Ali.
In terms of price reduction, last year's "10 billion subsidy" war, Jingdong announced that it would lower the threshold for free shipping of self-operated goods, and make efforts in digital products, but the final transaction data is mediocre compared to Ali and Pinduoduo.
On the live broadcast, Jingdong brought Luo Yonghao to cooperate, but it did not achieve a phenomenal breakthrough, and Jingdong did not have a head anchor.
In terms of going overseas, Jingdong has no momentum to go out.
From the current point of view, before this year's 618 war, Jingdong has not yet taken out a big killer that can turn itself over.
At present, JD.com's latest action is to launch the "JD Second Delivery" service, which is combined with the "Dada Express" delivered in the same city, to achieve the fastest delivery of retail goods in 9 minutes.
Although JD.com's logistics and services are still very strong, in the face of absolute low-price tactics, these two grips are not an antidote.
Because the consumer experience includes three elements - price, quality and service, the low price is "1", the last two are "0", there is no low price, no matter how good the service and quality are 0.
In today's e-commerce field, JD is no longer the second, but the third.
In the face of absolute competitive pressure, Jingdong must make strange moves and strange moves, and first consider how to survive.
Seeking change may not be successful; If you don't change, you will fail.
What should JD.com do?
Ali's answer is: apprenticeship from Pinduoduo.
But if JD wants to counterattack, it must do more than Ali.
One is to put down the high-end e-commerce shelf, explore the market outside the Fifth Ring Road, and stand in the sinking market to see the sinking market, don't think that it is enough to copy the experience of big cities.
The second is to change the narrative logic of e-commerce and find differentiated ways to play, such as "Pinduoduo without fakes" and so on.
If you don't go crazy, you can't live, you can't give up your blood, and you can't trap a wolf.
In my opinion, this year's 618 will be the decisive moment for China's e-commerce.
The reason is: many e-commerce companies have begun to open up overseas markets, and the domestic increment has peaked, and the back is full of bayonets.
The emerging live broadcast e-commerce greatly challenges the pattern of traditional e-commerce, Dong Yuhui can support the selection of Dongfang by himself, and his personal IP has the potential to surpass the platform IP, and the future industry is about to be reshuffled.
Therefore, before this 618, Jingdong had to solve the problem, had to solve the problem, stabilized the basic disk with one hand, and sought a hard landing of transformation with the other.
Only by breaking the cauldron can the Jedi be reborn.
Even if you win miserably by means of reducing blood costs, you will win.
This is also the only way for JD to travel to the next era!