Don't let the members of e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Pinduoduo, and JD.com spoil it

Judging from the data, major e-commerce platforms are pushing members, why are Taobao, Pinduoduo, and Jingdong all asking people to buy members? There are so many membership routines on e-commerce platforms, so can members of e-commerce platforms still buy them?

Now you can open Taobao, Pinduoduo, Jingdong, Vipshop, Suning Tesco and other e-commerce apps, the platform will continue to prompt you to buy VIP, become a "distinguished member" of the platform, in a variety of coupons, discount coupons and services and other temptations, if you are a high-frequency user of a platform, it is easy to be impressed by these membership services.

Alibaba's Q1 2024 financial report shows that the number of 88VIP members exceeds 35 million. As early as the end of 2022, JD.com announced that the number of registered JD PLUS members reached 34 million by the end of the fourth quarter. Vipshop also mentioned in its Q4 2022 financial report that the number of Vipshop super VIP active users increased to 6.7 million.

Judging from the above data, the major e-commerce platforms are pushing members, and have achieved good results, why are Taobao, Pinduoduo, and Jingdong all asking people to buy members? What exactly is the purpose of making users become members?

1. Multiple screening

First, enhance user stickiness. Whether it is Taobao, Pinduoduo, Jingdong, Vipshop, Suning Tesco and other traditional e-commerce platforms, or Douyin, Kuaishou, Xiaohongshu and other emerging e-commerce platforms, users choose online shopping channels are very rich, which means that the competition between platforms will be very fierce, however, users' perception of this aspect is not high, this is because in recent years, the confrontation and competition between e-commerce companies are almost invisible, and they have formed a situation of "quiet years".

However, although there is no competition on the surface, hidden competition occurs all the time, such as short videos, live broadcasts, and short dramas. According to Guo Jing's observation in the Internet circle, since short dramas have become a popular category, Pinduoduo, Jingdong, Taobao and other platforms have also launched short drama functions on the "video" channel.

Allowing users to become members on the platform is also a means of implicit competition, and when users buy members of the platform, their user stickiness will be greatly enhanced.

Let's take a look at the membership prices of each platform:

Taobao 88VIP annual card 88 yuan / year;

Pinduoduo money-saving monthly card is different for each user, ranging from 0 to 9.9 yuan, and 10 yuan/month the next month;

JD Plus membership 99 yuan/year;

Suning Tesco Super member: 149 yuan/year;

Vipshop Super VIP has a continuous annual package of 79 yuan/year.

Compared with a few years ago, the threshold and membership fee price of various platforms have been greatly reduced, and the platform hopes to attract more users to become members to a greater extent, after all, there are more than 100 million members of video websites and digital music platforms, and there is still room for further improvement in the membership scale of e-commerce platforms.

The membership service of the platform is actually to allow users to make choices on various platforms, once they choose to become a member of a certain platform, his purchase frequency on the platform will inevitably increase, and after this habit is gradually formed, the purchase frequency of other platforms will be greatly reduced.

Membership is a more effective means to enhance user stickiness, because users have done "voting with money" behind their backs.

Second, screen out high-quality users. In the face of hundreds of millions of users on the platform, the exact same model and gameplay cannot maximize ROI, some users pay more attention to the service quality of the platform, some users care more about the price, some users care more about the speed of logistics and distribution, and different needs naturally need to match different services.

Through membership play, the platform can achieve user stratification, so as to screen out high-quality users, and in the face of high-quality users, the platform can naturally match better services and preferential strategies.

Many people think that e-commerce platforms launch membership services to "make money", but they are not. According to the current membership scale of various e-commerce platforms, even if it is 149 yuan / year, the platform may not be able to make money. When a user buys a membership, they need the corresponding services to match, such as coupons, free shipping coupons, manual customer service, etc., and these all require costs.

So, some people will definitely say, are e-commerce platforms stupid? Losing money makes users become members, and of course the platform does not lose, because after users buy members, their purchase frequency will increase, and as long as users buy more, the platform will definitely make money in the end.

So, what can the platform do after screening out high-quality users? One is to recommend more products to users that match their needs, and the other is to unite with other merchants so that merchants can make money.

In short, the e-commerce platform allows users to buy members, which is certainly not specifically used to earn membership fees, but multiple screening, as long as the user buys a membership, the platform will win a step in the competition with other platforms.

2. Members of the flavor change

Tends to have a better online shopping experience, in fact, I have bought a few times the membership of an e-commerce platform, but the membership of the e-commerce platform is gradually becoming sour.

The membership service of the platform is not static, according to Guo Jing's observation in the Internet circle, the membership of the platform will gradually change with the extension of time, for example, the membership rights bought this year may be these, but some of the membership rights and interests of the next year will be removed. During this time, there are also membership benefits such as listening to songs and network disks, and these benefits may disappear quietly after a while. This period of time is called "XXX value", but after a while it becomes "XXX level".

Before purchasing a membership, the platform said that it would give away coupons for all categories, but once users become members, they will find that the so-called exaggerated coupons can actually be used very little. As the membership lengthens, there are almost no coupons for the later period.

The point that is more harmful to member users is: consumers think that after buying members, the platform will have exclusive member discounts, but in fact, after a pass, they found that what this and that member, the purchase price of some users is much cheaper than the membership price, if two people take a mobile phone to compare, they will find that the so-called membership is a proper drop of "big injustice", whoever buys a member will be fooled. But at this time, you have already paid for the membership, you can only stare dryly, and you can only say whether you will continue to buy the membership next year or not.

In addition to platform members, users may also become members of a certain merchant, so when it comes to 618 and double 11, there will be store coupons, general coupons, festival coupons, category coupons, membership coupons and other coupons.

The membership service of the e-commerce platform is either faced with a reduction in membership rights, or the membership rights and interests are useless at all, and the price of various coupons for members is not as good as that of ordinary users.

3. Can members of e-commerce platforms still buy it?

Since there are so many membership routines on e-commerce platforms, can members of e-commerce platforms still buy them? The answer is yes. At present, the membership rights and interests of e-commerce platforms are mainly concentrated in three points:

First, free shipping;

second, exclusive manual customer service;

Third, return and exchange worry-free.

While various other membership benefits are shrinking and changing, these three basic membership benefits are robust.

Some netizens said on social networks, "It's becoming more and more difficult to stimulate consumption now." "Consumption certainly needs to be stimulated, but there is also the consumption of users themselves. The competition of e-commerce is actually more in competition with the entire consumer industry, judging from the financial reports of Alibaba and JD.com in the Q1 quarter of 2024, its growth rate has begun to rise gradually.

I don't know if you have found it, now there are fewer and fewer people who go to traditional shopping malls and large supermarkets, which has a lot to do with the rapid development of e-commerce, and the members of the major e-commerce platforms have launched free shipping services, allowing users to buy bottles of vinegar and buy boxes of water, which can be done through online shopping, as long as they are not particularly urgent, online shopping on the same day, the next day, and can help users send them to the door, plus the price is cheaper than offline shopping malls and supermarkets, and users have fewer reasons to go to shopping malls and consume.

Nowadays, most of the shopping malls and supermarkets are driven by the consumption of the elderly, and young people prefer to use online shopping, which is cheap and convenient. Free shipping greatly reduces the user's various concerns about online shopping, anyway, don't need shipping, just buy it. The exclusive manual customer service and worry-free returns and exchanges allow users to dare to shop online.

How far has the e-commerce industry got? In the past, netizens thought that "refund only" was very authentic, but I didn't expect that some platforms would send users a few yuan of threshold-free coupons after discovering that users were "refund only", although the money is not much, but the sincerity of this treatment of users really overflowed all of a sudden.

For the platform, the value of member users is obviously greater than that of ordinary users, but as a user, I still hope that the platform can have fewer routines and treat people as people, rather than playing tricks, Taobao, Pinduoduo, Jingdong, Vipshop, Suning Tesco...... Which platform is not to buy, provoke users, change the platform.

Columnist

Guo Jing, WeChat public account: Guo Jing's Internet circle, everyone is a product manager columnist. He is a self-media person, a member of Baidu 100 authors, a member of Sohu Technology's self-media, a columnist of Titanium Media, a columnist of NetEase Technology, and a long-term contributor to many magazines. Pay attention to the Internet, pay attention to TMT, and be an original dog in the Internet field with your heart.

Image from Unsplash, based on the CC0 license

The views in this article only represent the author's own, everyone is a product manager, and the platform only provides information storage space services.