After the "Double Eleven" last year, Jiefang Daily Shangguan News published a report "No shopping frequently received express delivery pushes? Reporter witnessed: it is actually a single empty envelope, and when you get to the outlet, you will be thrown into the trash. The reporter secretly visited some express delivery outlets in Shencheng and saw a large number of empty envelopes with courier numbers attached to the outlets. These are the so-called "empty packages", for Taobao, Jingdong, Pinduoduo and other shopping platforms of some shopping platforms after the brush order, most of these pieces after the logistics process to the delivery network is discarded, Shencheng residents frequently receive express push but have not received parcels the reason is also because of this.
Although the major shopping stations have continuously increased their crackdown, the phenomenon of "empty packages" has not been curbed in the past year since the report was published. The reporter saw in the 12345 citizen service hotline that with the popularity of logistics software such as "rookie wrapping", "empty packages" often display and push information for the first time, and a large number of Shencheng residents continue to repeatedly complain about receiving logistics pushes of "empty packages", which is annoying and more worried about the leakage of personal information behind them.
Why is the phenomenon of "empty packages" getting worse? In addition to the merchant brush order, what is the reason? Another year of "Double Eleven" is approaching, and the reporters of Jiefang Daily and Shangguan News have once again conducted an in-depth investigation of this phenomenon.
Throw away hundreds of "empty packages" every week
On October 19, Mr. Zhang, a citizen, called "12345" for help, saying that he had received more than 100 express delivery pushes in the past month or so. Text messages like "The store sent you a package, please pay attention to check it", most of the time you can receive six or seven times a day, but these packages have never actually been received, obviously they are "empty packages". Allegedly, the information of these "empty packages" was pushed to a "182" mobile phone under his name. And this mobile phone number, not long ago was used to shop on the "Pinduoduo" platform, Mr. Zhang analyzed, it is this purchase that led to the leakage of personal information.
Since August this year, Mr. Tang, a citizen, has also been deeply disturbed by "empty packages". The "Rookie Wrap" app on his phone pushes five or six package messages sent to him every day. Bizarrely, Mr. Tang is in Shanghai, but these parcel delivery addresses are all over the country, with the address "Jingtai Haoting, Baishan Town, Hefei City, Anhui Province" appearing the most often. The reporter checked a large number of single numbers provided by Mr. Tang, taking best express "557069091779639" as an example, the piece was collected from Shanghai Qingpu on October 15, sent to the above "Jingtai Haoting" address, October 17 at 2:29 p.m. arrived at the "Lujiang" outlets to start delivery, but only 3 minutes later, the logistics records have shown "initial signing". Obviously, the outlet knew that the piece was an "empty package" and directly signed for it and processed it.
△ The picture shows the logistics information of an "empty package" provided by Mr. Tang. He is obviously in Shanghai, and the address of the parcel is "Jingtai Haoting, Baishan Town, Hefei City, Anhui Province".
In "12345", there are many similar reflections, and it can be seen that there are many "empty packages". It is worth noting that as regulators and platforms strengthen supervision, pure "empty packages" such as empty envelopes that reporters have seen before have begun to decrease, replaced by "empty packages" stuffed with worthless small objects. For example, Ms. Li of Pudong New Area reported that 15 such "empty packages" have been received since September.
Since stuffed things, according to the current express delivery method, most of these pieces will enter the rookie station, the reporter decided to find a station to understand the situation. On October 25, the reporter came to No. 74 Chifeng Road. This is a large station of more than 100 square meters, responsible for transiting express parcels near Tongji University. At nearly 10:00 a.m., the entrance to the station was busy, a number of courier companies were unloading goods, and the pick-up students were endless. The reporter went inside to find the person in charge, Mr. Zheng, to inquire, he listened to the intentions, and even said "too much" several times. He led the reporter to the innermost row of shelves, randomly drew one from the middle row of untapped couriers and handed it to the reporter, claiming that it was an "empty package". It was a package sent from Wuhan to Tongji University in Shanghai on October 5, code-named "kps" and a mobile phone number. The black wrapping bag was empty, and I couldn't feel what was inside it when I squeezed it repeatedly. Mr. Zheng opened it in front of his face, and inside was a paper bag of lavender the size of a coffee candy packet.
△No. 74 Chifeng Road Rookie Station.
△ Among the stranded express mail on the shelves, there are many "empty packages".
"At first glance, you know it's 'empty packages.'" Mr. Zheng took the reporter out of several shelves with a large number of similar packages, which contained various items, such as a pack of paper towels, a clip the size of a fingernail cap, a workbook, a wet wipe, and so on... Mr. Zheng told reporters that the mobile phone numbers of the recipients of these pieces are valid, but most of the addresses do not match, and no one will come to pick them up; occasionally someone comes to take them, and when they open them, they are also very annoyed to see such a thing. The station cleans up once a week, signs off and discards them, "throwing away at least a few hundred pieces a week." ”
△ The reporter found that many "empty packages" were sent to the recipients of the code name "kps", which contained worthless sachets. The reporter called the recipient, who is located in Putian, Fujian Province, claiming that he had never stayed at Tongji University.
Taobao merchants brushed more than 21,000 orders a day
Where do so many "empty packages" come from? On the express delivery slips of some "empty packages" seen at No. 74 Chifeng Road, various trade names were printed. For example, inside is a small bag of sand "empty package", the courier slip is impressively written "feed bee pollen 5 pounds, disinfectant 1 bottle"; the express delivery surface list is "luxury stainless steel frame" of the "empty package", which is a piece of corrugated paper. It is not difficult to see that these pieces are produced after some platform merchants brush sales.
△ The picture shows some of the "empty packages" in the station, and the items inside are various.
A Taobao shop owner told reporters that although major platforms continue to crack down on single brushing behavior, in fact, single brushing behavior is common, and almost every store will brush a little. The most direct motivation for merchants to brush orders is to brush sales, brush ratings, and then affect the ranking of search results in order to win traffic. For some stores, "Double Eleven" sales may account for one-third of the year, so it is common to brush sales in October in advance.
On October 21, Mr. Zhang, a citizen, reported through "12345" that a Taobao Tmall merchant named "Sai Tong Flagship Store" had a single brushing behavior. According to him, the sales volume was a product in the store called "Professional Dubbing Production Advertisement". On October 27, the reporter entered the store and saw that the price of the product was 5 yuan, providing the buyer with a text, and the seller made a dubbing file for it, and charged according to the number of words. The page shows that the monthly sales of the product have reached more than 20,000 pieces, more than 10,000 people have confirmed the receipt of the goods, and there are more than 5,000 reviews.
△The picture shows a product called "Professional Dubbing Production Advertisement" in the "Sai Tong Flagship Store". The page shows that the monthly sales of the product have reached more than 20,000 pieces.
△ Taobao software shows that the "professional dubbing production advertisement" product has just been "updated" on October 18.
On October 31, the reporter logged on to Taobao again, searched for the keyword "dubbing" and ranked by sales, and found that the number of confirmed recipients had risen to more than 20,000, and the "Sai Tong flagship store" had ranked first in the whole Taobao.
△ Searching for "dubbing" as a keyword and ranking by sales, "Sai Tong Flagship Store" has now ranked first in the whole Taobao.
Mr. Zhang said in the report that the above-mentioned brilliant sales of Sai Tong were brushed out. Why? He provided background data obtained through Ali's "business staff", and the "competitive analysis" function showed that Sai Tong's dubbed goods had been zero sales before October 19, and suddenly "broke out" on October 19, with the number of visitors as high as 21,876 people, the transaction volume was actually 21,876, the payment conversion rate reached 100%, and the unit price of the customer was 3.03 yuan. Mr. Zhang said that normally operating stores cannot present such data, and it must be brushed out, "not to mention whether it is possible to sell tens of thousands of pieces a day." Taking the conversion rate as an example, everyone who has been on Taobao knows that how can every buyer who clicks into the page place an order? Mr. Zhang provided data from another of the top similar stores for comparison, and the daily conversion rate of the store ranged from 20% to 40%, and the number of daily payments also fluctuated from more than 100 to more than 400 people, with obvious differences.
△ Ali's "business staff" "competitive analysis" function shows that Sai Tong's dubbing product suddenly "broke out" on October 19, with the number of visitors as high as 21,876, and the transaction volume was actually 21,876.
Mr. Zhang analyzed that the store chose to brush the order on October 19, which can maintain the leading ranking for one month, and the intention is very obvious, that is, to grab a wave of traffic on Double Eleven. According to the Taobao Tmall page, the operator of the store is "Shenzhen Shinian Trade Co., Ltd." Mr. Zhang told reporters that before that, he had reported to the Shenzhen market supervision department. The relevant departments in Shenzhen reported to him that the company had already moved out of Shenzhen on June 10, and the place of relocation was an address on Yongchun East Road in Datuan Town, Pudong New Area, Shanghai. Therefore, he turned to Shanghai to report it.
The reporter learned from an intermediary that provides a single brushing service that the reason why there is a 100% conversion rate is because the merchant chooses the most basic brushing service, that is, the intermediary directly provides a link, and the brusher in the "fish pond" clicks to place an order, and such a brushing order generally charges 2 yuan a single. In order to circumvent platform supervision, many merchants will choose the "fine brush" service of 10 yuan a single to reduce the traces of brushing. If the brush is a physical product, the intermediary will also provide "empty package" delivery service, a fee of more than 1 yuan.
Express delivery companies are also the "main force" of brushing orders
That's how "empty packages" came into being. However, according to the reporter's further understanding, it is not only the merchants of platforms such as Taobao who brush orders, but also the express delivery companies that are also the "main force" of brushing orders. Moreover, because the express delivery company has a large amount of customer data, it is more convenient to brush the order operation.
Since September this year, Ms. Xue, a Beijing resident, has reported through Shanghai "12345" that she was previously a franchisee of Yuantong Express in Tongzhou District, Beijing. According to her, according to the requirements of YTO headquarters, outlets need to operate brush orders in the case of a difference in monthly business volume and an average monthly package weight exceeding the standard. During the "Double Eleven" period last year, the outlets she operated had an additional fee for each order because the average package weight exceeded 1.5 kilograms. In order to reduce this part of the fee, she brushed more than 110,000 additional pieces in the same city at the end of November last year. These pieces all end up with "empty packages" and are weighted at 0.1 kg per piece, thereby reducing the average monthly package weight.
△ The Chat Record of the WeChat Work Group provided by Ms. Xue shows that when the business volume of the outlets is not up to standard, Ms. Xue is required to purchase a face sheet in the same city to brush the order.
△ After the end of "Double Eleven" last year, in order to reduce the average weight of the monthly package, her outlets purchased 110,000 electronic face sheets for brushing orders. The picture shows the purchase record of the same city electronic face sheet provided by Ms. Xue. She told reporters that normal outlets will only buy "comprehensive electronic face sheets", and "same city electronic face sheets" are only used for brushing orders.
Ms. Xue told the whole process of brushing orders. She needs to place an order in YTO's "King Kong" system, buy the electronic face single number at a price of 1.95 yuan each, and the system will match the recipient and form an "empty package" shipment. The chat records provided by Ms. Xue show that the "empty packages" of these brush orders will return her basic dispatch fee of 1 yuan and a discount of 0.75 yuan for large customers, which translates to 0.2 yuan for each single brushing cost. Ms. Xue told reporters that the recipients of these "empty packages" are real and effective in the system, and some of the "empty packages" have also flowed to the areas she operates, and are signed and discarded by her outlets.
According to Ms. Xue's report, YTO headquarters has a business volume assessment for each outlet, and when the business volume is not up to standard, the outlets can only choose to brush the single response. Last year, she spent an additional 4,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan almost every month, ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 pieces of operation brushing. Since January this year, considering that the business is not good, she has changed hands on the outlets and began to report violations of these regulations and practices of YTO headquarters.
It can be seen that "empty packages" have become a stubborn disease in the industry, and governance requires multi-pronged and source governance. A few days ago, after calling "12345" to report, the Datuan Town Market Supervision Office gave feedback to Mr. Zhang that the actual business address of the "Sai Tong Flagship Store" reported by him was located in a park on Pingliang Road. On the afternoon of October 25, the reporter accompanied Mr. Zhang and went to the Yangpu District Market Supervision Bureau on Huimin Road to report. After receiving the reception, the staff of the Anti-Unfair Competition Division of the Yangpu District Market Supervision Bureau said that it would be verified and that once it was found out, it would be punished in accordance with the Anti-Unfair Competition Law.
At the end of September, Ms. Xue's report also ushered in the "settlement". According to the "12345" work order, the Shanghai Postal Administration replied to her that it was recommended to reflect to the Beijing Municipal Postal Administration because it reflected the problem of the Tongzhou District outlet in Beijing. In response, Ms. Xue expressed dissatisfaction and said that she would continue to complain.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Mao Jinwei Text Editor: Mao Jinwei
Source: Author: Mao Jinwei