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As the e-commerce price war intensifies, Douyin continues to take action.

On July 16, a reporter from The Paper confirmed that Douyin is testing the "convenient price" function in the local life field. The so-called "convenient price" is somewhat similar to the "convenient purchase" function previously launched by Taobao and JD.com. After users complete the payment of group purchase orders on Douyin, they can see other group purchase products within 1 km nearby on the order page. The price of the product is lower than the regular group purchase price. Douyin introduced it as "consumption on the way, exclusive discount".

However, Douyin did not respond to reporters.

A user posted a screenshot of the internal test of the "convenient price" on the social networking site.

This also means that Douyin is continuing to deepen its low-price strategy. In the first half of this year, Douyin e-commerce announced the launch of a low-price strategy, setting "price power" as the highest priority task.

The so-called "price power" refers to the price comparison of goods. If the price of a product can be lower than the price of the same product on all e-commerce platforms on the entire network, it will be labeled as "the lowest price on the entire network", thereby obtaining more traffic support, including traffic from live broadcast rooms, short videos, search and other channels.

Based on the price power rating, Douyin e-commerce will classify products into labels such as "lowest price on the entire network", "same style low price" and "same style high price". The price tags will be more conspicuous in the content field and the shelf field. In addition, traffic distribution will also be tilted towards low-priced products.

Since the beginning of this year, Douyin e-commerce has continued to test new low-price related functions. In May, Douyin e-commerce launched the "Low Price Good Selling" channel, screening products with the "Lowest Price on the Whole Network" label to enter the channel. In addition, Douyin e-commerce was exposed to be testing the "automatic price change" function. Merchants can entrust the platform to change prices within the set conditions according to market conditions and refer to the platform's recommended prices, thereby gaining a stronger price advantage.

In March this year, Douyin e-commerce launched the "Douyin Mall" APP, focusing on "super value, worry-free selection". This is also the first time that Douyin has launched a comprehensive independent e-commerce platform. According to the Douyin Mall APP interface, the "low price flash sale" section is placed at the top of the homepage, occupying a core position.

Increasing low prices has become the main theme of the e-commerce industry.

JD.com, under the leadership of Liu Qiangdong, continues to attack low prices. On July 16, JD.com launched a new low-price attempt. Starting from July, from 8 pm on the 17th to the 18th of each month, it will launch a promotion called "JD.com Super 18" for 28 hours. Users can buy goods worth more than 1,000 yuan for 18 yuan. A relevant person in charge of JD.com told The Paper that since last year, JD.com has focused on low prices and has launched a series of "combination punches" such as 10 billion subsidies, 9.9 free shipping channels, and lowering the threshold for free shipping.

Liu Qiangdong has repeatedly stressed the importance of low prices in internal speeches. In a speech in May this year, he said that everyone has different life choices. For those who are unwilling to work hard, "You are not wrong, but I can only say that you are a passerby, not a brother, and you should not work together. Your existence is unfair to the brothers who work hard."

Faced with the siege of major e-commerce platforms, another e-commerce giant Pinduoduo is unwilling to give up its advantage in the low-price field. In June this year, Pinduoduo announced a new version of the "Pinduoduo "Automatic Price Tracking" Service Agreement". According to the "Agreement", after merchants activate this service, the platform can modify the prices of all goods in the merchant's store based on sales and other factors, without the need for confirmation by the merchant. The new version of the agreement came into effect on June 28.

According to the agreement, once a merchant authorizes the activation of the "automatic price tracking" function, the platform will have the right to adjust the prices of all the merchant's products (including existing inventory and future new products) within a specific range based on factors such as the overall network sales situation and marketing activities. Previously, the platform could only modify the promotional prices of promotional products.

Pinduoduo told The Paper that the "automatic price-following" service is an important marketing service provided by the platform to improve merchants' operating efficiency, maintain platform order, and provide consumers with more price-competitive products. The platform does not follow prices in a circular manner, nor will it reduce prices indefinitely.

However, it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of such a price war.

During this year's 618 promotion, major e-commerce platforms promoted low prices and cancelled pre-sales, which attracted attention from the outside world. However, the final results were not particularly ideal. According to Star Chart monitoring data, during this year's 618, the cumulative sales of comprehensive e-commerce platforms and live broadcast platforms reached 742.8 billion yuan. Last year's data was 798.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 7%.

According to Taobao, after the 618 shopping festival, Taobao Group held a closed-door meeting with merchants, with the participation of frontline business executives. Several changes were made at the meeting and will be officially implemented in the second half of the year. Among them, Taobao will weaken the absolute low price strategy, and the system of allocating according to "five-star price power" will be weakened, and will be changed back to allocating according to GMV (total transaction volume).

"E-commerce platforms have no restrictions on area and shelf space. In principle, they can unlimitedly enrich non-famous brands and white-label products. But for merchants, the cost of putting goods on the shelves has already been incurred. If the sales efficiency is not high, over time, merchants will lose confidence in the platform. Not only will they be unwilling to set low prices, they will even remove products from the shelves and leave the platform." Zhuang Shuai, a former Walmart marketing executive and retail e-commerce analyst, told the Paper.

Zhuang Shuai analyzed that the retention of merchants is the key to the comprehensive and lasting low-price competition of e-commerce platforms. E-commerce platforms must not only balance the sales efficiency of merchants and continuously improve consumer experience and services, but also ensure the profitability of merchants and platforms in order to maintain a comprehensive low-price strategy for a long time. "In the end, the price war can only become a limited and local competition. Major e-commerce platforms will re-examine the advantages of categories, experience and service differences, increase investment in a focused manner, and form a differentiated competitive advantage beyond price."