news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

The luxury e-commerce platform Secoo has been repeatedly criticized by consumers for issues such as not shipping products and not refunding. Recently, it was forced to delist from the Nasdaq Stock Exchange in the United States for failing to submit its annual report on Form 20-F for December 31, 2023 within the prescribed deadline and will no longer participate in capital market transactions.

But what is outrageous is that in the face of being forced to delist and receiving numerous complaints, Secoo is still carrying out various promotional activities as if nothing had happened.

The former "first stock" of luxury e-commerce

The cumulative financing in the past 9 years is nearly 4 billion yuan

Tianyancha shows that Beijing Secoo Trading Co., Ltd. was established in April 2009, with Li Rixue as the legal representative, a registered capital of RMB 10 million, a paid-in capital of RMB 2 million, and business scope including consignment of clothing, shoes and hats, jewelry, daily necessities, etc. Shareholder information shows that the company is jointly held by Li Rixue (holding 90%) and Huang Zhaohui (holding 10%).

The picture shows a screenshot of the Secoo website interface

Secoo's main businesses include online sales of luxury goods, luxury physical experience clubs, luxury goods identification, maintenance services, etc. In addition, Secoo claims to be China's largest online and offline boutique lifestyle platform, and has also opened physical experience stores in central areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Qingdao, Tianjin, Xiamen, and Hong Kong.

Between 2011 and 2020, Secoo completed eight rounds of financing, with a total financing amount of nearly RMB 4 billion. Secoo has also established partnerships with nearly 150 brands, becoming the first e-commerce partner of the Prada Group.

In 2017, Secoo, known as the "first luxury e-commerce stock" in China, landed on the Nasdaq and ushered in its highlight moment. However, after landing on the secondary market, Secoo did not continue to sing, but gradually declined. Its stock price fell from a high of US$15 to less than US$0.5, gradually approaching the edge of delisting.

In 2020, Secoo was exposed by suppliers for large-scale arrears of payment, and its stock price plummeted. According to Secoo's 2022 semi-annual report, its total revenue in the first half of 2022 was 1.1643 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 23.69%; its net loss expanded to 816.5 million yuan, compared with a net loss of 39.8 million yuan in the same period last year.

Failure to submit annual financial report on time

Secoo was forced to delist by Nasdaq

Nasdaq's decision to delist Secoo was not without warning, but there were signs of it long ago.

December 2021

Secoo once announced that because the stock closing price was below US$1 for 30 consecutive working days, the company received a delisting warning from Nasdaq.

November 17, 2023

Secoo announced that it received a delisting notice from Nasdaq on November 14, 2023, and planned to request a hearing. The reason why Secoo was warned of delisting was that it had not submitted its 2022 financial report.

February 6, 2024

Nasdaq once again issued a delisting notice to Secoo.

Tens of thousands of complaints online

"No refund if no shipment"

As a luxury e-commerce platform, Secoo has been plagued by negative news in recent years. Guangzhou Daily found that there were 23,400 complaints about Secoo on the Black Cat Complaint Platform, most of which were about Secoo not delivering goods or refunding money.

Consumer complaint cases:

On July 6, Mr. Cao, a citizen of Xi'an, reported that he placed an order on Secoo on March 12, 2023 to buy two short-sleeved shirts for more than 400 yuan and more than 800 yuan respectively, but they were never delivered. Not only did he not receive the clothes last summer, but he also did not receive them this summer, and he was not refunded. During this period, Mr. Cao reported this situation to the customer service many times, but to no avail.

One year after Mr. Cao placed the order, Secoo did not ship the goods or refund the money. The picture shows the conversation between Mr. Cao and the customer service

The reporter then contacted Secoo's customer service hotline to report the situation. After checking the order number, the customer service said that both clothes were out of stock and the refund process had been reviewed. Now they were waiting for the financial department to approve the refund. The reporter asked when the refund would be received? The customer service said that they needed to arrange the order and could not predict it, and they would continue to reflect the customer's demands.

A consumer complained on Heimao Complaints that he bought a luxury brand bag worth more than 20,000 yuan from Secoo on May 5, but the bag had not been shipped for 10 days, so he applied for a refund. Although the backend showed that the refund was in progress, the bag had not been shipped for a month and no refund had been made. He contacted customer service many times, but the customer service kept making excuses.

The picture shows a screenshot of the Black Cat complaint

In addition, according to Tianyancha statistics, Li Rixue, the legal representative of Beijing Secoo Trading Co., Ltd., has been listed as the "person subject to execution". The company has been involved in more than 100 lawsuits, most of which are disputes over sales contracts and online shopping contracts. The cumulative amount of execution is as high as 37.576 million yuan. 74.8% of the amount has not been fulfilled.

Consumers question platform for suspected fraud

Although there are many negative news, what is puzzling is that at present, the Secoo APP is still operating normally, and products such as "bags", beauty products, shoes, and clothing can still be purchased normally, and the product pages are also marked with words such as "ready to ship in seconds". At the same time, Secoo has not missed major festival activities. Various discount promotions are still displayed on the page.

The reporter logged onto Secoo.com and saw that there were promotional activities going on these days, with some products displayed with words like "24 new models", "shipping within 48 hours", and "shipping in about a week".

Secoo.com is still carrying out promotional activities these days

Many consumers have expressed the view that this is a fraud.

Mr. Cao from Xi'an said that if the goods are out of stock, a direct refund would be enough. Could it be that the merchant has false inventory, so that a large number of orders are placed but no refunds are made after payment? This has been delayed for more than a year, and the total amount of the large number of orders is not a small amount. In this way, the merchant can earn interest on the payment for the goods. He suspects that the merchant is involved in fraud.

Many consumers said: "Why hasn't Secoo been shut down yet? After so many years, with so many victims in front of us, this app is still operating as usual, and uninformed consumers are still shopping on the platform, which means that there are new victims every day. This is simply a scam in disguise."

Encountering such a situation

What should consumers do?

Some lawyers believe that if the platform knows that it cannot deliver the goods but still sells them, and cannot refund consumers on time, then the platform's behavior is suspected of consumer fraud, and consumers have the right to pursue the platform's legal liability for fraudulent sales in accordance with the Consumer Rights Protection Law. However, it is difficult for consumers to find evidence to prove whether the platform knew that it could not deliver the goods but still sold them.

According to CCTV News, from January to the end of October 2022, the Beijing Consumer Association's 96315 hotline registered 3,343 complaints involving Beijing Secoo Trading Co., Ltd. At present, most of the complaints have not been resolved, and the relevant departments have filed a case for investigation into Secoo's suspected violations of laws and regulations and infringement of consumer rights.

Source: Wenhui Daily