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Recently, a consumer reported to a reporter that as a VIP member of an e-commerce platform, the actual price he paid for some products was higher than that of non-member users. This phenomenon quickly fermented on social media, and many consumers posted comparison screenshots, pointing out that the VIP membership rights are not worthy of the name, and even jokingly said: "Did I pay this membership fee so that I can buy more expensive products?"

Different users have different prices at the same time, members have higher prices than non-users, prices automatically increase after multiple browsing... Many netizens question whether they are being "killed by the familiarity" of big data, or whether it is a problem with platform rules?

Is the member price higher than the non-member price?

According to a consumer, he and his colleague bought the same piece of clothing on an e-commerce platform, but the price was different for the two. "I spend money to recharge my 88VIP membership on the platform every year, but the order I placed was a few dollars more expensive than my colleague's. What's the point of this VIP?"

According to the order screenshots provided by the consumer, he ordered a summer top in a store on a certain platform. The homepage showed the price after coupons was 71.09 yuan, which included a 4 yuan gift for new customers, a 5% discount for 88VIPs, and an official 13% discount for an instant discount of 12.1 yuan. The price for a non-member colleague was 70.41 yuan, and the lowest price was 67.3 yuan.

After the reporter asked the reason, the customer service replied: Maybe the same piece of clothing has different colors, so the price set by the merchant may also be different.

In order to verify that this situation is not accidental, the reporter searched for Olympic T-shirts, Olympic mascots, computer desk pads and other products on an e-commerce platform as a consumer, and found that the prices for members and non-members are exactly the same.

The reporter logged into two accounts respectively, one was VIP and the other was non-VIP, and the prices displayed for the products were exactly the same.

In this regard, the platform customer service told reporters that the price of goods is set by the merchant and may be affected by new customers, old customers, coupons, and platform activities. The platform does not yet have a relatively mature method to deal with the situation where the price of the same product is different. "If VIP users buy at a higher price, they can check the specific details on the submission page to check."

Reviews.

On social platforms, many netizens also shared similar experiences, believing that as VIP members, they not only did not enjoy additional discounts, but were instead "taken advantage of" by the platform. That is, the platform took advantage of their trust as old users to offer higher prices. This experience of spending money but not enjoying the discounts is unacceptable.

E-commerce platforms frequently fall into controversy over “killing old customers”

Starting with Amazon Prime, many e-commerce platforms have launched paid memberships under the banner of "discounts". At present, all mainstream e-commerce platforms in China have opened paid memberships. For example, in 2015, JD.com launched PLUS membership; in 2016, Vipshop launched Super VIP; in 2017, the membership model began to explode, with NetEase Kaola, Suning.com, NetEase Yanxuan and others entering the market; in 2018, Alibaba launched 88VIP membership.

Taking Taobao 88VIP as an example, users with a Taobao value of 1,000 or more can become 88VIP members by paying an annual fee of 88 yuan/year (otherwise 888 yuan/year). 88VIP members can enjoy a variety of discounts, and it is said that they can save an average of about 2,000 yuan a year; JD.com is similar. If the Jingxiang value is greater than 4,500, you can use 99 yuan to purchase a PLUS membership with an original price of 199 yuan, that is, through the consumption points system to encourage users to spend more. For example, NetEase Yanxuan's double points and exclusive exchange, Pinduoduo's money-saving monthly card, are all guiding consumers to buy more and get more points. For the same purchase, member users enjoy more points than ordinary users, so his consumption motivation is greater.

As early as 2020, some netizens exposed the problem that the price of a VIP membership was higher than that of ordinary users. At that time, the response said that the reason for this phenomenon was that the "new user exclusive price" provided by the platform for new users for their first order was not properly displayed on the product page, causing some users to misunderstand that the same product had different prices. It emphasized that there is no so-called big data killing old customers.

Similar incidents have occurred repeatedly, and the public has been questioning the platform's "big data killing familiar customers". On the Black Cat complaint platform, complaints about "big data killing familiar customers" and "VIP membership" are common, with a total of more than 7,000, involving many well-known online platforms such as Ele.me, Dewu, Alibaba, and Vipshop, showing consumers' concern and dissatisfaction with such issues.

Is big data “killing the familiar” or differentiated marketing?

When the membership that claims to save money is equated with "high price", it undoubtedly breaks the consumers' beautiful expectations of membership privileges. In reality, almost no platform admits that they have engaged in big data killing old customers. For example, one platform claims that this is not big data killing old customers, but differentiated marketing for different users.

According to CCTV Finance, a staff member who used to work in marketing at a large shopping website said, "E-commerce companies use users' income levels and consumption habits to target customers, which is the most common practice. Another way is for merchants to use the behavioral details of users' interactions with the app, such as the frequency of typing information and search keywords, to a certain extent, to reflect the urgency of the user's demand for goods or services at that point in time. Some merchants will dynamically increase prices based on this information."

Experts say that the most critical step in big data pricing is to be very "familiar" with the customer and provide differentiated choices. Big data pricing is different from common differential pricing. When it ignores consumers' right to know and initiative, it also goes against the original intention of consumers to contribute data.

Pei Wei, associate professor at the School of Law of Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said that the phenomenon behind big data price discrimination is actually differentiated pricing. What we dislike is differential pricing without a legitimate basis.

It is reported that some businesses will also collect users' geographic location information through the background of mobile applications and conduct real-time analysis. If there are few potential competitors near the user's location, they will increase the price by a certain amount. In addition, the user's address, office location, places where they often shop, and other geographic location information can also be used to judge the user's income level and spending power, making the "user portrait" more accurate.

The state has taken action to control the "killing of old customers" by big data

In fact, as e-commerce competition becomes increasingly fierce, the "membership system" has become the main battlefield for various platforms to compete for users. However, excessive pursuit of the growth of the number of members may lead to the neglect of the design and maintenance of member rights, thus causing embarrassing situations such as VIP shopping being more expensive.

Although the authorities gave a seemingly reasonable explanation, the storm has not subsided. Consumers' high attention and strong emotions about the "price-cutting" incident are a constant reminder to e-commerce platforms that they need to continuously improve price transparency and fairness to ensure that consumers' legitimate rights and interests are protected.

The "Interim Provisions on Anti-Unfair Competition on the Internet" and "Regulations on the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer Rights" issued this year have proposed countermeasures to the "killing of old customers" by big data. For example, Article 9, Paragraph 2 of the "Regulations on the Implementation of the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights" clearly stipulates that operators shall not set different prices or charging standards for the same product or service under the same transaction conditions without the knowledge of consumers.

E-commerce platforms should reflect on the loopholes in their membership service system, truly be user-centric, and provide transparent, fair, and valuable membership services. Only in this way can they win the long-term trust of consumers and consolidate their market position in the fierce competition.

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