"Editorial" revised "refund only", saying goodbye to "involutionary competition"
2024-08-07
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Taobao announced that it will gradually make a series of adjustments to the "refund only" policy starting from August 9. According to the new rules, high-quality merchants will not be asked to "refund only" by the platform. In fact, the "refund only" model of the platform to handle sales disputes has always been controversial.
At first, some platforms provided a "refund only" service to solve the problem of "wrong goods" provided by merchants, especially to solve the problem of sales disputes where some goods have serious quality problems, fresh goods have gone bad, and goods have almost no return value. This measure has a "reverse pressure" effect to a certain extent, which helps to improve the overall product quality of the platform and also benefits consumers.
However, many so-called "wool-pulling parties" soon emerged. They took advantage of the "refund only" complaint rule, maliciously found defects in the products, detained the products, and profited from them, and even turned into naked "wool-pulling". "A 1,400 yuan washing machine was only refunded because it could not be installed" and other news have repeatedly appeared on hot searches. Even a female store owner in Shanghai drove more than 1,000 kilometers to seek consumer rights protection for 12 pairs of socks worth less than 100 yuan. As a result, some consumer disputes have been intensified into legal disputes, which has also contributed to the abnormally high return rate of some products.
This also shows that the "refund only" platform policy has caused a serious tilt in the delicate triangular balance between the platform, consumers and merchants. Merchants believe that this policy is actually the platform taking advantage of its own advantageous position to generously benefit others. The platform has boosted sales, while merchants are paying real money. Recently, in a "refund only" case in Zhongshan County, Hezhou City, Guangxi, it was made clear that consumers not only had to refund the 11.96 yuan payment, but also had to bear the merchant's 800 yuan related rights protection costs. This can be seen as the judicial policy not recognizing the abuse of "refund only".
Interpreting from a deeper level, does “refund only” itself constitute unfair competition and exacerbate the “involution” of the e-commerce industry?
The term "involution" was first used by scholars to describe the difficulty of technological advancement and scale expansion in Southeast Asian agriculture, which resulted in more sophisticated and complex labor input, and ultimately "useless work". This also shows that "involution" is not a way out, but a dead end. The road will only become narrower and narrower, and it is an obstacle to business model innovation and technological progress.
The recent meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee pointed out that it is necessary to cultivate and expand emerging industries and future industries; it is necessary to strengthen industry self-discipline and prevent "involutionary" vicious competition. This statement has attracted much attention from the economic community, and it also shows that the decision-makers clearly realize that "involutionary" competition represented by price wars, accumulation of resources, and extension of working hours is destined to go in the opposite direction of innovative development and will inevitably damage the healthy competitive environment. This is why the decision-makers need to take action to cool down the "involutionary" competition in a timely manner.
It should be noted that China's e-commerce development is at the forefront of the world, achieving leapfrog development and building a unique and sound e-commerce infrastructure in the world. At present, the development of e-commerce has entered a bottleneck period, and the world is also standing on the threshold of explosive development of new technologies such as AI. The leapfrog development of e-commerce in the past was due to innovation, and the road to breakthrough in the future still lies in innovation, not "involution" - unlimited extension of working hours, unlimited compression of delivery time for couriers, or unlimited "favoritism" for consumers. Using these means that are doomed to fail to last to maintain the superficial development speed is a kind of poison to quench thirst.
Say goodbye to "involutionary" vicious competition, promptly correct the "refund only" measures, create a healthier and fairer competitive environment, and guide the attention of platforms and merchants to innovation. This is the long-term way for the development of the Internet economy.
(This article is from The Paper. For more original information, please download the "The Paper" APP)
