1688 is making up for its shortcomings in service and comprehensively upgrading the buyer experience
2024-09-04
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1688, alibaba's direct sales platform for source factory goods, has begun to make up for its service shortcomings.
on september 4, 1688 released the "buyer protection service upgrade announcement" to comprehensively upgrade the buyer's purchasing experience.
starting from september 12, services such as free return shipping, quick refunds and platform compensation for disputed orders will gradually cover all orders within 1688.
while "resolutely" making up for its shortcomings, 1688 also demonstrated an attitude of "listening to advice" amid the surging emotions of merchants, and publicly stated that it would crack down on malicious refund-only and malicious wool-pulling behaviors that were the focus of merchants' complaints.
in the above announcement, 1688 adjusted the "refund only for goods received" (known as "refund only" in the industry) rule. the platform will still support buyers' reasonable refund only applications, but will also provide subsidies to merchants with high return rates and provide merchants with a green complaint channel.
the reporter learned that 1688 will set up special funds to invest in improving buyer experience and reducing business burdens.
the move of "listening to advice" reflects the pressure that 1688 is under to defend its core competitiveness on the supply side in a fiercely competitive environment. however, according to an anonymous 1688 insider, "the platform will not try to strike a balance, but will pay more attention to the buyer's experience, and hopes to serve buyers well together with merchants, because buyers are the first customers of both merchants and the platform."
to make up for the shortcomings of service, all orders will be returned with shipping fee included
1688 is a platform that started as a wholesaler. in the past two years, with the rise of the trend of substitute consumption, a large number of young consumers in first- and second-tier cities have flocked to 1688 to find big-name oem factories and brand substitute sources, which has led to the rapid development of 1688 yanxuan and 1688 member store. however, these young buyers also complained about the poor platform experience.
in fact, buyer experience has always been a common shortcoming of 1688 and merchants. two years ago, 1688 received 5,000 complaints about sellers abusing buyers every day, and a large number of buyers voted with their feet and left. the platform said that after two years of governance, the number of complaints about buyers being abused has dropped to single digits every day. but the reality is that the service level of merchants has not improved significantly.
in the eyes of many merchants, the newly-influx young consumers have "little money but many things to do". especially for merchants who are used to wholesale business, it is difficult for them to accept the demands of bargaining and free shipping for every single item. many merchants have slow response times to buyers and poor fulfillment services.
in march this year, 1688 tried to vigorously upgrade the platform buyer experience. on the one hand, it fully tilted traffic and resources to merchants who could provide "good services"; on the other hand, it launched a buyer experience improvement plan to promote services such as 0 yuan order (purchase first and pay later), free shipping for one piece, two or three days to receive goods, and free return shipping. this move quickly worked, directly allowing 1688 to top the apple app store free list many times, and the number of platform users also hit a record high.
however, the upgrade of services means an increase in the cost of merchants. if 1688 does not invest real money, it will be difficult to drive merchants to act together. this is why 1688 has a deep connection with merchants, jointly investing, sharing costs, and jointly improving the buyer experience.
this time, 1688's buyer experience upgrade is more powerful than before. the biggest highlight is that all orders support return shipping. buyers use official logistics to pick up and return goods, and the platform subsidizes up to 25 yuan for each order. this means that most return orders will be free of shipping. the reporter found that the subsidy amount and the number of covered products for 1688's return shipping exceeded most mainstream e-commerce platforms.
if you are purchasing in large orders, or your annual purchase amount reaches a certain amount and you have obtained the exclusive "super buyer" logo, or if you place an order from two types of member merchants, namely, powerful merchants and super factories, as long as you choose official logistics pickup, you can get a return shipping subsidy of up to 200 yuan per order.
in addition, starting from mid-to-late october, buyers who choose official logistics return orders will receive a refund after sending the returned goods, and the payment collection time will be shortened by an average of 4 days.
if you place an order or a custom order, and the merchant fails to deliver the goods as promised, or the goods you receive are defective, or the goods do not match the size, are misprinted, or are damaged, the platform will pay you directly. the compensation amount is up to 5% of the amount of each sub-order, and the maximum single compensation is 3,000 yuan.
1688 claims to be a pure class b platform, as more than 90% of its transactions are class b transactions. according to 1688, the platform will not and does not need to force merchants to fully follow the service standards of retail e-commerce, nor will it require them to exceed retail standards. instead, it hopes that service and contract fulfillment will not become the common shortcomings of merchants and the platform.
relaxation: only refunds are allowed, and subsidies are provided to merchants with high return rates
the above-mentioned 1688 insider revealed that the upgrade of the buyer protection service is essentially a comprehensive upgrade of the existing buyer quality service product "peace of mind shopping".
the reporter learned that among the more than one million source manufacturers of 1688, more than half have used the anxingou service.
as of the end of july this year, one month before and after merchants opened the safe purchase service, store visits increased by 16% and order conversion rates increased by 13%. from march to july this year, compared with merchants that did not open the safe purchase service, merchants that opened the safe purchase service saw an 11% increase in buyer repurchase rate, a 39% increase in the number of new buyers, and a 48% decrease in after-sales disputes year-on-year.
the upgraded buyer protection service has added many new items on the basis of the original safe purchase service items. 1688 said that the costs brought by the new items will be borne by the platform. for example, the service costs of "non-full business responsibility" such as return shipping, quick refund for returned goods, and delayed delivery of customized goods will be borne by the platform. the service costs of "full business responsibility" for false shipments will be borne by the merchants. the above-mentioned insider said, "when merchants with good business data encounter buyer experience disputes, 1688 will try its best to compensate."
starting from september 13, all merchants who have activated the buyer protection service will be subject to the upgraded buyer protection service rules. the technical service fee will still be based on the billing standard of anxingou, which is 0.6% of the actual payment amount (excluding shipping costs) of each sub-order after the buyer confirms receipt or the order is completed.
in addition, in order to reduce the burden on merchants, 1688 has set a billing rule with a technical service fee of 18 yuan per sub-order. there is no charge for orders that are successfully refunded by the buyer before delivery, and there is no charge for product orders that merchants entrust to 1688.
it is also understood that after this upgrade, in order to avoid merchants from repeatedly activating services and making repeated payments, 1688 will stop the "anxingou" service.
in order to respond to the major interests of merchants, 1688 has recently introduced a series of "anti-involution" measures, including making the "double guarantee" of guaranteeing customer acquisition and order guarantee a standard benefit point for all new merchants, launching an "efficiency improvement and revenue increase plan" that promises to guarantee merchants a certain order volume, number of customers and reasonable profits, and releasing a free ai business assistant to help source factories use ai to serve young consumers and open up new business markets.
after upgrading its buyer services, 1688 has added some new measures to reduce the burden on merchants and increase their revenue.
for the quality reasons of the goods that the buyer has already received, only refunds will be made. merchants with a high return rate can receive a certain amount of subsidies from the platform every month, and the platform also provides a green complaint channel. for occasional delayed shipments by merchants with a "high return rate", the platform provides a subsidy of up to 300 yuan per month.
if an accident occurs during transportation of goods sent by the merchant to the buyer, the platform will compensate the merchant in an amount equal to the value of the goods, with a maximum compensation of 50,000 yuan.
for large orders from super factories and powerful merchants, as long as the buyer uses official logistics to pick up the return, the amount of return freight subsidy will be increased from 25 yuan to 50 yuan per order. super factories and powerful merchants will receive special traffic tilt and higher refund subsidies, and have a special complaint green channel.
the reporter learned that 1688's traffic distribution mechanism will also be adjusted to focus on buyer conversion and gmv repurchase. merchants who can get more repurchases will gain more high-quality users.
