news

author | ya

editor | wen ding ‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

pinduoduo has "refunded" merchants again, this time by lowering the deposit.

going back in time, in august this year, pinduoduo introduced refundable benefits for merchants for technical service fees and promotion service fees.

in addition to refunding money, pinduoduo has also upgraded its merchant after-sales system and invested tens of billions of yuan to support new and high-quality merchants. many of its measures are beneficial to the development of merchants.

why did pinduoduo, which has always been known for its inward-looking nature, suddenly show goodwill to merchants?

pinduoduo "refunds" merchants, favorable measures come one after another

on september 5, pinduoduo issued a merchant notice indicating that the basic deposit for merchant stores will be reduced from 1,000 yuan to 500 yuan, and the initialization deposit for newly settled personal stores and corporate stores will also be reduced to 500 yuan.

it is understood that pinduoduo is conducting centralized testing on reducing the store deposit for merchants. the first batch of merchants enjoying this policy has covered nearly 70 categories, and some merchants have already completed cash withdrawals.

with the introduction of this policy, the operating costs of merchants will be further reduced, especially for merchants operating multiple stores.

at the same time, pinduoduo is also taking optimization actions to improve the user experience of merchants.

on the one hand, the after-sales service system of merchants is upgraded, a green channel is opened, and a special after-sales service team is established to fully support merchants in filing appeals against abnormal orders, malicious complaint orders, and orders with negative consumer experiences. after the merchant's appeal is successful, the platform will compensate for the relevant orders.

on the other hand, the complaint service for merchants’ after-sales disputes has been specially adjusted, and the number of complaints that can be made is no longer limited. merchants can file complaints with the platform as long as they have questions about after-sales processing.

currently, this new benefit is undergoing preliminary testing. some merchants can already enjoy this benefit, and it is expected to cover all merchants in the near future.

it is worth noting that since this year, pinduoduo’s support for merchants has come one after another.

when its second quarter financial report was released, pinduoduo announced that it would invest 10 billion yuan to support new and high-quality merchants and significantly reduce merchant transaction fees, with an estimated reduction of 10 billion yuan in the next year.

prior to this, on august 13, pinduoduo launched a technical service fee refund benefit, that is, order refunds can enjoy the basic technical service fee refund according to the refund ratio, refunding 1% of the basic technical service fee for pay-later orders and 0.6% of the basic technical service fee for other orders. this benefit covers most platform activities, such as 10 billion subsidies, flash sales, platform promotions, 9.9 special sales, trendy prices, multi-person groups, etc.

immediately afterwards, pinduoduo also upgraded the "technical service fee refund benefit". in addition to enjoying the service fee refund benefit, the rate of pay-later technical service fees for orders generated by merchants participating in resource activities was reduced from 1% to 0.6%, which is equivalent to a 40% discount.

at about the same time, pinduoduo also released an "instructions for returning promotional red packets in some scenarios" to refund promotional fees to merchants.

some merchants are optimistic about pinduoduo's various favorable measures, believing that "the burden on merchants has finally been reduced, which is conducive to increasing merchant retention rates."

some merchants also hold a negative view, believing that this is "playing the long game to catch a big fish, and the 500 yuan will be deducted from the merchants."

frequent overtures to merchants are essentially still a means of expansion for pinduoduo, with the aim of attracting more merchants to settle in, especially attracting pinduoduo's core base - small and medium-sized merchants, thereby continuously driving revenue growth.

the benefits of supporting small and medium-sized businesses have been verified in the second quarter of this year. in the second quarter, pinduoduo increased its support for businesses and achieved total revenue of 97.0595 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 86%.

chen lei, chairman and co-ceo of pinduoduo group, mentioned in the second quarter earnings conference call that "the overall scale of the platform has reached a considerable size. improving the ecological construction is not an overnight task. the management has reached a consensus and is ready to sacrifice short-term profits and invest in the long term."

e-commerce platforms are taking action to compete for small and medium-sized businesses

pinduoduo is not the only one keeping a close eye on small and medium-sized businesses.

in order to attract more small and medium-sized businesses, platforms such as taobao tmall, jd.com, and douyin have also lowered their stance and continued to introduce support measures.

june 18, 2023, is an important node for various platforms to turn their attention to small and medium-sized businesses.

in late may last year, ma yun pointed out at a small internal communication meeting that taotian group's competition situation was very severe. taking nokia and kodak as examples, it only takes half a year to a year for a company to go from being an industry benchmark to death, and it may be faster in the internet industry. ma yun pointed out three directions for taotian group: return to taobao, return to users, and return to the internet.

among them, the direction of returning to taobao is very clear, which is to support small and medium-sized businesses.

before and after jack ma's speech, taobao group announced the establishment of a small and medium-sized enterprise development center and launched a star-making plan for taobao's small and medium-sized merchants, introducing a number of practical measures including advertising subsidy coupons of up to 2,000 yuan and exclusive star-making traffic support to help newly opened small and medium-sized merchants accelerate their growth.

data shows that during june 18th last year, the transaction volume of more than 2.56 million small and medium-sized merchants on taobao exceeded the same period in 2022.

of course, jd.com is not far behind. after launching the 10 billion yuan subsidy for the first time during the 618 promotion last year, it launched 12 support policies such as the "spring dawn plan", providing individual sellers with a fast entry channel, 0 yuan trial operation, and 2,100 yuan new store gift packages.

data shows that the number of products participating in jd.com’s 10 billion yuan subsidy during last year’s 618 shopping festival was more than 10 times that of march of the same year.

the development trend of embracing small and medium-sized businesses will continue further this year.

taobao previously optimized the "refund only" policy, reducing or eliminating after-sales intervention for high-quality merchants. on september 3, it launched the "return treasure", which taobao said would reduce the return costs of merchants by at least 10%, and some merchants would receive a direct cost reduction of up to 30%.

this year, douyin has also released a variety of favorable measures for small and medium-sized businesses, including commission-free merchandise cards, two reductions in deposits, the ability to open multiple stores with one license, and reductions in technical service fees for merchants in the daily necessities category, to help businesses operate.

xiaohongshu is also gearing up. in july this year, xiaohongshu launched the "treasure manager plan" to provide hundreds of billions of traffic support to merchants that broadcast on xiaohongshu.

many merchants are pleased with the improvement measures made by the platform in the past two years.

a merchant said in the paidai merchant group that "a large number of e-commerce people are returning to taobao this year."

however, some merchants said frankly that they would not increase investment for such a small profit. "if merchants can't make money, who would be stupid enough to keep giving you money? i am disappointed and have invested less in the platform."

why does the platform want to attract small and medium-sized businesses?

in the past two years, consumers with tight pockets have gradually lost their enthusiasm for branded goods and have begun to pay more attention to cost performance. in other words, whoever offers the lowest price will win the favor of consumers.

first, the number of top brands is limited, and all the major platforms have already settled in, and there is no differentiation. however, small and medium-sized businesses have more and richer products, which is an important supply for platforms to achieve differentiation.

by attracting more mid- and low-end merchants, the platform can enrich its merchandise to attract consumers, and more consumers can continue to attract more merchants, thus forming a positive cycle.

take jd.com as an example. in the past, jd.com’s consumer mentality was “high quality and high price”. in order to get rid of this label, jd.com began to pursue low prices.

during last year's 618, jd.com added more than 1,200 new trend categories by relying on its low-price strategy. the person in charge of jd.com's 9.9 free shipping business once said that in addition to maintaining the quality competitiveness of its own brands, jd.com also needs pop merchants with good quality and low prices to play a long-tail effect and seek differentiated competition.

secondly, with the prevalence of the substitute economy, brands have a premium and are priced high. in comparison, white-label products from small and medium-sized businesses are more cost-effective.

according to research and analysis, "consumption stratification" has been a key word in the chinese market in the past two years. on the one hand, consumers are willing to accept higher prices for things that can provide sufficient perceived value and emotional value; on the other hand, they are willing to downgrade their consumption of some daily necessities that may have a premium and are willing to look for affordable substitutes.

pinduoduo's rapid development just proves this point. in 2023, pinduoduo's revenue reached 247.639 billion, of which 60% came from white-label products.

other platforms are also working with white-label brands to achieve growth. in march last year, the white-label beauty brand "haijieya" broke through the siege on douyin and achieved monthly sales of 1 billion yuan, far ahead of major brands such as l'oreal, proya, and estee lauder. during the tmall double 11 pre-sale last year, the white-label representative bibizan ranked third in the food store popularity list, second only to three squirrels and mcdonald's.

white-label products with a higher cost-effectiveness have become the new favorites of the current platform. with the support of the platform, these white-label products will also become cutting-edge brands, further promoting the growth of the platform.

in addition, the relationship between pinduoduo and merchants is becoming increasingly tense. appropriate favorable measures will help ease the conflicts between the platform and merchants.

what's more, at the current stage, many platforms have weakened the "low price" label, loosened restrictions and only refunded, and continued to extend olive branches to small and medium-sized businesses. under pressure from multiple factors, pinduoduo's show of goodwill to small and medium-sized businesses is also in line with the trend.

at present, the "low price" competition in the e-commerce industry is shifting to "sustainable low price" competition, and the confrontation between merchants and goods will become more and more fierce. whoever can maintain the attractiveness to small and medium-sized merchants will have a greater competitive advantage.

references:

[1] cargill trendtracker 2024 released! four major trends to decode the food and beverage market, foodtalks

[2] a major trend: the rise of white-label products, and the rise of commercial

[3] 798.7 billion! 618 results are here, dong ge explains e-commerce

[4] douyin e-commerce launches multiple preferential policies to support small and medium-sized businesses by reducing commissions and margins, upstream news

[5] platforms compete for merchants: jd.com sets the stage to take the lead, 21st century business herald

[6] who says cheap products are not good? is the best time for consumers coming?, china business news