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"in order to improve your advertising experience, the system will refund the promotion red envelope corresponding to the promotion software service fee for some returned orders." since the beginning of september, pinduoduo merchant xiaomu has received a "red envelope arrival reminder" almost every day, indicating that the platform will refund the corresponding product promotion fee to the merchant due to customer cancellations. in addition to the promotion fee, the technical service fee paid by the merchant to the platform will also be refunded.

this is one of the many preferential policies that pinduoduo has launched for merchants in the past two months. since august, it has launched preferential policies such as reducing or exempting technical service fees, promotion service fees, lowering the basic deposit of stores, and solving logistics and transportation fees in remote areas, which will help lower the threshold for merchants to enter and reduce operational pressure.

nandu reporters observed that since the second half of this year, major e-commerce platforms have launched a series of preferential policies for merchants. for a long time before, in order to compete for users, major platforms have been working hard on user experience. in order to create a healthy industry ecology, e-commerce platforms have begun to adopt various strategies to balance the relationship between merchants and consumers, and to support merchants and help them provide high-quality products and services to bring better experience to consumers.

a number of favorable policies for merchants were released intensively, and "real money" was used to support stores and merchants

"a store suddenly sent me an internal message saying that the deposit was reduced by 500 yuan... what's going on?" on september 4, xiaomu posted a message on the social platform.

xiaomu mainly sells tableware and kitchenware on pinduoduo. on this day, she received an internal message, which showed that the basic deposit threshold of her store had been reduced from 1,000 yuan to 500 yuan, which could be checked on the "merchant backstage-account funds-deposit" page. so xiaomu cashed out the refund and received a transfer of 500 yuan within a day. in the next few days, xiaomu's other five stores on pinduoduo also received the same message one after another.

not only has the store deposit been lowered, but xiaomu has also recently felt a series of benefits released by the e-commerce platform for merchants: starting from mid-august, she has received "red envelope arrival reminders" from time to time, and the amount of the red envelopes mainly comes from the technical service fees and promotion service fees returned due to customer order cancellations.

xiaomu told nandu reporters that previously, for every order generated by the store, the platform would charge a technical service fee regardless of whether the transaction was ultimately completed. now, once the order is returned, the platform will refund this fee; in addition, part of the promotion service fees paid by merchants to the platform for promoting products will also be refunded.

xiaomu's post quickly received many replies from his peers. they said that recently, the logistics transfer fees for orders sent to remote areas such as xinjiang and tibet have also been borne by pinduoduo. merchant xiaoxin told nandu reporters that this can expand business in remote areas, bring in more business, and save logistics costs. it also means that goods in remote areas can reach more consumers with a more cost-effective advantage.

behind the above measures is a set of preferential "combination punches" launched by pinduoduo for platform merchants since august.

it is reported that on august 13, pinduoduo launched the benefit of refunding technical service fees to merchants who signed up to participate in the on-site resource activities. for all product orders generated by participating in on-site activities, after the user initiates a refund, the platform will proportionally refund 1% of the basic technical service fee for pay-later orders and 0.6% of the basic technical service fee for other orders.

at the end of august, the benefit was further upgraded. in addition to enjoying the service fee refund for orders generated by merchants participating in resource activities, the technical service fee for orders generated by the use-first-pay-later activity was directly discounted by 40%. at the beginning of september, the "promotion service fee refund benefit" came into effect. for orders that were fully refunded before delivery, the platform will automatically return the merchant a promotion red envelope corresponding to the promotion software service fee, without the merchant having to file a complaint.

in addition, pinduoduo has opened a green channel and established a special after-sales service team to fully support merchants in filing complaints against abnormal orders, malicious complaint orders, and orders with negative consumer experiences. after the merchant successfully files a complaint, the platform will compensate for the relevant orders. in terms of after-sales disputes, pinduoduo no longer limits the number of times merchants can file complaints.

on september 5, a new round of preferential policies was announced. the basic deposit for merchants' stores was reduced from 1,000 yuan to 500 yuan, and the initial deposit for new personal stores and corporate stores was also reduced to 500 yuan. on the 9th, pinduoduo announced that the platform would bear the logistics transfer fees for secondary shipments from transit warehouses to remote areas.

xiaomu said that he chose to open a store on pinduoduo because it was "fast to open a store" and easy to make money. but then the competition intensified and the pressure on merchants was quite great. from refunding platform fees to lowering deposits and reducing logistics fees, it is not difficult to see pinduoduo's determination to support high-quality stores and merchants with "real money".

in the view of cao lei, director of the e-commerce research center of the china internet network information center, pinduoduo's move is conducive to reducing business operating costs, attracting small and medium-sized businesses to settle in, and optimizing the platform ecology. the intention behind this should be to promote high-quality development, create a better business environment, and enhance consumers' trust in the platform.

the high-quality development of e-commerce is inseparable from the improvement of quality and efficiency of the supply chain.cui lili, executive director of the e-commerce research institute of shanghai university of finance and economics, also analyzed to nandu reporters that although this series of measures will lead to a significant decrease in the overall service fee of the platform in the short term, the increase in the number of stores, the large number of products and good after-sales service will attract more consumers, bringing strong follow-up power to the subsequent development of the platform.

behind the "combination punch" of merchant discounts: creating a virtuous cycle of platform ecology

nandu reporters observed that since the second half of the year, major e-commerce platforms have been taking frequent actions. while adhering to the principle of being consumer-centric, they also hope to improve the platform ecology, help high-quality merchants on the platform, and provide consumers with a better experience. this seems to have become a new trend in the e-commerce industry.

in recent months, while pinduoduo launched a set of preferential "combination punches" for merchants, taobao also launched the "return treasure" service, jd.com launched the "reverse pricing service", and kuaishou e-commerce also announced the "new merchant start-up plan"... for a while, e-commerce platforms have invested heavily to retain new and old merchants.

although some of the new measures are still being piloted on a small scale, the change in market trends quickly spread throughout the industry.

as a front-line practitioner in the e-commerce industry, national people's congress representative liang qianjuan told nandu reporters that she intuitively felt the series of preferential policies recently launched by major e-commerce platforms.

in liang qianjuan's opinion, the fee reduction and deposit reduction measures introduced by e-commerce platforms can alleviate the cash flow pressure of merchants to a certain extent, and are also conducive to further developing markets in remote areas. in addition, after the platform launches relevant optimization strategies, the malicious returns and misappropriation of merchants' property by "wool parties" may be restrained, which is conducive to safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of merchants.

it is worth mentioning that in the e-commerce ecological chain, merchants, as the source of the e-commerce transaction chain, have always been an important foundation for building the core competitiveness of the platform. only when their profit margins and legitimate rights and interests are fully guaranteed can a virtuous cycle of platform ecology be created.

cao lei also told nandu reporters that recently, a series of measures launched by e-commerce platforms are conducive to balancing the relationship between merchants and consumers: for merchants, operating burdens are reduced, service efficiency is improved, and more exposure opportunities are increased; for platforms, it can optimize the merchant ecosystem, increase the types of merchants, and provide consumers with more choices, thereby indirectly improving consumer experience.

seeking solutions for high-quality development of e-commerce: platforms explore the path of "quality and service first"

in the previous incremental era, e-commerce platforms usually simplified transaction links, reduced traffic costs, optimized supply chains, etc. to make commodity prices occupy market advantages. while consumers enjoy certain discounts, the pressure on merchants is also increasing.

as the era of extensive high-growth dividends fades away, how to further reduce the operating costs of merchants while ensuring consumer experience has become a realistic proposition facing e-commerce platforms. today, the platforms have turned to "rolling themselves" and taken the first step towards change: the platforms are the first to make concessions, using "real money" subsidies and support measures to reduce costs for merchants and promote their high-quality development.

it is worth discussing what will be the focus of competition in the future e-commerce industry? how can e-commerce platforms build a virtuous cycle of industry ecology?

based on her work experience, liang qianjuan told nandu reporters that under industry competition, some businesses will inevitably reduce costs by lowering product quality while lowering product prices, which will harm the interests of consumers. the relationship between platforms, merchants and consumers should be a mutually beneficial relationship, and e-commerce platforms should be the driving force behind promoting fair trade.

pinduoduo and other e-commerce platforms have begun to invest in a 10 billion yuan tax reduction plan, which means that e-commerce platforms have a new trade-off, from relying solely on demand-side subsidies to attract users to a deep reform of the supply side. liang qianjuan believes that in the long run, the business strategy of e-commerce will gradually shift to quality and service first. "for the entire industry chain to achieve healthy development, it is necessary to consider the survival of merchants. merchants will develop good products only if they can make a profit, and product sales will be driven only if consumers are satisfied with the products."

she said that in this process, e-commerce platforms can better assume the responsibility of supervising and matching transactions, control quality standards and prices within a reasonable range, and enable all parties in the entire chain to achieve a win-win situation.

in this regard, cao lei also told the nandu reporter that the e-commerce industry will pay more attention to service quality, brand building and technological innovation in the future. the platform needs to have a deeper insight into user needs and provide more accurate products and services. in addition, it is also necessary to strengthen cooperation with suppliers, optimize supply chain management, reduce operating costs, and improve product quality and service levels.

written by: southern metropolis daily reporter fan wenyang