Previously, Pinduoduo launched a "billion yuan discount" for merchants, coupled with the familiar "billion yuan subsidy" for users, which is forming a new formula for Pinduoduo's manufacturing growth.
Bull socket is one of the first new quality merchants to emerge from the "new quality supply". Before the big promotion, our expectation was to achieve two or three times the growth, which was already very satisfactory. Now, sales have increased by 12 times compared to September, and there is no time to restock. "The person in charge of the Pinduoduo store under Bull confirmed that in order to prepare for the" 11.11 "big promotion, the Bull team had cooperated with the platform as early as August and developed five new quality products specifically for the platform. After the products were launched, they were quickly sold out.
In addition to Bull, Little Bear Electric, Axe Home Cleaning, Into YOU Beauty, and others have all launched "new quality supply" experiments on Pinduoduo. Develop new quality products based on Pinduoduo's user attributes and tap into emerging market increments on the platform.
Brand's' New Quality Breakthrough '
What exactly is new quality supply? Bulls' answer is customized new products and more flexible pricing strategies.
At the current "11.11" promotion, Bulls sold out 5 types of power strips as soon as they went online on Pinduoduo. By adjusting the appearance and line length, they have achieved a more flexible pricing strategy. The wire length of the new quality plug is 1.5 meters, slightly shorter than the regular model. The regular model has a more rounded shape, while the new quality plug has a simpler shape, so the overall cost-effectiveness is higher, reducing costs by 5% to 10%, "said the person in charge of the Bull.
In addition to the new quality products that cooperate with the platform, Bull has found that the brand's new products have a very good conversion rate on Pinduoduo. The Bull operation team has found that new digital 3C accessories such as USB data cables and charging heads have achieved several fold sales growth on Pinduoduo, and has begun to focus on developing new products on Pinduoduo. Subsequently, strategic products such as charging piles and LED energy-saving lamps, which were the focus of research and development, were launched on Pinduoduo as soon as possible.
Unlike Bull, Little Bear Electric's new quality experiment comes from a deep understanding and adjustment of Pinduoduo users. The initial target customer group of Little Bear Electric was first and second tier users. After several outbreaks of new quality products on Pinduoduo, the company found that as long as mature product categories were slightly adjusted, it was highly likely to be favored by a wider range of Pinduoduo users, filling the gap of Little Bear Electric in the county and township markets.
Xiaoxiong Electric's first super product on Pinduoduo is a 5L capacity visual air fryer under its brand. After receiving a subsidy of billions, daily sales surged 10 times month on month, driving the monthly sales of this product to approach the 10 million yuan mark.
Our mature products have been validated in first - and second tier markets, while users in third - and fourth tier cities may be more concerned about price, material, and color, so even slight adjustments to the product will continue to explode, "said the person in charge of Xiaoxiong Electric." Taking rice cookers as an example, users in first - and second tier cities prefer light colors such as white, but county-level users prefer dark colors such as black
During the "11.11" promotion, Xiaoxiong Electric Appliances launched two customized new products on Pinduoduo - a health pot and an electric kettle, with sales increasing by 7 times and 9 times respectively compared to the previous period. The above-mentioned person in charge of Xiaoxiong Electric conservatively estimates that Xiaoxiong Electric will achieve a 30% growth in Pinduoduo's current promotion.
However, not all on Pinduoduo are young people from small towns. The emerging beauty brand Into YOU is exploring new users such as urban white-collar workers and avant-garde girls on Pinduoduo.
NTO YOU's Pinduoduo journey started with leveraging billions of subsidies and achieved a breakthrough in sales from 0 to millions of yuan in just 3 months through single products and gifts; In the second half of 2023, Into YOU began to match products for core users aged 18 to 30 on the platform, customizing four new quality items including fingertips, refractions, concentrates, and gels. After half a year of operation, the sales of new quality items increased by three times compared with the previous ones, achieving the goal of overtaking in the corner of Pinduoduo "lipstick lipstick" category.
Zhu Keli, Executive Director of the China Information Association and Founding Director of the National Research Institute for New Economy, believes that supporting the supply of new quality products is expected to provide new ideas for the e-commerce industry to break free from the low price war.
Zhu Keli believes that new quality supply emphasizes innovation in products, technology, and other aspects, and wins the market by providing differentiated and high-quality products. It not only helps to enhance the profitability of businesses, but also improves the consumer experience, forming a virtuous cycle. Low price competition may still exist in the short term, but in the long run, new quality supply can lead the e-commerce industry onto a healthier and more sustainable development track.
Industrial belt iteration
The more profound changes in "new quality supply" occur in industrial belts.
Optimizing the supply chain and deeply binding it with the industrial belt is a common operational technique. Pinduoduo's approach is to take one more step, work together with small and medium-sized businesses in the industrial belt to fight monsters and upgrade, and ultimately iterate with the industrial belt.
The most typical example is Bozhou, Anhui. As the world's largest distribution center and price formation center for traditional Chinese medicine, when it comes to Bozhou, the first reaction of most people is traditional Chinese medicine. As the "supporting role" of the trade of traditional Chinese medicine in Bozhou, the output of flower tea industry accounts for 80% of the country's total, and the annual express delivery business volume is about 355 million pieces.
Jing Xuejie, who graduated from Shenyang Pharmaceutical University with a major in pharmacy and returned to his hometown of Bozhou to start his own business, opened a herbal tea shop on Pinduoduo. The reason for choosing Pinduoduo is very direct, as there is no need to pay commissions, annual fees, or investment fees. The money saved can lower the price.
Both longan goji berry and red date tea, as well as ginseng and five treasures tea, are sold for over 20 yuan on other platforms, but only around 8 yuan on Pinduoduo. Jing Xuejie also encountered the user dividend of Pinduoduo's rise. In 2018, Jing Xuejie found more elderly users in the sinking market; The number of users who have placed orders in the small store has accumulated from millions and tens of millions since 2017 to eight or nine billion people now.
At the same time, in 2018, the herbal tea OEM factories in Bozhou also experienced a surge. Bozhou has achieved a transformation from traditional Chinese herbal medicine trading to e-commerce led sales of herbal tea.
Like Jing Xuejie, Zhang Da, who also runs a herbal tea shop on Pinduoduo, summarized the secret to his rapid rise on Pinduoduo, quickly following the market, following products, and quickly becoming popular. In 2018, a certain brand developed a red bean Job's tears tea, which became popular on e-commerce. Bozhou people followed suit and quickly became popular on Pinduoduo due to its cheaper price.
In order to quickly launch new products and have stronger control over costs and supply chains, merchants like Zhang Da, who have risen rapidly in e-commerce, have started building their own factories. In 2018, the herbal tea OEM factory in Bozhou experienced a surge. Official data shows that there were over 400 large-scale herbal tea production enterprises in Qiaocheng District, Bozhou City at that time.
Copying explosive products is not a long-term solution. As Bozhou merchants continue to rush towards the forefront of the industrial chain, their understanding of new quality supply is becoming increasingly clear. On the one hand, utilizing self built factories to quickly capture market changes and follow up quickly in the shortest possible time. Offer low-priced products of the same quality and use e-commerce platforms to explode in a short period of time.
On the other hand, there is a longer-term path: based on a deep understanding of the user base, developing differentiated products, expanding categories, and achieving more sustained and stable growth. In 2021, Jing Xuejie launched a sugar free health pastry based on his observations of the elderly. At the same time, the business categories have gradually expanded to include health preserving pastries, health preserving soup dumplings, and special diets for health preservation.
At present, Bozhou herbal tea merchants are transforming from the most primitive primary agricultural products to deep processing of "solid beverages" through product iteration and technological innovation. After completing a 30-year journey in 5 years, Bozhou has become one of the fastest-growing cities among the six cities in northern Anhui.
Almost the same story, replicated in more industrial belts. In Pingdu, Shandong, approximately 120 million pairs of beauty eyelashes are produced annually, with 8 out of every 10 pairs of beauty eyelashes worldwide coming from here; In Donghai, Jiangsu, the number of people engaged in handmade armor wearing has reached over 50000, with an annual sales revenue of nearly 3 billion yuan and a production of over 100 million pairs.
These once unknown small towns have emerged as industrial belts based not only on local foundations, but also on rapidly rising consumer markets, entering through vertical entrances and following new e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo to quickly perceive the market and constantly adjust and iterate.
In the eyes of industry insiders, "new quality supply" seems to be a new formula that Pinduoduo is currently developing, but in the competition from the sinking market to the first and second tier markets, Pinduoduo and industrial belt merchants have jointly developed "new quality supply".
The so-called 'new quality supply' refers to the deep integration of a merchant's supply chain capabilities with the platform's digital capabilities. A group of emerging high-quality merchants with product and technological innovation capabilities, relying on their supply chain advantages, can timely match the needs of e-commerce consumers and changes in market trends, and promote industrial upgrading, injecting new impetus into the industrial belt.
According to incomplete statistics, Pinduoduo's support for new quality merchants has already entered the industrial belts of Donghai wearable armor, Pingdu false eyelashes, Cangzhou makeup brushes, Lu'an wedding dresses, Shantou clothing, etc.
New Quality Engine
Brand merchants and industrial belts seek growth through iteration and change in e-commerce. In seemingly traditional industries such as agricultural products, new quality supply is also emerging.
During this year's "11.11" promotion, a soft jujube kiwi fruit from Dandong, Liaoning was launched on the flash sale channel, with daily sales reaching over 20000 kilograms under the platform's concentrated exposure.
Behind the explosive sales of soft jujube kiwifruit is Hu Binglong, a villager from Laolang Gou in Hushan Town, Dandong, who has been exploring planting for more than ten years. Hu Binglong's adventure began in 2002 when he and his friends accidentally discovered a wild fruit tree on the mountain. This wild fruit was the newly popular internet celebrity "Strange Berry" in recent years, with the scientific name "Soft Jujube Kiwi".
In 2018, kiwifruit imported from New Zealand sold at high prices in Chinese supermarkets, becoming a new internet celebrity fruit. Little known is that "soft jujube kiwifruit" also grows in Northeast China.
In 2011, in order to take care of his family, Hu Binglong ended his "business in the martial arts world" and returned to the village to ponder on a new livelihood. His gaze finally fell on the wild fruit tree he accidentally discovered that year, and he dug it up from the mountain and transplanted it to the edge of Hetao. From researching planting techniques, grafting, cuttings to distributing seedlings to villagers, Hu Binglong named the wild fruit tree "Longcheng No.2".
After identification by the local agricultural research institute, the scientific name of the successfully transplanted "Longcheng No.2" is "Soft Jujube Kiwi".
Hu Binglong successfully transplanted and cultivated wild "kiwi berries" from the mountains, and led the villagers to achieve large-scale planting, but he has been struggling with a lack of better sales channels. In 2018, Hu Binglong's nephew Sun Xuyuan moved the soft jujube kiwi fruit to Pinduoduo, gradually opening up sales channels from daily sales to hundreds to over 5000 orders.
This year, in order to sell well in Pinduoduo's "11.11" promotion, Xu Yuan made more preparations. He classified the fruits into different levels according to their appearance and specifications to meet the needs of different consumer groups. For consumers who have gift giving needs, he specially customized the "Jackal Wolf Gou Soft Jujube Kiwi" gift box. Under the centralized exposure of the platform, daily sales reached over 20000 kilograms.
With the popularity of soft jujube kiwifruit, almost every household in Xiaolanggou has planted soft jujube kiwifruit. Compared to traditional chestnut cultivation, soft jujube kiwifruit brings higher economic benefits, and many villagers have even built new buildings in their homes. Hu Binglong is more confident in continuing to research "Longcheng No.2" and making more people like the high-quality and affordable Chinese "soft jujube kiwi fruit".
From agricultural products to brands and industrial belts, on the surface, it seems that merchants are leveraging Pinduoduo's traffic to take off, but in essence, they are constantly developing high-quality and cost-effective differentiated products based on technological innovation. In the eyes of industry insiders, Pinduoduo has also evolved from a simple sales model to an e-commerce model.
At present, in-depth user insights, flexible and fast supply chain response, and innovative manufacturing of explosive products and sustained growth through Pinduoduo's "billion yuan subsidy" are becoming the universal formula for more "new quality supply".
The proposal of new quality supply is a strategic transformation attempt in the context of increasingly fierce e-commerce competition. From an economic perspective, the key to achieving new quality supply lies in whether merchants can truly deeply integrate their supply chain capabilities with platform digital capabilities. Zhu Keli pointed out that in this process, merchants need to have keen market insight, use big data, artificial intelligence and other digital technology means to accurately capture consumer demand, and become "few enterprises"; At the same time, we will strengthen scene innovation, transform technology into practical products, and meet the diversified needs of the market. This process is full of challenges and requires collaboration from multiple parties such as businesses, platforms, and public sectors to gradually promote industrial upgrading.