Unconsciously, the Double Eleven has already passed for more than ten years. From the initial dominance of Alibaba, to the confrontation between Tmall and JD, and now the strong entry of Pinduoduo, the ups and downs experienced by the Double Eleven every year all embody the diverse expectations of the times and consumers for e-commerce platforms.
But no matter how the times change, cost-effectiveness is always the most essential and "simple and rough" expectation of consumers for the Double Eleven. As Zhao Jiazhen, Executive Director and Co CEO of Pinduoduo, recently said at the 2023 World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit, "The digital world is constantly changing and there are many hotspots, but truly solving the daily problems of ordinary people and providing consumers with more affordable and better services is a deterministic demand
This year, consumers' demand for affordability has become even more prominent. On the one hand, this is due to the increasing attention of Chinese consumers to "cost-effectiveness", and more importantly, Chinese consumers have been suffering from the ever-changing subsidy policies in the "Double Eleven" period for a long time. When the discount no longer really benefits consumers, the scene of "one meal is as fierce as a tiger, and the result is two dollars and five dollars cheaper" has become the focus of roast on the Double 11.
Looking at the current "battlefield" of Double Eleven, many discounts are distributed in the form of platform shopping vouchers, which cannot directly offset product payments. The gameplay is no longer simple: big promotions go from the simplest full discounts, to shopping vouchers for discounts, to distributing fan coupons through traffic... Consumers need to invest a lot of time and energy in saving money.
According to an earlier survey on China News Network, nearly 70% of consumers think the price of the Double 11 is not cheap. About 24% of consumers are willing to stock up on the Double 11 this year, 43% of consumers tend not to buy, and the remaining 34% of consumers are neutral in their willingness to buy, depending on the situation.
From this, it can be seen that the "Double Eleven", which has experienced fifteen years of storms, is approaching a critical moment in determining its fate. Whether it can regain its original intention and truly benefit the hundreds of millions of ordinary individuals behind this festival will affect every e-commerce participant.
Pinduoduo Wants to Redefine "Double Eleven"
When some e-commerce users start to "get tired" of the Double Eleven, many people suddenly realize that Pinduoduo can already enable consumers to enjoy the discounted prices of Double Eleven on weekdays. Through Pinduoduo's 10 billion yuan subsidy policy, promotions are no longer scarce, and consumers can enjoy daily live streaming and weekly activities, so shopping can be postponed to November 11th.
Therefore, the industry has begun to explore: what is the password for Pinduoduo to maintain its "price power" in the long term?
The answer given by Pinduoduo is: the "Pinduo" model with a subsidy of ten billion yuan.
It is not difficult to find that in the original commodity circulation model of the Chinese retail industry, a significant portion of the cost is spent on finding consumers, as analyzed by the "consolidation" model. For the same product, if 500 people choose to combine orders, it means the certainty of production, which will also lead to a downward trend in promotion, brand, and other expenses, and merchants are willing to offer more discounts.
And the tens of billions of subsidies have become the "official sign" of Pinduoduo. Pinduoduo's 11.11 is a development history of billions of subsidies. From short-term activities prepared for the 618 promotion to long-term strategies to promote consumer equity, billions of subsidies continue to drive Pinduoduo's upward growth.
In the memory of the internet, after the end of the Double Eleven Festival in 2019, e-commerce platforms and brand merchants were drumming and releasing their transcripts. Pinduoduo, who is also actively preparing for the battle, only disclosed a few simple sets of data, including: just 16 minutes after midnight on the 11th, the sales of Pinduoduo platform cars exceeded 1000 units, with consumers mainly coming from third, fourth, and fifth tier cities; The sales growth rate of agricultural products from impoverished areas has exceeded 220%, and these products are mainly purchased by consumers in first and second tier cities; From November 1st to 11th, the Pinduoduo platform sold over 400000 new iPhones.
On the Double Eleven of that year, Pinduoduo stated in an open letter, What Pinduoduo is most concerned about is whether consumers are reassured when Pinduoduo buys, and whether they are happy at the moment when the red envelope rain and subsidies come. People are very concerned about numbers and grand things, but Pinduoduo has not yet had time to build a real-time data screen, and the company is in a hurry to restock, compare prices, and provide subsidies. The banners and atmosphere flower baskets in the corridor have not yet been placed, and this day has passed
Achieve the brilliance of ordinary people
In addition to benefiting more ordinary consumers, Pinduoduo is also achieving the brilliance of many ordinary people.
On the Pinduoduo platform, there is a master's degree in finance from the post-90s who "do not love investment banking, love agriculture, and return home to sell popular hairy crabs"; There are also young couples who have left their homes and studied farming in the valleys of Xishuangbanna, driving the villagers to become rich together; There are also sheep herders who once came from poor backgrounds. Through e-commerce, they can help local villagers sell four sheep every half an hour.
Si Liuliu is one of the most ordinary entrepreneurs.
After 8 years of e-commerce, Siliuliu has long been accustomed to November 11th, but this year is a bit special. This is his first November 11th when he returned to his hometown to start a business.
Before returning home, Siliuliu had been engaged in e-commerce operations in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, mainly selling women's clothing. After getting married last year, in order to accompany his family, Siliuliu decided to return to his hometown in Shangqiu, Henan and started selling Undaria on Pinduoduo.
From selling women's clothing to selling agricultural products, the mindset of product operation is different, and the supply chain model is also very different. It is not easy for e-commerce veterans like Siliu to stay. After continuously trying several agricultural products, they ultimately locked their main category in Undaria.
Undaria pinnatifida is a dry product with a moderate price and is not easily worn out, making it very suitable for practicing in the early stages of entrepreneurship. But it was this trial and error item that quickly established him. After participating in several flash sales activities, the daily sales of Undaria pinnatifida quickly exceeded 8000 units, and during the promotion period, it even reached 20000 to 30000 units.
When we first opened the store, the best plan was to sell a few hundred orders a day, just to make ends meet, "said Siliuliu. The current sales volume is completely unimaginable, and we plan to expand a few more products and try more.
And there are millions of Pinduoduo merchants who have similar experiences with Siliuliu. Through Pinduoduo's unique supply chain control capabilities, more and more non-standard agricultural products are able to emerge from the mountains and forests and be placed on the dining plates of urban families.
Zhao Jiazhen has a deep understanding of this: 8 years ago, Pinduoduo started as a retail platform for agricultural products. Unlike standardized industrial products, naturally mature agricultural products need to be commercialized and online, facing many difficulties such as small scale, scattered layout, uneven variety and quality, and lack of brand. Step by step, these problems need to be solved step by step.
In response to the problems of small scale and scattered layout, Pinduoduo has explored the "cloud consolidation of agricultural land" model. The scattered farmland under the traditional small-scale agricultural production model has been merged into a virtual large farm in the cloud, and the temporarily dispersed demand on the consumer end has been merged into a centralized and determined demand. At the same time, the model of direct distribution from production areas has been replaced by layer by layer distribution, thus achieving the connection of small farmers to the national market.
In response to the issues of variety and quality, Pinduoduo adheres to long-term investment in the field of agricultural science and technology, promotes technology inclusiveness in the most grassroots villages, holds three consecutive Duoduo Agricultural Research Technology Competition and two "Pinduoduo Cup" Science and Technology Academy Competition, and also establishes the "Ten Billion Agricultural Research" special project to promote agricultural science and technology progress.
Now, as the largest agricultural product uplink platform in China, Pinduoduo not only launched seasonal agricultural products from more than 1000 domestic agricultural production areas during the 11.11 period, but also promoted more high-quality agricultural products from the "the Belt and Road" countries to directly connect with domestic sellers, and provided the lowest discounts through 10 billion subsidies, including Chilean cherries, Thai coconut green, Malaysian durian, Peruvian blueberries, Vietnamese red meat jackfruit, New Zealand kiwi fruit, etc.
On October 26th, Pinduoduo released its report on the first three days of the 11.11 promotion, which showed that the number of subsidized users exceeded 620 million, with orders from first tier cities increasing by 113% year-on-year, and orders from fourth and fifth tier cities increasing by 167% year-on-year. Specifically, 20 categories including seafood, lamb, fruits, sports, beauty, small appliances, electric vehicles, learning machines, tea drinks, imported snacks, computer hardware, and high-end musical instruments have doubled in growth, and the consumption potential continues to be unleashed.
Benefiting more brands
In fact, in addition to individual entrepreneurs, Pinduoduo is also tilting more resource support for more traditional brand merchants, especially domestic brands.
For example, in response to this year's November 11th, the Chinese elderly shoe brand, Zulijian, established a customer service team of more than 40 people at the Guangzhou e-commerce center and mobilized the national logistics supply chain to coordinate shipment.
At the end of 2019, Zulijian settled in Pinduoduo and began official operation the following year. At the beginning of opening the store, Zulijian's strategy was originally to go in the direction of low prices, but it was quickly discovered that something was wrong.
After dismantling the consumer base of the official flag, we found that users of Pinduoduo are not only concerned about price, but also more about the value of the product, and are very willing to pay for the experience. "Peng Shan, the person in charge of the official flag of Zulijian, introduced that Zulijian quickly adjusted its strategy and launched multiple dedicated contributions with customer order prices of 399 yuan and 299 yuan, with good results.
Since the beginning of this year, sales of Zulijian have begun to fully explode in Pinduoduo. The first quarter of previous years was off season, but in February of this year, Zulijian launched the "Leap Moon Shoes" and the official flag achieved double growth, which gave Peng Shan higher expectations for November 11th.
As early as May, Zulijian had prepared two autumn special contributions and two winter special contributions for Dajian in advance. Among them, the winter snow boots are made of Australian sheep wool, which has good thermal insulation performance and a unit price of over 299 yuan per customer. In September alone, the single item sales have exceeded 1 million yuan and have been selling well, consistently ranking among the top two in official flag sales.
In the offline stores of Zulijian, customers are mostly elderly people who prefer on-site experience, while online users are mainly urban white-collar workers, small town youth, etc., which effectively compensates for the shortcomings of the user population. For young people born in the 1990s and 1990s, Zulijian has become a high-quality choice for giving gifts to parents in the village, buying several pairs at a time with a repurchase rate of over 20%.
As of the end of September, we had already completed last year's performance for the entire year, and the peak season has just begun. This year's sales are expected to exceed 100 million, which is only three years since Zulijian opened its store, "Peng Shan said.
After allowing parents to wear more comfortable elderly shoes, urban middle class, young white-collar workers, and small town youth have become more specialized in their sports equipment. The growth of high-end equipment from brands such as Nike, Adidas, Andema, Puma, Li Ning, Anta, Special Step, Peak, 361 degrees, and Hongxing Erke is the most significant.
Among them, the sales of domestic sports brand 361 degrees increased by 100% year-on-year, and the order volume of its carbon board racing shoes in fourth and fifth tier cities increased by five times; Puma's order volume increased by 77% year-on-year among the post-95 generation; Anta's user base in new first tier cities has increased by 93% year-on-year; The sales of American sports brand Wilson basketball increased by 180% year-on-year.
In addition to domestic products, in recent years, more and more domestic and foreign first and second tier brands have also accelerated their entry into Pinduoduo. At the same time, the number of users receiving billions of subsidies has reached 620 million.
The scene of "hundred boats competing for the top ten billion yuan subsidy resources of Pinduoduo" reflects the brand's importance and trust in Pinduoduo's consumption field on the one hand; On the other hand, Pinduoduo also uses billions of subsidies as a benchmark to screen out businesses with strong supply chain and service capabilities through higher entry barriers and service standards, and further enhance their attractiveness and satisfaction to consumers in the present and future.