Recently, the Central Economic Work Conference explicitly proposed to "lead the development of new quality productive forces with technological innovation", releasing a clear signal of using technology to lead industrial innovation and building competitive advantages through industrial upgrading. At the recent expert seminar on high-quality development of platform economy held by China Economic Net, several experts and scholars conducted in-depth discussions on the theme of "increasing the supply of new quality and developing new quality productivity".
Hu Qimu, Chief Researcher of the Digital Economy Think Tank, pointed out at the seminar that "new quality supply" is an important industry practice of new quality productivity, and e-commerce platforms mainly play two roles: main support and industry empowerment. At present, Pinduoduo's practice of "new quality supply" is an important manifestation of the transformation of the e-commerce industry from quantity expansion to quality improvement, and the leading e-commerce companies guiding them to gain core competitive advantages through innovative transformation.
'New Quality Supply' is an industry practice of new quality productivity
Innovation plays a leading role, breaking away from the traditional economic growth mode and productivity development path, possessing advanced productivity characteristics of high technology, high efficiency, and high quality, in line with the new development concept. "Hu Qimu explained the new quality productivity in this way, pointing out that although it has high-tech characteristics, it does not only exist in strategic emerging industries and future industries, but also in traditional enterprises. The current practice of" new quality supply "on e-commerce platforms is empowering traditional enterprises to transform and upgrade, adjust their structure, and promote the release of high-quality productivity.
Hu Qimu stated that "new quality supply" mainly includes products and services formed by new quality productivity, among which products refer to products formed by production process innovation or technological innovation, and services include data support and channel services. He pointed out that in the traditional production mode of enterprises, production is the foundation, "because in the past we faced a contradiction in total quantity, but in the current stage of structural contradictions such as supply-demand imbalance and insufficiency, solving production problems cannot only consider the product production process.
Hu Qimu further stated that issues such as what to produce, how much to produce, and how to produce must be comprehensively considered in terms of production, distribution, circulation, and consumption. "From production to consumption, the entire process of products must achieve smooth circulation. In the current situation where the production mode of traditional enterprises urgently needs to be transformed, the digital empowerment and channel services provided by new quality supply precisely make up for the shortcomings of traditional enterprises. Hu Qimu stated.
Since the beginning of this year, Pinduoduo has implemented many practices in promoting "new quality supply". Since mid August, Pinduoduo has successively launched a series of measures such as the "Billion Reduction" and "Billion Support Plan for New Quality Merchants". While reducing costs and increasing efficiency for merchants, it relies on the platform's digital capabilities to help enterprises quickly capture new consumption trends, empower enterprise transformation and innovation, and accelerate the transformation of "new quality supply" into "market explosive products".
Hu Qimu stated that in the current era where new e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo are deeply involved in empowering and transforming the production end, e-commerce has become a part of the real economy, but it does not directly produce physical products, but rather reflects its role through services and data support.
Up to now, Pinduoduo has penetrated dozens of industrial belts such as Quanzhou diapers, Cangzhou beauty brushes, Pingdu false eyelashes, Cixi small appliances, and Huizhou footwear, deeply integrating the digital capabilities of the platform with the supply chain capabilities of merchants, creating new impetus for the transformation of industrial belts.
New quality supply helps enterprises gain three major competitive advantages
On one hand, the homogenization competition on the production side is intensifying, while on the other hand, the demand for "consumption upgrading" on the consumer side is still growing. Hu Qimu believes that "new quality supply" is the key measure to solve the current supply-demand imbalance and insufficient development.
Hu Qimu believes that generally speaking, enterprises gain competitive advantage through five factors, including technological advantage, economies of scale, channel advantage, low cost, and differentiation. Pinduoduo's practice of "new quality supply" precisely helps enterprises gain competitive advantages in differentiation, channel advantages, and low-cost advantages, and meet the diverse needs of consumers.
In terms of differentiation, relying on the platform's big data, enterprises can quickly understand consumer preferences, capture new consumption trends, and provide feedback to the production end accordingly, making production more in line with consumer needs; In terms of cost reduction, the platform provides subsidies to enterprises to help them reduce the customer acquisition and transaction costs of product innovation, in order to quickly gain scale advantages; In terms of channel advantages, compared to the offline transaction method of unified transmission, relying on the platform's direct connection to the national market and the advantages of concentrated exposure of resources such as traffic, the platform can help enterprises connect new products directly to consumers across the country without being limited by time and space, reducing the risk of innovation.
Taking the mother and baby brand Little Bear as an example, with the support of Pinduoduo's "New Quality Merchant Billion Support Plan" and other measures, Little Bear's sales have increased from 13 million yuan in 2023 to 84 million yuan in 2024, achieving a nearly 6.5-fold sales explosion. According to the store manager of the Little Bear brand Pinduoduo, in September of this year, Pinduoduo offered a 60% discount on the technical service fee of "use first, pay later", which not only reduced the brand's operating costs but also allowed the Little Bear team to focus more on innovative products.
Thanks to a series of discount measures by Pinduoduo, the operating costs of Baoken shoe merchant Lao Miao's store have also been significantly reduced. According to Lao Miao, traditional e-commerce platforms require a daily investment of 20000 to 30000 yuan in promotion expenses. However, at Pinduoduo, while the promotion expenses are reduced, the daily order volume is higher. "Our cost has been reduced, which is reflected in the considerable price reduction space for our products, ultimately benefiting consumers. At present, in daily shoe production, Lao Miao requires that the quality of each pair of shoes far exceeds the quality level corresponding to its pricing.
Hu Qimu stated that Pinduoduo is accelerating the emergence of "new quality supply" by helping companies gain three major competitive advantages. On the one hand, e-commerce platforms themselves play a role in supporting the main body. By integrating digital technology and applying data elements to the production process, they accelerate the cycle of products from consumption trends, production, and consumption. On the other hand, e-commerce platforms can play a role in empowering industries. By providing channels, reducing information asymmetry in the market, and helping industries connect with larger markets, "he concluded.
The impact of "new quality supply" has become apparent in industries and sectors
At present, Pinduoduo's "new quality supply" experiment is still being intensified and will go deep into remote areas such as Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xizang, etc.
Hu Qimu stated that from the perspective of industrial development, Pinduoduo will increase its "new quality supply" and guide enterprises to obtain core competitiveness through innovation and transformation, and accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading by focusing on new quality merchants.
The profound impact on the industrial belt is gradually becoming apparent. In Huidong, Lao Miao's success in selling Haken shoes on Pinduoduo has also driven local upstream leather and other raw material manufacturers to increase production and capacity. In addition to doubling the investment in production equipment, raw material workers and shoe workers in the deep industrial belt have obtained higher and more stable incomes, with an average monthly salary of over 10000 yuan per person.
As a domestic mother and baby brand headquartered in Shanghai, Xiaobaixiong relies on regional advantages to layout production lines and strictly control product quality. Currently, it has five professional factories in Shanghai, Fujian, and Zhejiang, and "each factory only produces its own best and most professional products, so as to ensure the quality of domestic mother and baby products. The person in charge of Little White Bear said.
In addition, Little Bear has added innovation, such as the newly launched baby disinfection cabinet, which uses ultraviolet disinfection to solve the problems of scale and hot hands caused by steam disinfection. The improved product has a unit price of seven to eight hundred yuan, and once launched, it quickly became a big hit on Pinduoduo; Another brand under its umbrella, Feixiaole, has pioneered a hanging neck style hands-free breast pump. The main accessories are designed in the shape of headphones, allowing mothers to breastfeed while working, doing housework, and having fun. Even in public spaces, there is no awkwardness, making it a perennial "out of stock king".
Hu Qimu stated that Pinduoduo's practice of "new quality supply" will also have a wide-ranging impact and lead the e-commerce industry it operates in to transition from quantity expansion to quality improvement. He also pointed out that e-commerce platforms have different models in promoting the formation of "new quality supply", including empowering upstream and downstream, improving circulation efficiency, and providing data support. There is no right or wrong mode, it needs to be based on its own endowment conditions.
At the seminar, Li Mingtao, Chief E-commerce Expert of China International E-commerce Center, also believed that in the context of expanding domestic demand, effective supply should be used to guide or stimulate consumption, and "new quality supply" should be used to break through consumption bottlenecks. From the perspective of vigorously boosting consumption, we need to innovate on the supply side of products to provide consumers with a better consumption experience. At the same time, the "new quality supply" will also have a strong driving effect on effective investment in the future. In his view, increasing the supply of "new quality" requires leveraging the role of platform economy, especially e-commerce platforms. (China Economic Net reporter He Xin)