Almost everyone agreed in unison that this year’s Double 11 was particularly cold.
At this time in previous years, platforms and merchants were already in full swing. Various promotional advertisements were flying all over the sky, and major information and social platforms dominated the hot search headlines. However, this year, not only were there fewer hot searches about Double 11, but platform merchants also had less promotional activities. A lot.
At this time in previous years, many products that focused on consumption upgrades have quietly taken a back seat; this year's Double 11, products that focus on consumption downgrades have become the main promotion, and low prices have also become the main theme.
At this time in previous years, the voices of small and medium-sized merchants have become weaker and weaker; this year, during Double 11, small and medium-sized merchants once again took the center stage, and small and medium-sized merchants once again became the main support targets of major e-commerce platforms.
At this time in previous years, major e-commerce platforms were fighting each other for real; this year is different, everyone seems to be much quieter on the surface.
Actually, no. The major e-commerce platforms are fighting more fiercely behind the scenes than before.
Taobao Tmall: There is offense in defense, defense in attack
Today, many people are increasingly calling for the cancellation of e-commerce and the restoration of physical stores. Many people blame the downturn of physical stores on the development of e-commerce. It is undeniable that e-commerce has a certain impact on the business of offline physical stores, but this is completely an inevitable trend of the development of the times. Even without e-commerce, there will be new shopping formats that will replace brick-and-mortar stores with high costs such as rent, property, water, electricity, and manpower.
Is there not an entity behind e-commerce? Are there thousands of physical factories behind the diverse products of e-commerce? Why are tens of millions of e-commerce merchants not entities?
E-commerce has only moved the offline shopping boom online, and Double 11 has also played an important role in boosting domestic consumption. Once upon a time, Double 11 could be said to be the only home venue for Taobao and Tmall, but now it has become a Double 11 common to almost all e-commerce platforms and physical merchants. How to hold on to the home court of Double 11 is of greater significance to Taobao and Tmall than purely pursuing GMV growth.
In the past few years, JD.com was Taobao's biggest threat, and then Taobao launched Tmall to hold on to the competition; now, Pinduoduo and Douyin live streaming e-commerce have become Taobao and Tmall's biggest threat, how can Taobao and Tmall hold on to the competition?
First, return to low prices and defend Pinduoduo’s offense. In recent years, Pinduoduo has risen rapidly with its low-price strategy and has become Taobao's biggest threat. This time on Double 11, Taobao and Tmall's low-price efforts were stronger than ever before.
Second, live broadcast the arena to defend Douyin’s food. Douyin e-commerce live broadcast has become the biggest dark horse in the e-commerce circle in the past two years, and many anchors have also made a lot of money with the help of Douyin e-commerce live broadcast. This year’s Double 11, Taobao and Tmall no longer only strongly support top anchors and top merchants, but have begun to provide different live broadcast support policies for different types of merchants and anchors.
Third, take the initiative to rob small and medium-sized businesses. In the past e-commerce war with JD.com, Taobao launched Tmall and gradually built brand merchants, but this also caused many small and medium-sized merchants to flee the Taobao platform. Since Alibaba announced the launch of "1+6+N" this year, Taobao has once again made a strong comeback, and many small and medium-sized merchants have also begun to choose to restart Taobao stores. This time, during Double 11, small and medium-sized merchants have once again become Taobao's key support targets.
JD.com: This live broadcast is so eye-catching
JD.com has not been very popular in live streaming e-commerce for a long time, but this time no one expected that Liu Qiangdong did not expect it, JD.com people did not expect it, Douyin, Kuaishou, and Taobao also never expected that JD Live Broadcasting would actually An accidental fire broke out.
But if you think about it carefully, the failure of JD Live on Double 11 was not an accident, but the accumulation and accumulation over the years.
First of all, of course, it is still inseparable from the procurement advantages that JD.com has accumulated over the years. The single purchasing ability of any super internet celebrity anchor cannot compete with the purchasing ability of the entire JD.com group, not to mention that JD.com has accumulated decades of experience and brand resources in purchasing. It is this purchasing advantage that makes JD.com The live broadcast room has price and quality advantages.
Secondly, it is also inseparable from JD.com’s past accumulation in live broadcast e-commerce. Although JD.com’s live streaming has been tepid in the past, JD.com has never given up on live streaming e-commerce. In the past few years, JD.com has also accumulated a certain amount of live streaming e-commerce experience. It is these accumulations that have laid a solid foundation for JD.com’s live broadcast e-commerce to break out of the circle this time.
Finally, it is inseparable from the opportunity of JD Live. JD Live has successfully leveraged the live broadcasts of Internet celebrity anchor Li Jiaqi and followed the trend to keep an eye on the live broadcast rooms of leading anchors. It launches the same products, but the prices are always slightly lower than those of the leading anchors. But this small amount is enough. In this era of consumption downgrade, such a small amount is enough to attract many consumers to come and watch.
Pinduoduo: tens of billions of subsidies are in progress
Times make heroes. This saying seems to be outdated at any time and in any field, and the same is true in the e-commerce field. In an era when consumption is gradually upgrading, JD.com has gradually gained the trust of consumers with its quality, same-day delivery and other services. Later, platforms such as Tmall and Vipshop have followed up on e-commerce quality strategies.
When everyone is unwilling to admit that consumption is downgrading, but in reality consumption is indeed downgrading, platforms such as Pinduoduo and Douyin Live e-commerce have taken advantage of the situation to rise. Especially Pinduoduo, its performance has been booming in recent years, and it can be said that it has made a fortune silently.
There are not many new tricks for Pinduoduo on Double 11, but in recent years Pinduoduo has provided tens of billions of subsidies for every Double 11 to the end, and this year’s Double 11 is no exception. More than 100 domestic and foreign leading brands in mobile phones, home appliances, beauty, clothing, mother and baby, care, home furnishing, pets, outdoor, grain and oil, FMCG, etc. launched the "Ten Billion Big Brand Day" during the Double 11 period.
Getting rid of the "virtual" and focusing on the "real" has become Pinduoduo's main strategy in the Double 11 battle. From the perspective of consumers, this tens of billions of subsidies can really make everyone feel the benefits.
Douyin, Kuaishou, and video accounts: Participate in the Double 11 feast together
As the three major short video platforms in China, with the gradual deepening of short video e-commerce and live broadcast e-commerce, their market positions in the e-commerce field have also increased.
Compared with e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo, consumer shopping experience and logistics support have always been a major shortcoming of live broadcast e-commerce. In this Double 11, Douyin began to comprehensively make up for its shortcomings: on the one hand, Douyin signed a "guaranteed" cooperation agreement with four leading express delivery companies to provide guaranteed compensation, priority delivery, price guarantee, and exclusive services. Customer service and other rights and interests provide effective guarantee for merchants to fulfill their contracts; on the other hand, Douyin has strengthened the quality management of the platform's products and services to effectively protect consumers' shopping experience and rights.
Kuaishou also launched a larger subsidy program during this year’s Double 11, and video accounts also followed up on Double 11 to join in the excitement. However, in comparison, the e-commerce commercialization of video accounts has been relatively slow, and the e-commerce system of the platform is not very mature. The e-commerce rules are unclear and even changed day by day, which has been criticized by many bloggers and merchants who carry goods. .
Xiaohongshu, Vipshop, and Meituan: the “new forces” of e-commerce during Double 11
In addition to the major mainstream e-commerce platforms and live streaming e-commerce platforms, Xiaohongshu, Vipshop, and Meituan are other strong players in Double 11 e-commerce.
Xiaohongshu has never been very popular in the field of content e-commerce, but since it tried live streaming e-commerce this year, Xiaohongshu has found some presence in the e-commerce field. This time’s Double 11 is also the first time that Xiaohongshu has participated in Double 11. Unlike other e-commerce platforms that focus on the “low price” strategy, Xiaohongshu continues to focus on the “buyer e-commerce” model. Build your own differentiated competitive advantage during Double 11.
When it comes to the most low-key e-commerce platform, it is undoubtedly Vipshop. Judging from the financial report data, although Vipshop’s market share in e-commerce platforms is not high, Vipshop’s profitability has always been one of the few among all e-commerce platforms. This time on Double 11, Vipshop also performed well. By purchasing goods from the factory, Vipshop’s product quality and price have always had certain advantages. With its discount retail, Vipshop once again became a lot of consumers during Double 11. I feel good about it.
Unlike all e-commerce platforms, the biggest advantage of Meituan e-commerce is instant retail. In this Double 11, Meituan still continues to exert its energy in the field of instant retail, and achieves online and offline linkage by uniting offline physical malls and various stores. Meituan’s flash sales are also busy during the Double 11 period. It's overwhelming.
Overall, although Double 11 in 2023 is less noisy than in previous years, consumers have become more pragmatic, and the transaction volume of major e-commerce platforms is still in full swing.