Economic Observation Network reporter Qian Yujuan has entered the 14th year of “Tmall Double 11” since the e-commerce festival. Once this big promotion comes, it is not only a big test for Alibaba, as Yang Guang, president of Taobao and Tmall Industry Development and Operation Center, Alibaba’s domestic digital business sector, said, but it is also a dark test for all new and old e-commerce platforms. This is where the fight begins.
Double 11 in 2022, the slight difference is that the competition and cooperation relationship between platforms will undergo subtle changes.
On October 28, a Kuaishou insider revealed to reporters that Kuaishou restored the Tmall link at the special stage of the Double 11 promotion at the end of the year.
Although Ali insiders told reporters that this cooperation is not only for the current Double 11, the two parties will continue to maintain cooperation in the future, bringing more business certainty to merchants. However, the reporter learned that the current cooperation between the two parties has a certain “time effect”: from October 28th to December 31st, the small yellow car can use the Tmall product link.
Not only did Kuaishou communicate with Tmall, but on the same day, the “Jingdong Alliance” official account announced that it had resumed cooperation with Kuaishou on the external chain. The JD Alliance stated that the short video live broadcast e-commerce is developing rapidly, and the full recovery of the cooperation between the two parties will help the two parties to create a richer new online consumption scene. The reporter saw that Kuaishou opened the link of JD.com’s self-operated products, and the currently displayed time period is from October 28th to November 30th.
“Whether it will recover in the long term remains to be seen.” The above-mentioned Kuaishou insider told reporters that although the Tmall product link can be put on the shelves in the Kuaishou live broadcast room, Taobao’s personal store has not been released.
At the key point of the big promotion, Alibaba, JD.com and Kuaishou have all launched a vertical and horizontal alliance, making Double 11 directly into a Shura field, and a melee between old and new e-commerce platforms has begun.
Platform competition and cooperation are highlighted
After 8 months, Kuaishou chose to open the external chain of Taobao and Jingdong. Chen Duan, executive director of the Digital Economy Research Center of Central University of Finance and Economics, was not surprised by the sudden interoperability of multiple platforms.
“Platforms must hold together for warmth and cross-flow.” In Chen Duan’s view, lifting the cross-chain shield between platforms and deepening the interconnection between platforms has become the self-evolution of the business ecosystem this year, “to such a stage , a lot of things happen naturally.”
When Taobao and JD.com communicate with Kuaishou respectively, behind the action, the commercial spearhead has a unified direction – Douyin.
As we all know, before the opening of Double 11, Luo Yonghao and “Super Head” anchors and live broadcast agencies represented by Yaowang Technology successively entered Taobao and made their first show on Tmall Double 11 launch day.
This is far more topical than the Tao Department’s announcement of a series of information such as double 11 cycle adjustments, promotional gameplay, and full price protection. The reporter also learned that “poaching” was a raid on Douyin by Taobao Live.
“On October 10th, a new team was formed internally. From 0 to 1, the account trial broadcast took only 7 days.” An insider from Yaowang Technology (hereinafter referred to as: Yaowang) told reporters that it entered Taowang in the name of “Yaowang Dream Station”. , when the first pilot was on October 18.
The above-mentioned insiders from Yuanwang also felt “unprepared”. When asked about Yaowang’s strategy of entering Taobao, they gave almost the same answer as making a friend, “Add a new channel.” The person said that entering Taobao does not affect Yaowang operates Douyin and Kuaishou simultaneously, which also makes Yaowang the first company in the market to complete the global layout of the head platform of “Tao Dou Kuai”.
According to the above-mentioned insiders from Yuanwang, she was the first to participate in the live broadcast room of “Yaowang Dream Station” on Tmall Double 11. On the night of the premiere, she also welcomed an “audience”. She is Dai Shan, president of Alibaba Group’s domestic digital business sector. This means that Ali Tao is both attracting and paying more attention to “new students”.
Behind this is actually the efforts of Tao-based e-commerce in terms of content. When introducing the “construction of shopping journey” during Ali’s big promotion, Yang Guang mentioned, “strengthen the ability to impress users with content.” He said that the platform realizes the content-based construction of products through technological transformation, thereby stimulating users to generate consumption decision factor.
Earlier, Dao Fang, general manager of Taobao’s live broadcast business group, said in an interview with the media including reporters from the Economic Observer Network that when consumption is weak, the special value of short videos and live broadcasts will become prominent. “The willingness to be active will become weaker, but in the process of time consumption, the stimulated shopping needs are more important.” In other words, in addition to the abundance of products and the increase of various anchors, content is becoming more and more important.
Today’s Taobao live broadcast also has to take a path of “from content planting to transaction explosion”. To this end, it also connects with first guess, shopping, search, good goods and Diantao, and realizes the development of various fields. Flow through.
Douyin e-commerce, which claims to be “global interest e-commerce”, this year emphasizes the two-way matching of “goods” and “people” based on content, while Kuaishou e-commerce, based on the positioning of “global marketing”, expresses its desire to ” Create a closed-loop connection of ‘people-content-business’.”
Obviously, the actions of Taobao platform and Taobao live broadcast are targeting the two new live broadcast e-commerce platforms, Douyin and Kuaishou. However, the reporter also saw that when JD.com preempted Double 11, Pinduoduo directly subsidized it to fight head-on. In addition to the old rivals attacking Tmall, Douyin and Kuaishou also released their fighting power.
However, Kuaishou avoided the word “Double 11” and launched the “116 Xinyi Shopping Festival” at the same time, and the promotion was slightly weaker than that of Tmall; Douyin was directly “hard”, and the “Double 11 Good Things Festival” activity rhythm was not only the same as that of Tmall. Tmall Double 11 has the same settings. When the latter proposed to extend the double 11 commodity price insurance period from 15 days in previous years to 27 days, the former further emphasized in terms of price protection: the longest price insurance period reached 34 days.
Even though the platform keeps the word “competition” tight-lipped, each of them has vividly displayed the “competition” during the Double 11 promotion.
Businesses are more rational: business returns to its essence
When the platforms are moderately “opened”, more anchors and institutions choose “cross-platform” operations, all of which are seeking new growth space, and brand merchants have also begun to “put their eggs in multiple baskets”. Chen Dengfeng, vice president of Dr. Sleep, a household goods brand, told the Economic Observer.com reporter that at present, the brand only follows the rhythm of the big promotion activities on Taobao, JD.com, and Douyin. “No special arrangements are made, and no specific goals are pursued.”
In the past, when Luo Yonghao brought goods live on Douyin, Dr. Sleep was his annual box partner. “Lao Luo’s Tmall Double 11 live broadcast debut, according to previous operations, we should have participated.” But Chen Dengfeng said that the company chose to give up after evaluating this year.
“It’s basically impossible to make money just by watching Lao Luo’s live broadcast of selling products.” According to Chen Dengfeng, in previous years on Double 11, their own brands would pursue pre-sale product rankings and double 11 venue exposure, and enter the live broadcast room of the super-head anchor “It’s very good. help”. Talking about this year, he said that the brand “will no longer significantly increase” investment in off-site grass planting, short video content production, etc., “there is a lot of Buddha nature”.
Sun Laichun is also facing this year’s Double 11 with a “normal heart”. The domestic skin care brand Lin Qingxuan he founded has participated in Tmall Double 11 for the sixth year. This year, he specially prepared 30,000 sets of products to participate in Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room. Delivery on the first day of sale.
“It’s all sold out at one time.” In Sun Laichun’s view, Double 11 has formed a certain consumption mentality, especially beauty products have a stocking atmosphere. Based on the growth rate of domestic beauty products, Lin Qingxuan is stocking up in an orderly manner. In addition, “there is no special big investment this year.”
Although it is currently pre-sale on Double 11, and he is bringing goods in the live broadcast room of the super host, Sun Laichun did not follow the whole process. Prepare sufficient supply.
Zhang Xu, who also has several years of experience in participating in the Double 11 promotion, is a home furnishing brand merchant, and the peak season for selling products is now. “It is planned to invest 500,000 yuan in the brand promotion of this year’s Double 11.” The brand factory operated by Zhang Xu started to stock up as early as October.
Just two days before the double 11 pre-sale, bad news came. Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Zhang Xu received a courier notice that “nearly 1,000 outlets outside have stopped shipping”, which made him directly decide to reduce production, “stocking has been reduced by three points. One of”, even the promotion fee of Double 11 “saved” to 200,000 yuan, “I dare not invest too much.”
The uncertainty of stocking and delivery has caused the supply chain of merchants to be ups and downs. Zhang Xu is careful to deal with the status of Double 11, which is not an isolated case. You Wuyang, founder and dean of Hangzhou Xijiang New Retail Research Institute, told reporters that the institute held a seminar in September to review and look forward to Double 11.
At that time, more than 20 brand merchants including Evelyn, Malin, Hongling Cashmere participated in the discussion. “Everyone has a consensus: the frenzy period of Double 11 is over.” You Wuyang found that Double 11 has ushered in its 14th year. Looking back at the number one, second, and third flowers that appear on the brand list every year, there have been several changes. “Many have even disappeared.” What he felt was the change in the attitude of brand owners towards Double 11.
In the past, the ranking and GMV scale during the double 11 period, the old brand hopes to exchange for the resources on the site, the weight of the product and the free traffic, the new brand wants to use this to attract the attention of investors and facilitate the next round of financing. “These are all bubbles.” You Wuyang told reporters that merchants are increasingly realizing that now they need to truly return to the essence of business, “focusing on profitability, cash flow, and customer experience.”
Chen Dengfeng felt the same. He revealed that the core point of Dr. Sleep this year is to focus on the improvement of brand image and customer experience services based on profits. “Sales are in a secondary position.”
User Loyalty: Maximum Certainty
Although many businesses that the reporter talked to, no longer emphasize the GMV of Double 11 as the pursuit goal, but from the data reflected on the platform, the start of Double 11 can still be described as “hot”.
Since the official launch of pre-sale on Tmall Double 11, only in the live broadcast room of super-head anchor Li Jiaqi, several brands have rushed to the hot search list due to “sold out in seconds”, and netizens even jokingly called Li Jiaqi “Oriental Clearance” .
Ali also gave a set of data: Nuts surpassed the whole day last year by 30 seconds; NVC Lighting surpassed the whole day last year by 1 minute; The whole sales cycle…According to Ali, within 1 hour of pre-sale on Tmall Double 11 in 2022, the turnover of more than 3,000 brands has doubled year-on-year compared to last year.
Although the data of platforms and merchants shows consumption power, it is not difficult to see the changes in users’ perception of big promotions in the microscopic double 11 stage of consumer status.
Following the “chopping party” and “deposit person”, online shopping expert Li Hong gained a new title of “late eight people” this year.
“There is no need to stay up until 12:00 in the morning.” Li Hong told reporters that Tmall’s double 11 will advance the pre-sale time to after 8:00 p.m. on October 24th, “Finally, people can shop awake.”
As a member of the “Pig Girls” team that Li Jiaqi often talks about, Li Hong is a level 5 diamond fan in the live broadcast room of the “Super Head” anchor. This year’s Double 11, Li Hong originally planned to tighten her wallet, but after watching “All Girls’ Offer 2”, “a list was accidentally planted.”
In an interview with reporters on October 27, Li Hong talked about his “records”: he grabbed two sets of beauty kits, and stocked up some daily necessities. “Some things still have to be done quickly”…
Like Li Hong, Jin Lecheng, a female college student, also pays special attention to Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room, but she did not deliberately “squat” this year.
“L’Oreal’s bottle mask, which could not be grabbed with slow hands in the past, has achieved unlimited grabbing of products this year (Li Jiaqi’s live broadcast room), and the link has been hanging there.” Jin Lecheng feels that this year’s Double 11 live broadcast room has changed the gameplay mechanism. Most of the products are fully stocked, so that users don’t have to rush at all. If there is a need, they can buy more in advance, as long as they pay the deposit and the final payment on time.
Different from Li Hong’s state of being planted and eager to buy hands, Jin Lecheng obviously “has no desire to buy”. After discussing with her classmates, she found that everyone’s state is close to the same.
In the past, during the Double 11, the live broadcast room of the big anchors had great discounts, but now compared with the official flagship store of the brand, “the gap cannot be opened.” Not only the price is not as attractive as before, “the current consumption shopping channels and activities are diverse. “Jin Lecheng heard from many classmates, “Walmart’s daily necessities are cheaper than online when they are discounted”, “I usually buy skin care products during the day, and buy them when they are on discount, which is much more cost-effective than flagship stores and live broadcast rooms”, “Taobao often engages in activities, and when you see a need, you can buy it directly”…
“No more blindly reducing prices on a large scale”, You Wuyang told reporters that a unified action of brand merchants in the Double 11 promotion is: most of the products with large inventory are used for “clearance”, even if they are new products, they will be controlled Good gross profit, “no loss-making sales”.
In You Wuyang’s view, not only for the Double 11 promotion, but also for the “long-term future” in their daily operations. The frequently mentioned keywords are: healthy and sustainable development.
Referring to the hundreds of thousands of merchants who made preparations for Double 11 early, Dai Shan emphasized, “You are not only for business growth, but also for the boost of consumer confidence in the entire market.” What needs to be mentioned is that , The uncertainty of the current market environment has increased, and where does the certainty of merchants come from?
In an interview with the media, including reporters from the Economic Observer Network, Yang Guang gave an answer, “User loyalty is the greatest certainty.”
Even though today’s consumers have become more rational, Yang Guang believes that through a series of capacity building on the platform, merchants can further face consumers directly, serve consumers, from potential customers to new customers, and then accumulate users, and finally form a membership system. “Long-term management”.
Yang Guang also pointed out a commercial reality: what all enterprises pursue is, “the longer the user’s life cycle, the better the certainty of their own.” In his view, the double 11 event jointly launched by the platform and the merchant is just a “drill” , the key logic behind it is to create the lifetime value of users in the longer-term operation in the future.