The horn of 6.18 has already sounded. On April 29th, Beijing Business Daily exclusively learned that some category business teams on JD.com have established separate price comparison teams to closely compare prices with the Taotian platform. On the other hand, there are also rumors that Taotian and JD.com will cancel pre-sales and sell spot goods directly at the end of May. Before the big promotion arrives, the giants have already set off their momentum and are bound to overwhelm the other party in terms of price promotions. The pre-sale period of paying the deposit in advance and the final payment within the specified time, ranging from a few days to several weeks, does leave ample time for merchants to stock up, and also creates a buzz for promoting early preheating. However, canceling the pre-sale period and allowing users to buy and receive immediately has become a major trend, and merchants still have concerns about inventory, productivity, and other aspects. How to balance the AB side brought by pre-sales, optimize the user service experience, and ensure that merchants can calmly respond to major promotions is still a topic that e-commerce giants cannot avoid this year's June 18th.
Establish a separate price comparison team
On June 18th this year, price power remains the key focus of various platforms. On April 29th, a Beijing Business Daily reporter learned from an insider close to JD.com that some of JD's category business teams have established separate price comparison teams to benchmark product prices on the Taobao and Tmall platforms, and constantly scan new products on friend platforms to determine whether to introduce their own platforms.
"Some business teams have already issued orders that if they find that the prices of their products are higher than those of their sister platforms, they must align prices and carry out single product promotions or full discounts," said an insider close to JD.com.
Recently, JD.com and Taobao have been attacking each other for low prices. On the evening of April 23rd at 8 o'clock, Taobao launched its first "Billion Second Kill Festival" and announced that it would offer an additional 30% discount on the basis of low prices across the entire network. Not only that, Taobao 88VIP has also announced the launch of an unlimited return and shipping fee service. Subsequently, on April 26th, JD officially launched the beauty and gift game with a billion yuan subsidy, and prepared a total value of 200 million yuan as gifts for the first phase of the event.
"Price wars will still be the focus of this year," food merchant Li Nuo (pseudonym) told Beijing Business Daily reporters that in mid April, he received invitations from platforms such as Taotian and JD.com, with some platforms using "low prices" as a traffic bias standard. "For brand merchants, the pricing on various platforms is actually similar, and after adding platform coupons, there may be some slight differences in the actual selling prices of each platform." Li Nuo said that "6.18", as the largest free activity traffic in the first half of the year, he will still actively participate, "after all, free traffic is decreasing now.".
Cancel pre-sales to compete for users
In Li Nuo's view, the platform's attitude towards "6.18" is somewhat "urgent" this year. Various platform promotions for full discounts and discounts began to be launched in mid April, about a week earlier than last year.
From previous years, it can be seen that in late May, e-commerce platforms led by Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com will start pre-sales on June 18th. The main platform and various business lines will set pre-sale periods according to the sales rhythm. During the pre-sale period, consumers need to pay a certain amount of product deposit before placing an order for the product. Entering June, consumers are required to pay the final payment and wait for receipt after the pre-sale ends according to platform rules. Through this pre order and post payment approach, the brand and platform will offer consumers certain discounts and discounts, thereby attracting them to place orders.
In order to call on brands to participate and strive for users to return, the platform may be considering canceling the pre-sale mechanism and directly launching spot sales on June 18th this year. According to titanium media reports, during this year's "6.18" period, both Taobao and JD.com will cancel the pre-sale mechanism. According to the Taobao investment documents, Taobao's "6.18" marketing rhythm is more advanced, starting from late April and continuing until early May as a period of water storage and momentum building. And this also means that the full cycle market of June 18th this year has been almost two months.
In response to the above news, Beijing Business Daily reporters have separately sought confirmation from the responsible persons of Taotian Group and JD Group. As of the time of publication, neither party has responded yet. However, an insider close to JD.com revealed to reporters that the decision to cancel the "6.18" pre-sale period has not yet been clearly made, but some categories have begun to make relevant preparations. "The internal situation has been basically determined, and the platform's rules for the" 6.18 "pre-sale period will be adjusted to some extent. Although the specific rules are still to be determined, it is highly likely that the pre-sale gameplay will not be completely cancelled.".
The platform has successively released signals to cancel the pre-sale of June 18th, which to some extent reflects the desire of giant enterprises for users. "Pre sales have to some extent increased consumer decision-making costs." Zhao Zhenying, a researcher at the National Engineering Laboratory of E-commerce Transaction Technology, admitted to Beijing Business Daily reporters that pre-sales will directly prolong the time from payment to receipt of goods, thereby affecting consumer pleasure. "Cancelling pre-sales is an important step for the platform to call on users to return, and also expresses the platform's determination to win over users in this' 6.18 '," Zhao Zhenying said.
Balancing service and pricing power
Compared to focusing on the consumer experience of users, the establishment of pre-sale systems in earlier years was more inclined to leave enough time for merchants and logistics providers to digest short-term peak orders and achieve peak shaving and valley filling. With the gradual maturity of logistics infrastructure in recent years, logistics production capacity has been able to meet order demands with ease. For brand merchants, canceling pre-sales means the need for more refined management in inventory turnover and other aspects.
"In previous years' 6.18 ', the proportion of brand's first pre-sale orders could account for about 40% of the entire promotion cycle." Li Nuo admitted that pre-sales can help businesses reduce inventory pressure and production risks to a certain extent. "We have not yet received any clear news of canceling pre-sales," Li Nuo said. From a brand perspective, we would prefer the platform to manage pre-sales for different products. "We plan to pre-sale large-sized products and sell small-sized products in stock, which can also alleviate our stocking pressure during the promotion period.".
As a mainstream marketing strategy adopted by major promotions in the past few years, pre-sales can not only alleviate brand pressure but also bring higher conversions to the platform. "Pre sales are the best prediction field for the platform," Zhao Zhenying explained. Through the sales scale of pre-sales, the platform can make relatively accurate predictions of explosive products and tilt traffic, further promoting conversion. Even by coordinating with the logistics end, pre-sale packages can be sent to the nearest warehouse to consumers, allowing them to receive the package as soon as the final payment is made.
However, on the other hand, consumers also need to rack their brains for various pre-sale methods such as deposits, deposits, pre-sale funds, and expansion funds to calculate the maximum discount. "The AB aspect brought about by pre-sales ultimately needs to be balanced by the platform," Zhao Zhenying admitted. From the current strategies of various platforms, optimizing user side services and further emphasizing the price power during the major promotion period are still topics that e-commerce giants cannot avoid during this year's "6.18".