Jingdong 618 makes a big move! Stubborn price war, Taobao completely lost?

Ray Technology

2024-06-19 11:58Posted in Guangdong science and technology creators

According to the official data provided by JD.com, the largest consumption province of JD 618 this year is still Guangdong! It is followed by Jiangsu, and Jiangsu people really love pets, and the turnover of wet food for cats and dogs has doubled compared with last year. There is also Zhejiang, as the fifth province in terms of customer unit value, and this year's 618 hot words such as mirrorless camera, laptop... No wonder the unit price is high.

Then the rise of domestic products is also a cliché, but even so, it is quite surprising that 70+ of the top 100 brands are domestic brands.

On June 18th, the last day of JD.com's 618th anniversary, JD.com held a 618 media open day in the headquarters building, and Lei Technology was invited to participate in this event. Before JD.com unveiled this year's 618 consumption hotspots, what people didn't expect was that JD.com set up a "JD Apple Vision Pro Edition Official Release" sign at the entrance of the venue in advance.

Photo/Ray Technology

JD.com's staff told Xiaolei that JD.com's Vision Pro version of "JD.com. Vision has already been launched in the United States, and will be launched in China when the Vision Pro is officially released on June 28. In addition, Xiao Lei also briefly tried JD.com. Vision, the shopping experience is quite amazing, and I recommend everyone to have the opportunity to experience it.

But speaking of which, JD.com. The release of Vision set the tone of this event to a certain extent, and also revealed some thoughts and actions of 618 JD this year. Of course, in terms of price, the Vision Pro's pricing of up to 30,000 yuan is not at all in line with JD.com's emphasis on "good prices" in the past year or so.

Better and cheaper? Jingdong 618 goes all the way to the end

With the development of online shopping in China, price has once again become the core of attracting consumers and competition, and since last year, JD.com and Taotian have chosen to focus on "low prices", and this year may be even worse.

From May 31st, on the basis of the 300-50 cross-store full reduction, JD will distribute 200-20 yuan shopping subsidies every day, and at the same time launch tens of billions of subsidy activity days with different themes, and there are also a large number of benefits and subsidy activities in the JD live broadcast room.

Even the official said at the event day that the digital human group of more than 18 brand presidents launched by JD.com will also "return for a limited time" from the afternoon of (June 18) and continue to spread benefits in the JD live broadcast room. Not to mention that during the entire 618 period, there are also a large number of preferential activities covering different fields and different user groups, such as free orders, free shipping of 2 yuan, etc.:

The main one is a large amount of tube full.

Jingdong procurement and marketing, figure / Lei technology

Of course, throughout the 618 period, various e-commerce platforms were actually "fighting", Taotian (Taobao Tmall), Pinduoduo and Douyin were unwilling to let JD.com "stand out". Pinduoduo has even been forced out of an automated price tracking system that monitors the prices of competitors in real time and automatically adjusts the prices of its own goods within the price range set by the merchant to maintain a competitive edge.

It can be seen how fierce the "price war" of e-commerce platforms has been.

Do experience, compete for users

In addition to being cheaper, there is also a consensus among everyone at this 618 that not only should the way of speaking be simpler, but also the experience of buying.

Following the cancellation of the pre-sale gameplay for the first time on Double 11 last year, this year's 618 JD.com played the banner of "simpler", not only canceling the official pre-sale link, but also playing the slogans of "don't stay up late", "don't wait" and "don't extend", and directly sell it in stock from 8 p.m. on May 31.

To put it simply: don't play virtual.

In fact, other e-commerce platforms are also following up to cancel the pre-sale, Taotian announced that it will simplify the event process and promotion rules, cancel the official pre-sale link, and directly carry out spot sales. Pinduoduo and Kuaishou have also announced the cancellation of the pre-sale system and direct spot sales, striving to simplify the shopping process.

And these changes, it is not difficult to find, are all to improve the shopping experience on the user side.

Photo/Ray Technology

"Are you afraid that I will return it, I just bought it and shipped it." Some netizens joked. But behind the joke not only represents consumers' dissatisfaction with the pre-sale system of e-commerce shopping festivals in the past, but also shows that e-commerce platforms attach unprecedented importance to consumers.

Let's start with the former. The pre-sale system has a history of more than ten years in the e-commerce field, and at first it did help merchants lock in orders in advance and make accurate demand forecasts, so as to optimize inventory management and reduce inventory backlog and out-of-stock. Through pre-sale activities, e-commerce platforms can also create a stronger atmosphere of user rush purchase and big promotion activities.

However, with the continuous expansion of the mobile Internet, when online shopping has increasingly become a daily activity of Chinese, pre-sale at this time seems a little out of place, consumers want to get goods faster, so there is the rise of instant retail. In addition, the abolition of the pre-sale system is actually simplifying the entire shopping process and increasing the probability of users completing the transaction.

From these perspectives, pre-sales in the field of e-commerce have indeed reached the stage where they must "retire".

But it's not just about canceling pre-sales. During the 618 period, JD.com also has free door-to-door returns, trade-ins, integrated delivery and installation, allergy worry-free services, as well as a 30-day price guarantee for a large number of goods, and consumers can refund the price difference with one click when they buy expensive.

At the open day, JD not only officially released the Vision Pro version, but also announced that the JD Hongmeng version has been launched on the Huawei App Store. From a consumer perspective, this means that we can have a better experience on more platforms.

Photo/Ray Technology

At the moment when the mobile Internet has peaked and the market has entered the stock competition, it is not surprising that JD pays more attention to the ideas and practices of consumer experience, but compared with other platforms, JD may be more determined. And this steadfastness is also reflected in the application of generative AI technology.

AI, the present and future of JD.com

We've talked about the generative AI boom countless times, but in the e-commerce space, this year's 618 is undoubtedly the largest "AI exercise".

In particular, JD.com not only launched the "President Digital Human Live Broadcast" during the 618 period, but more than 18 brands of "President Digital Humans" sprinkled benefits in the live broadcast room in the form of live broadcasts, and JD.com also launched thousands of digital people to "take up posts" in the JD live broadcast room, which can be efficiently launched in 2 hours at the earliest.

Jingdong Group CEO Xu Ran's "digital human", Tu/Lei Technology

At the same time, it has also launched the "Jingdong Yan" AI assistant with JD shopping guide digital human as the core, which can answer various questions of users in real time according to the needs of users, including judging consumption intentions, recommending and explaining relevant product information, so that consumers can understand the advantages and characteristics of related products more conveniently and comprehensively.

At today's open day, JD announced a set of data: at present, the digital person based on the JD Yanxi model can achieve rapid modeling within 5-10 minutes, and the conversion rate of live broadcast in leisure time has increased by more than 30%, and more than 5000 brands have been put into use, driving nearly 10 billion GMV. At the same time, the cost is only 10% of that of a real person.

Photo/Ray Technology

It is no wonder that at the meeting, JD.com delivered a speech at the beginning of the conference entitled "Generative AI, Opening a New Chapter of AI E-commerce", and also pointed out that after "interest e-commerce", we will transform to "AI e-commerce".

After all, unlike real people, AI digital humans and intelligent customer service can provide 24/7 service, ensuring that users can provide a certain quality shopping experience at any time period. This continuous interactivity helps increase user engagement and satisfaction, while significantly reducing operating costs for merchants.

Of course, the effectiveness of AI digital humans and other applications of generative AI technologies is currently up for debate. Although intelligent recommendation systems and customer service robots can handle a large number of simple queries, it is difficult to replace the role of human customer service and shopping guides in the face of complex problems, and the interaction may still be unnatural and flexible.

In addition, although AI digital humans can emulate the expressions and voices of real people, users may still be more inclined to interact with real people, especially in scenarios that require complex consultation and emotional communication.

A more immediate problem is that e-commerce platforms tend to emphasize the innovation and efficiency of AI technology when promoting it, but in practice, they may encounter problems such as immature technology and poor user feedback. All of these may lead to high user expectations, and when the actual experience does not match the advertisement, it is easy to cause dissatisfaction and doubts among users.

The e-commerce war never sleeps

Together with Double 11, the annual 618 not only cultivates the online shopping habits of many of us, but also shapes the common online shopping memories of Chinese. At the same time, 618 per year is often the time of the most fierce competition between e-commerce platforms.

However, in the past two years, the smell of gunpowder between Jingdong and Taotian (Taobao Tmall) has obviously weakened a lot. On the one hand, it is directly reflected in the 618 battle report, and everyone has begun to keep silent about GMV, and this year is the same.

On the other hand, Jingdong and Taotian are not facing a market pattern that accounts for half of the country, not to mention Pinduoduo, Douyin is also rapidly approaching the fourth pole of e-commerce, in addition to Kuaishou, Meituan, Xiaohongshu and other platforms have actually attracted a large number of consumers and consumer demand at different levels.

This is the reality. But in the face of reality, how to choose the future path has become an important theme for testing JD.com. At present, in addition to choosing the supply chain, JD has also chosen technology and services, as Xu Ran, CEO of JD Group, said:

"The future of retail competition is not only the competition of the supply chain, but also the competition of technology and services."

But whether it is the competition in the supply chain, or the competition in technology and services, the ultimate foothold is the user.

From May 20th to June 30th, 2024, the 618 mid-year promotion is coming, and the six major e-commerce platforms of Taobao Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu will collectively "listen to persuasion", cancel pre-sales, and bargain wildly!

Popular AI hard technology categories such as mobile phone digital, AI PC, smart home appliances, TVs, small household appliances, and air ice washing are gearing up and the battle is fierce.

Lei Technology 618 report team will pay attention to the latest situation of the e-commerce platform, the latest developments of AI hard technology brands, and the new trend of the e-commerce industry.

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