A few days ago, Douyin e-commerce issued a notice on revising the "Douyin E-commerce Merchants" 0 Yuan Settlement "Trial Operation Specifications", the main change is to announce that alcohol-related categories do not support participation in the "0 yuan entry" trial operation, and the notice has officially taken effect on July 11.
The so-called "0 yuan entry" is a preferential policy adopted by the Douyin platform in order to attract more new merchants. Some eligible new merchants are allowed to enter the platform for limited trial operation without paying a deposit, and then gradually recharge the deposit to the platform standard through the payment.
Since its implementation in February last year, Douyin has repeatedly added categories that support 0 yuan to settle in, including cosmetics, clothing, shoes and bags, wine, food, etc., almost covering most categories.
However, according to the latest notice, Douyin liquor-related categories no longer support 0 yuan to settle in, and cover more than 20 categories such as liquor, wine, rum, etc., covering almost all types of alcohol. This move undoubtedly strengthens the high threshold entry standards for alcohol merchants.
With the vigorous development of the e-commerce industry, alcohol, as a huge category in the FMCG category, has gradually shifted its sales to online. However, behind the boom in the alcohol sales market on the e-commerce platform, a series of chaos has also emerged, such as the industry media broke out that 4 products in the top 10 of the Chile wine ranking published on the Pinduoduo platform last year were suspected of fictitious origins, and these low-priced canned wines were obviously domestic products, but they still used imported products to confuse consumers' audio-visual and seriously infringed on the interests of consumers; On the Douyin platform, there are also many people in the sales model of small wineries touching famous porcelain estates: maybe the anchor in the live broadcast room said that it was imported Lafite, and only sold a few dozen pieces, but in fact, if you get it, it is just an unknown small winery, and it has nothing to do with the France Lafite Rothschild Group.
These problems not only harm the rights and interests of consumers, but also disrupt the market order. In order to curb this trend, the government, e-commerce platforms and all sectors of society have taken measures to jointly rectify the alcohol sales market.
Government supervision: heavy blows, special rectification
In the face of the chaos in the alcohol sales market on e-commerce platforms, government regulators acted quickly and took a series of effective measures. Taking Guizhou Province as an example, the province has carried out a special rectification action in response to the outstanding problems in the sales of soy sauce wine in e-commerce channels. Through the strategy of "three focuses and three highlights", that is, focusing on key regions, key platforms, and key enterprises, highlighting source governance, network monitoring, and case investigation, and digging deep into the sales network and production source of infringing and counterfeit sauce-flavored liquor. This action has effectively cracked down on a number of dens for the manufacture and sale of counterfeit goods, investigated and dealt with a large number of counterfeit and shoddy products, and formed a strong deterrent to illegal businesses.
In addition, the government has also continuously improved relevant laws and regulations to clarify the responsibilities and obligations of e-commerce platforms in the sale of liquor. Raising the cost of violating the law through legislative means has discouraged unscrupulous businesses. At the same time, cross-regional cooperation and information sharing should be strengthened, and a network should be formed to combat counterfeit and shoddy products, so that counterfeiters and sellers have nowhere to hide.
Platform self-discipline: Strict review and strengthened supervision
For example, in addition to announcing that alcohol-related categories no longer support the trial operation of "0 yuan entry", Douyin e-commerce also requires merchants to provide complete business licenses, tax registration certificates, brand authorization letters and other qualification documents, and increases the margin requirements of alcohol merchants to ensure that merchants can bear corresponding responsibilities in case of violations. In addition, for well-known brands of liquor such as Moutai and Wuliangye, Douyin also requires franchise stores, specialty stores, flagship stores, etc. to provide first-level authorization certificates; The Taobao platform has also raised the entry threshold for liquor merchants, increased the review of merchants' qualifications, and raised the margin standard. For violations, Taobao will be punished in accordance with the "Taobao Online Wine Industry Management Standards" and other regulations.
In the expansion period of e-commerce platforms, lowering the entry threshold is conducive to the expansion of products and the growth of data. However, when it reaches a certain size, if it is still indulgent to the illegal behavior of the merchants, it is tantamount to drinking water to quench thirst.
In fact, e-commerce platforms have a lot of means to deal with the chaos of alcohol products: they can use big data and artificial intelligence technology to intelligently identify product descriptions and pictures, and find and deal with illegal goods in a timely manner; Regularly conduct random inspections on hot-selling products, and entrust third-party testing institutions to conduct quality inspections; Establish a rapid response after-sales mechanism, and the e-commerce platform promises to respond quickly to consumer complaints and reports within the specified time.
It can be seen that the platform's governance of illegal acts is more about determination, which may have the impact of traffic in the short term, but in the long run, the establishment of a legal and orderly business environment will be of great benefit to both the platform itself and consumers, including legal operators. Only by curbing the occurrence of counterfeit and shoddy, false propaganda and other violations, and preventing bad money from driving out good money, can we provide consumers with a safer and more secure shopping environment.
Consumer education: raising awareness and protecting yourself
In the process of rectifying the chaos in the alcohol sales market, consumer education is also indispensable. The government and e-commerce platforms can promote alcohol knowledge to consumers through a variety of channels, so as to improve consumers' discernment ability and self-protection awareness. For example, through the issuance of consumer warnings, exposure of typical cases, etc., consumers can understand the harm of counterfeit and shoddy products and how to identify them. At the same time, consumers are encouraged to choose formal channels to purchase alcohol to avoid being deceived by unscrupulous merchants.
In addition, e-commerce platforms should also establish convenient channels for complaints and reports, and encourage consumers to actively report alcohol sales on the platform. For consumer complaints and reports, e-commerce platforms and regulatory authorities should respond in a timely manner and properly handle them, so as to protect the lawful rights and interests of consumers.
With the continuous strengthening of government supervision, the continuous improvement of the self-discipline ability of e-commerce platforms and the continuous improvement of consumers' awareness of self-protection, the alcohol sales market of e-commerce platforms will become more standardized and transparent. We have reason to believe that with the joint efforts of all parties, the liquor sales market will usher in a better tomorrow.
Ed Victor