Taobao's "refund-only" strategy has changed.
On July 26, Taobao announced that it would optimize the "refund only" strategy, enhance the after-sales autonomy of merchants based on the new version of the experience score, and reduce or cancel after-sales intervention for high-quality stores. The strategy will be implemented from 9 August.
As soon as the news came out, it quickly sparked heated discussions.
In this regard, Pan Helin, a well-known economist and member of the Information and Communication Economy Expert Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that Taobao's relaxation of "refund only" is to balance merchants and customers, so that merchants with higher ratings have the right to choose when they only refund money, and loosen some reputable merchants.
From the launch to the relaxation of the "refund only" policy, it can be seen that how to improve the consumer experience while protecting the rights and interests of merchants as much as possible, and striking a smart balance between the two is crucial for mainstream e-commerce platforms, including Taobao.
Protect the rights and interests of users
Domestic mainstream platforms have launched "refund only"
An e-commerce seller in Wuhan is processing an order Photojournalist: Li Hui
In December last year, a number of mainstream e-commerce platforms in China began to support refund-only services, making this service the industry standard.
Taobao's previous rules show that if the seller has too many bad reviews or violations, is complained by consumers, or the seller delays or compels the delivery without the buyer's permission, the system will support the buyer to refund only.
Douyin clarifies in the rules that if the praise rate of the product is less than 70%, the platform has the right to take measures to support the consumer to refund only the refund and return the refund including the shipping fee for the after-sales application of the product transaction order.
In terms of JD.com, if there are a large number of problems such as inferior quality, inconsistent descriptions, and abnormal packages in the goods delivered by merchants to consumers, the platform has the right to decide whether to agree to the consumer's implementation of refund-only or return refund after applying for return or exchange, as well as refund-only or return refund in the transaction dispute link.
The original intention of each platform to set up refund-only is to assume governance responsibilities, provide better protection for consumers' rights and interests, and force merchants to improve the quality of goods and services.
For consumers, although they are not satisfied with the goods they have purchased, there is a refund compensation, which greatly reduces the worries when shopping and optimizes the shopping experience; For merchants, the price of some low-priced products may not be as high as the shipping cost, and "refund only" can reduce some unnecessary losses.
However, with the influx of a large number of users, "refund-only" has gradually become synonymous with "wool picking", and over time, the ways of "wool picking" have become diverse.
Some users maliciously "refund only"
Intensify the contradiction between merchants and consumers
As time progressed, the "refund only" continued to cause controversy, and many merchants complained about it.
In addition to the unfair competition between the malicious "refund-only" "Wool Party" and merchants, some buyers overuse the "refund-only" feature, while the platforms mostly give priority to supporting consumers. As a result, the merchant will have to bear the cost of an additional loss of goods.
Under the pressure of "refund-only", merchants either increase prices, move to other sales channels, or reduce the quality of goods.
Topics related to "refunds only" have been on the hot search many times
Moreover, the contradictions between some consumers and e-commerce sellers have also intensified. Topics related to "refunds only" have been on the hot search many times.
According to reports, because a 9.9 yuan short-sleeved shirt was only refunded, the seller chased from Yiwu to Weihai, across more than 1,000 kilometers to find a buyer. Shanghai seller Xie Wenhui drove to Kaifeng, Henan Province to find a buyer because of 12 pairs of socks, and later the buyer returned 12 pairs of socks under the persuasion of the local police.
A more immediate legal consequence is that buyers may be held accountable for malicious chargebacks. A buyer only refunded after buying 11 yuan of clothes online, was sued by the seller, and finally paid 800 yuan for the buyer's rights protection cost through mediation by the Zhongshan County People's Court of Hezhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is a wake-up call for those who want to "gather wool".
Satisfaction with the platform's "refund-only" strategy is gradually declining on both consumers and merchants. Merchants are trapped in a large number of refunds and appeals, resulting in high costs and operational difficulties; At the same time, another voice began to ferment on the Internet: the increase in "refund-only" has caused a decline in the quality of goods, merchants are focused on saving costs, and customer experience is not so important.
A merchant said: "The platform should not blindly favor buyers, and should create a fair shopping environment, especially for 'refunds only'." In this way, the demand of sellers is not guaranteed, which will also lead to the deterioration of the shopping environment of the platform. ”
The extensive "refund-only" strategy has increased the cost of merchants, and through cost transmission, it has brought harm to the rights and interests of consumers and experience.
Before the new regulations come into force
The direction of strategy adjustment of each platform is "balance"
From September 1, the State Administration for Market Regulation's Interim Provisions on Online Anti-Unfair Competition (hereinafter referred to as the "Provisions") will be officially implemented.
Article 24 of the "Provisions" proposes that platform operators shall not use service agreements, transaction rules and other means to impose unreasonable restrictions or impose unreasonable conditions on the transactions of operators on the platform on the platform, transaction prices and transactions with other operators.
E-commerce platforms should not only safeguard the rights and interests of users, but also maintain fairness on the merchant side, so as not to damage the quality and experience of the entire e-commerce ecosystem, and the most important thing is to achieve a balance. In this way, the overall benefit of all is maximized.
The Economic Daily pointed out that to improve the "refund only" service, e-commerce platforms should assume more governance responsibilities and balance the rights and interests of consumers and merchants. On the one hand, the platform should improve the complaint handling mechanism of merchants to ensure that the reasonable interests of merchants are protected; On the other hand, platforms should strengthen their technical investment and data analysis capabilities to more accurately identify and deal with malicious "refund-only" behaviors and bad merchants, so as to maintain a good trading environment.
The platform updates the after-sales service regulations
The "refund-only" policy turns
Fairer to merchants
It is understood that Taobao will launch a series of adjustments for refund-only from August 9. According to the new regulations, premium merchants will not be actively intervened by the platform to request "refund-only":
01
After the strategy is launched, for merchants with a ≥ score of 4.8 points in the comprehensive experience of the store, the platform will not actively intervene through Want Want to support only refunds after receipt, but encourages merchants to negotiate with consumers first.
For merchants in other segments, the platform will give different degrees of independent disposal rights according to the experience score and the nature of the industry. The higher the experience score, the greater the merchant's disposal power.
02
Taobao has optimized the refund-only appeal link. After the merchant initiates an appeal, the platform will ask a third-party testing agency to conduct a random inspection of the goods, and if the test is passed, the platform will compensate the merchant for the loss.
03
The platform will upgrade the refund-only behavior recognition model for goods that have been received, and reject refund-only claims submitted by consumers with abnormal behaviors.
04
Only refunds for higher amounts will be refunded, and the platform customer service will manually review them.
Taobao's new regulations are oriented towards "balance", including not forcing "refunds only" for high-quality merchants, providing quality inspection services for merchants' complaints, and algorithms to identify users with abnormal refund behavior.
In terms of other e-commerce platforms, although the new measures for "refund-only" have not yet been clarified, judging from the information disclosed so far, the general direction is likely to be to relax the "refund-only" rules and give merchants and consumers more independent disposal rights.
Wu Xianming, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Wuhan University, said that "refund only" should be aimed at some merchants with poor reputation and poor quality goods, and now the adjustment of the strategy is a return to a fair value.
Source: Jimu News, Strait Herald
Editor: Zheng Xi
Review: Lin Wei
Supervisor: Lin Yunfeng
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