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According to LatePost, Pinduoduo made a major business adjustment in the second quarter of this year, repositioning the original goal of pursuing commercialization and improving profits to GMV (gross merchandise value) growth as the top priority. Previously, leading platforms such as Taobao and Douyin e-commerce have also adjusted their strategies, removing "price power" from the top position, and instead regard GMV growth as the focus of work in the second half of the year.
In addition, Pinduoduo is considering reusing Temu's business experience to its domestic business, especially in some categories, trying a fully managed model. That is, the merchant is responsible for supply, and the platform determines the retail price, and the low price is more extreme.
In order to encourage merchants to take the initiative to compete, Pinduoduo also followed Douyin's example after the 618 promotion to launch the "Order Grabbing Artifact" tool, which pushes product information to potential consumers in a targeted manner to grab peer traffic. For merchants who are willing to give the lowest price, the platform not only provides traffic support, but also adopts a new sales display method, that is, to display the cumulative sales volume of the whole network rather than the historical sales of a single product, so as to help merchants increase sales and brand influence.
In terms of financial performance, Pinduoduo still maintained a strong growth momentum. According to the first quarter 2024 performance report released on May 22, the company's net profit increased by 246% year-on-year. Affected by this, the market value of Pinduoduo once again surpassed Alibaba. Chen Lei, chairman and co-CEO of Pinduoduo Group, said that Pinduoduo welcomes healthy competition and will continue to focus on consumer value to promote the development of the platform.
Only the refund was initiated by Pinduoduo, and later Taobao, JD.com, Douyin e-commerce and other platforms announced their joining. Taobao recently announced the optimization of the "refund only" strategy, the new version of the experience will be launched separately to enhance the after-sales autonomy of merchants, reduce or cancel after-sales intervention for high-quality stores, and will be officially implemented on August 9, aiming to establish a more fair and reasonable business environment.
With the intensification of market competition, e-commerce platforms are gradually realizing that relying solely on "low price + refund only" is not a long-term solution, and differentiated competition and providing high-quality services are the keys to winning the market.
The e-commerce industry in mainland China is developing rapidly and has become an important part of the national economy. With the popularization of the Internet and the development of mobile payment, more and more consumers choose to shop online, and e-commerce platforms are also emerging. At the same time, the innovative models and technology applications of the e-commerce industry continue to promote the transformation and upgrading of the traditional retail industry, bringing consumers a more convenient and richer shopping experience.
The rapid development of the e-commerce industry is inseparable from the support of technology and the innovation of models. With the wide application of big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other technologies, e-commerce companies can more accurately analyze consumer needs and optimize product recommendations and marketing strategies. At the same time, new e-commerce models are also emerging, such as social e-commerce and live e-commerce, which not only enrich the shopping methods of consumers, but also bring new growth points to e-commerce enterprises.
Looking back at the e-commerce industry in mainland China:
Analysis of the scale of online shopping users in mainland China
The e-commerce service industry is an important part of the e-commerce ecosystem, and after nearly a decade of rapid development, the e-commerce service industry has developed rapidly, driven by the development of service industries such as logistics and express delivery, online payment and electronic authentication.
From the perspective of user groups, data from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that as of June 2022, the number of online shopping users in mainland China reached 841 million, a decrease of 1.53 million from December 2021, accounting for 80.0% of the total number of netizens.
In 2023, the annual online retail sales will be 154264 billion yuan
From 2015 to 2023, China's total online retail sales continued to grow. For the whole year of 2023, online retail sales will reach $154264 billion, an increase of 11.0% over 2022. Among them, the online retail sales of physical goods were 130174 billion yuan, an increase of 8.4%, accounting for 27.7% of the total retail sales of consumer goods. Among physical goods, online retail sales of food, clothing and daily necessities increased by 11.2%, 10.8% and 7.1% respectively.
"The era of AI e-commerce has just begun, and it is both an opportunity and a challenge for everyone." Just as Jack Ma predicted the current e-commerce field, the arrival of the AI era has given the e-commerce industry new opportunities for change. As one of the core business application scenarios of AI technology, AI tools for multiple directions, such as digital human anchors, intelligent shopping guides, personalized recommendations, and creative content generation, have emerged in the field of e-commerce. Wang Yunfeng, CTO of Worth Buying, believes that although users, supply chains, transaction processes and other links have not changed, the essence of AI e-commerce is still e-commerce. It may be that 80% of the final form of the e-commerce industry in the future will still be in its original form, and only 20% will be reconstructed by AI, but this 20% will become a key factor.
With the popularization of the Internet and the formation of consumers' online shopping habits, the scale of the e-commerce market continues to expand. At the same time, the government's support and promotion of the e-commerce industry also provides a good environment for its development. In the future, with the continuous innovation of technology and the continuous change of consumer demand, the e-commerce industry in mainland China will usher in more opportunities and challenges, and is expected to become an important engine of economic growth in mainland China.
Prospective Economist APP Information Group
For more research and analysis of this industry, please refer to the "Analysis Report on Market Prospect and Investment Strategic Planning of China's E-commerce Industry" by Qianzhan Industry Research Institute
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