Source: Sina Technology
Text | Sina Technology Yuan Yiming
Is it authentic?
In recent years, "fake" has been a taboo word for observance, and it is also a sword of Damocles hanging over its head.
While the problem of counterfeit goods has not been solved, recently, a large number of buyers and sellers have complained that the identification of the goods belongs to "eating at both ends", and the identification results are not guaranteed at the same time, charging fees to buyers and sellers. Some merchants told Sina Technology that after the transaction of goods, Dewu will take 7.5%-9.5% commission, as well as service fees, transfer fees, appraisal fees, etc., roughly calculated, the commissions and fees that need to be paid to Dewu account for about 30% of the total sales.
In addition, Sina Technology learned from Dewu insiders that products with a unit price of less than 108 yuan could not be put on the shelves of Dewu before, but now chicken thighs and other foods with a price as low as 10 yuan have also appeared in the Dewu App.
It has been established for 9 years, and the fake "hat" cannot be taken off
Founded in 2015, Dewu is no longer the "gathering place for enthusiasts" it was back then. Now it has become a full-category e-commerce platform, and you can not only buy shoes and clothing, but also furniture and food.
But what hasn't changed is the "fake" label that lingers to follow the product. Today, as long as you search for the word "dewu" on social platforms, you can see a large number of complaints about fakes:
"The shoes I bought in Dewu were identified as fake!"
"The shoe shape, toe cap, workmanship, foot feel, and laces are all different from the original!"
"Even the packaging of the products in the counter is different!"
"The number of people paying for the last limited edition sneaker far exceeds the number of releases, how can these goods be genuine?"
…………
Recently, a Weibo blogger posted a question asking whether Dewu's products are genuine? In the comment area, it can still be seen that most consumers think that the products are true and fake.
On the Black Cat complaint platform, there are as many as 248,000 complaints related to Dewu, most of which are focused on identification, some people say that the real goods are identified as fakes, and some fakes are identified as genuine.
Genuine goods are the "lifeline" of Dewu, and the ability to identify has become the most important keyword affecting the reputation of Dewu.
A number of insiders close to Dewu told Sina Technology that identification has always been a trade secret of Dewu, and it is its core competitiveness. Therefore, Dewu has invested a lot of energy and cost in appraisal, and its appraiser department has been trained for half a year and then taken up the post after passing the examination, but there are also some online appraisers who are part-time or have signed cooperation contracts with Dewu.
As for the large number of complaints, an industry appraiser believes that on the one hand, it is because the order quantity of the product is too large, and on the other hand, there are many employees in the company, and there is a possibility of mistakes in both aspects.
Wang Yang (pseudonym), an insider close to Dewu, added that there is chaos in the appraisal industry now, and you can get an appraiser certificate after paying 20,000 or 30,000 yuan to attend a training class. And nowadays, fakes on the market are becoming more and more real, and it is becoming more and more difficult to identify.
Wang Yang also said that even if it is genuine, there may still be problems with quality control, but it does not mean that it is fake, for example, there is a problem with the workmanship does not mean that it is a fake.
The most important thing is that although each commercial platform has its own identification standards, at present, the only institution that can authoritatively judge the authenticity is the China Inspection and Inspection, and the standardization of the industry is controversial.
Because of this, the title of fake goods still cannot be removed. In June 2020, Dewu was named by the China Consumers Association for counterfeit and shoddy products, appraisal fees, etc.; In January 2022, the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation randomly inspected e-commerce live streaming platforms, and the highest failure rate was Dewu, with a failure rate of 50%.
On the one hand, the fakes of Dewu have been seriously complained, on the other hand, the major e-commerce platforms have also made greater efforts in terms of fidelity, and have launched services such as ten penalties for fake ones, four for fake ones, and only refunds, and the competitiveness of Dewu is further declining.
Appraisal fees are "eaten at both ends", but they are not authoritative
In addition, many users complained that the behavior of "eating at both ends" of the appraisal fee was "ugly" because it was charging high profits to buyers and sellers.
Zhang Nan (pseudonym), a former employee of Dewu, said that Dewu has put too much effort into the identification and spent a lot of energy and money, so it can only "eat profits at both ends". Specifically, the cost of the offline appraisal warehouse is not low, and the process is that the merchant first sends the physical object to the product for identification, and then sends it to the consumer after the identification is genuine. There are many fully automated machines in the identification warehouse of Dewu, and a series of processes such as unpacking, confirming new and flawless, and taking photos are completed, and the products with high amounts of money also need to be manually identified.
In addition, in order to ensure the authenticity rate, Dewu reached a strategic cooperation with CCIC in 2022 and established the first identification joint research team in China. However, CCIC previously publicly stated that it does not directly participate in the identification of Dewu, but only helps Dewu identify a small number of difficult goods, and Dewu is not a brand, so the appraisal certificate issued by it is not legally valid and can only be used as a reference.
Therefore, what makes buyers and sellers very "unhappy" is that even if the appraisal fee is paid, the goods can still only get "reference results", and there is still no authoritative evidence when there is a dispute between authenticity and falsehood.
In addition to the appraisal fee, the rules for the sale of goods have also made many merchants "uncovered". Some merchants told Sina Technology that the genuine products they bought from the counter would be identified as unqualified by the goods, and the goods would also make the merchants bear the round-trip shipping costs after deducting the merchants' deposits.
Another merchant told Sina Technology that after the transaction of the product, the dewu will take a commission of 7.5%-9.5%, and even the commission ratio of some small brands will be as high as 20%. In addition, Dewu will also charge 5% service fee, 1% transfer fee, 2% after-sales worry-free service fee, as well as express delivery fee and appraisal fee (about 30 yuan for a single piece). Overall, it is estimated that the commissions and fees that merchants need to pay to Dewu account for about 30% of the total sales. "The cost of opening a store on Dewu is almost equal to the rent of a physical store." The above-mentioned merchant said.
In order to protect the shopping experience of consumers, the return policy of Dewu is inclined to buyers, and in the case of high return rate, the product loss rate of merchants has also increased.
Put down your body, the threshold of 108 yuan "disappears"
Putting aside the suspicion of fakes, from the perspective of the overall development of Dewu, insiders believe that in recent years, the tonality of Dewu has deviated from the main business, and the future growth space is very limited.
The initial Dewu was created by Yang Bing, the co-founder of Hupu, and "incubated" from the Hupu sports equipment area and identification area, which was defined as a "shoe fried" platform by consumers because it flourished in the "shoe fried" craze.
At that time, many top goods were sold out on Taobao and Tmall, and a group of second-class dealers put the goods in their hands on Dewu to sell, and consumers could buy things that could not be bought on other platforms.
Today, Dewu has covered more than 20 categories, including 3C, household and even food. Today, it is still accelerating its new business program and continues to expand its assortment and products.
Zhang Nan said that before Dewu has been maintaining tonality, taking a high-end style, grasping the upper market, products with a unit price of less than 108 yuan can not be put on the shelves, and low-cost shoes and clothing such as Hongxing Erke are not on the shelves, but now the restrictions have been relaxed.
Sina Technology saw on the Dewu App that the price of chicken legs and other products on the shelves is as low as 10 yuan.
"In addition to the accusation of admiration for foreign charm due to public opinion, this can also prove the anxiety of Dewu, if the high-end route really works, the Dewu positioned as a trendy online shopping community will not be on the shelves in the future, such as chicken legs and other chicken thighs with different original tonalities and different customer groups." Zhang Nan said.
In her opinion, now Dewu wants to do comprehensive e-commerce, which is related to the general trend of e-commerce in general, but its ability and strength to play low prices are not as good as e-commerce giants. In other words, it is still the original customer group that supports the growth of Dewu's performance.
"In the era of shoe speculation, the premium of shoes and clothing products is very high, and Dewu has captured a group of consumers with the strongest consumption power of Generation Z, who like scarcity, trend circle, and strong stickiness, but the number and consumption power of this group of consumers are limited."
Zhang Nan said that Dewu has been promoting to pay for feelings, but in fact, feelings cannot support the continuous growth of a large company's performance, and now everyone's desire to shop is declining, and the requirements for cost performance have increased.
Wang Yang added that the proportion of individual sellers on Dewu was more before, and now the proportion of corporate sellers has increased. "Dewu has a limited number of loyal users, but in terms of expanding new categories and customer groups, it mainly develops niche national tide brands, and many national fashion brands have negative labels such as plagiarism, which will be defined by the post-90s and post-00s as leeks."
In addition, even if it is playing a low price, in comparison with the same product, the price of Dewu is still significantly higher than that of Taobao and JD.com. Even because of this, a new profession was born - the Brick Moving Party. They scraped together large coupons from platforms such as Jingdong and Taobao, and got more cost-effective genuine products with full coupons, and then sold them on the goods, so as to earn the middle price difference. Some "brick moving parties" said that shoes with a price of 450 yuan on the goods can be purchased for 300 yuan with coupons on other e-commerce platforms, "and some people even rely on this method to earn 30,000 yuan a month."
In Wang Yang's view, the current Dewu, as a late-entry e-commerce player, has fallen behind. At a time when e-commerce is becoming more and more volatile, in addition to the higher quality of packaging, Dewu still takes a conservative route for the things and gameplay that young people like.
The above-mentioned people all said that since last year, Dewu has focused on the cross-border market and sought new overseas increments. For domestic business, as Generation Z returns to consumption rationality and the "shoe craze" fades, the rigid demand for things has also disappeared. Nowadays, low-price competition is becoming more and more volatile, and the overseas purchasing industry is becoming more and more sluggish.