Recently, the topic of “Double Eleven is not cheap” has become a hot topic. According to The Paper, an e-commerce platform suddenly stopped its "limited-time subsidy" just one day after the "Double Eleven" balance payment channel was opened. Many netizens who participated in the activities of Daren's live broadcast room found that goods that had not yet paid the balance were tens to hundreds of yuan more expensive per second. This move led to a wave of returns in Daren's live broadcast room.
On major social platforms, netizens posted their orders one after another and made complaints, pointing out that the e-commerce platform engaged in "little tricks" and made consumers the "big grievances"; some brands and live broadcast experts also complained about being dumped and "stabbed in the back" by the platform.
This time's subsidized "one-day tour" adds a new twist to the "Double Eleven" promotion.This shopping festival is supposed to be a shopping festival for merchants to maximize profits and consumers to get benefits. In recent years, some platforms and merchants with "routine scripts" have turned it into a "brain-burning battlefield" - full discount coupons, deposit price locks, limited-time flash sales... After completing the "Math Olympiad", many consumers found that the price of the goods has not been "beaten", and some are even more expensive.
Behind the continuous upgrading of preferential schemes is that merchants are taking advantage of the "information gap" to accurately harvest consumers again and again.The more complex the discount rules and the more vague the price tags, the more difficult it is to compare prices. There will always be new "leeks" who "think they are getting a bargain" and will fall into the trap.The platform uses big data to provide "algorithmic killing" methods of "thousands of people, thousands of prices" based on consumers' consumption habits and spending power, which is more subtle. Some consumers who are not sensitive to prices do not even realize that they have been "succumbed".
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
These merchants and platforms that are addicted to routines are using "short-term traffic" to destroy their "long-term jobs." Under the "traffic first" mentality, these merchants and platforms regard "Double Eleven" as a life-saving straw to "clear inventory and improve performance", and do not hesitate to use short-term interests to overdraw the long-term trust of consumers. Some even only plan to do "one-time transactions" from the beginning.However, when the patience and enthusiasm of consumers are gradually worn away by the calculations of merchants, when more and more consumers adopt the mentality of "if you are the one" and do not care about, participate in, or pay for "Double Eleven", in the long run, how far can this annual consumption feast go?
When consumers equate “discounts” with “routines”, what businesses “collapse” is their own brand reputation. In an era when information is highly transparent, some netizens have suggested that it is not too difficult to see through merchants’ price tricks. For example, you can check purchase records and compare historical prices, take screenshots on your mobile phone to record product prices, and use third-party price comparison software to quickly compare price differences in different periods and on different platforms. With the accumulation of lessons from "trampling on pitfalls", many consumers have gradually become more rational. As one netizen said, “I was tricked once by a brand that ‘rose first and then dropped’. Now I just swipe away when I see its advertisements.”
(Source: Xinhua News Agency)
The routines of live streaming and platform promotions to calculate consumers have been "targeted" by market regulatory authorities. Previously, a household products company in Ningbo conducted a live promotion during the "Double Eleven" period, promising that consumers with the highest final payment would enjoy discounts. However, the winning list turned out to be "wrong with the goods" and was fined 117,900 yuan. When a media company anchor in Chengdu was promoting a certain brand of down jackets in a live broadcast room, he falsely advertised that it was "the best in sales on the entire network" and was also fined 280,000 yuan... These "backstab" consumers' tricks are also suspected of being illegal. The newly revised Anti-Unfair Competition Law, which was implemented on October 15, has clearly prohibited chaos such as "false evaluations", "low-price involution" and "big data killing".
To allow consumers to shop with confidence during Double Eleven, there are more mechanisms that need to be “updated”. Relevant departments should establish a "blacklist" system to "blacklist" merchants who have repeatedly committed price fraud, restrict their participation in promotional activities, and impose fines for violations. Simplify the rights protection process, reduce the cost of rights protection, and encourage consumers to report fraud through the "one-click complaint" function. The platform needs to take the main responsibility, proactively strengthen audit and management, and perform supervision responsibilities.
"Double Eleven", which is in its 17th year this year, is about to "come of age". It's time to be more sincere and less routine. The core competitiveness of "Double Eleven" has never been fancy marketing rhetoric, but the long-term trust established between merchants and consumers.Only by letting go of the short-sightedness of "harvesting traffic" and returning to the original intention of "giving profits but quick turnover" can this annual consumption feast go further.