Free Lunch Is Not Good! Free Coupons From Online Merchants Become The Bottomless Pit Of Consumption

A few years ago, I was there. Department store Vogue in the field Marketing After being halted by the relevant departments, it is similar to the "coupons". Only the coupons that can be used for full consumption (Dai Jinquan) have become the new magic weapon for e-commerce enterprises to generate income. Recently, many consumers' mailboxes often receive complimentary coupons from major websites. Some consumers said that e-business website free gift coupons in itself is a good thing, but consumers want to use the coupons sent out often have to use "one flower ten", so that this has been eliminated by the traditional retail business mode of marketing has been criticized.

　 Coupons consumption is a bottomless pit.

　　 Electronic Commerce With the development of the field entering the fast track, the industry competition is becoming more and more intense.

Reporter survey found that in order to improve sales performance, many e-commerce sites have launched various coupons. However, most of the coupons are unconditional, but the threshold is generally high.

In the industry view, the more the coupons are spent, the greater the cost. This "bottomless" marketing method seems to have become a common feature of the current mainstream e-commerce website voucher marketing.

Reporters saw that the dream bazaar website recently launched the "registration of 100 yuan coupons" activities, attracting many consumers' eyeballs. But after the actual registration, consumers found that the 100 yuan gift coupon donated after the registration of the website was actually split into 4 Zhang Liquan. They are 50 yuan coupons, two 20 yuan coupons, and 10 yuan coupons. At the same time, these coupons have their own different threshold.

According to the information provided by the dream bazaar side, the minimum consumption of the website is 300 yuan, and a 50 yuan coupons can be used. The minimum consumption is 180 yuan, and a 20 yuan coupons can be used. The minimum consumption is 100 yuan, and a 10 yuan coupons can be used.

A consumer calculated to reporters: if you want to use the 100 yuan coupons registered, the minimum consumption is 760 yuan. In fact, it is difficult for consumers to make "just good" consumption in the shopping process, so it is inevitable to pay some "extra".

In response to this situation, the reporter then telephoned the dream bazaar website customer service, but it did not respond positively to this matter.

As a matter of fact, consumers need to pay double cash costs for the use of free gift coupons, which is not a case in the field of e-commerce.

　 General merchandise "coupon" has been stopped.

In the industry view, e-commerce website is currently popular coupons marketing, is "learn from" a few years ago in the department store industry popular "coupons" activities.

At that time, the popular marketing mode of coupons had made many shopping malls "make big profits". A business expert calculated the accounts for journalists. If the goods were directly hit 50 percent off, consumers would only need to spend 100 yuan to buy 200 yuan of goods. But if it is full of "200 yuan to send 100 yuan coupons", then the actual purchase price of goods needed by consumers is still 200 yuan. Not only does it buy goods without concessions, consumers will even buy it again because they want to use 100 yuan coupons.

Consumers who participate in the "return" marketing game can not achieve the goal of saving money, but will consume more. At the same time, because most of the commodity prices are 199 yuan and 299 yuan, consumers still need to "gather together" to return the gift vouchers. As a result, businesses continue to earn customers' "popularity", while consumers buy mostly "non essentials".

In fact, the marketing trap of "coupons" also provided the "cattle party" with room for survival. According to the reporter, in the "coupon" activities, customers have a large number of coupons, but do not want to add money to buy useless things; others want to buy discounted goods, but they do not have enough vouchers. As a result, the "scalpers" who rely on "reverse coupons" have eaten. They buy the vouchers at a low price and sell them at a high price.

The emergence of all kinds of drawbacks eventually led to the end of the coupon marketing in the shopping mall. In June 1, 2008, the regulations governing the promotion of retail business units in Beijing clearly stipulate that "commercial retail businesses shall not hold promotional activities for shopping coupons".

Although the "coupons" activities have disappeared in the capital market, the "coupons" prevailing in e-commerce websites are exactly the same as those in shopping malls.

　 Bright discount is the trend of consumption.

The "coupon" activity that has been able to boost sales performance has been halted, which means that this marketing mode is not in line with the normal development of the market.

At present, it is the discount season of Beijing shopping malls. The reporter has found that many shopping malls and stores that offer direct discount or "one price" promotion are favored by many consumers. This shows that the majority of consumers are more likely to accept "clear cut".

In fact, in a short time, merchants who used the free coupons to entice consumers to buy twice as much, though temporarily gained performance gains, but in the long run, these brands lost the reputation of their brands.

"Consumers are rational, and in shopping experience, they will gradually find that such promotional games are useless. And it is likely to have a resistance to a brand so that the whole industry can change its shopping place. Zhao Jingqiao, a business expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that if a good e-business enterprise wants to win the high quality of word of mouth, it needs to prove that its services and products are first-class, rather than playing marketing games with consumers.

　 Viewpoints

"Free lunch" is not easy to eat.

The introduction of free coupons is more like a trap to consumers. Zhao Jingqiao, a business expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that from the point of view of protecting consumers' interests, before consumers sign up, or before they get a coupon, they have to make clear: what kind of coupons is it? How should they be used?

In his view, in fact, the free coupons issued by businesses are similar to those that are free of charge in many restaurants. Although it is free, we must ensure its quality. Similarly, businesses should take responsibility for coupons in order to protect consumers' rights and interests.

Lai Yang, Secretary General of Beijing Institute of business economics, believes that a good and successful business operation and promotion should allow consumers to accept mentally and meet their expectations. It should not be "early feeling good, but then being stuck". If so, enterprises will not get healthy development.