The Clothing Industry Has To Go To The "Hongmen Feast" Of E-Commerce Promotion

"There was an accident last night, did you know that?" On September 5, Wang Jun (a pseudonym), the director of e-commerce of Quanzhou local brand A, went to work to open the QQ group of an e-commerce company, and the first sentence was like this. Same day, Hangzhou Brand jeans "Louisa Xiaoxi", the person in charge of JASONWOOD e-commerce operations, posted a microblog saying, "Liu Qiangdong, I don't play anymore" and decided to quit the POP platform of Jingdong Mall.

The reason is that on September 3, JD Mall launched the promotion activity of "1000 free for 300", which met the rebound of some businesses.

However, this is not a simple and unsuccessful promotion activity, but a price war behind the two platforms. Wang Jun said that the removal of some of the above brands is not only harmful, but also a more important factor of Tmall's "forced marriage". During the promotion period of Tmall's "National Day", it was reported on the Internet that merchants were prohibited from participating in similar activities on JD and other e-commerce platforms.

Promotion, is it a killer or a suicide weapon? When the major platforms fight for the price war, who is paying for the price war? Brand merchants kidnapped by the platform, knowing that promotion would cause harm to themselves, had to participate in the "Hongmen Banquets" sponsored by the platform.

JD Promotion

force clothing Brand selection

Recalling the situation of the day, Wang Jun said that the dilemma was still a problem.

"On September 3, JD launched a recent promotional activity for clothing brands, 'Buy 300 and get 1000 coupons free', and all 1000 yuan store coupons need to be issued by merchants. The promotional rule is that a single store with a single order of more than 300 yuan can get a coupon with a total value of 1000 yuan (this coupon can only buy goods in the store) This 1000 yuan coupon includes one coupon for 300 yuan minus 200 yuan, one coupon for 500 yuan minus 300 yuan, and one coupon for 800 yuan minus 500 yuan. This is equivalent to the fact that our goods have been forcibly discounted by Jingdong by three to four percent. "Wang Jun calculated such an account to reporters. He emphasized that Enterprise A is not an enterprise selling inventory through e-commerce channels, but an online and offline synchronization. September is the time to install new products in autumn, so this is equivalent to allowing enterprises to sell new products at a 30% to 40% discount.

"For our brand, if we sell less than 40% below the tag price, the enterprise will start to lose money, which means that this activity of JD is stuck at the critical point of loss." Wang Jun said that after such calculation, brand A originally intended to participate in JD's activities, "In fact, at present, our sales in JD are not large, that is to say, even if it is less than a 40% discount, there will not be too much damage." On the contrary, Brand A is interested in JD's higher customer price and subsequent potential, "we also want to put eggs in different baskets to avoid being too constrained by one platform."

However, at this time, Tmall appeared. Just as in the online rumors, Brand A was forced to marry by Tmall. Wang Jun recalled the confrontation: "First, the clothing director of JD called in person to talk about the activity of 'buying 300 and getting 1000 coupons free', and we agreed. Then Tmall people told us that if we participated in the promotion of JD, we would not be able to participate in any activities of Ali in the future, and we hesitated. Then the people of JD told us that if we did not participate in the promotion, we would not be supported in the future. They He also asked whether he was threatened by Tmall. But we can only answer, no! There's something wrong with the system. "

As a result, Enterprise A finally withdrew from the JD promotion on the grounds that the logistics system had problems. In fact, he passively made a choice of "future husband's family".

According to other media reports, on September 4, clothing brands, including eifini, Norge, AKSERIES, and others who were forcibly pulled onto the promotion chariot, once issued an emergency announcement on their online store homepage to suspend shipment or business, and began to communicate with the platform operator of JD Mall, and then withdrew the announcement successively. In addition, Qipai, Shanshan Seven Wolf , No. 0 men have taken the store products off the shelves. The reporter tried to call some of the above brand e-commerce principals, but they were all reticent and unwilling to talk about this event.

Lu Zhenwang, an e-commerce observer, commented on the big promotion: "Jingdong launched a clothing promotion this time. Because there are too few well-known brands involved, it has ended before it started, and it has not been popular."

The platform fights the price war to "kill who"?

Compared with the "Beijing Soviet War" in August, this round of clothing brand war between JD and Tmall can only be called "secret war". However, the generally weak clothing brands are more likely to fall victim to the platform war than the electrical appliance manufacturers who start with billions of yuan.

For them, if the price war is lower than the break even point, it will hurt one battle after another. However, it will hurt even more if there is no war!

As President Cai, the head of B e-commerce brand who had to participate in the promotion, said, "Although the current sales scale of JD platform is small, its growth rate is faster, and we dare not offend this platform, in addition, if we withdraw, the loss of payment for goods and loss of users will be very serious".

In fact, brand manufacturers are very passive in the platform war. In addition to possible losses, even they will lose their autonomy. In this event, Wei Wei, general manager of JASONWOOD e-commerce, revealed to 21st Century Business Herald that there was no sign of this event in advance, and the backstage of all clothing brands sold on the JD platform were locked, "we can't do without participating".

In response, Wu Sheng, senior vice president of Jingdong Mall, said publicly, "We launched this activity after full communication with suppliers. If suppliers do not agree, we will not force them to participate. In the end, our communication with suppliers has always been good."

Although brand A, as the manufacturer involved, said that JD did "discuss" with the brand manufacturer in advance, it was also "threatened" by both JD and Tmall. "So in fact, we have no say. We just made a choice on the surface." Wang Jun felt helpless about this.

If it goes on like this, it will only hurt more. As "Louisa Xiaoxi" pointed out in this open letter entitled "Liu Qiangdong, I won't play anymore" on Weibo, "We are not profiteering enterprises. In addition to the basic annual fees and rebates of JD, we always pay a lot for some activities that are not for the sake of businesses, but what do we get?" "If anyone can carry on, then they can either sell inferior products, or sell inventory, or play with consumers again as last time." {page_break}

Microscopic point

@Lu Zhenwang, e-commerce observer: e-commerce has entered the adjustment period, and orders should not be invalid! To make a profit, don't lose face! Don't fight a price war that hurts others but benefits yourself! Cash flow is very important! Don't play brand advertising unnecessarily! Don't overstate the team! Marketing enters the stage of refined analysis! Online shoppers have entered the golden age, and the era of high-quality, personalized innovation is coming! Do not over pack! Don't over serve at high cost!

@Sina Technology: [Ministry of Commerce: drafting regulations on e-commerce management] A fake e-commerce price war has made people see regulatory loopholes in the e-commerce field. On the 13th, Jiang Zengwei, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out that the Ministry of Commerce is currently working hard to draft regulations on e-commerce management. We must make e-commerce enterprises realize that the impetuous psychology of seeking small profits, forgetting big interests, and focusing on the immediate rather than the long-term is not desirable.

@Air China Cup E-commerce Marketing Competition: Since this year, the e-commerce battlefield has witnessed constant wars. Although Jingdong, Suning and Gome fought the price war in a vigorous manner, each with a bigger tone than the other, none of the three participants was "Gao Fu Shuai". In fact, the price war was a fight between losers.

Build an efficient e-commerce supply chain

Norge sets up e-commerce supplier alliance

A few days ago, Norge held the inaugural meeting of "the first batch of strategic cooperative supplier alliances of Norge e-commerce". Ding Hui, chairman of Norge, Qi Weilin, head of its e-commerce agency, Crowdsourcing E-commerce Company, and representatives of more than 20 suppliers across the country attended the meeting to jointly discuss the future commodity supply cooperation model of Norge e-commerce and confirm the cooperation mechanism, Form strategic cooperation and benefit sharing alliance.

At the meeting, Qi Weilin expressed his views on the current competition pattern of e-commerce. "Similar to offline, e-commerce competition is also based on the competition of commodities, teams, capital and other elements, and also needs the benign interaction of products, suppliers and consumers." Qi Weilin believes that products are the "bullets" of e-commerce battle, but at present, e-commerce has not formed a benign, mature and stable cooperation mode with suppliers producing "bullets", which has high inventory risk Inadequate information and other drawbacks are not conducive to the steady development of e-commerce. "At present, e-commerce is in urgent need of establishing a new cooperation mode with suppliers that has strong pertinence in developing information, unimpeded information and low inventory risk."

In the face of fierce online competition, Chairman Ding Hui stressed that Norge e-commerce will follow the "fast fashion" model of Norge, and will and must follow the development path of flexible production and rapid response. At the same time, Norge has listed e-commerce as an important strategic business in the company's "Three Five Year" development plan, and has given strong support in capital, talents, commodities and other aspects, striving to achieve a major breakthrough in 2016.

This meeting is a good start for Norge to establish an alliance for cooperation and benefit sharing with suppliers that can meet the needs of Norge's "fast fashion" e-commerce development.