Live Delivery With Goods Pre-Sale For A Long Time Is Torturing Consumers

A large number of consumers are suffering from the "super long pre-sale", and wanghong is no exception.

On April 13, an online Red blogger posted a video on his microblog, criticizing some online red clothing brands for problems such as long pre-sale time, price and quality mismatch, which immediately triggered a heated discussion. On April 14, the name of the Internet celebrity appeared on microblog hot search.

"Last winter, I only received a piece of clothes from a red website this winter." "Summer clothes should be bought in the spring, otherwise they can't be worn at all." "I wonder if it takes a long time to receive a dress or to have a baby." The video comment area is full of netizens who come to complain.

Online shopping clothes, from the beginning of buy now hair, to pre-sale 7 days, 15 days, finally developed into pre-sale 30 days, 45 days, and even cross-season. In the end, the patience of consumers has been exhausted by endless waiting, and they have returned goods to complain and boycott the pre-sale routines of merchants.

But in the face of complaints from consumers, some businesses also said that they had suffered.

"The risk of doing too much in the spot is very big, and all the things that can't be sold out are losses. The pre-sale is more stable. The big deal is that some of them are returned by customers." On April 15, an e-commerce platform clothing merchant Xu Duo (not his real name) told the times weekly.

In fact, pre-sale is a common multi-win strategy for online clothing sales at the beginning. Businesses can reduce inventory pressure and cost by pre-sale, and can also solve some resource waste problems. Consumers default to wait 7-15 days for this, which is within the acceptable range.

But I don't know when, the pre-sale time is getting longer and longer, and even some businesses directly "throw rotten" and don't deliver goods. The endurance of consumers reaches the limit, and finally they bite back at the merchants.

　　 Consumers scared

In December last year, Cheng Jia (not his real name) bought a woolen coat on an e-commerce platform. The merchant said that the coat was pre-sale and would be delivered seven days later.

"I was going to buy them for the Spring Festival." Cheng Jia said.

After waiting for 7 days, the clothes didn't ship; On the 10th day, the merchant told her that the delivery time would continue to wait.

"The customer service told me that the clothes would be delivered according to the order order order within the specified time." Cheng Jia couldn't understand why. Isn't the time limit one week?

It was not until she opened the delivery page that she was able to "solve the case" - it turned out that the merchant had quietly changed the delivery time to "within 45 days after payment". The merchant changes the delivery time without informing, which makes Cheng Jia shocked and annoyed, and applies for return immediately.

In fact, even if Cheng Jia continues to wait, he may not receive the goods.

At the beginning of March this year, Yao Mian (not his real name) took a fancy to the shirt on the heroine while watching a popular drama. Later, she found an online shop specializing in the same clothes of TV dramas on the e-commerce platform, and was able to customize that shirt.

"I placed an order the first time, customer service told me, because it is a customized version, the shipment will be slow, about 10-20 days after payment." However, she can't find the same price after a month, because she can't find the same price.

Feeling cheated, Yao Mian is very angry. She randomly looks for several pieces of clothes in the store and inquires about the delivery time, and the reply is still "about 10-20 days for delivery".

"That is to say, the clothes they put on the shelves are all pre-sale money. I suspect they don't intend to deliver the goods at all. The purpose of pre-sale is to collect the payment in advance." Yao Mian said frankly, this is no different from the white wolf with empty hands.

A senior person who has been engaged in the clothing industry for 20 years told the times weekly that at present, there is a complete range of fabrics in China, and most of the clothes on the market are mainly made of domestic fabrics, so there is no possibility that there is a lack of fabrics in clothing styles. "The real situation may be that the previous stock of this garment has been sold out, but the subsequent orders are small, and the factory does not take orders."

(the truth may be that some of the pre-sale money has not even gone to the factory.)

　　 It's all about live broadcasting?

At the risk of offending consumers, it is difficult for businesses to refuse the pre-sale because of the advantages of pre-sale mode.

Ma Gang, an independent analyst of sports shoes and clothing industry, told the times weekly that the advantages of the super long pre-sale mode are obvious, which can not only brush sales ahead of time, but also control the inventory in the store, and receive payment in advance.

For garment enterprises, inventory pressure is always one of the main pain points. According to wind data, as of the first half of 2021, 39 of the 43 textile and garment stocks had an inventory value of over 100 million yuan, and 8 stocks of Meibang clothing, anzheng fashion, souyute, taipingniao, semma apparel, Jihua Group, Hailan home and Youngor exceeded 1 billion yuan, of which Youngor ranked first. Youngor's 2021 interim financial report shows that its inventory amount is 16.575 billion yuan, accounting for about 19.67% of the total assets.

The inventory pressure of scale garment enterprises is self-evident, and small and medium-sized garment enterprises need to "step by step" in inventory management.

Even if the curse, in order to transfer the cost pressure, there are still businesses adhere to the super long pre-sale mode. But some businesses have learned a lot.

Xu duo manages a small group of women's clothing brand, has been open for six years. At first, her orders were all made and sold now, but with the rise of the "quick reaction" lightweight model, she also kept pace with the market and started the pre-sale business.

"The market is like this. Now almost all businesses have to live with their goods. Although we don't live it every day, there are at least two or three times a week. Each live broadcast needs new products, and then we can produce them according to the number of people who place orders." Xu duo told the times weekly that each time the new model needs at least 10 models, each with different sizes and colors. If we continue to use the spot sale mode, the inventory will face great risks.

But presale is not everything. Many factories have a standard line with the minimum production capacity. If they do not reach a certain order quantity, they will not produce them. Even if they are willing to produce, they will ask a high price.

Such as the small and medium-sized clothing brands operated by Xu duo, they generally focus on the low-cost line. In other words, the brand must gather enough pre-sale volume to get a relatively cheap unit price from the factory.

"Some styles will be unable to be handed over to the factory for production if they have not been able to place an order." Xu duo said.

Although the super long pre-sale mode let Xu duo avoid the pressure from cost and inventory, she soon tasted another "bitter fruit".

"Because some goods can't be delivered after more than a month, our shop has been put on the social platform by consumers, which has become a black list and written into the" lightning protection "strategy. Some netizens came to our store and scolded the customer service." Xu duo helplessly said, "we can only keep apologizing. It's really our problem whether to send goods or not."

The brand that has been in operation for six years has become "popular" in this way. Xu duo feels pressure. In order to reduce the attention and avoid the further fermentation of the event, she can only change the name of the store and change the logo. At the same time, she also loses the old users who are hard to accumulate. "I won't do super long pre-sale any more. I will try to make a balance between pre-sale and spot sale in the future." Said Xu duo.

Like Xu duo, some businesses choose to try the pre-sale mode to a large extent because they follow the trend of live delivery with goods, and the pressure on new products increases sharply. On the contrary, if the strength of the supply chain fails to keep up, the pre-sale mode becomes super long mode, the goods are not on the right board, and even the conditions for off-site production are not met, which will only eat back credit.

"The huge demand brought about by live delivery often makes businesses unprepared and even disorderly. In fact, as long as we are down-to-earth, not greedy for profiteering, and accurately predict the customer demand and inventory threshold, we can still cope with the problems brought about by pre-sale." The senior people mentioned above said that businesses should adapt to the pace of the market and improve their ability to respond to the "fast response" demand.