Before the smoke of 618 arrives, the pre-sale system that has been in place for ten years has been shut down

As consumers become increasingly dissatisfied with the pre-sale system of e-commerce platforms, Taobao and JD.com announced the cancellation of this ten-year mechanism, marking a major adjustment to the rules of the 618 Shopping Festival. The article explores the rise and fall of the pre-sale system, analyzes how e-commerce platforms shift from pursuing GMV data growth to paying more attention to consumer experience and service quality, and the possible impact of this change on merchants and consumers. At the same time, the article also looks forward to how e-commerce platforms can find new growth points in the era of stock competition and achieve long-term customer loyalty and business growth.

Both Taobao and JD.com have decided not to adopt the pre-sale system.

On May 6, Taotian Group officially announced the adjustment of the rules for the 2024 618 promotion at the Merchant Conference. The most important point is that the pre-sale mechanism that has lasted for 10 years has been cancelled. Taotian revealed that this year's promotion will have a total of two waves of spot sales, starting at 8 pm on May 20 and May 31 respectively.

It's not just Taobao. JD.com has also announced that it has canceled pre-sales and plans to use all current products for promotions.

These leading e-commerce platforms have all canceled pre-sales at the same time, which, to a certain extent, is unavoidable.

Over the years, consumers have seen all kinds of promotional tactics on the platforms and have long been aesthetically fatigued. They have developed an aversion to pre-sales, which prolong the consumption process.

More importantly, in the era of inventory, under fierce market competition, if platforms want to win the hearts of consumers, they have to simplify things and let consumption return to consumption itself.

1. Without pre-sale, 618 is simpler

The cancellation of the pre-sale system has brought changes to both consumers and merchants.

Without pre-sales, consumers can buy ready-made products, which reduces the cost of silence and allows for direct returns and exchanges if there are any problems with the products. On this basis, Taobao and Tmall have added some buffs, launching a series of measures such as full price protection, free shipping for promotional products, and freight insurance, which correspond to issues that consumers pay more attention to, such as product price changes and logistics.

With e-commerce promotions becoming a norm, any new gameplay is difficult to attract consumers. For Taobao and Tmall, now they are more concerned with service details and promotion implementation in order to attract more consumers to join the platform promotions.

On the merchant side, Taobao and Tmall have simplified the registration process for 618 this year. Any qualified merchant can directly register to participate, just sign an agreement, decide on the rules, and then choose the products. To a certain extent, this has avoided the problem of merchants' low enthusiasm for participation in the past.

However, it should be recognized that the move to "cancel the pre-sale system" will also hit some smaller businesses with weaker supply chain capabilities. Originally, they made as much goods as they sold, but now they have to stock up in advance, and the backlog of inventory may put pressure on their cash flow.

Overall, this will be a process of last-in-first-out elimination, during which merchants will have to optimize their supply chain capabilities and operational strategies.

According to reports, Taobao's transaction volume during the 618 pre-sale period last year accounted for about 5% to 10% of the entire promotion. From a short-term revenue perspective, the cancellation of pre-sales will indeed lead to the loss of some of the transaction volume originally generated during the pre-sale period.

But this "sacrifice" is not without value.

The reason behind Taotian's abandonment of the "short, flat and fast" approach is that it wants to use service to gain consumer loyalty and thus achieve long-term growth.

2. The world has suffered from the pre-sale system for a long time

When Taobao and Tmall first launched the pre-sale system, their plan was very good.

First, it can help merchants prepare goods in advance, reducing costs and logistics pressure; second, this new way of playing creates consumer demand because brand merchants will give "discounts". More importantly, the pre-sale system can make the GMV data of e-commerce platforms look better.

Taobao and JD.com have been fighting each other during big promotions over the years. Pre-sales can lock in consumers' wallets in advance, which is equivalent to locking in a portion of GMV in advance. In the big promotion battle reports released by Taobao and JD.com in the early years, one of the important data was pre-sale sales.

But as time goes by, the pre-sale system has also exposed its shortcomings.

"The jeans I bought on Double 11 didn't arrive until Double 12."

"Down jackets are on pre-sale for 30 days, and the snow has melted by the time I get them."

"Return it. I'm not willing to wait so long. If I don't return it, I probably won't be able to use it when I get it."

There are countless complaints about the pre-sale system on e-commerce platforms on the Internet. During the long period of time, many consumers waited impatiently for the express delivery, and they were numb. If they found any problems with the goods after receiving them, they would collapse in an instant.

User complaints about pre-sale/Xiaohongshu screenshot

Over time, consumers lost their enthusiasm for the pre-sale system and even developed a negative impression of e-commerce platforms.

More importantly, some brand merchants will take advantage of the pre-sale mechanism to deliberately "rip off" consumers.

In January this year, the China Consumers Association released the "Analysis on Complaints Received by National Consumer Associations in 2023", which directly pointed out that the pre-sale model of e-commerce platforms has problems such as dishonest price increases for "final payments", no price guarantee for pre-sale goods, failure to fulfill promised gifts, failure to deliver on promised time, and false "lowest price" promotions.

For example, in November last year, consumer Ms. Wu complained to the Weifang Consumers Association that when she was buying cosmetics in the live broadcast room of a certain brand's official flagship store, the merchant stated in the live broadcast room that after the consumer paid a deposit of 100 yuan, the final price of the cosmetics set would be less than 900 yuan.

However, after Ms. Wu paid the deposit, the merchant later asked her to pay the balance of 998 yuan, which was obviously different from the advertised price and constituted a deception of consumers.

Due to the combination of various factors, the pre-sale system is accelerating its exit from history.

3. Return to the essence of consumption and focus on users

In recent years, e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com have begun to do subtraction.

The reason behind this is that the domestic e-commerce industry has entered an era of stock competition, the traffic dividend is no longer there, the user scale has peaked, and the performance growth rate has gradually become flat. If e-commerce players want to find growth in the stock market, they must pay attention to consumption itself, listen to the voice of consumers, and return to the "user-centric" e-commerce era.

So we can see that during the 618 period last year, JD.com launched the "unit price" and gave up the process of receiving coupons; at the end of last year, Taobao and JD.com followed Pinduoduo's footsteps, simplified the after-sales process, and successively launched the "refund only" service.

The cancellation of the pre-sale system this time also follows the same idea. The e-commerce platforms are trying to tilt the balance towards consumers.

Looking back, the pre-sale system of Taobao and Tmall was originally a product of the rapid growth of the consumer market, and it was able to achieve a win-win situation among the platform, merchants and consumers at the beginning. However, the current market environment is very different, and consumer demands have become more specific and pragmatic, so the withdrawal of the pre-sale system is not surprising.

Whether it is Taobao Tmall or JD.com, any measures they take are actually in line with the trend of the times. Whether this 618 promotion can return to the original intention of consumption, we will have to wait and see.