Pinduoduo merchants’ self-positioning: helping the platform make money or helping the platform gain users

On e-commerce platforms, the value exchange between merchants and platforms is the key to survival. Merchants need to be clear about what value they can bring to the platform, whether it is making money or attracting users, so as to obtain traffic support from the platform. This article will explore the commercial nature of e-commerce platforms and how to effectively create value for the platform, thereby obtaining traffic and achieving commercial success.

There is a line in Stephen Chow's movie "From Beijing with Love": Even a piece of tissue has its uses . Let's look back at us e-commerce companies. Why do platforms give us traffic? It's because we are useful to the platform. If you have no value to the platform, then the store you open on the e-commerce platform will not have any traffic or orders.

Taking Pinduoduo as an example, there are only two values ​​that merchants bring to the platform: either to help the platform make money, or to help the platform gain users . If you have neither, then you can just stay where you are.

These two values ​​are reflected in the specific gameplay, which is the current forced payment and natural flow gameplay. If you play forced payment, you are helping the platform make money. You clearly mark the price of each order you sell to the platform. In order to make more money, the platform will give you more orders.

Isn't it true that you are helping the platform to gain users by playing with natural traffic? If you open a ramen restaurant offline and offer all-you-can-eat for 9.9 yuan, can you bring in a steady stream of traffic? E-commerce platforms also need merchants like you who like to do charity to help the platform continuously attract traffic.

1. The essence of business is the exchange of interests

There are often e-commerce newbies asking in the group, "Who can help me?" People who ask this are either naive or cunning. Naive people think there will be saints who help others without expecting anything in return, while cunning people just want to get other people's knowledge for free.

When we do anything, we should first ask ourselves, when we ask others for help, why should they help us? The answer is, only for the benefit . Even if someone is willing to help you for free, it is for the reputation, and with the reputation comes the benefit.

Not to mention the commodity trading places like e-commerce platforms, which spend billions of dollars every year on advertising and recruiting new users. What do the platforms hope for in exchange for users? These users can bring value to the platform, which is money.

Where does the money come from? Naturally, it comes from the merchants. The platform provides everyone with traffic, so it is only natural for everyone to give money to the platform. Business is a transaction. Don't think about getting something for free , unless you really think you are very capable and can control the rule makers of the platform.

The platform has two demands: either give money or provide traffic. Why does Taobao have little natural traffic? Because the platform penetration rate has reached its peak, and there is basically no room for new users.

Pinduoduo still has a large number of buyers in first-tier and second-tier cities, as well as those who have lost customers. The platform needs everyone's low-priced products to attract traffic to the platform and retain users. At this time, even a piece of toilet paper has its use.

2. How to help the platform earn users

Just like the example above, when you open an offline store, you must hold a low-price promotion to attract a wave of users. The newly opened kebab shop downstairs from me offered a buy one get one free promotion in the first three days of its opening, and there were so many people lining up.

If this store had capital intervention and raised 2 billion yuan in financing, and competed head-on with the barbecue restaurant next door, and held buy-one-get-one-free promotions all year round, it would almost not cause user loss and would maintain long queues all year round.

The idea of ​​e-commerce platforms is the same. Now the price perception of various e-commerce platforms is roughly like this: JD.com has the highest, followed by Taobao, JD.com has the lowest, and there is no lower limit for Douyin.

In the short term, it is unlikely that the market share of each platform will fluctuate drastically, but in the long run, after three to five years, the low-price concept of Moduo will be deeply rooted in people's minds, and there will be more and more buyers coming to Moduo, and their stickiness will become stronger and stronger. With users, they will naturally have the right to speak, and monetization will be an easy matter .

So, do you know how to help the platform earn users? Only low price is enough. Low price is the eternal sales weapon. Let’s put it this way, in front of the absolutely low price link, any operation technology is nothing .

For example, if I sell an authentic Apple phone for 1999, do I need to operate it? Not at all. I only have one main picture, no details, and write "buy it or not" on the SKU. It will still sell well because of the low price.

In order to maintain the concept of low prices, the platform is well aware that low prices will definitely result in extremely low profits and no profit to be shared. However, in order to retain users, it will also allow people to obtain traffic without paying. Do you think the platform does not want to take a cut? There is really no way to do so.

Some manufacturers sell at cost, and the profit is at most enough to support the operation of their own factories. The platform also understands this, and will try to deduct as little money as possible to give you natural flow. Therefore, natural flow is equal to low price . If you really have the lowest price on the entire network, then you can help the platform to earn users and play the game of natural flow.

3. How to help the platform make money

As a strong paying player, I am familiar with this topic. To help the platform make money is to give money to the platform. How to give money? Use the through train. Merchants who help the platform make money have no price advantage. Without price advantage, they will naturally not help the platform to attract traffic, on the contrary, they will cause the platform to lose users.

Last year, after the platform merchants raised their prices, some users left. This is normal. Buyers have no loyalty to the platform and will go wherever it is cheaper . Since high selling prices are not good for buyers, why would the platform still promote your high-priced products? Because you can bring money to the platform.

The same product with a cost of 20 yuan, the manufacturer sells it for 22 yuan, and makes less than 1 yuan per order. If you sell it for 39 yuan, you also make less than 1 yuan per order. Why is the profit high but not much? Because you have to invest the extra 17 yuan in the through train, so that you can sell at a high price to get orders.

You may ask, if the money earned is the same, why should I force payment? That is because the cost difference is too big, you can't play the natural flow. The cost of getting the goods may be the same as the selling price of others with tens of thousands of people. Why do you still play the natural flow? Dream on it, you can only increase the price and force payment.

However, if you want to play with forced payment, you can't play it just because so many people give money to Pinduoduo. Why should the platform favor you and give you traffic? That's because your internal skills are better than others and your bid is higher than others, so the platform will give you more of the only paid traffic .

Forced payment is the main way of playing this year. After all, there are only a few manufacturers, and most merchants are agents, brand owners, and consignors. Apart from forced payment, there is no other way to go.

4. Final

If you want to make money on Pinduoduo or other e-commerce platforms, you must clearly know your positioning and what you can bring to the platform.

We are all adults, so let’s be realistic. If you don’t have a price advantage, don’t even think about playing the natural flow. Just pay the platform and use the money to buy volume.

Author: Tiger Talks Operations

Source: Tiger Talk Operations "(ID: laohujiangyy)"