Taobao and JD.com have also implemented refund-only policy, but is it really useful to learn from Pinduoduo?

Pinduoduo's "refund only" feature has continued to this day, and with the launch of Taobao and JD.com's "refund only" feature, it has once again caused a wave. What is the reason behind this feature that has made industry leaders Taobao and JD.com follow suit?

"I firmly believe that Alibaba will change and Alibaba will reform."

Unexpectedly, what Mr. Ma said last month would be fulfilled so soon.

Just yesterday, the topic #Taobao will support refunds only# topped the hot search list.

The source is a "Taobao Platform Dispute Handling Rules" released by Taobao on the 19th of this month. It not only stipulates refunds, but also new rules for delayed or forced delivery , and buyers' refusal to accept .

And, let me emphasize, all of them are biased towards consumers .

Take the third clause for example. As long as there is no reason within 7 days or the platform thinks it is reasonable, the buyer can unconditionally refuse to accept the goods. After refusing, the seller must take back the goods and bear the risk.

All I can say is that although Alibaba is a little late, it does need to change.

Moreover, it is not the only company that needs to change.

JD.com also announced the rule changes it released last week, which also added a rule to support refunds only for non-self-operated merchants.

Since then , Pinduoduo, Taobao and Dongguan have fully embraced the "refund only" policy.

Faced with such a grand occasion, the onlookers have more than one thing to say: question, understand, and become.

However, the two brothers have taken a big step forward.

However, if you read it carefully, you will find that the rules are still different from Pinduoduo.

There are a lot of prerequisites before just refunding.

For example, Taobao will combine big data, based on product quality, buyer integrity model and seller quality , to determine if a product is indeed improperly described, confusing, counterfeit , etc., and will only support refunds for users with high credit .

To put it roughly, the product must meet the "existing problems" defined by the platform, and the user's credit score must also be high enough.

Even if a judgment is made, merchants can appeal within 30 days. JD.com’s rules are similar, and merchants can also appeal within 7 days.

The brothers added these additional conditions with an obvious purpose, which was to avoid certain past mistakes .

After all, Pinduoduo had previously favored consumers, which led to the rampant freeloaders and directly triggered a vigorous "store bombing incident."

Compared with Duoduo, Taobao and JD.com seem to leave room for merchants to maneuver.

But despite this, taking Taobao as an example, we will still find that a considerable number of merchants have exploded.

In addition to some merchants saying they want to switch platforms...

Some merchants even complained directly to Shichao, saying that they were also consumers and asked if Taobao could just refund the promotion fees .

Shichao feels that the merchants’ dissatisfaction actually has some truth to it.

Because it is based on big data, no one knows what Taobao’s evaluation criteria are.

If the standards are too low, it will be easy for a group of people to take advantage of the situation.

In fact, Shichao has already encountered cheated merchants in the e-commerce group.

A customer applied for a refund based on an order that he had signed for three days ago, saying that he had not received the order. The application was made at 3 a.m., and Taobao refunded the order immediately .

Someone bought 30 lip glosses and said that they only received 1. The merchant tried to appeal based on the weight of the courier, but it was ultimately deemed invalid and the merchant refunded the other party more than 200 yuan.

Some customers bought the wrong product and chose a refund only. Even if the merchant provided a screenshot of the conversation, the appeal failed.

But unlike Pinduoduo merchants, Shichao feels that Taobao merchants may be very reluctant to pay for the platform.

Because Taobao and Pinduoduo are not the same kind of people at all.

E-commerce is nothing more than three things: traffic, sellers, and buyers.

Douyin relies on traffic, Taobao relies on sellers, and Pinduoduo relies on buyers.

Just like Taobao’s slogan says, “Make it easy to do business anywhere in the world.”

Therefore, the huge and diverse merchant ecosystem is Taobao's core advantage.

If you pay a little attention, you can find a lot of things that Taobao considers for sellers.

Let’s take after-sales service as an example. For example, if you buy pre-sale products on Double Eleven, you cannot get a refund after paying the deposit. You must wait until the balance is paid before you can get a refund.

Even if you buy something normally and want a quick refund, the product must not have been shipped. The merchant will also need to review it within 48 hours and wait for their approval.

The reason for the restrictions is that the high return rate will have an impact on merchants' future activity applications, rankings and traffic.

This is a restriction on buyers in order to protect the rights and interests of merchants.

Taobao tries hard to retain these sellers, not only to maintain its advantage, but also because a large part of its revenue comes from the high traffic fees paid by merchants.

Individual merchants on Taobao need to "pay" traffic fees to the platform in order to gain exposure.

There is a consensus in the e-commerce circle that if you are a new store on Taobao, you cannot get traffic without using traffic direct trains. The so-called direct trains are products with an "advertisement" logo that pop up after you search. They are displayed first according to the click price and quality score you give them.

Not only is there the ongoing direct train fee, but there will also be subsequent store decoration fees, ranking fees, etc.

Some merchants told Shichao that many people spent money worth several houses and cars on promotion.

Even he himself spent 10,000 or 20,000 yuan every month in the past two years.

But compared to Taobao, Pinduoduo is much more straightforward, and price is king.

As long as your price is affordable enough, you can get the opportunity to be at the top of the information flow .

According to interviews with Zhiwei's editorial department, some merchants have high profits on Taobao, but few orders. On Pinduoduo, profits are low and after-sales service is terrible, but the number of orders is large, so they actually make more money.

Many people sell goods on Taobao just to have some peace and quiet. If there really are a large number of malicious refunds, they may choose to flee and migrate .

So after reading these examples, we can’t help but wonder how much benefit [refund only] can bring to Taobao and JD.

For Pinduoduo, refunding alone is a satisfying and effective killer move.

This move roughly solves the problem of shoddy products caused by the pursuit of "cheapness".

However, the problem of widespread low quality is not serious on Taobao and JD.com.

During this year’s Double Eleven, Taobao’s average return rate was around 20%, JD.com’s was 10%, and Tmall’s was even lower, at only 6%.

Compared with counterfeit and shoddy goods, some other shopping experiences are more troublesome for buyers.

For example, the most popular one is the increasingly common pre-sale .

Not only did the buyers bear the risk and pressure of stockpiling goods for the merchants, but they also ended up waiting for a month or so, only to be dismissed by the seller with just one sentence: the goods cannot be shipped ?

Many people also complained that shipping insurance is getting more and more expensive. Forcing platforms or merchants to provide shipping insurance is much more practical than just refunding.

More importantly, this move, which is meant to benefit buyers, may not necessarily produce good results.

Some merchants and Shichao said that in the end, the refund only means that they have to choose one of the three options: raising prices, switching platforms, or reducing quality .

After hearing this, Shichao felt that if he kept focusing on Pinduoduo, he might never find a way out.

But at least, many changes have already taken place, both overtly and covertly. What will happen to these two established e-commerce platforms in the future is really becoming more and more curious.

Author: Big Four Editor: Jiang Jiang

WeChat public account: Chaping (ID: chaping321)