This year's Double 11, luxury goods are only for young people to buy

It's another Double Eleven, and merchants and platforms have launched discounts for full purchases. In order to get the most suitable price, buyers are all holding calculators and becoming "actuaries". To get full purchase discounts, you need tools to make up for the difference, and luxury goods are the hardest hit. Why does this phenomenon occur? Let's take a look.

Recently, Ralph Lauren's e-commerce employees may have experienced both extremes: after their store's products were snapped up crazily, they were immediately faced with mass refunds; brands such as Versace, Burberry, and Dior also encountered similar situations.

The reason why these luxury brands encounter "bad men and women" is that they have become tools for netizens to make up for the shortfall; after all, the virtues of suitable prices, timely refunds and convenient returns are easily favored by money-saving experts.

Netizens choose to place orders in reverse order. In addition to the greater discounts and complicated platform rules, the experience sharing on platforms such as Xiaohongshu has also expanded the scope of dissemination. Everyone communicates with each other to see who has a faster and more friendly refund.

This practice of refunding after placing an order is actually a lose-lose situation for both merchants and users. Not only will the business of the merchants be disrupted, but the users may not necessarily benefit from it, and it may even cause the entire society to waste unnecessary resources.

For ordinary users, shopping on demand may be the biggest secret to saving money. For the platform, should it also provide a more scientific discount strategy?

1. Refund within seconds after placing an order

During this Double 11, Ralph Lauren seemed to have become the top seller on Taobao. Not only were many products sold out in seconds, but some users who failed to get a chance even beat their chests. However, many people changed their faces immediately after successfully buying the products. Their originally flattering expressions gradually became stiff. They were as humble as they were when they placed the order, and as cold as they were when they refunded the money.

In fact, the reason why Ralph Lauren consumers changed their attitude on the spot was that under Taobao's full-discount rule, some users were using it to make up for the difference in their orders; and in addition to Ralph Lauren, big brands such as Burberry and Versace have also become victims under the same roof.

It seems that combining orders to get discounts on e-commerce platforms has become the mainstream. Some netizens have even invented jargon to make it difficult for people who have not learned the "C language" of combining orders to figure out the tricks.

For example, Xiaoyang, a Douyin store owner, was attacked by a large number of people who bought chicken feet because he did not understand "C language". He complained: "I am just a chicken feet seller, how can there be professional rhetoric? Live streaming is called opening, and the end of live streaming is called closing. Refunding chicken feet is called empty, and forgetting to return the goods is called being stuck. In 4 days, I was refunded 55 million, with a return rate of 99%."

It seems that the person who invented the special rhetoric for adding more people to a purchase may very well be a veteran stock investor, and the stock investor's tearful term "being stuck" has also happened to some e-commerce users.

For example, after placing a combined order on JD.com, a netizen named Datou discovered that the self-operated products could not be refunded individually, so he had no choice but to accept the order. Afterwards, another netizen gave him some advice, saying: "Fill in other addresses for the combined order products, and you can get a refund individually after placing the order."

Nowadays, in order to make the best possible purchase, almost every netizen is an actuary. They have maxed out their math skills and come up with lots of ways to save money. On the e-commerce platforms, everyone is like Hua Luogeng and everyone is like Chen Jingrun.

At the same time, under the careful screening of actuaries who arrange orders together, some brands of goods have become exclusive to those who order together. Looking at users who place orders frantically and receive instant refunds, the merchants started crying with laughter.

2. The quality of tool people

What qualities do you need to have to be a good order-matching tool? Brother Pang found that the following points seem to be necessary:

First of all, the product price is right.

For example, brands such as Ralph Lauren, Burberry, and Versace mostly sell products for around 4,000 to 5,000 yuan, which makes it easy to reach the platform's discount standards. As a result, many users "place orders together for a long time and make one piece last forever."

At the same time, when setting product prices, many big brands do not follow the mainstream "decimal pricing method". When using this method to complete an order, the total amount is more likely to be an integer.

For example, Pang Ge found that the prices of two items sold by Burberry were 4,300 yuan and 5,100 yuan respectively. Users whose shopping carts have a total of "XX90 yuan" and "XX9 yuan" would find it very suitable to place an order with these items.

Secondly, the seller refunds the money promptly.

In order to realize the reverse order-matching operation on multiple platforms, netizens also played high turnover: completing the payment immediately after placing the order, and then going to other platforms to copy the process.

Therefore, if the seller does not refund in time, this leverage game may not be able to continue. Pang Ge learned that brands such as Shiseido, Uniqlo, and Nike have very fast refunds.

At the same time, this "ten pots and nine lids" gameplay has also caused some products to experience multiple orders and refunds in a short period of time, and during the lively Double Eleven, the main feature is to accompany the whole process.

Finally, the product can be easily returned.

Some users forget to click on the refund button and need to return the goods to the seller in a timely manner. Large and fragile goods do not seem to be safe enough during transportation.

Therefore, those products that are small in size, not prone to damage, and covered by shipping insurance have become the favorites of those who buy together. Brother Pang found that in addition to big-name clothing, beauty products, jewelry, small appliances, etc. are also frequent visitors to the list of artifacts for buying together.

Not only that, many netizens also consider emotional factors when choosing items to add to a purchase.

For example, netizen Xiao Xue told Brother Pan: "Because I don't like Mi Guang, I use it to complete the order, and I get a refund immediately after placing the order." At the same time, some brands suspected of insulting China and women have also been targeted by the army of people who use it to complete the order.

3. Please follow the instructions when placing an order

Why do netizens who shop online prefer to combine orders in reverse order?

First of all, there are higher discounts for purchases over a certain amount, making the price more suitable.

For example, Brother Pang discovered that after purchasing two expensive items and using Taobao's "580 off for purchases over 7,000 yuan", the HourGlass lipstick, which originally cost 320 yuan, was now priced at about 194 yuan, a reduction of 126 yuan.

However, if the conventional method of adding items to the order is used, it seems difficult for young people who are not wealthy to reach the maximum discount, and the amount of discount they enjoy will also be greatly reduced.

Secondly, the platform’s discount rules are complicated, making netizens too lazy to bother with it.

For example, during the Double Eleven period, Pinduoduo launched multiple discount packages and held coupon-grabbing activities at the top of the hour, which was dazzling; on the other hand, Tmall also launched activities such as millions of subsidies and everyday low prices at the main venue of Double Eleven.

In this regard, one netizen said: "It's really tiring to collect orders. I save money and sleep." Another netizen said: "After a day of collecting orders, I feel like I'm about to become an actuary."

Finally, social platforms, mainly Xiaohongshu, provide guidance to users.

The reverse order-matching offer was so tempting that some netizens couldn't help but share it, and the social platform Xiaohongshu seemed to have become an intelligence center.

For example, if you search for "凑单" on Xiaohongshu, you can see a lot of sharing notes. Some money-saving experts study with the same enthusiasm as if they were preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination. On the other hand, there are users who set up "凑单" groups, and they just wait for the group owner's order before rushing to attack the merchants.

3. Who is the biggest winner?

Although various ways of combining orders allow users to obtain discounts, this has become a disaster for most sellers.

For example, Taobao shop owner A Fei said: "Looking at the ups and downs of order and refund data, I feel surprised and frightened at times."

However, Abu, the operator of a Taobao store, told Brother Pan: "Refunds for adding orders have no impact on large merchants. For example, our store rushed to the top of the list on October 31, and we ourselves made up 3 million in sales."

On the other hand, users who place orders together are also prone to social failure when they ask for a refund. For example, a Douyin store owner said: "Just place an order together, and apply for a refund directly. Don't come and say that you placed a wrong order. We all know it."

At the same time, some netizens found the perfect product to match their order, and the amount just met the discount standard. However, before the event started, the merchant suddenly lowered the selling price, and the netizens who originally thought that "the advantage was mine" were instantly stabbed in the back.

It seems that group buying on e-commerce platforms is a lose-lose situation for both merchants and users. So who wins? The answer may be the platform.

For example, within 10 minutes of JD.com's "spot sales" on Double Eleven, the number of users placing orders and the number of completed orders both increased by more than 4 times year-on-year. On the other hand, within one hour of Tmall's Double Eleven pre-sale, a total of more than 1,300 brands achieved a year-on-year transaction volume of 200%.

It can be seen that in the tug-of-war between merchants and users over adding orders, e-commerce platforms have achieved an increase in transaction volume by relying on preferential rules; however, too many incidents of refunds for adding orders seem to indicate that these data may be a false prosperity.

Perhaps, for e-commerce users, the most cost-effective way to shop is not to set an alarm, make a good strategy, choose the right products, and calculate discounts; shopping online on demand may be the rational choice.

Author: Pan Ge

WeChat public account: IQ Tax Research Center (ID: gh_c55b3561ece1)