Qunmaimai is shut down, Kuai Tuan Tuan takes over

Why did Qunmaimai, one of the few platforms that can do social e-commerce in WeChat private domain, stop? The author of the article uses real cases to understand and analyze several reasons and conclusions. If you are also concerned about this topic, I hope this article can help you think about it. Let's read it together.

Hello, fellow villagers. I am the village chief. As a private social e-commerce platform under Pinduoduo, Qunmaimai will soon suspend its services.

In the past two years, when social e-commerce was declining, Pinduoduo launched group buying, which attracted many social e-commerce bosses and distribution group leaders to participate. It was very popular and its monthly transaction volume quickly exceeded 100 million.

I know a big team leader of a group buying team, who brings at least 200 million yuan in transaction volume to the group buying team every year, but there has not been much operation in the second half of 2022.

So, as one of the few platforms that can do social e-commerce in WeChat private domain, why did group buying stop? The village head is not an internal staff of the platform, so the specific reason is unknown. I can only analyze it with you according to my own understanding to help you think further.

1. The scale of private domain e-commerce is lower than expected

It's very simple. If Qunmai can make 50 billion or 100 billion in a year, Pinduoduo will definitely not be willing to give it up. Private social e-commerce is different from traditional independent external APPs. It mainly relies on the dissemination of WeChat content.

The biggest feature of private domain e-commerce is its decentralization.

Because users buy in WeChat, not on Pinduoduo. Users’ attention and spending power are affected by private chats, Moments, WeChat groups, public accounts, etc. For example, when browsing Moments, you will encounter 10 or 20 different friends who use different platforms and products.

Therefore, it is impossible to build a large e-commerce platform in the private domain. This is also one of the reasons why WeChat cannot develop its own various e-commerce mini-programs.

2. Even group buying is hard to escape, the law of Pinduoduo’s true fragrance

As a product of Pinduoduo, many merchants on Qunmaimai come from Pinduoduo.

Although there is a certain amount of information gap, users place orders after seeing the products in the group shopping, but there are still some users who will choose to compare, after all, Pinduoduo's prices are really good.

In addition, from the perspective of merchant promotion, you could earn a little more on Duoduo before. Now you need to set up more commissions and provide them to agents of all levels in Qunmai.

Of course, from the product perspective, Qunmaimai is also trying to differentiate its products, especially in terms of quality. However, the reason why Pinduoduo is popular with users is that Qunmaimai's products can also be found in Pinduoduo, and even at a lower price. In the same M6000 flagship store, Qunmaimai's shirt costs 116.9, while Duoduo's is only 109.9.

3. Transactions are too dependent on distributors

Social e-commerce is actually a very time-consuming job. Compared with the traditional e-commerce model, the investment-output ratio is not cost-effective.

First, sales are too dependent on distributors, the so-called group leaders. As long as a super group leader has problems, the platform's transaction volume will immediately plummet.

Secondly, their core income is only product commissions. For Alibaba, JD.com and Duoduo, a large part of their income actually comes from advertising.

However, on platforms like Qunmaimai, the advertisements of merchants are almost ineffective, because the group leader will select and sell the goods. Most users get information from the group leader’s recommendation and the group leader’s private domain, rather than the Qunmaimai platform.

Thirdly, platforms and merchants actually have no pricing power, because group leaders and users will compare prices for the same product.

If your price is too high, the big group leader will not be able to sell; if your price is too low, the group leader will not make any profit. Especially for some small social e-commerce platforms, when the products are not exclusive, the pricing power of the main products must be communicated with some big group leaders in advance.

Fourthly, to do social e-commerce well, the service requirements are very high. The platform must serve agents, merchants, and customers at the same time, and provide training and materials for agents, so it is a very tedious job.

Based on the above four points, even if group buying has a transaction volume of 20 billion or 30 billion a year, it may not be very cost-effective from Pinduoduo's perspective.

The key is whether Qunmaimai can reach 20 billion, because looking at the social e-commerce platforms such as Yunji, Beidian, Banma, and Jingling in recent years, 20 to 30 billion is the ceiling. But for Pinduoduo, spending so much may not be as good as the transaction volume of one channel, so why bother?

In addition, business that relies too much on group leaders is not safe for Pinduoduo.

4. Turn all your efforts to Kuaituantuan

At the same time as launching group buying, Pinduoduo also launched a tool for private domain and community group buying, Kuaituantuan.

It is somewhat similar to Qunjielong, which provides a convenient tool for individuals or businesses who want to sell goods in WeChat private domain. In fact, Kuaituantuan has more development prospects than Qunmaimai, and it is also less troublesome for Pinduoduo.

First, merchants can source goods themselves and set prices freely.

Secondly, merchants are responsible for their own traffic and recruit their own agents.

Third, any individual or merchant that complies with the platform rules can use Kuaituantuan.

In addition, Pinduoduo can still open its own product selection library to Kuaituantuan individuals/merchants who want to distribute in the future.

In the past, Pinduoduo led the recruitment of agents to dig deep into WeChat private domain traffic. Now, it provides tools for individuals or merchants to take the initiative to find private domain traffic and transactions. For Pinduoduo, it only needs to make Kuaituan a good tool, and then regularly organize some excellent group leaders and industry belts to hold activities.

To be honest, in terms of long-term returns, it is better than group buying. But there is one thing that Kuai Tuan Tuan may be more concerned about, that is, Kuai Tuan Tuan recommends some top group leaders, which is equivalent to snatching traffic from other small group leaders, which is not necessarily a good thing.

Author: The village chief lives in Shili Village

Source: WeChat public account: "Shili Village (ID: shilipxl)"