Behind the big promotion: JD.com forces merchants to promote Tmall to ask merchants to take sides?

　　Behind a jubilant "6.18" feast, there is the sword and shadow of competition among peers. On June 6, some brand merchants posted on Weibo that JD platform forced merchants to promote, forced brands into the venue during the "6.18" period, and locked in inventory operations. The news caused an uproar, but then another online media broke the news that JD.com was besieged by merchants this time, and behind it was the old rival Tmall asking merchants to "choose 1 2". Faced with the right and wrong of public opinion, brand merchants and consumers who are caught in the middle and do not know the truth have become victims.

　　Cause: JD.com is being sieged by brand public opinion

　　On June 6, brands including Eveli, lily business fashion, Ordos and other brands stated on their official certified Weibo that due to the locking of JD backend during the "6.18" period, the inventory and pages of the product cannot be operated, resulting in some products being oversold and not being shipped in time. I hope to understand the inconvenience caused to consumers. At the same time, Artka Retro Clothing said on Weibo: "Originally, the company had communicated with JD.com to withdraw from the venue two days ago and did not participate in the event, but today (June 6) today (June 6th), the platform unilaterally pulled us into the venue, locked in all inventory operations, etc., and we even cannot do any operation in store advertising. Brand growth is not easy, and we also hope that the platform can understand it."

　　It was originally its own home field for promotion, but this time JD.com was pushed to the forefront of public opinion. The feedback from brand merchants on Weibo is roughly divided into two categories. One is that JD.com has forced the brand merchants to operate the store inventory and page modifications; the other is that JD.com forces brands to participate in special promotions. Regarding the above two situations, the person in charge of the e-commerce company of a related brand of Dian did not give a clear explanation on the grounds that it was inconvenient to disclose it. However, some online media exposed screenshots of the response given by JD employees when the merchant was consulting for the reason for the background being locked. The screenshot shows, "In order to ensure that the event is going on normally, all your background has been locked by us. You do not have this function for the time being. Our purpose is to ensure that the event can continue." In this regard, some industry insiders commented that the platform forced the promotion venue without the consent of the merchant, which will seriously affect the brand's activity rhythm. At the same time, locking in the inventory of merchants. Once oversold, merchants will not only need to compensate consumers for losses, but will also greatly reduce consumers' shopping experience, and the brand will suffer huge losses.

　　Conflict: Tmall is accused of asking merchants to take up teams

　　Once the news came out, JD.com became the target of the spearhead, but the trend of public opinion did not continue. On the afternoon of June 6, an online media broke the news that there was actually another hidden story behind JD's siege of public opinion by brand merchants. According to the above media reports, for merchants that have been locked in the backend by JD.com, according to the merchant screenshots, Tmall waiter requires merchants to: make announcements, post Weibo, and get off the venue, otherwise the merchants will be severely punished and all merchants’ traffic on Tmall will be stopped. Under pressure from Tmall, many merchants posted on Weibo to "accused" JD.com of locking in the backstage. At the same time, a merchant who did not want to be named told the media that in previous years, Tmall would only require brand owners not to participate in JD's activities during "Double 11", but on this year's "6.18", Tmall also put forward the "2-choice 1" requirement for merchants.

　　On the evening of June 6, I found that some brand merchants who had previously posted statements on official certified Weibo have deleted comments about JD locking the backend. A brand merchant head who did not want to be named said in an interview with reporters that the company had posted a Weibo statement in fact to communicate more fully with consumers, but after finding that the direction of public opinion was developing in an uncontrollable direction, it removed the relevant remarks. The above-mentioned person in charge said that every year during the big promotion, companies will prepare inventory in advance for related activities, but sometimes various factors will cause oversold companies. If the inventory is insufficient, it is likely to lead to delayed delivery, which will bring bad experience to consumers. Therefore, consumers need to be informed in time to let consumers know. The previous statement was also for the above reasons. Regarding the reporter's question of whether the platform requires brand merchants to make "2-choice 1", the person in charge said that the brand has not encountered any problem of coercion and taking sides. After all, it has long-term cooperative relationships with the two e-commerce platforms, and the brand just hopes to better serve consumers. In addition, the reporter noticed on the morning of June 7 that some brand merchants that had previously made "system upgrade" announcements on JD's sales page have also withdrawn the corresponding announcement notice.

　　The truth: Undercurrents behind the promotion

　　Faced with the right and wrong of this public opinion, the two major platforms of JD.com and Tmall have not given the industry a public statement. But as the saying goes, "The gods fight, the people suffer." The open and secret battles between the two major e-commerce platforms JD.com and Tmall still affect brand merchants and consumers who are caught in it and don't know the truth. An industry insider engaged in clothing e-commerce operations revealed to Beijing Business Daily reporters that in fact, every time the e-commerce promotion is at the node, it is inevitable that the platform will compete for merchant resources. "Similar to the phenomenon of JD locking the backend operating system, it is not just JD.com. It is a hidden rule when various e-commerce platforms conduct big promotions. After all, e-commerce platforms must ensure the quality of activities. For brand merchants, once there is insufficient stocking or oversold, they will remove the products in the promotional special session, or they will have to urgently transfer the goods. The wool comes from the sheep, and in the end, all the problems will still be borne by the merchant." The above-mentioned industry insider said.

　　It can also be seen from Tmall's strong attack on JD's "6.18" this year that the trend of e-commerce consumption has already emerged. Against this background, whether it is "6.18" or "Double 11", fierce collisions between e-commerce platforms are indispensable. Ye Zhirong, Internet business consultant and chief knowledge officer of Yibang Power Network, said in an interview with a Beijing Business Daily reporter that from the previous positioning of Tmall's brand image upgrade, it can be seen that Tmall is not only a sales platform, but also a marketing platform, a platform that can help brands guide operations; JD.com is also increasing its opening strategy and opening its supply chain capabilities and data capabilities to brand merchants, and both parties are showing their own more value to brand merchants. In Ye Zhirong's view, e-commerce companies are building momentum for themselves at promotional nodes, whether through content marketing or through concession promotion, what they compete for is supply chain capabilities, and what they compete for is merchant resources.

　　Aftermath: Call for a good competitive environment

　　A jubilant "6.18" feast was originally a "shopping" carnival for consumers, but this year it has also become a battlefield for fighting between e-commerce platforms. As far as consumers are concerned, although brand promotions are still the same, it will inevitably affect the shopping experience when seeing notifications that the order cannot be placed normally due to system upgrades, or problems such as delayed delivery will inevitably affect the shopping experience. For brand merchants, additional risks may also be taken. Cao Lei, director of the China E-Commerce Research Center, said that open and secret struggles such as asking merchants to take sides and engage in "2-choice 1" are common in the retail industry. It may be difficult to truly explain who is right and who is wrong, but the burden and confusion caused to merchants and consumers are inevitable. "Don't bring merchants to the platform when fighting." A head of the marketing department of a well-known domestic clothing brand said that brands cooperate with e-commerce companies to open up sales, and of course they hope to have a good sales environment.

　　Through this "6.18" public opinion storm, people also vaguely saw the scene of home appliance giants such as JD.com, Gome, and Suning competing for supplier resources during the heyday of offline heyday. In fact, relevant departments in my country have long issued relevant regulations to regulate and supervise the behavior of e-commerce platforms to seize merchant resources. According to public information, on September 2, 2015, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued the "Interim Provisions on the Management of Concentrated Promotion Activities of Online Goods and Services", which clearly stated that e-commerce platforms shall not "restrict or exclude online centralized promotion operators within the platform from participating in promotional activities organized by other third-party trading platforms." But in Cao Lei's view, the strong voice of the oligarch channel will cause problems, which just shows that the market structure of blooming flowers can create a fair and just market environment and also help the healthy development of the overall retail industry.

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