E-commerce merchants pay attention! During the epidemic, the timeout of shipments, collections and transshipments in these areas will be exempted!

It has been more than three years since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic. Whenever people think the epidemic is over, they find that the disaster seems to have just begun.

As of 14:16 on March 14, there were 5,943 new cases nationwide, with the cumulative number of confirmed cases reaching 242,771. The raging epidemic has impacted all walks of life, and the same is true for e-commerce. The epidemic in 2020 has fueled the momentum of e-commerce efforts. So what will happen in 2022?

Whether it is an increase or decrease, the most important thing at the moment is to ensure the development of the company itself! At present, some platforms have begun to relax rules to help merchants overcome difficulties together.

TikTok exemption merchants

Due to recent changes in the epidemic, in order to help affected merchants make a smooth transition, Douyin e-commerce platform released the "Merchant exemption and response plan during the epidemic" on March 13.

Among them, the platform has adjusted its delivery assessment and service policies. There will be no penalty for delivery, collection and transfer timeout before March 31 (inclusive). At the same time, the experience data of the platform exemption area will be eliminated by the platform operation, and there is no need for the merchant to report again. If the subsequent penalty is caused by force majeure, an appeal can be initiated.

At the same time, Douyin also stated that the platform's review time limit will be extended due to the impact of the epidemic, so merchants are not required to worry. After the platform's review is approved, the penalties that have been incurred will be revoked. It is recommended that merchants actively communicate with consumers to explain the situation and actively handle consumer after-sales applications. At the same time, merchants are asked to pay attention to the platform's epidemic information at any time.

At present, Douyin has made corresponding adjustments to the delivery and services in areas affected by the epidemic. Based on the original rules, Jilin, Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Qinghai, Zhejiang, etc. have been added, and the delivery, after-sales, experience scores and other policies in the province and cities have been adjusted:

1. The promised shipment time will be adjusted to March 13-27;

2. The latest shipment time is April 1;

3. The time for the return and exchange application is initiated from March 1 to 27;

4. The merchant’s return and exchange processing time limit is extended from 7 days to 21 days;

5. Consumers upload logistics order numbers and merchants will review the time limit for the second time and automatically confirm the receipt time. The time limit for consumers upload the logistics order numbers will be extended from 7 days to 21 days; merchants will automatically confirm the receipt time from 7 days to 21 days;

6. Experience point exemption cycle: promised shipment time from March 1-27;

Some merchants or merchants are in the epidemic area, and consumers are unable to send back the goods, resulting in the after-sales service completion. Merchants can wait for logistics to resume and extend the after-sales service period for consumers to continue to handle after-sales service demands.

Similarly, for virtual service products, when merchants cannot deliver or consumers cannot use them due to the impact of the epidemic, the platform will help merchants to comfort consumers to cancel orders or resume fulfillment after the epidemic is over.

Need foreign aid, and even more self-help

Although the Douyin platform has delegated rules for provinces, cities and regions affected by the epidemic, for many merchants, it is far from enough to extend the delivery and return and exchange time, because it is currently the high-incidence period of the epidemic, and there will be a risk of quarantine for 14 days from time to time, and various factors are uncontrollable.

Therefore, e-commerce merchants still need to take stock of their inventory and understand how long they can last. If the inventory is not large and the support is short, you can consider temporarily closing the paid-type traffic diversion service to maintain the shipment orders of natural traffic, and even consider adjusting the price to alleviate the pressure on shipment.

After all, the damage caused by the reduction in conversion rate is much smaller than that of out-of-stock, so material reserves must be made in real time according to actual conditions.

Therefore, e-commerce must maintain good and close contact with suppliers and logistics, and while optimizing supply chain capabilities, it can also steadily overcome dangerous periods. Especially in today's special circumstances, the alliance relationship that has developed into a "jointly breaking the gold" will be more harmonious for future cooperation.

Of course, the premise of all this is to ensure the health of employees, strictly protect themselves, their families and corporate employees from being harmed.

For larger e-commerce merchants, after preparing for sufficient supply and marketing links, they can appropriately arouse social responsibilities and add a strong mark to the brand history while making contributions to society.

Always keep a knowledge-seeking attitude

This wave of epidemic is coming extremely turbulent, and no one knows when it will end. The epidemic in 2020 has helped boost the development of e-commerce, and the epidemic in 2022 may be another round of opportunity.

As an e-commerce boss, you should always be knowledge-seeking and not wait for opportunities to come, but create opportunities and combine your product characteristics to see if it can play a special role in the current special period.

Of course, innovation is not something that can be achieved by just one or one alone, but it needs to be achieved through a lot of learning and practice. For this reason, from April 20 to 22, the Douyin Live Incubation Class of Laogao E-commerce Class (the seventh issue) "Douyin E-commerce Practical Incubation Training Camp" in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province provides e-commerce bosses who want to create new opportunities to eliminate the common training problem of "listening when you are aware and doing when you are a waste".