Delinquent payment for goods and selling fake goods... The 12-year-old e-commerce platform is in a desperate situation, and the founder posted a 5,000-word long article to reveal his own difficulties!

After experiencing the recurrence of the epidemic, it finally entered September, and the e-commerce industry is about to usher in a sprint period for performance.

However, for cross-border e-commerce, it is still a world of ice and fire:

On the one hand, Pinduoduo has entered cross-border e-commerce, and its e-commerce platform Temu is online overseas and is in full swing to attract investment;

On the other hand, the founder of Yangwok sent a 5,000-word open letter to reveal his difficulties and struggled between life and death.

1. Self-help letter from the founder

Recently, Yangmatou, a cross-border e-commerce platform that has been established for 12 years, has exploded its own difficulties.

On August 23, in a 5,000-word open letter to global buyers released by its founder and CEO Zeng Bibo, it publicly disclosed a series of challenges encountered by Yangwok this year, including epidemic prevention and control, structural adjustment, and cargo circulation, as well as the resulting difficulties such as deterioration in cash flow, frozen funds and maintenance, and large-scale loss of employees.

Zeng Bibo revealed in the letter that the epidemic has had a serious impact on imported e-commerce, the transportation capacity of international flights has been greatly reduced, the customs clearance and overall timeliness links have been lengthened, the buyer's capital settlement recovery has been severely affected, the user order cancellation rate is higher than before, and the business side continues to decline. The cash flow situation further deteriorated, triggering a chain reaction of many external suppliers' claims lawsuits and bank loan withdrawals, and even a few creditors demanded that bank funds be frozen through domestic courts for preservation. In addition, there are challenges in internal platform compliance transformation.

Faced with many problems in business conditions, he said that the company is full of crises, but he will never fall down . Yangmatou Company will not be liable for the debt left over from history , and it does not run away at will. It hopes to give Yangmatou a space and time. No matter what the Yangmatou Company will take the responsibility next, it will do its best. Even if it is live broadcasting and selling goods, it will think about paying off the debt.

It has to be said that the long article with a full 5,000 words, showing the devastated Western Wharf to the public has also become the last move to save oneself in a critical moment.

2. Serious capital chain problems

As we all know, Yangmatou has been established in 2009 for 12 years. It is the first cross-border e-commerce company to start with C2C buyers, focusing on luxury bags, cosmetics, niche trendy brands, clothing and shoes and other categories.

As an old cross-border e-commerce platform, Yangmatou established an overseas scene-based shopping model of "buyer merchant system + self-built logistics infrastructure" from the very beginning.

Yangmatou has always focused on the construction of logistics infrastructure, and through live broadcast of real shopping scenarios by buyers, Chinese consumers can enjoy one-stop global shopping easily and conveniently without leaving home.

According to data disclosed by Yangmatou, sales reached 660 million yuan in 2014, while the platform had more than 80,000 certified buyers at its peak.

However, in order to retain buyer resources, Yangmaidou used the company's own operating funds to ensure that buyer order funds are settled and collected in a timely manner, which further deteriorated its cash flow situation.

Recently, some merchants complained that "Yangwok" had defaulted on the payment of goods. Yangwok had been owed to merchants on the grounds that the platform funds were regulated by banks.

Faced with the dilemma of cash flow, Yangwok has always been relying on the capital market. In recent years, although it has received multiple rounds of financing from investment institutions such as Shengshi Investment, Zhengshan Food, Sina Weibo Fund, China Merchants Capital, AB Capital, Telescope Venture Capital, Saifu Investment Fund, International Venture Capital, but it has not fundamentally solved Yangwok's dilemma.

With the influx of Internet giants such as Alibaba and JD.com, the monthly active users' active users' data declined, users' waiting time has been extended, a large number of orders have been cancelled, and traffic has been lost, and they have been in a vicious circle.

3. The problem of counterfeit goods accelerates the deterioration of reputation

In fact, the problems of Yangwu are far more than that.

It is understood that the Yangmatou platform not only has problems such as refund issues, freezing merchant funds, and not refunding deposits when returning stores, but also has problems such as delivery issues, online fraud, order issues, product quality, logistics issues, difficulty in return and exchange, and overbearing terms on the consumer side.

In fact, the operation model of Yangwo Dock's buyer makes it difficult for Yangwo Dock to control the supply of goods. Even if Yangwo Dock has set up the rule of "platform identification, one for one for one to compensate for three", it is difficult to hinder Yangwo Dock from becoming a severely affected area for counterfeiting.

Fake goods and sub-stocks are everywhere, and consumers' doubts have not stopped, which has made Yangwok lose its reputation. What is outrageous is that after being identified as fake goods, Yangwok refused to pay compensation, which made the previous guarantees useless.

According to the valid complaints from users in the cross-border e-commerce field accepted by "Diansubao" (ranked based on the number of complaints), Yangmatou ranks second, with the latest rating as "No order is recommended" .

Obviously, the foreign wharf, which is calling for anti-counterfeiting every day, has a disadvantage in the "anti-counterfeiting and selling counterfeits" storm, and has no convincing power at all.

4. Where should cross-border giants go?

Since the epidemic, the ocean wharf, which once springs up like mushrooms after a rain, has been severely affected and has become difficult to survive. Now, after entering the economic winter, it is even more at a critical juncture of life and death.

Although Yangwo Wai also seized the opportunity of live broadcasts and tried to save herself, and even turned her attention to the offline market, planning to open 1,000 offline stores through the "self-operated + franchise" model, Yangwo Wai obviously has some desire but lacks strength.

In the open letter released this time, its founder believes that e-commerce live broadcast is the future, and it wants to bring traffic growth and conversion to Yangwo Dock through new traffic diversion combinations such as Internet celebrities selling goods, short videos, and overseas video live broadcasts.

Indeed, live streaming, as a catalyst for e-commerce platforms, is an essential and missing link.

However, Yangwo Wai seems to have forgotten that if you want to base yourself in the industry, the fundamental lies in product quality and user reputation. Only by fundamentally solving these problems left over from the past 12 years of development can you form a healthy and virtuous cycle and achieve long-term development.

If we adopt the behavior of "treating the head when the head is hurt and the foot is hurt" just to turn losses into profits, in the long run, Yangwo Wai is destined to fail.