Guangdong
"The return rate is as high as 80%" "It is normal to return 9 items out of 10 sold" "You don't even get enough money after selling"... 618 Big Sale The curtain has just come to an end, and complaints from merchants have become hot searches. Among them, the return rate of e-commerce Hanfu products is staggeringly high. Is such a high return rate an exception or a common phenomenon? How can e-commerce Hanfu break the situation? Today, we will start from this topic.
Hanfu has a high return rate for a long time, but the contradiction seems to be particularly prominent recently. Looking at the complaints from merchants, many people pointed the finger at the platform mechanism, and one of the focuses is return shipping insurance. Many merchants believe that return freight insurance "pushes up the return rate and generates a large number of invalid orders." It is understood that on e-commerce platforms, merchants who want to participate in the 618 promotion will provide freight insurance by default. This not only increases the cost of insurance, but also has a chain effect that affects the whole body. The founder of the Hanfu brand made this calculation: for a return order, the merchant has to bear a cost of about 15 yuan without any profit, and the investment in packaging materials, express delivery fees, etc. is directly wasted.
The return rate is too high, which undoubtedly puts pressure on operations. However, it may be biased to simply attribute the reason to return shipping insurance. It is true that the existence of return freight insurance and convenient door-to-door pickup have made returns more convenient and cheaper, but this does not mean that the willingness to return goods has increased out of thin air. For many people, regardless of whether there is freight insurance or not, inappropriate clothing cannot be kept reluctantly. From another perspective, return shipping insurance brings vital traffic to e-commerce. In consumption decision-making, it is not difficult to judge which product consumers will prefer if one has freight insurance and the other does not have freight insurance for similar products. Major platforms have promoted freight insurance, which has also confirmed the role of freight insurance in boosting transaction rates. As for why consumers are unwilling to keep the goods after receiving them, most merchants avoid mentioning them. However, this is the key to turning these orders into "invalid orders".
Opening social platforms, it seems to have become a consensus that "it is getting harder and harder to buy clothes." The size standards are confusing. If you order the same size, the goods you receive will be either too big or too small. The goods are in the wrong version. The buyer's show and the seller's show "can't be said to be exactly the same, they can only be said to be completely unrelated". Pre-sales can take several months. Clothes have arrived and the seasons have changed... Every one of the "outrageous experiences of online shopping" shared by netizens can arouse widespread resonance. From a consumer's perspective, it is natural to return products that are not suitable for you. There may be a small number of people who take advantage of the platform rules, but for the vast majority of consumers, if possible, who wouldn’t want to buy satisfactory clothes in one step?
Clothing brands are highly dependent on style design. Under the traditional Hanfu e-commerce logic, the number of SKUs is huge, the predictability of popular products is low, and the stickiness of consumers is not high. This means that every hot product is based on thousands of new products every season. From design to marketing, every step requires time and moneyinvestment. The reason is not complicated, but not all brands have the willingness and motivation to work hard. Some businesses focus on attracting traffic. Or maybe a merchant creates a hit model in the front, and then all kinds of imitations on the back come out, often with unsatisfactory quality in terms of fabrics, workmanship, etc. All these not only dampen the enthusiasm for original design, but also easily lead to consumers being disappointed after purchasing, which naturally increases the return rate. If things go on like this, it may also lead to the industry falling into vicious competition in which "bad money drives out good money", creating a situation where everyone loses.
In this regard, the platform should shoulder corresponding responsibilities, increase supervision of store promotions, protect intellectual property rights, combat plagiarism and piracy, and maintain original designs. For merchants, it should also be noted that even in the fierce competition of shopping festival sales, there are still brands that have been standing for many years and sales are at the forefront. There are also small stores that have been operating solidly for many years and have cultivated a stable customer base. , withstood the storms of the market. The paths to success are different, but the principles are the same. Only by building reputation with quality can we find a way to achieve long-term management.
From this point of view, the struggle between platforms and merchants cannot be avoided. Due to the existence of rules such as "7-day no-reason returns" and "complimentary freight insurance", as well as the fact that some platforms blindly pursue traffic and transaction volume, and try their best to "please" consumers according to the rules, clothing e-commerce has indeed been regarded as a "network trial". "Clothing Room" possibility. The platform is the leader of rules. It has a strong say in price setting, cost bearing, promotion mechanism, etc., but lacks strong constraints. In fact, from e-commerce platforms to food delivery platforms and online ride-hailing platforms, conflicts between platforms and suppliers are not new. These new problems in the platform economy also call for more effective supervision. After all, only by respecting the laws of the market, creating a healthy ecology, and taking a win-win path for all parties can an industry go further and our market be healthier.
This is exactly what it is:
Returns are time-consuming and laborious, and are not the original intention of consumption.
Buyers and sellers will benefit from putting more effort into the product.
Source: People’s Daily
Guangzhou Daily New Flower City Editor: Wu Ruonan
