After "fighting pictures" with Pinduoduo and buyers, my store became popular

When e-commerce platforms turned "no reason for return" into "basic operation", some merchants decided to take a different approach.

Some decided to take the lead by applying for "refund only" on behalf of buyers, turning the after-sales scene into a meme battle, capturing buyers' hearts with a "funny persona".

Some engaged in conversations with buyers, readily accepting their design suggestions, and the chat records were directly shared on social platforms by buyers, igniting the entire store.

There are also users who are impatiently urging for delivery, and merchants are online to accompany and respond promptly.

Meme battles, conversations, interactive play... These merchants who are leading in spirit have taken "user experience" to new heights.

Second-generation "Chatterbox" Entrepreneur, Opening a Store on Pinduoduo

Gu Yuan, 29 years old, a second-generation entrepreneur who runs a Pinduoduo store, spends his days chatting with buyers on Pinduoduo.

Previously, his family had been in the business of selling picture frames, owning a manufacturing factory in Yiwu, mainly selling to foreign countries such as Kazakhstan. In 2020, due to the overall situation, export business was basically stagnant, so Gu Yuan leveraged the supply chain resources at home to open a Pinduoduo store.

"In the past few years, due to frequent disruptions in local express delivery, I needed to communicate with buyers about local conditions, and we would cheer each other up." He described himself as a "chatterbox shop owner".

Once, a customer bought a 1m*1m oversized picture frame, which was the highest-margin item in Gu Yuan's store. "I was very happy that day, but a few days later he asked for a refund, which originally made me upset." He recalled. However, the customer told Gu Yuan that their dog was about to turn 10 years old, and they bought this large family portrait frame to celebrate, but the dog passed away shortly after it arrived, so they didn't want to hang it up.

"I understood, because I also have a dog, so I exchanged it for a small photo frame for them to keep as a memento." When business fails, kindness beyond rules, Gu Yuan felt.

In addition to selling picture frames, Gu Yuan later started listing other categories, such as elderly square dance costumes, "around 60 yuan each, with relatively high margins, and the aunties are very easy-going, very easy to talk to, basically no returns."

Gu Yuan told Guixingren that these middle-aged and elderly aunties are particularly keen on chatting and commenting, with various high-definition dance videos and well-organized photos in the comments section, turning buyer showcases into live moments in their circle of friends, and even commenting and chatting with each other.

And the reason why Gu Yuan can chat freely is also because he is the only one running this small shop, serving as the boss, operator, and customer service, holding all the power without too many restrictions.

There are many individual shop owners like Gu Yuan on Pinduoduo.

For example, Nana, who resigned at the end of last year, also operated a women's clothing store on Pinduoduo. At first, it was just a small venture, but unexpectedly, customers kept coming.

"I'm good at chatting, sometimes I help customers choose clothes, and 'try buying a few more, you can always return or exchange them' is my mantra." Among a group of factory stores, Nana's advantage lies in her sense of style. She selects the styles herself, and is good at giving advice to customers.

Once, a girl asked Nana about the weight size of the clothes in her store, which somehow led to a discussion about body image anxiety. The girl then posted their conversation on social media, and the post went viral. Almost every day, people saw this post and came to Nana to buy clothes.

Nana herself didn't expect that a small act of kindness would bring so much enthusiastic feedback.

Among the uniform businesses, these unique shops are standing out. From these praised businesses, perhaps we can outline the expectations of users for businesses, which is personalized 1-on-1 service.

In the past, e-commerce customer service emphasized "professionalism" and "standardization." The phrase "Hey, give us a good review" on Taobao became popular nationwide. Behind this was the feedback mechanism of increasing store ratings through good reviews, which in turn affected traffic weight. However, under layers of rules, customer service representatives became more and more "official," and to avoid disputes, store owners had to be cautious as every word could be used as evidence, especially with the addition of AI customer service, making conversations between users and businesses increasingly difficult.

Gu Yuan and Nana represent white-label factories and individual businesses. They don't have complex teams or rigid rules, and their transactions are filled with simple and sincere "personal touch."

Transactions filled with a personal touch require platforms to invest first

These non-professional, non-team-based businesses, and even non-standardized products, such as selling handmade products or selling doll stuffing cotton, rely on platforms for ecosystem development.

Firstly, it is the relaxation of entry barriers by the platform, allowing all kinds of businesses to join.

Gu Yuan is a typical Pinduoduo merchant who can start a store by himself. When he was preparing to open a store, he tested multiple platforms and found that opening a store on Pinduoduo was the simplest, with the least restrictions and investment.

"Because our picture frames have no styles, only differences in size and color, with very few SKUs, opening a store on other platforms requires posting 15 links as the first step, which immediately overwhelmed me." He explained.

In the past, factory stores, due to limitations of assembly line equipment and limited resources, produced products that were cheap and in large quantities but had few SKUs, requiring constant updates and stocking. This essentially kept these sellers out.

After choosing the platform, Gu Yuan quickly opened an online store directly on his phone, "I was the only one operating it, and the new store had a subsidy of 100 yuan in traffic, and immediately after running it, I completed 24 transactions."Following this, Gu Yuan opened ten stores in one go and found that each store could generate transactions, confirming that this platform has great potential.

Adhering to the principle of "sincerity and straightforwardness," Gu Yuan's PDD stores have always maintained a priority level in terms of product categories. The best-performing store is the first one, with a daily sales record of over 3,000 orders.

Next, the platform needs to establish rules prioritizing users and make merchants feel the benefits, such as billion-dollar subsidies, free return shipping, and more.

Taking agricultural products as an example, due to the highly scattered upstream of agricultural products, no e-commerce platform was able to tackle this challenge before. Farmers did not know how to transport products, nor did they understand the concept of prioritizing users or marketing promotions. The platform took the lead in investing, establishing links and rules, and involving farmers.

For instance, establishing a mechanism for compensating for bad products to dispel consumer doubts, determining a good logistics chain, and estimating timeliness... With various measures in place, ensuring customer satisfaction and repeat purchases, farmers earned money, PDD established a moat, and through a win-win-win situation, a healthy ecosystem was formed.

If consumers were to create a "credit savings account" for each e-commerce platform, where inefficient and unintelligent after-sales service would deduct 1 credit point from the platform's credibility, then precise, simple, and efficient after-sales service would add 1 credit point. Over time, consumers' trust and reliance on various platforms would show significant differences, with order frequency closely related to credit points.

Through rapid after-sales service and direct supply from manufacturers in each order, the entire platform's credit value in consumers' "credit savings account" continues to increase, bringing a continuous flow of traffic to the platform, benefiting the entire ecosystem, and helping merchants improve business repurchase rates.

A decade ago, e-commerce platforms needed to consider how to cultivate users' habits of shopping online; a decade later, e-commerce platforms need to consider why users shop on their platform.

As competition for users intensifies, platforms' focus on users goes beyond consumption policies, and the entire platform ecosystem must demonstrate a "user-friendly" value system and specific measures.

Source: PingWest