A large number of consumers are suffering from “super long pre-sale”, and online popularity is no exception.
On April 13, an online Red blogger posted a video on his microblog, criticizing some online red clothing brands for problems such as long pre-sale time, price and quality mismatch, which immediately triggered a heated discussion. On April 14, the name of wanghong appeared on Weibo hot search.
“I bought a dress in a platform online red shop last winter and received it in March this year.” “You have to buy clothes in summer in spring, or you can’t wear them at all.” “I really doubt whether it takes a long time to receive a dress or to have a child.” The video commentary area is crowded with users who come to make complaints about the slot.
Online shopping clothes, from the beginning of buying and issuing, to pre-sale for 7 days and 15 days, and finally developed into pre-sale for 30 days, 45 days, or even cross seasons. In the end, consumers’ patience was exhausted by endless waiting, and they returned goods and complained one after another to resist the pre-sale routine of merchants.
But in the face of consumer complaints, some businesses also said they had suffering.
“There is a great risk of overstocking the spot. Those that can’t be sold are at a loss. The pre-sale is still more secure. The big deal is that some of them are returned by customers.” On April 15, Xu Duo (a pseudonym), a clothing merchant on an e-commerce platform, told the reporter of the times weekly.
In fact, pre-sale is a common win-win strategy for online clothing sales at the beginning. Merchants can reduce inventory pressure and reduce costs through pre-sale, and can also solve the problem of waste of some resources. Consumers wait for 7-15 days by default, which is acceptable.
But I do not know from when, the pre-sale time is getting longer and longer, and even some businesses directly “put rotten” do not deliver goods, the patience of consumers reaches the limit, and finally bite the merchantsP align = “center” frightened consumers
Last December, Cheng Jia (a pseudonym) bought a woolen coat on an e-commerce platform. The merchant said that the coat was pre-sale and delivered seven days later.
“I was going to buy it for the new year.” Cheng Jia said.
After waiting for 7 days with joy, the clothes were not delivered; On the 10th day, the merchant told her that the delivery time would continue to wait.
“The customer service told me that the clothes would be delivered according to the order order order within the specified time.” Cheng Jia is puzzled. Isn’t the stipulated time a week?
It was not until she opened the delivery page that she was able to “solve the case” – I didn’t know when, but the merchant had quietly changed the delivery time to “within 45 days after payment”. The merchant modified the delivery time without notice, which shocked and annoyed Cheng Jia and immediately applied for return.
In fact, even if Cheng Jia continues to wait, he may not receive the goods.
In early March this year, Yao Mian (a pseudonym) fell in love with the heroine’s shirt when watching a popular play. Subsequently, she found an online shop specializing in the same clothes of TV dramas on the e-commerce platform, which can customize that shirt.
“I placed an order at the first time. The customer service told me that because it was a customized version, the shipment would be slow. It would be delivered about 10 ~ 20 days after payment.” However, after a long wait of about a month, the customer service told her that because “the fabric of the dress can not be found on the market and can not be produced”, she was advised to change a dress at the same price or apply for a refund.
Yao Mian felt cheated. Angry, she randomly found several clothes in the store and asked about the delivery time. The reply was still “delivery in about 10 ~ 20 days”.
“In other words, the clothes they put on the shelves are pre-sale money. I suspect they don’t intend to deliver the goods at all. The pre-sale is just to collect the payment in advance.” Yao Mian said frankly that this is tantamount to setting up a white wolf with empty hands.
A senior person who has been engaged in the garment industry for 20 years told the times that at present, China has a complete variety of fabrics, and most of the clothes on the market are mainly made of Chinese fabrics. There is no possibility that there is a lack of fabrics in clothing styles. “The real situation may be that the previous inventory of this dress has been sold out, but the subsequent orders are small, and the factory does not take orders for production.”P align = “center” (the truth may be that some pre-sale funds are not even out of the factory) p align = “center” are all caused by the live broadcast
At the risk of offending consumers, we should also continue the super long pre-sale. In the final analysis, it is the advantage of the pre-sale mode that makes it difficult for businesses to refuse.
Ma Gang, an independent analyst in the sports shoes and clothing industry, told the times that the super long pre-sale model has obvious advantages, which can not only brush the sales volume in advance, control the inventory in the store, but also receive the payment in advance.
For garment enterprises, inventory pressure is always one of the main pain points. Data shows that among the 43 textile and apparel stocks, among the 43 textile and apparel stocks, as of the first half of 2021, data show, among the 43 textile and apparel stocks, by the end of the first half of 2021, the inventory amount of 39 stocks has exceeded billion yuan, with the inventory amount of 39 stocks exceeding billion yuan, Hongda Xingye Co.Ltd(002002) 269 \ \theinventory of 8 shares exceeds 1 billion yuan, of which Youngor Group Co.Ltd(600177) ranks first Youngor Group Co.Ltd(600177) 2021 interim financial report shows that its inventory amount is 16.575 billion yuan, accounting for about 19.67% of the total assets.
The inventory pressure of large-scale garment enterprises is self-evident, and small and medium-sized garment enterprises need to “operate step by step” in inventory management.
Even if there is a lot of abuse, in order to transfer the cost pressure, some businesses still stick to the super long pre-sale mode. But some businesses have learned a painful lesson.
Xu duo runs a small female clothing brand, which has been open for 6 years. At first, her orders were made and sold now, but with the rise of the lightweight model of “quick reaction”, she also kept up with the pace of the market and started the pre-sale business.
“The market is like this. Now almost all businesses have to bring goods live. Although we don’t broadcast live every day, we also have at least two or three times a week. Each live broadcast needs new models, and then it is produced according to the number of people who place orders.” Xu duo told the times weekly that at least ten models are needed for each new product, and each model should have different sizes and colors. If the spot sale mode is continued, the inventory will face huge risks.
But pre-sale is not everything. Many factories have standard lines with minimum production capacity. If they do not reach a certain order quantity, they generally do not produce them. Even if they are willing to produce, they charge a high price.
Small and medium-sized clothing brands such as Xu duo generally focus on the parity route. In other words, the brand must gather enough pre-sale volume to get a relatively cheap unit price from the factory.
“If some styles are not enough to place an order, they will be unable to be delivered to the factory for production.” Xu duo said.
Although the super long pre-sale mode made Xu duo avoid the pressure from cost and inventory, she soon tasted another “bitter fruit”.
“Because some goods could not be delivered after more than a month, our store was put on the social platform by consumers and became a black list, which was written into the ‘lightning protection’ strategy. Some netizens found our store and scolded the customer service.” Xu duo said reluctantly, “we can only constantly apologize. It’s really our problem whether we send or not.”P align = “center” (bloggers on little red books have denounced pre-sale)
The brand that has been operating for six years has become “popular” in this way. Xu Duo is under great pressure. In order to reduce her attention and avoid the continuous fermentation of events, she can only change the store name and logo. While operating in a low-key way, she has also lost the old users who have been hard to accumulate. “I won’t do super long pre-sale in the future. I will try to make a balance between pre-sale and spot in the future.” Xu duo said.
Like Xu duo, some businesses choose to try the pre-sale mode largely because they comply with the trend of live broadcasting with goods, and the pressure on new products increases sharply. On the contrary, if the strength of the supply chain can not keep up, the pre-sale becomes an ultra long mode, the goods are wrong, and even the conditions for off-site production are not available, which will only eat back the credit in the end.
“The huge demand brought by live broadcasting often makes businesses unprepared and even confused. In fact, as long as they are down-to-earth, do not covet huge profits, and accurately predict the customer demand and inventory threshold, they are enough to deal with the problems caused by pre-sale.” Senior people mentioned above said that businesses should adapt to the market rhythm and improve their ability to respond to the demand of “quick reaction”.
