Pinduoduo's activity operation routine gameplay!

The most "showy" one in this Double Eleven is probably Pinduoduo.

First, they used a wave of 10 billion yuan in subsidies, which made everyone exclaim "It's so good", and then "forced" JD.com and Suning to join in and start their own 10 billion yuan in subsidies.

Later, they used the trick of "receiving cash every day" and made the complicated Tmall Double 11 building activity seem "stingy" with simple and crude cash red envelopes of 100 yuan. Two days ago, after Alibaba and JD.com publicly announced their Double 11 results, Pinduoduo issued another statement, saying:

Compared with numbers, we care more about whether our consumers can enjoy real benefits and fun...

Pinduoduo Statement

Although to date, we have not seen Pinduoduo’s Double Eleven performance. But I guess the data will not be bad, because Pinduoduo’s way of playing is so wild! Not only are there billions of subsidies and cash red envelopes, but there is also the employee in-app purchasing method... In today's article, I will take you to dig into Pinduoduo's tricks and the little "pitfalls" in the details.

1. “Employee Internal Purchase” Has Many Schemes

On the night of Double Eleven, @贤哥 suddenly posted a "tempting" mini program in the group:

Pinduoduo employees give everyone in-app purchase coupons! Employees and their friends also enjoy in-app purchase prices!

Keywords like "in-app purchases" and "friends and relatives" instantly attracted me! After I couldn't wait to click "Get in-app purchase qualification", I found that the prices of the goods here were really shockingly low. For example, the market price of a certain SK-II product is 1,080 yuan, but the in-app purchase price is only 669 yuan, which is 411 yuan cheaper! And the top of the mini program shows that this link was shared to me by an internal employee through 4 friends. By clicking on the employee's portrait, you can also see the name, department and work number, which is very credible.

But when I was tempted and wanted to try to buy it, the trap came. I am reminded:

Insufficient in-app purchase coupons. 80 in-app purchase coupons are required for purchase. Currently, 10 coupons are available.

If you want to get in-app purchase coupons, please ask your friends for help. After their help, both parties will get 1 to 5 coupons each.

In other words, if I want to enjoy the in-app purchase price, I have to invite 16 to 80 friends to help me...

What's even more "tricky" is that there is a small text in the mini program that says "View products without in-app purchase discounts". After clicking on it, I found that the price of this SK-II product on Pinduoduo is actually 828 yuan, not the market price of 1,080 yuan.

In other words, inviting 16 to 80 friends to help only saves 159 yuan. Although it’s not a small amount, I always feel like I’ve been set up. After being tricked like this, I carefully dug into the gameplay of this "Pinduoduo Employee In-App Purchase" mini program and found at least 5 "little tricks".

1. Theme routine

First of all, the mini program is not called the common “limited time offer”, but the “employee and friends in-app purchase list”. The term “in-app purchase” can immediately capture the user’s desire for bargains. Internal employee information and sharing chains can significantly reduce user vigilance and increase the credibility of the event.

2. The number of coupons

Secondly, the number of coupons is not determined randomly, but is determined based on the extent of the discount and the popularity of the product. The discount range is easy to understand. The larger the discount range, the more coupons are required. For example, to save 411 yuan on a SK-II product, you need 80 in-store coupons, while to save 279 yuan on a Dyson hair dryer, you need 40 in-store coupons.

For relatively unpopular products, conversions can be increased by reducing the number of coupons and lowering the threshold. For example, the AirPods pro, which was released some time ago, has an in-app purchase price that is 400 yuan lower than the market price, but requires 299 in-app purchase coupons . However, a not-so-popular beauty instrument, although it is 1,800 yuan lower than the market price, only requires 60 in-app purchase coupons.

In short, everything is within Pinduoduo's calculations.

3. Price Routines

Again, when presenting the discount amount of the in-app purchase price, do not write how much discount can be obtained through in-app purchase, but compare it with the market price.

4. Copywriting routine

Then, there are many different ways to write text when inviting friends to help.

For example, emphasizing scarcity:

In-app purchase prices are only available to Pinduoduo employees and their friends. Click to get the in-app purchase coupons together!

To improve credibility:

My friend works at Pinduoduo! Purchasing through the employee channel can save xx yuan/only xx yuan.

There are also those who are taking advantage of the Double Eleven hot spots:

I will give you an in-app purchase coupon. You don’t have to wait for Double Eleven to enjoy low prices on branded products!

5. In-app purchase vouchers are cleared daily

Finally, all in-app purchase coupons obtained through assistance are only valid on that day. If you don’t accumulate enough in-app purchase coupons on that day, you will have to start all over again the next day.

It is said that Vipshop has been playing with the "in-app purchase" game for many years, but only Pinduoduo has taken it to the "extreme".

2. The “daily cash” scheme is complex

Let’s talk about the “Get Cash Every Day” activity that has recently “swept” the WeChat friend list. I believe everyone has received various Pinduoduo red envelope withdrawal links. At the beginning, their copywriting looked like this.

The creative copywriting with a surprising twist caused heated discussions and even prompted major self-media outlets to publish articles for analysis. Later, the copywriting changed to a click-through style.

When I saw this link for the first time, I felt nothing unusual, thinking it was just a common trick used by Pinduoduo to attract new users. As a result, after I helped the other party open the red envelope, Pinduoduo immediately congratulated me: The luckiest person! Get Cash

171.45 yuan, click to withdraw cash immediately.

At this time, even though I knew there was probably a pit ahead, I couldn't help but jump down. As expected, the cash needs to accumulate to 200 yuan before it can be withdrawn, and it must be completed within 24 hours. So how can you save 200 yuan? It's very simple! Just share it with your friends.

At the beginning, everything seemed easy. You could basically get a few dollars by inviting friends and completing limited-time tasks (invite one friend within ten minutes). There is also a system reminder that "red envelope rain is coming". You can receive cash by clicking on the red envelope. The amount of gold red envelopes is larger. But in fact, the golden red envelopes are not difficult to grab, and you can get them at will.

After clicking on it, I finally understood why the gold red envelope had a larger amount. It turned out that the gold red envelope needed to be shared with friends before it could be opened...

This is the first time I’ve encountered a red envelope rain that doesn’t require any speed in your hands.

After "harassing" my friends through a series of operations, my cash account quickly exceeded 196 yuan, and was less than 4 yuan away from withdrawal! At this time, I was full of fighting spirit and had already thought about how many cups of milk tea I could have with the 200 yuan. As a result, Pinduoduo quickly taught me a lesson.

From now on, the amount of support from each friend can only increase by 0.01 yuan; the red envelope rain will also become ordinary red envelopes of 0.01 yuan and gold red envelopes of 0.02 yuan; and the cash received at the hour is also a cold 0.01 yuan.

If I continue at this speed, it seems that I am only 2 yuan away from cashing out, but I have to invite more than 200 people. Just when I was about to give up, I suddenly remembered the strategy given by Pinduoduo earlier: inviting new users can withdraw cash quickly.

No wonder there is such a joke circulating in the circle of friends recently:

After asking around among my friends, I found out that they were no longer new users. In desperation, I started to ask my parents for help. In the end, my dad, who had never downloaded Pinduoduo before, ordered 0.9 yuan for me; and my mom, who bought something on Pinduoduo last year and never used it again, ordered 0.53 yuan for me. At this point, I discovered the purpose of Pinduoduo's event: to attract new users and recall lost users.

When the cost of attracting new users on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com was as high as around 400 yuan (data source: Snowball), Pinduoduo used this trick and successfully added 3 to 4 new users (or recalled lost users) with 200 yuan (or 100 yuan). It's really awesome! No wonder Pinduoduo has been either first or second on the App Store’s shopping rankings recently.

After a round of experience, I found that Pinduoduo used the following routines to achieve the purpose of attracting new users and recalling them:

1. Red envelope amount routine

First, by giving out large initial red envelopes and taking advantage of the "loss aversion" mentality, users will be reluctant to give up the 90 yuan or 180 yuan red envelopes. Then guide users to invite friends to help, allowing them to get closer to their goals through their own efforts, with the difference being only about 3 yuan, and the degree of completion is presented in the form of a progress bar. Finally, when users find that an old user has to attract hundreds of people and a new user is equivalent to dozens of old users, considering the energy invested and the large amount of money approaching the goal, they will take the initiative to look for new (valuable) users in their friend list.

2. Countdown creates a sense of urgency

The countdown on the withdrawal page is presented in milliseconds, increasing the user's sense of urgency.

3. Red envelope rain and hourly benefits

Through the red envelope rain and hourly benefits in different time periods, on the one hand, a hook is planted in the user's mind, constantly reminding the user to open the App, so that the user will stick to this activity (help to attract new users); on the other hand, the golden red envelopes in the red envelope rain and hourly benefits require users to share before they can be claimed, which increases the exposure of the App.

4. Copywriting transformation

In the early days, we used twists in the copywriting to create topics, arouse user discussion , and increase the popularity of the entire event.

When the topic's popularity drops and people become insensitive to twists and turns, use convincing copywriting such as "someone @ you" and "WeChat red envelopes" to attract users to click.

But then again, although many users (including me) actually received 100/200 yuan red envelopes by receiving cash, and also helped Pinduoduo to attract new users, I did not encounter any conversion guidance during the entire process. Apart from "being able to make money" and "unconventional methods", I didn't feel any extra aha moment (product value), which makes me wonder, is this kind of new customer acquisition really valuable? Is it just to make the registered users and daily active data look good?

I can only speculate that in addition to attracting new users, Pinduoduo has another important purpose, which is to make everyone feel that Pinduoduo is serious and its activities are reliable. In the future, they will actively participate in other (薅羊毛) activities of Pinduoduo and gradually develop a sense of trust in this app, which is an invisible "whitewashing".

3. “Money-saving monthly cards” are all “pitfalls”

Originally, I was planning to only talk about the first two activities in this article. Unexpectedly, when I approached the designer yesterday to raise some issues, he sent me a help link and said, "Come and get a 50 yuan savings monthly card coupon with me."

Not wanting to miss any of Pinduoduo’s gameplay, I immediately did some research. You don’t know the result until you understand it. Once you understand it, you will find that there are too many tricks. The two ways of playing mentioned above are nothing compared to the "money-saving monthly card". In Pinduoduo's personal center, you can see the "Money-Saving Monthly Card", which states that you can receive a 194 yuan discount by opening the card, and enjoy six major benefits, including "20 yuan no-threshold coupon", "20 yuan discount coupon for purchases over 50 yuan", "104 yuan 10% off coupon", and "1 free order on the entire platform every month".

First, from the perspective of rights and interests.

The monthly card is similar to 88VIP and JD PLUS membership. Its main purpose is to increase the user's ARPU value, which seems to be fine. but! Pinduoduo will never let you down. First, the price of opening a card is not uniform. Moreover, Pinduoduo’s monthly card does not have a unified standard like 88VIP (88 yuan for Taobao value above 1,000, 888 yuan for less than 1,000 yuan). For the same new users, some people can open a card for 5.9 yuan, while others have to pay 29.9 yuan.

Second, coupons play word games.

Scroll down the monthly card details page and you can see that the 20-yuan no-threshold coupon is actually 4 5-yuan no-threshold coupons. And now I finally understand what the "104 yuan 9% off coupon" means. It turns out that it means adding up all the discounts of "20 yuan off for purchases over 20 yuan... 50 yuan off for purchases over 50 yuan... 9 yuan off for purchases over 90 yuan", 2+3+5+7+9=26, 26*4=104. Among the 6 major benefits, the "104 yuan 9% discount coupon" also includes "20 yuan discount coupon for purchases over 50 yuan". In addition, after becoming a member, I discovered that these coupons are only issued once a week and I can only get one per day. In other words, if you want to place 2 orders and use 2 coupons in one day, it is not possible.

Thirdly, the so-called “one order per month free of charge on all platforms” turns out to have extremely strict conditions.

On the one hand, you have to purchase 15 orders to enjoy the free benefit, and the price of each order needs to be more than 25 yuan, or you can buy in designated special events (the price will be higher) and one order can be counted as multiple orders. Anyway, basically you have to spend about 375 yuan first. On the other hand, my understanding of "free orders on the entire platform" seems to be different from what Pinduoduo offers. The free items are given, and the more orders you place, the more items you can choose from. The current choice for group 15 orders is a hundred-yuan headset that looks like AirPods.

Fourth, the large-value discount coupons exclusive to monthly cards are also subject to conditions.

First, you have to invite 3 people to help you click the link to get it (the designer at the beginning of this part asked me for help just to get this coupon). Secondly, these coupons are not valid throughout the venue and must be purchased in limited special sessions.

Can the above “pitfalls” be discovered before the monthly card is activated? Yes, but it's a bit difficult. I looked around carefully and found a small question mark that introduced the monthly card rules.

It explains "a maximum of 6 coupons can be collected per week, and a maximum of 1 coupon per day"; "exclusive large coupons require users to invite 3 friends to help every day, and can only be used in designated scenarios"; "if you place 15 orders of a certain amount, you can draw a free order (up to 50 yuan)" and other "inconspicuous" things to note before purchasing.

Although this monthly card emphasized before it was activated that "if the investment is not recovered within the validity period, the price difference can be refunded", this kind of word game really makes people uncomfortable.

IV. Conclusion

To be honest, before writing this article, Pinduoduo's image had been "whitened" a lot in my mind. It is no longer the platform that was flooded with counterfeits and full of tricks. But after writing this article, I simply can’t suppress the speechlessness and anger in my heart.

Pinduoduo is really too "cunning", and the tricks it uses to play with human nature are too many and too deep! Why can't you be more "open and aboveboard" in your gameplay when you have such a domineering operation as "10 billion subsidies"? You are already one of the top 2 e-commerce platforms in China!

Author: Operation Research Society

Source: Operation Research Society (ID: U_quan)