Analysis of Meituan and Pinduoduo’s e-commerce coupon competitors!

Jingxi’s coupon system was inherited from JD.com, but Jingxi’s business is fundamentally different from JD.com’s business, and the existing coupon system cannot adapt to current business development. Therefore, we hope to improve the usage rate of coupons and promote conversions by optimizing and upgrading the coupon experience. The following are the experience optimization directions discovered based on existing user problems and competitive product analysis.

1. The role of coupons

Issuing coupons is a basic form of marketing operations, and it has several functions:

1. Improve user activity

Users are always sensitive to words such as price reduction, discount, and discount, and discounted products can attract users' attention.

2. Increase product exposure

When the system issues coupons to users, it will arouse users' interest and prompt them to check out the products that can be used, thus increasing the exposure of the platform's products.

3. Stimulate users’ potential purchasing needs

When users' purchasing intention does not turn into purchasing behavior, it often relies on external stimuli, such as discount incentives.

4. Improve users’ purchasing power

The purchasing power of users is inversely proportional to the price of goods. A price reduction means that the purchasing power of users has increased to a certain extent.

2. User Experience Issues

Through user research, we found that users encounter many problems when using coupons. We organized the interview results into three categories: coupon collection, use, and search:

1. Issues with coupon redemption

Often can’t get coupons? Don’t know where to get your coupon? Is it troublesome to obtain coupons?

2. Issues with using coupons

Why can't I use the coupon I received? Not sure where your coupon is valid? How can I check whether coupons can be used together? Is it troublesome to use coupons? The phone bill coupons issued by JD.com are displayed on the Jingxi platform, but the Jingxi platform is not available? I have no idea what the current phone bill coupons are for recharging phone bills?

3. Coupon search problem

Too many coupons and can't find the one you want to use? Why is there no shipping coupon this month? A return occurred after the coupon was used. The coupon was still within the validity period. Has the coupon been returned? If there is no refund, why is the reason not informed to the user? No reminder of coupon expiration?

User voices cannot usually be used directly to guide design.

For example, users report “why the coupon I received cannot be used”, which is actually because the currently purchased item is not within the scope of use of the coupon. Therefore, the essence of this experience problem is that “users are not clear about the scope and rules of use of the coupon”.

By sorting out and summarizing the above interview results, the main user experience issues are as follows:

First, users are not clear about the scope and rules of coupon usage;

Second, users are unclear about the source and destination of the coupons;

Third, users cannot find the coupons they want to use;

Fourth, users don’t know how to claim the coupons;

3. Competitive Product Analysis

The competitive product analysis selected Taobao, JD.com, Pinduoduo and Meituan as representatives, and analyzed the design strategies of similar products in solving user experience problems in the coupon module from the aspects of business logic, function entry, page structure, grouping dimension, card content, etc.

1. Taobao

Taobao does not have coupons for all categories, but it is achieved through red envelopes that are universal throughout the site. The coupons available for Taobao, Taote, and Taocaicai businesses are closed on their respective asset pages. Coupons that are not available on the current platform are blocked and not displayed.

(1) Function entry

Taobao's coupons, red envelopes, cards and other asset entrances are aggregated in the "Red Envelopes, Cards and Coupons" in the personal center, and the amount of the asset is displayed in the title. The functions under each asset category are roughly the same. Coupons provide the functions of viewing history, managing and filtering coupons.

Filtering coupons allows users to filter by coupon category and sort by collection time, expiration date, denomination, and discount level.

The Taobao coupon main page displays available coupons according to users’ usage habits. Other complex and infrequently used functions only provide entrances, effectively saving users’ cognitive costs.

(2) Page structure

After users have browsed through all the coupons, the "Good Coupon Recommendations" for stores will be displayed based on user behavior, such as added to cart, browsed, and collected, and the user will be guided to the "Coupon Collection Center" to view more.

The coupon guarantee approach is similar to the "Guess You Like" approach in the product dimension, which effectively stimulates users' potential purchasing needs and improves user conversion.

(3) Heap Logic

Coupons are grouped by store. Click on the store name to enter the store homepage. And the same store will only display a maximum of 2 coupons, and the excess will be folded.

The coupons are grouped under the store dimension, showing a clear information hierarchy, and the two-fold approach effectively improves the screen effect.

(4) Card content

On the card, the discount amount is the first priority information, followed by the usage threshold and validity period. The card also uses labels to distinguish the categories of coupons, such as store coupons and merchandise coupons.

2. JD.com

JD’s coupons can be divided into JD coupons, financial coupons, express coupons, and recycling coupons according to business type, and are also classified according to usage threshold > usage scope > usage platform (including classification priority).

(1) Function entry

JD’s personal center has a separate floor to display personal assets, with asset amounts disclosed and each asset has a separate entrance.

There are two levels of filtering for coupons in the main interface. The first level is based on business type, and the second level is based on new arrivals, soon to expire, denomination size, discount size, and full-discount, full-off, and instant discount coupons.

Use the entrance of the record and coupon collection center to display at the bottom, and the function of deleting coupons is triggered by swiping left.

Directly spreading important functional content on the page and weakening less important functions. This approach relies on the judgment of "which functions are important to users". From now on, different categories of functions are handled in the same way, which increases the user's understanding cost.

(2) Page structure

JD.com has also adopted the same approach as Taobao, adding "Recommended for you" at the bottom of the coupon. The difference is that JD.com has pulled multiple available products based on the coupon category, and clicking anywhere on the coupon will execute the collection operation.

(3) Stacking and Cards

JD.com does not organize coupons into groups, but on the coupon cards, labels are used to display the coupon business type, usage threshold, and usage scope for classification and distinction.

There is a certain degree of information overlap between the "Card Name" and "Details" of the coupon, and similar information is displayed differently on the visual level. For example, the usage time "2021.12.01" and "Available after 1 day, 6 hours and 52 minutes" increase the information level within the card.

3. Pinduoduo

Pinduoduo's platform-wide coupons can be used on the Pinduoduo APP and the Duoduo Shopping Mini Program, and are aggregated in the assets of the personal center. Coupons for various businesses are displayed together, and the platform-wide coupons will reflect their universal characteristics on the product cards.

(1) Page structure

Pinduoduo has fewer types of assets, and coupons have a separate entrance in the personal center.

The coupon main page is divided into three tabs. The default category is the unused tab, and the ones that are about to expire are displayed at the top. However, the used and expired/invalid ones are handled in the same way, which increases the possibility of an empty state and reduces the effectiveness of the page.

The “Recommended Coupons” at the bottom directly compares the original price of the product with the price after the coupon is added, and displays the percentage of coupon redemption, creating a sense of “scarcity”.

(2) Card content

Pinduoduo’s coupons present information such as the discount amount, discount threshold, discount range, and usage time on the card, but there is no priority division at each information level.

When the user clicks the down arrow to expand detailed information, the user has no expectations about the result of the operation.

4. Meituan

Meituan has many types of businesses, and each business issues coupons independently. There are no universal coupons on the platform. Meituan’s coupon asset page covers all business coupons, and each business has an independent ordering process and independent asset page.

Coupons are divided into "home delivery", "store delivery", "taxi delivery" and so on according to the business type, and are divided into discount coupons, instant discount coupons, threshold coupons and so on according to the usage method. There may be coupons with multiple usage methods under each business category.

(1) Page structure

Meituan has combined red envelopes and coupons into one entrance in the personal center. The main page is divided into two tabs, and the default entry is the "Coupon Package" tab.

In terms of screening conditions, there are "new arrivals", "expiring soon", "large amounts first", as well as "home delivery", "store delivery", "taxi delivery", etc., and only categories with content are displayed to avoid empty states.

It is not clear what criteria are used to sort coupons under the "Recommended" filter.

(2) Card content

Meituan coupon cards are displayed according to different business types, and the labels distinguish between home delivery coupons, grocery shopping coupons, taxi coupons, preferred coupons, etc., using different colors to help users filter.

The coupon name contains a business description, such as Meituan Grocery-Tianjiang Red Packet, which makes it easier for users to identify coupons.

IV. Conclusion

Most of the coupons issued by Taobao are based on store dimensions, so grouping them according to store dimensions can effectively help users find the coupons they want to use.

The coupon itself is strongly related to the business. The difference in business will directly affect the design of the entire system, especially the more detailed the content, the more closely it is connected to the business.

Therefore, understanding the logic of coupon issuance is the first step in experience optimization.

Author: Orange Juice Three Points Sweet

Source: Orange Juice Three Points Sweet