Case Analysis | 6 Strategies to Unravel the Addictive Gameplay of Pinduoduo

Did you shop on Double Eleven? Is your shopping cart empty?

In the past 12 years, the total amount of my Double Eleven list did not exceed 1,000 yuan, but this year on Double Eleven, I actually spent 5,000 yuan on Pinduoduo. When I first looked at the bill, I found it incredible, but when I looked back and analyzed it, I was impressed by Pinduoduo's product design and operating strategy. This is a magical product!

As we all know, Pinduoduo has many classic operating models, and each of them is a king bomb in the industry when analyzed individually. How does Pinduoduo make people unable to stop and addicted to shopping? What is the addictive model behind the product? This article only selects 6 gameplays that have made me (duo) addicted (shou) this year for analysis.

1. Receive red envelopes

Popping up a benefits box after launching a product has long been a common activity method in the industry. Some apps are only open to new users, some apps have pop-up benefits that have usage thresholds, some coupon entrances are relatively hidden, and Pinduoduo’s screen is full of coupon (red envelope and benefit) promotions.

The promotion locations are shown in the figure below, including the opening pop-up window, floating window, carousel, Tab entrance, etc. The landing pages corresponding to different entrances have different contents and the benefits received are also different, giving users endless surprises. As a user, I was hit by the first wave of benefits and felt that I would be at a loss if I didn't use the coupons. (Compared to the shopping coupons that Taobao and JD.com get every day after inviting people to help, the feeling of getting something for nothing is so great.)

2. Buy a monthly card at a low price

In most apps, membership services are operated as a value-added service of the product in order to increase product revenue. In my opinion, Pinduoduo’s membership service is more about attracting people and converting them to paying customers.

Why do you say that? Pinduoduo's monthly card fee is very low, and there are three ways to buy: 1 yuan trial, lottery to buy at a low price, and original price purchase. There are really not many products that can make the promise of full refund if users do not get their money back, but Pinduoduo has done so.

While other products only think about exploiting users when providing membership services, Pinduoduo does the opposite - I let you exploit me. This lowers the user's psychological defenses for consumption, and they think that buying a monthly card service for 5.9 yuan is not bad, so they buy it!

Users are willing to purchase services and actively carry out the next wave of consumption and "recruiting" operations. Why? Because of the five major membership benefits:

1. 5 yuan no threshold coupon

The 5-yuan no-threshold coupon is limited to 1 per week, and 4 coupons can be received in a month, totaling 20 yuan. Even if you purchase a membership at the original price of 19.9 yuan, you can make your money back as long as you shop 4 times a month.

2. Daily God Ticket

Various coupons are available for redemption every day. These coupons have usage thresholds and are generally discount coupons. You can redeem them on demand based on your consumption range, and there is great flexibility in redeeming coupons.

3. Subsidy privileges

The so-called subsidies and privileges are actually a different way of bargaining to attract customers, but changing the copywriting (subsidies and privileges) will make you believe that this is a benefit only for distinguished VIP users. This is the charm of the copywriting!

4. Free of charge privileges

As long as you purchase 15 items within a month and the actual payment for each item is greater than 25 yuan, you can participate in the free-of-charge activity, and one item will be randomly given for free from the items you purchased this month. (Although everyone knows the operation routine behind it - the probability is that one item is free from the lowest-priced product, the operation strategy still makes people want to buy 15 items to enjoy the free item qualification.)

5. 2 free trials

Tsk tsk, although this "trial right" seems a bit useless to me, and mathematical calculations show that it is impossible for users to get a free trial, it is still quite attractive as a benefit. (Especially for wool party users)

From the analysis of the above five privileged gameplays, it can be seen that the price of membership itself is not high, but the number of new members and paid conversions brought by each set of operations, converted into operating and promotion costs, are sky-high. Pinduoduo used a low-cost monthly card recharge method to pry open the lever of "high-priced consumption".

3. 10 billion yuan subsidy

I mentioned before in my tweet "I've heard of the AARRR model many times, but why am I still not able to achieve user growth" that Pinduoduo's counterattack has two important strategies, one is "surrounding the cities from the countryside" and the other is "10 billion subsidies."

Pinduoduo’s 10 billion yuan in subsidies are available almost all year round, and its prices are indeed cheaper than those of Taobao and JD.com, allowing it to quickly gain market share in the lower-tier cities. Well, I downloaded and used Pinduoduo just for the 10 billion yuan subsidy.

4. Small surprises integrated into the product

1. Repeat purchase coupons

You are given a repurchase coupon for the product you bought. Isn’t that a small blessing? A good mood can easily stimulate users to buy it.

2. Send red envelopes when strolling around

Many products will surprise users by offering “browsing the page for XX seconds to get a surprise”, but Pinduoduo’s surprise pops up when you least expect it, which is an immersive product design that exceeds user expectations.

If the user clicks on the surprise you designed for him, it will be easy to guide the user into the consumption scenario you want him to enter, and improve the overall payment conversion rate of the product in a more immersive way.

3. Pinpin coupons

Pinpin coupons are actually similar to lottery tickets, and they have three major functions: conversion, new customer acquisition, and user recall. How to reflect it?

Attract new customers:

Click "Send you a Pinpin coupon" to jump to the landing page in the picture below. The landing page is similar to the function of sharing with friends on Taobao. It’s just that Pinduoduo’s approach is more clever and subtle. The copy is “Share to Pinxiaoquan for the first time and get Pinpin coupons”, returning the initiative of sharing to users. (If you want to get a coupon, share it actively!)

Conversion :

Users who place orders with an amount greater than 0.01 yuan can get Pinpin coupons. The more they buy, the more coupons they get. The more coupons they have, the greater the probability of winning. The number of orders and the probability of winning are directly proportional.

recall:

The Pinpin coupons were not drawn on Double Eleven Day, but were scheduled to be drawn on November 19th. According to observations of product data over the years, users who are recalled within 7 days are generally easier to recall, and users who are recalled within 7 days have a higher conversion probability. The use of Pinpin coupons lays a groundwork for users, making them expect to return to use the product after 7 days. This is a very accurate grasp of user psychology.

5. Cashback for Group Purchase

Cashback is the most popular shopping method among users, which makes users feel that they are getting a good deal from the platform. Through effective insights into user psychology, Pinduoduo uses cash back to attract users to buy, creating an addictive mechanism. (Alas, although the cashback amount becomes smaller as time goes by, and it is almost impossible to complete the cashback task within the specified time, it is still easy to stimulate user consumption.)

6. Push notification

I have never used Pinduoduo before, so I am not clear about its push mechanism. According to recent incomplete observations, Pinduoduo's push mechanism distinguishes between order payment notifications, successful order notifications, shipment notifications, transit station notifications, receipt notifications, etc.

Each push type seems to be a normal process notification (in fact, such push notifications are the least offensive to users, and the click-through rate is several times better than other pure activity or welfare push notifications). Each notification requires users to open the app to view the progress of the product. Every time you open a message push, there will be other related product recommendations at the bottom. Combined with the precise recommendations from big data, the probability of users continuing to buy increases.

As a senior operator, he is well aware of the operational routines behind Pinduoduo's products, but he still cannot resist the temptation of copywriting and details and becomes addicted to buying. Simply disassembling the product, every gameplay is commonplace, but why can other people's products make users addicted while yours cannot? The user insights behind the product are worth deep consideration by every operations practitioner.

To sum up, Pinduoduo's addictive routine is:

1. Give users benefits (coupons, low-priced monthly cards), so that users feel they are getting a bargain on the platform

2. Make users feel hopeful (free orders, cashback for group orders), and feel that they have a chance to make money from the platform

3. Product design that exceeds user expectations (unboxing surprises, repurchase coupons, and shopping coupons)

4. Simple operation (no threshold coupons, no need for users to read coupon instructions)

5. Product recommendation mechanism, based on user behaviors such as search, browsing, purchase, and collection, to make users feel that the platform understands them

6. Fun experience (grab red envelope rain, etc.)

Author: Kaka

Source: Kaka's Product Notes (gh_e5aa104aafcb)