The epidemic has impacted logistics, how can second-tier e-commerce advertisers move forward against the trend?

How did the second-tier e-commerce industry perform during the Spring Festival? Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, how do second-tier e-commerce advertisers solve problems such as product selection and logistics?

01During the Spring Festival, the overall e-commerce industry investment showed a downward trend, and the jewelry and watch categories performed outstandingly

According to DataEye-EDX data, during the Spring Festival, the second-tier e-commerce industry as a whole reduced its advertising output, with the average daily advertising volume stabilizing at around 2,700 sets, about half of the daily level.

Sales levels subsequently dropped significantly to about a quarter of the daily level.

According to the data, during the Spring Festival, Douyin took the lead, with its delivery volume accounting for 38.76% of the total delivery volume of hot investment channels. The delivery volumes of Toutiao and Baidu Mobile were less than 1/3 of Douyin, and other channels all significantly reduced the number of delivery materials.

During the Spring Festival, there was strong demand for cleaning products, with sales ranking first. Cleansers, sterilization and disinfecting liquids, bleaching powders and other products continued to be hot sellers. In addition, sales of products in categories such as books and magazines, dining utensils, storage and organization, beauty and skin care, and men's tops exceeded one million orders .

According to the DataEye-EDX single product sales ranking data, the hot-selling products during the Spring Festival are success and inspirational books, various cleaning agents, wall repair pastes, etc.

A review of the advertising and sales trends and changes in the second-tier e-commerce industry during the entire Spring Festival shows that most advertisers have reduced their advertising efforts before the Spring Festival, with the advertising volume and number of materials reduced to less than half of the usual level. It can also be seen from the overall data of DataEye-EDX that each first-level category has adjusted its advertising trend, and the sales and advertising volume of the usually popular categories such as daily necessities, gourmet specialties, men's and women's clothing have all dropped drastically.

Daily necessities

Men's and Women's

Gourmet Specialties

Among the 16 first-level categories, only the jewelry and watches category maintained a relatively high level of supply and sales during the Spring Festival (compared with the usual performance of the jewelry and watches category). The supply was even increased before the New Year to stimulate consumer demand for gift-giving during the Spring Festival.

Jewelry Watches

02 The epidemic will continue for some time, online transactions will become the first choice, and product selection needs to be done right away

Zhang Wenhong, an authoritative expert on infectious diseases in Shanghai, said that if the epidemic is well controlled, the new coronavirus pneumonia will last for 2-3 months . In other words, experts predict that the impact of this epidemic on the people will last for 2-3 months. During this period, wearing masks and going out less will become the norm.

During the Spring Festival, a large number of offline activities were forced to cancel and turned to online activities. Except for having to go out to buy necessities such as vegetables, rice and noodles, there was almost no offline consumption behavior. However, people's consumption desire was growing. Except for masks, alcohol and other products that were hard to find offline, various consumption behaviors also turned to online transactions.

At the same time, traffic has exploded unprecedentedly. Almost everyone is following the epidemic online and engaging in entertainment/consumption activities online to kill time. As a result, the online residence time of online users has increased significantly. For the e-commerce industry, if it can select products with the potential to become explosive products and increase the advertising exposure of the products, it will undoubtedly be able to obtain a large number of orders.

According to the data from DataEye-EDX, due to the impact of the epidemic, the top single product sales rankings during the Spring Festival were mainly cleaning and disinfection, health care, education and other categories . It is expected that the popular products in the past two to three months can refer to the following categories:

1. Products that are affected by the epidemic and have a short-term outbreak : cleaning, disinfection, health care, traditional Chinese medicine, etc., such as cleaning agents, sterilization and disinfection liquids, masks, goggles, alcohol, traditional Chinese medicine products containing detoxifying and antipyretic ingredients, etc.;

2. Educational products : including educational books, school bags, stationery, etc. Due to the impact of the epidemic, most schools have postponed the start of the semester until early March. Before that, online consumption of all educational products will be more frequent;

3. New and unique products of black technology : In the short term, due to the impact of the epidemic, most people will go out less and stay at home longer, and the demand for various entertainment products will increase significantly. You can pay attention to interesting and novel products;

4. Seasonal products: Seasonal clothing, seasonal shoes and other products should be paid special attention to. In addition, we should also pay attention to the marketing nodes with good consumption trends after the New Year, such as Valentine's Day and Women's Day. Appropriate attention can be paid to jewelry and skin care products.

03 The current logistics and transportation limitations make user accuracy and receipt rate the key to profitability

According to DataEye-EDX data, with the resumption of work after the Chinese New Year, the number of products and materials invested in the second-tier e-commerce industry has increased significantly, and sales have also increased. However, in reality, advertisers still face challenges in many aspects.

EDX market daily data

According to the official notice released by SF Express , various regions across the country have gradually resumed express delivery services , but many areas are affected and cannot receive or deliver parcels. The specific situation is as follows:

South China: Except for some areas in western Guangdong, delivery is normal.

Central China: Except for parts of Hubei, Hunan, Henan, etc., parcels are accepted and delivered as normal;

East China: Except for some areas such as Jiangxi, Jinhua, Wenzhou, and Taizhou, delivery is normal;

North China: Except for some areas such as Shandong, Hebei, and Inner Mongolia, parcels are collected and delivered as normal;

Northeast region: Except for some areas such as Jilin and Heilongjiang, delivery is normal;

Northwest region: Except for some areas such as Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Xinjiang, delivery is normal;

Southwest region: Except for some areas such as Yunnan and Tibet, parcels are collected and delivered as normal.

According to the information obtained from JD.com's official website and regional business departments, except for Hubei Province and a few areas where logistics and transportation channels were blocked due to the severe epidemic situation, express delivery collection and delivery services have been resumed in most parts of the country .

But whether it is SF Express, JD Express, or Deppon Express, the fast collection and delivery business has been affected to a certain extent at the moment when the epidemic is spreading. Express parcels that could be delivered in 2-3 days in the past now take 4-6 days, or even longer. The cash on delivery transaction model of second-tier e-commerce is also facing great difficulties at present, resulting in a decline in logistics service levels. The timeliness and service quality of logistics directly affect the receipt rate of goods.

Therefore, we can see that even though logistics have been resumed in most areas and the business of second-tier e-commerce has gradually expanded, it is not recommended to carry out large-scale advertising or place a large number of orders at present. Instead, more energy should be focused on preparation.

First, user accuracy . During critical periods, advertisers should be more cautious about advertising. They need to refer to the delivery of their products in various channels, as well as the characteristics of the materials of their products in the channels where they perform well, to select the best channels and materials to match their products, so as to obtain more and more accurate user groups. Under the current circumstances, what matters is not the volume or how many users purchase, but how many accurate users generate consumption behaviors to support the development of the business. Only after overcoming the difficulties will there be a chance of an explosion.

Second, the signing-in rate . Originally, the signing-in rate was king in the second-tier e-commerce industry, and it is even more important during special periods. To ensure the signing rate, the following points can be taken:

1. It is necessary to review past work, focus on eliminating the factors and links that have affected the sign-off rate in the past, and make adjustments to the work;

2. Understand the signing-in rates of various categories and the signing-in rates of products that have performed well recently through reliable information channels. You need to focus on understanding the information of your own products to decide whether to reselect products, find which logistics, etc., and make adjustments in direction;

3. Launch test. Currently, the risks faced by second-tier e-commerce are relatively high, so before the official launch, it is best to test the product to eliminate certain risks;

4. Contact supply chain manufacturers and logistics companies to eliminate possible problems in supply and logistics transportation;

5. Pay special attention to the customer service quality and wording. During this period, the customer's mood can be imagined. Patiently handling customer information and providing timely solutions based on customer information will play a very positive role in guiding customer consumption and will also help increase repurchase rates.

The above sharing is for reference of Category II e-commerce advertisers.

Author: EDX Category II E-commerce Intelligence

Source: EDX Second Category E-Commerce Intelligence