Pinduoduo Money-Saving Monthly Card: A New Way to Play as a Paid Member

Paid membership is no longer a new model. Amazon Prime members have long enjoyed free delivery, and the current 88 members have connected to Alibaba's business ecosystem. iQiyi x JD Plus members have integrated cross-border resources, etc. The paid membership model has become a common user management tool on the Internet, and it is also a common model for monetizing traffic under the Internet's free model.

Pinduoduo, a newcomer in the e-commerce field, was founded in September 2015. In October 2019, its total market value exceeded that of JD.com, making it the fourth most valuable Internet company in China. As the best interpreter of new social e-commerce, Pinduoduo recently launched a paid membership-like function called "Money-Saving Monthly Card". The gameplay is completely different from that of memberships on other e-commerce platforms. It incorporates sharing support into every detail. At the same time, as a platform-type e-commerce, it connects merchants and users, provides traffic flow for B-end merchants, and gives shopping discounts to C-end users.

First, let’s take a look at the general situation of the Pinduoduo Money-Saving Monthly Card through its functional framework diagram.

Figure: Functional framework of Pinduoduo’s monthly money-saving card

After spending 5.9 yuan to activate a Pinduoduo money-saving monthly card, you can enjoy the privileges of [Daily Coupons] (limited to 1 per day), [Free Order Privileges] (up to 2 per month), [Free Trial] (limited to 2 opportunities per day), and [10% off for big brands]. The coupons you receive can only be used for the products in the [Monthly Card Selections] provided by the platform. The monthly card is valid for one month. After the expiration, you can pay to extend it, or you can invite three friends to open a monthly card to extend the validity period for one month.

1. [Open monthly card] Create an atmosphere where people will lose money if they don’t buy, and guide new accounts to open monthly cards

Go to Pinduoduo-My tab page and you can see the promotion of Pinduoduo’s money-saving monthly card.

• Money-saving monthly card, help you save 194 yuan;
• Only 5.9 yuan to activate, refund if you don't get your money back;
• The ** products you have purchased can be directly exempted from the benefits;

The tempting sales pitch, the jumping order button, and the monthly card reviews from existing cardholders (which may also be fake data) create a very convincing ordering atmosphere.

Pinduoduo has done a lot of work in guiding users in activating the monthly card, whether it is the guiding words, the display of rights and interests, the usage evaluation, or the interactive design of the page, creating an atmosphere that users will lose out if they do not activate the card. This is also the characteristic of Pinduoduo's event design: striving to create a gamification-like marketing atmosphere and promote user conversion at key nodes.

2. [Get coupons every day] Limited basic items every day, get more with the help of friends

There are two types of coupons in the money-saving monthly card: one is the universal coupons for the entire platform, and the other is the exclusive large-value coupons.

A maximum of one platform-wide coupon can be collected per day, 6 coupons can be collected per week, and 4 weeks per month, for a total of 24 coupons. The weekly coupons include one no-threshold coupon + 5 discount coupons.

To receive the exclusive large-value coupons, users must first invite 3 friends to help. Large-value coupons are also divided into limited-time purchase coupons with no threshold (50 yuan/20 yuan) and unlimited large-value discount coupons.

These coupons can only be used for products in the monthly card selection column provided by the platform.

The design of this part is very interesting. The platform's general coupons are redeemed on a daily and weekly basis, guiding users to visit the monthly card section every day; through no-threshold coupons, users can enjoy real discounts, the so-called earning back the card opening fee, and increase the average order value through full-discount coupons. Exclusive large coupons can be collected on different days, and you are eligible to collect them only after the support of 3 friends. The sharing and supporting process has greatly expanded the spread of the monthly card. Attract user participation by using large-value, no-threshold coupons, control costs through limited-time and limited-quantity purchases, and at the same time issue unlimited-discount coupons to comfort users who failed to get the coupons. These coupons can only be used on products specified on the platform.

In terms of business model, the design of receiving coupons every day has the basic function of providing benefits to monthly card users. Its essential function is to increase the traffic of the platform sections through various sharing and buying designs, and finally to direct traffic to cooperating merchants and products to realize the benefits of traffic monetization.

3. [Free Order Privilege] Random free order for 15 orders or more, and accelerated order for designated items

For users who have activated the monthly card, they can enjoy one random free order after completing 15 group purchase transactions (actual payment is greater than 25 yuan), and a maximum of 2 free orders per month. During the free-of-charge process, users can also specify up to 4 items to limit the scope of random free-of-charge items.

In addition to the basic group purchase of 15 orders, users can participate in the accelerated welfare special event and place orders in the categories and areas designated by the platform to enjoy the benefit of group buying one order and recording four/three orders, thus accelerating the enjoyment of free orders.

For monthly card users, free meals are also one of the most attractive benefits. The platform increases the difficulty of getting free orders by designing thresholds such as transaction amount and number of transactions. At the same time, by designing accelerated benefits, limiting 4 free items, etc., we lower the threshold for users and enhance their sense of security in getting free items. Back and forth, ups and downs, the weaknesses of human nature are fully exposed.

In terms of business model, the threshold design for free orders (15 orders, random free orders within a range) has the basic function of promoting users' trading activity and transaction orders. After the introduction of the acceleration session, traffic is directed to designated areas and products through "visual rules", thus playing the role of traffic monetization.

4. [Free Trial] To successfully use the free trial, you need to complete various platform tasks

Monthly card users have two opportunities to apply for a free trial each month. After applying for free, there is only a 3% success rate to get the product for free. You need to complete different tasks to reach the top of the list and achieve a 100% success rate.

There are 6 types of tasks for ranking, namely, inviting friends to help (up to 6 people can be invited each day), inviting friends to open monthly cards, collecting hourly rewards, browsing the store for 30 seconds, placing an order in the store, and renewing the monthly card for 3 months. Each task has an estimated effect (for example, if you invite one person, more than 5079 people can help).

The free trial model is used by many platforms on the Internet. It guides users to participate through the attraction of free trial, but the probability of a single user getting it is very small. The platform increases the probability of success by designing different thresholds, such as paying a certain amount of money (the amount can be doubled, such as 0 yuan for a treasure hunt), completing platform tasks, etc. Here Pinduoduo adopts the second model.

In terms of business model, on the user side, the free trial seizes the user's desire for bargains, and at the same time, through the design of various tasks, it increases the traffic of the section. For merchants, first of all, we have achieved the effect of advertising traffic diversion on the free trial products (6 products per day). Then, during the store browsing and ordering tasks, we will also divert monthly card traffic to merchants, promoting the conversion of platform traffic and merchant transactions.

5. [Buy big brands at 10% off] + [Monthly card selection] build a closed loop of coupon collection and transaction to increase traffic value

These two sections are exclusive to monthly card users. [Buy big brands at 10% off] is like PGC. The platform uses expert logic to show users big-name merchants and products. [Monthly Card Selection] is like UGC. The platform provides a recommendation algorithm to show users products related to him, which is similar to Guess What You Like.

In terms of business model, these two sections are traffic exposure advertising spaces provided by the platform to merchants, and monthly card users browse and place orders in them. In addition, Pinduoduo also links these two sections with the previous sections (especially the daily coupons). The coupons received previously can only be used in the [Monthly Card Selection]. The design of such rules improves the conversion rate of products in the advertising space, thereby increasing the value of the advertising space and improving the ability to negotiate prices with merchants.

6. [Monthly Card Renewal] Price Anchoring Strategy + Fission Communication

How can users renew their subscription after one month?

In the normal renewal process, Pinduoduo provides three renewal plans: continuous monthly subscription, renewal for 3 months, and renewal for one month. There are obvious differences in the prices of the three. A continuous monthly subscription only costs 5.9 yuan/month, 3 months only costs 8.9 yuan/month, and 1 month costs 12 yuan.

In addition, users can purchase a monthly card by inviting 3 friends, and the card can be automatically renewed for one month.

In terms of business model, regarding the price setting for renewals, I believe everyone has seen many similar analyses, which use the psychology of price anchoring to guide users to pay the price that the platform wants them to purchase. In terms of renewal, Pinduoduo also promotes the spread of monthly card products by inviting friends.

Summarize

Thank you very much for reading this, friends.

[Pinduoduo Money-Saving Monthly Card] In the big model, it is a paid membership of the e-commerce platform. Users pay a certain amount of money and enjoy exclusive services. But in terms of detailed design, from the perspective of the platform, the monthly card is more like an activity model that integrates coupons, free orders, and trials. Through models such as friend assistance, limited-time and limited-time purchases, and store browsing tasks, Pinduoduo has created a new traffic advertising position, which better connects the three roles of users-platform-merchants, thereby maximizing the value of the platform.

However, if we look beyond the design of the entire product function, when we search for [Pinduoduo - Money-Saving Monthly Card] in Baidu, the first few results are basically negative. Paying users cannot directly enjoy the benefits, which leads them to question the value of paying.

Of course, this is also a common problem of Pinduoduo. The activities are attractive and contagious, but there is also a certain threshold. Whether the gamified but threshold-based activity model can really continue to attract the platform's target users will take time to further test. (Perhaps Pinduoduo's lower-tier users prefer such activities)

Finally, changing the role, Pinduoduo's money-saving monthly card should be considered relatively successful in terms of insight into user psychology, grasp of human nature of being greedy for bargains, and monetization of traffic value. If you are a product manager or someone working in Internet operations, this product is definitely worthy of further analysis and study. Friends are also welcome to discuss and share in the comment section.

Author: Tong Qi

Source: I am Tong Qi (ID: greatlife007)