Can Paipai Weidian change shopping habits?

On one hand, there are constantly updated stories of getting rich, and on the other hand, there is the frustration of being constantly bombarded with promotional messages from acquaintances in the circle of friends. Most ordinary people have been tempted by the low-threshold micro-business. "I have missed Taobao, and it seems that I should not miss it again this time. What if I succeed?"

However, when an article titled "Micro-businessmen earn 10,000 yuan a month by directing and acting on their own" went viral on WeChat, many people were poured cold water on it.

The "Facial Mask Party" that has been violently flooded with messages on WeChat Moments since the rise of Wechat business was exposed in the above article. In fact, it is not for the purpose of selling goods, but only for developing downlines. It is a miniature version of pyramid scheme.

But although there are many people who are not optimistic about the current WeChat business distribution system, at least there is a unified understanding that no one wants to miss the possibility of WeChat business becoming bigger in the future.

After the successful listing, Paipai.com, which was taken over from Tencent, assumed JD.com's ambition for a C2C platform. But the question that needs to be clarified is how the new Paipai.com will compete with Taobao, the dominant C2C platform?

"After we took over PaiPai, we have been discussing how to create a new ecosystem. When the concept of social e-commerce did not exist and there were no large-scale attempts to try the concept, PaiPai was mainly based on small B or C merchants. But now we don't want this historical burden (the centralized traffic entrance model of traditional e-commerce platforms). We want to find a different way to help merchants do business in the new business chain." This is what Jingdong Group Vice President and PaiPai.com President Yingchun Lin explained in an interview with media including China Business News.

Data provided by Paipai recently showed that since its launch, Paipai WeChat stores have operated 10,000 stores, with a peak daily order amount of 60 million, and sales accounted for more than 30% of the entire Paipai website.

According to Weidian’s business logic, Weidian can help merchants establish direct contact with consumers, complete sedimentation through refined operations on target customer groups, and reduce new customer acquisition costs for merchants by spreading through user relationship chains of various dimensions.

If we say that mobile shopping on traditional e-commerce platforms is just a transfer of PC shopping and has not developed a true mobile-based shopping model; at least mobile-based WeChat business should be an exploration of a shopping model independent of PC in the mobile shopping era.

In 2014, when traffic, the lifeline of the traditional centralized e-commerce model, became a hindrance to the sustainable development of merchants due to the increasing cost of acquiring it, JD.com, which has a close relationship with Tencent in e-commerce business, was not the only one to promote the concept of micro-stores.

In the current WeChat business market, there are platform-based WeChat businesses represented by JD.com, third-party service-based WeChat businesses represented by Weimeng and Koudaitong, and shopping guide-based WeChat businesses represented by Koudai Shopping.

Interestingly, the flagship product of Koudai Shopping, the mobile store application Weidian, was only launched in January this year. In October, at the opening of the Weidian Conference organized by itself, it took the initiative to disclose the news that it had completed the third round of financing with a total amount of US$350 million, of which Tencent invested US$145 million. However, this amount of financing surprised many people.

Regarding the WeChat merchants who have been pushed into the spotlight because of their "willfulness" in WeChat Moments, senior e-commerce analyst Gong Wenxiang said on his Weibo, "I talked to several WeChat business friends and they believe that by the second half of next year at the latest, this WeChat Moments e-commerce model of multi-level distribution and stockpiling of facial masks will not be sustainable and will completely withdraw from WeChat. However, small and beautiful regular WeChat merchants that sell goods directly to end consumers will develop greatly."

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.