"Double Eleven" vs. "11.11": The e-commerce war started with a trademark war

With the arrival of the annual online shopping carnival "Double Eleven", a new round of industry competition is about to kick off. Although the online shopping carnival only lasts for one day, for merchants, the days of careful preparation are indeed long and arduous. Because no one can be sure who will be the final winner in this war without gunpowder.

Alibaba: Is registering the “Double Eleven” trademark a “monopoly” or a defense?

Today, some media reported that Alibaba has registered "Double Eleven" as a trademark and authorized Tmall to use the trademark exclusively. No other company or organization is allowed to use it.

In fact, Alibaba applied to register the "Double Eleven" trademark as early as 2011, and obtained the "Double Eleven" trademark No. 10136470 in December 2012. It applied for and registered a series of defensive trademarks such as "Double Eleven" and "Double Eleven" Carnival in related categories such as Class 35, Class 38, and Class 41, and strictly protected Double Eleven through trademark registration.

This year, after seeing other e-commerce companies, especially its strong rival JD.com, also using the "Double Eleven" slogan in their advertising campaigns, Alibaba immediately dug out the old calendar and sent a lawyer's letter to force JD.com to abandon all Double Eleven promotional messaging.

At the same time, Alibaba issued a "Notice" to national media, asking major media not to publish promotional advertisements with the words "Double Eleven" for other e-commerce companies. In response, other e-commerce companies, led by JD.com, began to issue statements, saying that Alibaba's move not only violated the open Internet spirit and the principle of fair competition, but was also an act of monopolizing in the name of law, which essentially restricted the full right to know, choose and participate that consumers should have, and harmed the interests of consumers.

It has to be admitted that Alibaba, with its long-term vision, had already prepared an effective brand protection network before fully building the e-commerce shopping festival "Double Eleven". It is precisely these small actions that will help it to always win among all e-commerce companies.

JD.com: You have your "Double Eleven" and I have my "new consumerism"

JD.com is the most serious about the issue of Alibaba's "Double Eleven" trademark registration. As one of its biggest competitors, JD.com cannot tolerate such monopolistic suppression. In this regard, JD.com, on the one hand, joined other e-commerce companies and the media to fight against Alibaba's arbitrariness and tyranny. On the other hand, it applied for the "JD.com Double Eleven" trademark for two consecutive years, on November 14, 2013 and January 24, 2014, respectively. Its scope of use is even wider than that of Alibaba.

As it has not yet won the registration right for the trademark, JD.com has no choice but to change all its advertisements to "11.11" to distinguish itself from Alibaba's "Double Eleven". Of course, whether it is "Double Eleven" or "11.11", the names are to attract consumers who come to watch, but whether it can really overwhelm the other party in sales, real discount activities are the ultimate magic weapon.

Compared with Alibaba's Tmall's usual slogan of "just this time" crazy consumption, JD.com this year not only raised the banner of the "new consumerism" trend, but also cooperated with the WeChat platform to distribute a large number of pre-holiday red envelopes.

It is not difficult to see that the concept of "new consumerism" proposed by JD.com is not accidental. With the continuous emergence of low-quality and poor service online shopping experiences, consumers' online shopping focus has begun to shift more to service and quality. Counterfeit and shoddy products, untimely express delivery, lack of after-sales service and other conditions continue to reduce consumers' enthusiasm for online shopping, and whether JD.com's "new consumerism" concept can reverse this decline remains to be confirmed.

In this promotional activity that practices "new consumerism", JD.com will continue to offer the "JD.com Baitiao" discount method so that consumers can enjoy more preferential benefits.

Amazon: Taking advantage of the "Double Eleven" shopping spree, opening six overseas sites to ship directly to China

According to news, in order to fully prepare for the arrival of "Double Eleven", Amazon China officially announced yesterday that from now on, Amazon's six major overseas websites in the United States, Germany, Spain, France, the United Kingdom and Italy will successively launch direct mail services to China.

It is reported that the six major Amazon overseas sites that have opened direct mail to China have gathered 80 million products that can be directly mailed, including 25 million products from Amazon in the United States, 12 million products from Amazon in Germany, 12 million products from Amazon in Spain, 10 million products from Amazon in France, 10 million products from Amazon in the United Kingdom, and more than 8 million products from Italy.

Don’t get excited yet, just listen to me! Although the categories launched for direct mail this time are the most local products of each site and the products that are popular among Chinese consumers, such as shoes, clothing, mother and baby, nutrition and health, and personal care, they do not include digital products that have domestic agents and inconsistent product quality standards, such as iPhone6.

Of course, as the first step in the development of Amazon China's "Overseas Purchase" service, this event is still quite a highlight. With Amazon's "direct mail" and "free trade" models, this "Overseas Purchase" event will provide consumers with three types of delivery services: standard, accelerated, and express. The average delivery time is 9-15 days, and the fastest delivery time is three working days.

In this regard, Niu Yinghua, Vice President of Amazon China, said: "This series of measures represents another step forward in our international brand strategy for Amazon China. China is one of Amazon's most promising markets, and we will continue to introduce our global resource advantages into China."

Physical stores: Joining forces for "Double Eleven" offline promotions to compete with e-commerce

Having been suppressed by e-commerce for several consecutive years, offline physical stores are no longer planning to just sit back and watch this year. Instead, they are preparing to take the initiative, take joint actions, and band together to "take advantage of the festival" to resist another round of attacks from major e-commerce companies.

It is understood that well-known shopping malls, shopping centers, community supermarkets, home appliance chains, and brand physical stores in major cities have begun planning the details of the "Double Eleven" promotion. Their promotional discounts are not inferior to those of online e-commerce, and they will also use their face-to-face communication and service advantages with consumers to compete with online e-commerce.

In the past, when the "Double Eleven" promotion war was approaching, a large number of "copycats" would emerge in offline physical stores. These consumers took advantage of online shopping and used physical stores as their fitting rooms before their Double Eleven shopping. They copied the codes to select more suitable products for their "Double Eleven" rush purchases. This time, physical stores will also take advantage of this phenomenon and take the opportunity to promote their Double Eleven promotion activities.

In fact, as the intensity of the "Double Eleven" activities increases year by year, both after-sales service and logistics and warehousing have begun to show their drawbacks. And it is precisely these that have led to the decline of many consumers' enthusiasm for online shopping. On the contrary, offline physical stores are just the opposite. Whether it is pre-sales or after-sales, the service and communication are direct and timely.

Although it was Alibaba Tmall that made the "Double Eleven" popular, it does not rule out that in the future, with the careful management of offline physical stores, the establishment of scientific business analysis models, and the enhancement of operational capabilities, the so-called online shopping carnival will become a shopping carnival. Of course, the premise will still be that the physical store operators can come up with the most attractive marketing plan.

Where will the online shopping festival for newborns, which is no longer a festival, go?

It is not difficult to see that with the participation of competitors, "Double Eleven" is no longer just Alibaba's Double Eleven. As more and more online and offline merchants join this shopping feast, the "cooling down theory" and "gimmick theory" have been popular for more than two years, but data from all parties show that the "online shopping peak time" during "Double Eleven" remains strong. From "Singles' Day" to "Online Shopping Festival" is an evolution, maybe it's time to think further: Will "peak time" be the real future of the new economy and new marketing model? Only time will give us the answer, I believe it won't be too long.

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.