Produced by New Products Slightly Finance.
Written by Wu Wenwu.
On the evening of November 29, Pinduoduo's ** value surpassed Alibaba for the first time, arousing heated discussions on the whole network.
Ma Yun rarely responded on the company's intranet as "partner Ma Yun", saying that it is very good, I believe that everyone is watching and listening to Ali, and I firmly believe that Ali will change, Ali will change.
Alibaba is the first generation of Internet e-commerce giants, and Pinduoduo is the wave of the mobile Internet e-commerce era.
Pinduoduo, which was only established in 2015, relied on "** social", and rose rapidly through the combination of low prices and Internet social networking, and has now become a fierce rival of Ali and JD.com.
Pinduoduo's initial style of play was very wild, and I believe that many friends, like "New Product Strategy", initially felt that Pinduoduo was very earthy, low-priced, and fakes were rampant, but now they may have become users of Pinduoduo.
But one thing hasn't changed, to this day, low prices are still Pinduoduo's biggest killer feature, and it is also the biggest attraction for users.
2023 is coming to an end, and it's time to look back on the year of big consumption.
In the view of "New Product Strategy Finance", there will be many changes in the big consumption ecology in 2023, but the most noteworthy and thoughtful is a key word: polarization.
01 It's too expensive to afford, and the price reduction tide is coming
A few days ago, BESTORE announced the largest price reduction for the first time in 17 years, with an average price reduction of 22% and a maximum of 45% for more than 300 products on sale in the store.
BESTORE has positioned a high-end route from the beginning, and the market price is often higher, and it has also been ridiculed by netizens as a "snack assassin".
Now, BESTORE announced a big price cut, which is very sudden, and the direct cause is poor performance.
According to the financial report of BESTORE, in the first three quarters, the company achieved operating income of 599.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 1433%；Net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company19.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3343%。Among them, in the third quarter, the company achieved operating income of 201.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 453%；The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 199840,000 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 9788%。
Yang Yinfen, the new chairman of BESTORE, said frankly in an open letter: In order to survive.
BESTORE announced a price cut and began to take the people-friendly route, which can only show one point that high-end snacks cannot be sold, and if you want to survive, you can only reduce the price.
New Product Strategy Finance observes that the price reduction tide has swept the catering industry, especially in the second half of this year, and there are more and more price reductions or disguised price reductions in the catering industry.
In June, pizza chain Le Caesar announced a 20 to 25 percent price cut. This year's coffee industry set off 99 wars, and even Starbucks has launched the "Little Green Cup".
In the first two or three years, the ramen that was popular with the capital is now also cool, and a bowl of ramen for 26 yuan is not easy to sell, Chen Guixiang announced last month that he would open up his franchise.
New Product Strategy Finance found that some newly opened small fast food restaurants in Shenzhen have dropped, and even the pork knuckle rice, which is the favorite of Shenzhen workers, has also been reduced in price.
This year, topics such as "a monthly salary of 20,000 yuan, can't afford to eat Malatang", "fellow villagers can't afford to eat hometown chicken" and other topics have appeared on the hot search one after another, which directly reflects that the current catering consumption is too expensive.
According to a survey by iMedia Consulting, Chinese consume a Chinese fast food, 437% of people have a budget amount of less than 20 yuan, 852% accept** up to $30.
It can be seen that more and more mass consumer goods have seen different price reductions, and this wave of price reductions is accelerating.
02 The price has risen, and it sells well, and I am stunned
However, this year's consumer market has also shown an amazing other side, many industries and products are actually rising in price, and sales are quite hot.
Tesla, which took the lead in setting off a wave of price cuts at the beginning of this year, launched four price increases in November at the end of the year, which is very unusual in the current fiercely competitive new energy vehicle market.
In the new energy vehicle industry, starting from BYD's U8 pricing of one million, a wave of price increases for domestic new energy vehicle brands has been set off.
At this year's Guangzhou Auto Show, domestic car companies have released big moves, the ideal MEGA price is 600,000 yuan, the 700 tank price is 700,000 yuan, the M9 price is 500,000 yuan, and the price of Aion's Haobo SSR is 16860,000 yuan ......
Some netizens ridiculed that "I didn't have money to buy domestic cars before, but now I don't have money to buy domestic cars", and even the short ** blogger Boss Cai used to spray foreign car brands expensive, but now he has turned to complain that domestic cars are really expensive.
Some time ago, a veteran of the automotive industry told "New Product Finance" that high-end consumers are still willing to spend money, such as a new energy vehicle brand that sells more than 40,000 units a month, which is actually not cheap.
In November this year, topics such as "domestic down jackets sold to 7,000 yuan" and "down jacket price hikes have given the market to military coats" have repeatedly rushed to the hot search, whether it is the old down jacket brand Bosideng, or the down jacket products launched by the new brand that takes the high-end down jacket route, it is indeed more expensive year by year.
For another example, lululemon, a Canadian sportswear brand that takes the mid-to-high-end route, sold 3.8 billion in the Chinese market in the first half of this year.
According to lululemon's financial report, in the second quarter, lululemon's revenue in the Chinese market was 27.7 billion US dollars (about 2 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 61%. lululemon's 1,000-yuan yoga pants are selling very well.
The tide of price increases has also burned to the field of electronic products,Huawei announced on November 15 that the whole range of tablet computers will be raised by 500 yuan,The highest price has reached 7499 yuan。
The goods in many industries are constantly selling very well, which is very surprising, and this directly shows that many people with consumer needs are still willing to consume.
03 A great era of consumption that accelerates polarization has arrived
If we look back in time, as early as the first quarter of this year, brands in the four major categories of packaged food, home care, personal care and beverages have raised prices.
Upstream raw materials are generally seen in 2022*** These brands hope to try to pass on inflationary pressures to consumers by raising prices, but they have not succeeded.
According to the 2023 China Shopper Report released by Bain & Company and Kantar Worldpanel in June this year, although brands have raised prices, it is difficult for upstream price increases to be passed on to downstream consumers in the Chinese market, and the average selling price is still declining on the consumer side.
The differentiation of product prices is directly reflected in the terminal consumer market, and the average selling price of goods has declined, which also means that the consumer market terminal is more polarized.
For consumers, it is natural to buy goods according to demand, willingness and purchasing power, such as instant noodles and other categories continue the trend of high-end, but many consumers choose to reduce their purchase volume or choose affordable products.
For another example, when consumers buy skin care products, makeup products and other goods, they no longer only look at the brand as in the past, but pay more attention to cost performance, and if it is too expensive, they will transfer to online discount channels and buy evaluation alternatives.
Polarized consumption patterns have also emerged in the same industry or field.
For example, in the field of automobile consumption, the price of traditional fuel vehicles has been greatly reduced, and the vast majority of new energy vehicle brands have also reduced prices, but luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz are cutting low-end product lines, and newly released models have increased by different ranges.
It is expected that in 2024, the differentiation trend of the consumer market will continue to be obvious, and the uneven heat and cold will still show the best coexistence scene.
It is worth noting that the wave of neo-pragmatic consumerism is accelerating.
In recent years, there have been many new consumer words related to young people, such as: self-pleasing consumption.
This year's more popular reverse consumption, from the first half of the "special forces trip", "city walk", "participate in the elderly tour group", to the winter "military coat and flower padded jacket".
Especially when down jackets are becoming more and more expensive, military coats and flower cotton jackets are out of the circle, young people are becoming more and more rational in consumption, and consumption is more cost-effective, in fact, the wave of new pragmatic consumerism is accelerating.
According to the "2023 China Consumer Insights*** study released by iResearch, consumers generally have a calmer attitude towards consumption, with more than 92% of consumers saying that their consumption concepts are more conservative and need to plan or reduce consumption more finely, but overall, there are 852% of consumers believe that they will be able to continue to consume scientifically in the coming year.
It is expected that the accelerated rise of new pragmatic consumerism represented by young people will deeply affect the entire consumption ecology in 2024.
At the same time, the polarization of consumption in the same industry will be more obvious.
In 2023, there will be a trend of polarization in many industries, and it is becoming more and more obvious, the most representative of which is the snack track.
On the one hand, the high-end route of the good store can not sell, take the initiative to reduce the price, but on the other hand, take the civilian low-price route of the snack store, Zhao Yiming snacks, snacks are busy and other brands are soaring all the way, blooming all over the place.
Although different product positioning has different buyer groups and market performance in the terminal consumer market, the consumption differentiation in the same industry will be more obvious on the whole.
Jiang Nanchunzeng, chairman of Focus Media, said that the three-year epidemic is a watershed for China's economy, the consumer market will accelerate the differentiation, and the differentiation of enterprises will also accelerate.
Now it seems that Jiang Nanchun's ** has been fulfilled, and consumption is polarized, in fact, consumption downgrading and consumption upgrading coexist.
In the final analysis, there are many factors that affect consumption, which are directly related to the macroeconomic environment, consumer confidence, residents' income, consumption behavior, consumer psychology, etc., and consumption is also following the general environment, which is ultimately determined by the wallet.
All in all, it is foreseeable that a great era of accelerated polarization of consumption has arrived.