New rules have been introduced to prohibit the lowest price agreement
The widely criticized "lowest price on the whole network" is finally about to withdraw from the live broadcast industry.
Recently,Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market RegulationArticle 6(1) of the newly revised Guidelines for Compliance of Online Livestreaming Marketing Activities in Shanghai clearly states:Operators on the platform should not be required to sign a "lowest price agreement" or other unreasonably exclusive mandatory terms.
Source: "Shanghai Compliance Guidelines for Webcast Marketing Activities".
At the same time, Article 7 (5) stipulates that if an anchor directly signs an agreement with an on-platform operator, the on-platform operator shall not be required to sign a "lowest price agreement" or other unreasonable and exclusive mandatory terms, and perform tax obligations in accordance with the law. Article 16 clearly states that livestream marketing platforms, livestream room operators, and anchors must not use service agreements, transaction rules, and technical means to impose unreasonable restrictions or attach unreasonable conditions to other business operators' transactions or transactions** in live-streaming rooms, or to charge unreasonable fees to merchants.
Last month,Hangzhou CityThe judicial department issued an announcement on the public solicitation of opinions and suggestions on the "Compliance Guidelines for the Live Streaming E-commerce Industry (Draft for Comments)", which also mentionsLivestreaming e-commerce practitioners must not require merchants to sign a "lowest price agreement" or take other agreements, decisions, or concerted actions that eliminate or restrict competition.
Shanghai and Hangzhou are home to many MCN companiesBeauty one, Yuanwang Internet, worry-free mediaThe headquarters of the head MCN are in these two places, thereforeAlthough it is a local regulation, it still has a vane-like significance for the live broadcast e-commerce industry.
Maybe you don't know enough about the "lowest price agreement", but in essence, it's a kind of similarity"Choose one of the two".The difference is that the two sides of the two options are the platform and the merchant, and the lowest price is the anchor and the merchant. After signing a "choose one-of-two" agreement with an anchor, the merchant who sells the specified goods in other channels cannot be higher than the anchor's live broadcast room, thus forming the "lowest price on the whole network".
A typical case is:This year's Double 11 Li Jiaqi's lowest price event on the whole network。On October 24th, Jingdong procurement and sales staff said in the circle of friends that Jingdong received a lawyer's letter from the brand Hai's, and was complained that the price of a certain oven** was lower than that of Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room, which violated the reserve price agreement that Li Jiaqi's live broadcast room required the brand to sign, and demanded huge liquidated damages. As a result, he called out to Li Jiaqi and questioned whether this "lowest price on the whole network" behavior was legal.
Source: WeChat Moments.
Although Li Jiaqi's company, Meione, and the brands involved have denied the "reserve price agreement", the criticism of the reserve price agreement by JD.com's procurement and sales personnel has resonated with many merchants. "The lowest price on the whole network", it's time to be banned.
Source: Weibo.
All three parties lose, and the anchor is alone
As a means of vicious competition, the lowest price agreement will create a "lose-lose" situation.
First of allMerchants。The essence of live e-commerce is a game about traffic, whoever has more traffic will be easier to sell their goods. Therefore, the head anchors who have gathered traffic have the right to speak and have the capital to negotiate with merchants.
In order to maintain the loyalty of fans in the live broadcast room, the anchor must obtain some unique advantages, so the "lowest price on the whole network" has become the best choice. As long as the purchase of goods through the anchor is low enough, consumers will establish trust in the anchor and form a stable traffic.
For some small and medium-sized brand merchants, the sales of the head anchor are guaranteed, and even if the ** given is low enough, they can make a steady profit, so they are willing to sign a "lowest price agreement" with them. But what they tend to ignore is that the deeper they are tied to big anchors, the stronger their dependence on their traffic and the weaker their pricing freedom. What's more, it is difficult for them to convert the fans of big anchors into their own fans, which is not conducive to long-term brand building.
For big brand merchants, they will develop a relatively stable system for different channels and platforms, and if the quality of a channel is too low, it will impact the sales of other channels. When they realize that the overhead live broadcast room seems to increase revenue but not profits, they will refuse to "the lowest price on the whole network", such as the conflict between L'Oreal and Li Jiaqi in 2021.
Source: Weibo.
In order to break the traffic monopoly of the top anchors, more and more businesses have begun to make efforts to store broadcasts to get rid of the "lowest price on the whole network". After all, the streamer's traffic can help them for a while, but not for a lifetime.
Similarly, the proliferation of "the lowest price on the whole network" is alsoplatformUnwanted situations. In the context of slowing economic growth and declining consumer spending, major e-commerce platforms are facing unprecedented growth pressure. Platforms need to use more attractive discounts to promote more transactions and stimulate more sensitive users, which is why all major platforms are emphasizing low prices on Double 11 this year.
The "low price" of the anchor may conflict with the "low price" of the platform. The lowest price of the anchor is the lowest price horizontally, which is lower than that of other channelsBut the lowest price of the platform is the lowest price in the vertical direction, which must be the lowest throughout the year. When a consumer finds that the price of their favorite product is higher than usual, they will inevitably lose trust in the platform, and the user's mind of the big promotion will collapse.
Even, many anchors will guide consumers to compare prices during live broadcasts, and use the "platform price" as the price comparison object, in order to "prove" that the ** in their live broadcast room is lower and stimulate consumers to place orders. It can be said that the anchor's abuse of low prices** has greatly reduced the bargaining power of the platform, which is the reason why Jingdong's procurement and sales staff shouted Li Jiaqi.
It can be seen that consumers are not the winners of the "lowest price on the whole network", because if there is no head anchor, the ** given by merchants and platforms may be lower. It can be said that some anchors have woven a set of "information cocoons" to immerse fans in the superiority of low prices, but they don't know that it is they who raise the bottom line of **.
Consumers, merchants, and platforms all lose, and only the anchor is the only one, and this unreasonable model is inevitable to be eliminated.
It's true that low prices are low, but it's wrong to interfere with pricing power
Finally, what I want to say is that there is nothing wrong with low prices, and what is wrong is interference with pricing power.
There are two ways to achieve low prices, one is the low price formed by the compulsory subsidy of the platform, such as the low price of "tens of billions of subsidies", and the low price during the war of the takeaway platform.
The other is the low price formed by reducing production costs, reducing intermediate links, and stripping added value, such as the low price under the "factory direct supply" model, and the low price of many white-label products. This kind of benign low price is conducive to the long-term development of the industry.
The existence of the lowest price agreement interferes with the pricing power of merchants and platforms, and hinders them from exploring the path of benign low prices. Consumers want low prices, but they don't need the "lowest price on the whole network".
Say goodbye to floor price agreements and start today.
Author |The wind is clear.