Perhaps it was because Pinduoduo recognized the complexity of the Chinese consumer market too early that it created a brand-new business model in its own way.

Regarding Pinduoduo, there are two prevailing views in the market: one is that Taobao and JD.com's neglect of the下沉市场 (lower-tier market) has enabled Pinduoduo to achieve its current status of being both affordable and providing good service; the other is that, while Pinduoduo is like honey to consumers, it is criticized by some merchants as "too biased towards users".

In recent years, Pinduoduo has been dragged into such seemingly divisive emotions by some public opinions.

Although Pinduoduo has not explained this, from a third-party perspective, it is not difficult to understand the platform's approach. After all, this is a matter of "not explaining grievances, and explaining deliberately seems too contrived".

However, when a screenshot of a Weibo post titled "Unsolved mystery: Why do merchants still sell on Pinduoduo even if they lose money?" circulated in various WeChat groups, people began to reflect on a few questions:

Does the platform's stance towards consumers mean it is at odds with merchants? Is the pain of merchant operations due to platform policies, or is it inevitable due to not closely following changes in consumer demand? And, what kind of merchants does Pinduoduo make unhappy?

Redefining the "Low-Price Era"

Before the emergence of Pinduoduo, there was a widespread demand for low-priced goods in the domestic market. It is worth noting that low-price does not equal low customer unit price or low quality. An iPhone priced at several thousand yuan, if an e-commerce platform can subsidize it by several hundred yuan, making it affordable for consumers, is also considered "low-priced". Nowadays, even JD.com users who were previously not very sensitive to prices are paying more attention to reducing the denominator when applying Liu Qiangdong's "customer expectation formula" (the ratio between product + service and price).

From doubting extreme cost-effectiveness to understanding and then following suit, this industry change began years ago. The list includes not only JD.com, which is almost at the top of single-user contribution; but also Taobao, which constantly adjusts its organizational structure in an attempt to gain more market share.

In recent years, major e-commerce platforms have proposed that "low-price" will be the strategic main theme for the present and the future. Behind this is the fact that Pinduoduo, which started later, has rapidly grown by offering affordable prices and good service, forming a widespread impression among users and winning a considerable market share.

Moreover, to lock in consumers, Pinduoduo is constantly improving its full-chain service level from pre-sales, sales, to after-sales, continuously improving policies such as free shipping to Xinjiang villages, compensation for damaged items, and compensation for overpriced purchases.

In a sense, the competition between platforms to offer low prices is not a bad thing, as low prices do not equal low quality, and consumers become the biggest beneficiaries. Nowadays, people's consumption demand and expectations do not decrease with lower prices. On the contrary, they want to maximize their overall experience.

On one hand, consumers' demand for "making good things cheaper" is unaffected by the environment, and they still expect good products and quality service. It is conceivable that without excellent products, or if only researching products without proper logistics and fulfillment, long-term business growth cannot be achieved.

But on the other hand, Liu Qiangdong also said at a conference in 2022 when he revived the "low-price strategy" that many Chinese consumers do not necessarily need to eat expensive imported kiwis. Allowing them to buy delicious kiwis for a few yuan per jin is very meaningful for both the domestic industry and consumers. Moreover, not all users demand express delivery on the same day or the next day. If the price can be lower, arriving a few days later is acceptable to many consumers. The important thing is that the market should give users such choices.

You see, this is the complexity of the Chinese market and the complexity