The “pre-sale” that I saw when shopping was originally like this.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “product hunter” (ID: qqchanpin), author / Tencent senior product manager Chen Yong.
This year, mainstream e-commerce platforms (Taobao, Jingdong, etc.) have started the Double Eleven activities early, and launched various pre-sale activities in October to lock in the purchasing power of users in advance through pre-sales. Taobao provides a phased payment pre-sale for deposit reduction, and Jingdong provides pre-sales such as double the deposit, cash withdrawal, final payment, and number ladder.
Attentive users may have discovered that the “pre-sale” of Double 11 is not a form of pre-sale in advance in order to solve the “stock backlog”. The current “pre-sale” is more of a promotion. , lock the user in advance, let the user feel that the order can be enjoyed in advance.
This article begins with an analysis of pre-sales industry status and introduces pre-sale backgrounds and goals through different scenarios. Then systematically explain the core logic of pre-sales, and analyze the core logic from the core modules such as price system, inventory logic, and order.
Subject directory
The first points: analysis of the status quo of the pre-sales industry
After analyzing the major e-commerce platforms and home business, Taobao/Tmall, Jingdong, Suning Tesco, and Koala Haibao provide support for pre-sale activities, box horse provides < Strong>Pre-sale at the merchandise level (not pre-sale at the event level).
1. There are many forms of pre-sale activities in JD. There are forms such as double the deposit, cash settlement, final payment, and number ladder. In terms of entrance, the homepage provides a special exposure page for strong exposure and pre-sale activities.
2, Taobao’s pre-sales activities (scheduled pre-sales in stages), and provide a homepage strong exposure, pre-sale event special event page.
1) Taobao pre-sales activities provide SKU-level product configuration, that is, SPU (standard product unit, the smallest unit of product information aggregation) can choose to participate in the pre-sale SKU, as shown in the following figure.
2) Pre-sale event items (SKUs) cannot be sold as non-pre-sale items during the pre-sale period. However, the merchant can participate in the pre-sale by means of a new product, and at the same time, the corresponding product is normally sold as a non-pre-sale product.
3. Suning Tesco: Provides various forms of deposit pre-sales functions, including double deposit, deposit cash, and final payment.
1) Suning Tesco pre-sales activities provide product configuration for SKU level, that is, SKU can choose to participate in pre-sale SKU, as shown in the following figure.
2) Suning Tesco provides a strong exposure to pre-sales activities through the homepage.
4, Koala Haibao: Provides a pre-sale function for the payment of the phased payment, but the koala does not have a strong exposure to the pre-sale activity, the entrance is relatively hidden, the user needs to search through the pre- “sale” can find pre-sale goods.
The koala’s product support for pre-sale activities relative to JD.com and Taobao is obviously weak. In order to highlight the preferential strength of pre-sale products, merchants make a big fuss on the product head map, and highlight the deposits and offers. On the head map.
5. Box Horse: The ability to provide pre-sale products is more like a pre-sale at the merchandise level, which is different from other e-commerce platforms.
1) Box Horse does not provide a strong exposure entrance for pre-sales. It can only be searched or classified to pre-sale items.
2) Pre-sales offered by Box Horse is more pre-sales, that is, pre-sale information for products, such as delivery time.
3) There is no staged payment for the pre-sale of Box Horse, and the full payment is made directly.
4) Pre-sale of Box Horse can be combined with non-pre-sale items, and the package will be selected for different fulfillment time, and will be split into different orders according to the package.
6, a lot of fight: No pre-sale related information.
According to the official statement of the fight, the “pre-sale” routine is too much, too brain-burning for the user. Spend more money to allow users to directly enjoy the preferential subsidy, so there is no need for “pre-sale”.
Part 2: Noun Definition
Before introducing the overall situation of the pre-sales industry, everyone should have a certain understanding of pre-sales. Before in-depth analysis, we need to go back to the starting point, first define the definition of “pre-sale”, what is called pre-sale.
First look at the encyclopedia entry “pre-sale”:
Pre-sale, English is Presale, which refers to the sales behavior before the product has officially entered the market.
From the literal point of view, pre-sale products are sold in advance without being listed, that is, users are allowed to book in advance without the spot, and the user pays in advance to obtain the goods delivery commitment.
In conjunction with the “pre-sales activities” carried out by the mainstream e-commerce platform, the “pre-sale” and e-sales in the traditional sense have been different.
Pre-sales made by e-commerce platformThe “active” goods are not unlisted, they are already sold normally at regular times, but they are not in the form of “pre-sales.” In addition, the “pre-sales activities” have a wide range of goods, basically on the e-commerce platform. The core categories are all involved (from the category coverage, you can find that it is unlikely that large-volume items will be sold when they are not listed.) The e-commerce platform “pre-sales activities” we see now is essentially a promotion. Activities, lock in users in advance by prepaying more preferential deposits, to prevent users from being pulled away by other purchase channels.
Based on the above analysis, we can try to extend the definition of “pre-sale” again. The pre-sale activity of the e-commerce platform is also a kind of “pre-sale”, which is a product that will have certain preferential strength. The user is allowed to trade in the form of a deposit in advance, that is, the user locks the active item in advance by deposit.
Part 3: Presales and Goals
In conjunction with the definition of “pre-sale”, let’s take a look at the typical scenario of pre-sale:
1. Items that are not suitable for backlog inventory(1 The unit price is high, the amount of funds needed for stock picking in advance is large, such as high-end cosmetics; 2 vulnerable goods, early stocking may bring a larger Loss rate, such as fresh; 3 warehousing and logistics complex, such as furniture.)
2, new listings (such as new books, mobile phones and other electronic devices), pre-sale through pre-sale. (Of course, by ordering to buy is also a common new product marketing game)
Part 4: Pre-sale Main Forms
According to the pre-sales payment phase, it can be divided into two types: full pre-sale and deposit pre-sale.
1. The pre-sale function currently offered by Box Horse is the full pre-sale, and does not provide phased payment.
2. The pre-sales ability provided by the mainstream e-commerce platform is a pre-sale of deposits.
The deposit pre-sales are derived from various forms according to the promotion rules. At present, the common ones are: double the deposit, cash settlement, the final payment, and the number of steps.
1. The pre-sales main process can be refined into the following five key steps, One step is more of the internal behavior of the merchant itself, and the degree of association with the pre-sale tool is not large.
The deposit pre-sale and the full pre-sale have a big difference in the payment phase, so the split is explained.
2, key process for deposit pre-sales
3, the full pre-sale key process
Part 6: Pre-sale Core Logic
The pre-sales feature is similar to a general merchandise transaction and involves the following four core modules: merchandise, promotions, orders (transactions), and distribution.
1, Product:
In the merchandise module, which involves the hierarchical granularity of pre-sales (according to SPU configuration or SKU configuration), the current mainstream e-commerce platform supports SKU-level configuration, that is, merchants can select pre-sold products according to SKU. .
Pre-sale items generally do not support pre-sales and non-pre-sales at the same time, that is, if a SKU is in the pre-sale, the SKU cannot be sold as ordinary goods, and there is no entry into the SKU in the platform. Entrance. (But some merchants have the desire to sell at the same time, generallyThey can choose to copy the SKU to participate in the pre-sales)
The most critical part of the merchandise is the price and inventory, which will be explained later.
2, Promotions
If pre-sales is a promotion, abstraction according to the general configuration of the promotion tool can be categorized into four categories: activity basic information configuration, activity selection scope configuration, active promotion rule configuration, and activity scope.
3. Orders/Transactions
Pre-sale items are generally not available for purchase and need to be purchased directly. At the same time, pre-sale orders may involve the processing of parent-child orders; pre-sale items generally do not support after-sales during the pre-sale period. Explain the details later.
4, Delivery
Mainly the configuration of delivery time.
Part 7: Pre-sales Commodity System
Commodity systems need to highlight the relationship between SPUs and SKUs involved in presales, as well as inventory and price relationships. (Inventory and price are separately stated)
1. The pre-sales activities of the mainstream e-commerce platform can support the configuration of SKU granularity, that is, the merchant can select one or more SKUs in the SPU to participate in the pre-sale, and other commodities under the SPU are normally sold.
As shown in the figure below, both Taobao and Suning Tesco support mixed display of pre-sales and non-pre-sales. Users can switch specifications. If they are pre-sold, they need to go through the pre-sale; if it is non-pre-sale , you can purchase or buy directly.
Part 8: Pre-sale Price System
The pre-sale of the deposit and the pre-sale of the full amount are differentiated in the price system.
1, deposit pre-sale:
The price/amount relates to the original price of the commodity, the activity price, the deposit, the discount amount, and the final payment.
The pre-sale form of the deposit introduced earlierThere are a variety of (as shown below), the key point is the design of the deposit and the tail. There are a variety of deposit pre-sale forms on the market, although there are differences in the form, but in essence it will fall on the preferential strength of the last paragraph.
2, full pre-sale:
The pre-sale of the full pre-sale will be much simpler than the pre-sale of the deposit. It is similar to the price system of the spike, including the original price of the product and the activity price. The user can complete the pre-sale transaction by paying the full amount according to the activity price.
Part 9: Pre-sale Inventory Logic
The pre-sale of the deposit and the pre-sale of the whole are different in the activity stock freeze and deduction. The other logics are basically the same. The inventory logic of the pre-sale of deposits has two forms of realization. One is that the active inventory does not need to pre-empt the real inventory, that is, during the pre-sale period, the pre-sale goods may not have real inventory (common scenes of pre-sale goods), and may have There is real inventory; the other is that the active inventory pre-occupies the real inventory, and the real inventory needs to be frozen when the pre-sale activity is configured to ensure that the inventory of the pre-sale activity is guaranteed.
1. Deposit Pre-sale: Do not pre-empt real inventory
As shown in the figure below, the logic of the invoicing is roughly demonstrated by an example. The point is still that different nodes need to pay attention to different inventory data.
2, deposit pre-sale: pre-emptive real inventory
3, full pre-sale
第Ten: Presale Order/Sales Logic
1. Pre-sale and purchase processing: The pre-sale event products provided by the mainstream e-commerce platform cannot be purchased and need to be purchased directly; the commodity-level pre-sales provided by Boxma can be purchased separately, and At the same time, other goods will be placed on the consolidated billing and unpacking and unpacking orders.
2, Pre-sale order:
1) Deposit Pre-sale: Introducing the pre-sales feature, the order will need to add an order type (pre-sale order). Due to the need for phased payment, it is generally necessary to generate a parent-child order, which is used to track the standard status of the pre-sold items. The sub-orders (deposit order and final order) are used to track the payment status of the pre-sales deposit and the final payment. The pre-sale type calculates the amount of the final payment that the user needs to pay after the pre-sale is over.
The calculation logic of the final amount can refer to the description of the above pre-sale price system.
When the pre-sale order is placed, it is necessary to specify the delivery time and then perform the order according to the delivery time.
2) Full pre-sales: Similar to regular orders, the order status does not change, except that the processing at the time of execution and the time of the order is adjusted according to the business.
3. After-sales: Pre-sale items generally do not support refunds during the pre-sale period. The pre-sale period ends. After the merchants deliver the goods, they can handle the post-sale process according to the business situation.
Part 11: Pre-sales data indicator system
Before, the pre-sales are explained from the business logic and product functions. Another important link is the data index system of product functions. As long as the complete data index system is equipped, the completeness of product functions can be effectively judged. Whether the business is smooth in the function of the landing product, and whether it meets the activity expectations.
The following table simply lists some common data indicators from the transaction dimension, traffic dimension, and product dimension. In the early stage of the business, attentionMore is the conversion funnel for transaction volume, order volume, customer unit price, and traffic to transaction. The metrics required for refined operations will be more granular and can be dismantled according to business objectives.
The pre-sales function seems to be simple, but “the sparrow is small and full of internal organs”, this function can connect the e-commerce overall process in series.
As the e-commerce business continues to change, “pre-sales” may lead to more gameplay, and the pre-sales form analyzed in this article may no longer be the mainstream. But by analyzing the overall logic, you can help you better understand the new form. In the end, we still have to return to the underlying logic, to see the underlying logic, no matter how the business changes, just need to follow the vine.
The cover image is from pexels