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The left is a screenshot of Xianyu’s second-hand mobile phone entrance on August 20, and the right is a screenshot of the same entrance on August 24
In January 2019, Xianyu, an idle trading platform under Alibaba, officially launched the “Xianyu Youpin” channel. The publicity draft stated that all products of Xianyu Youpin will pass 32 inspections, and all products will be after-sales. , All enjoy 7-day no-reason return, 30-day replacement, and 180-day warranty.
Entering Xianyu’s “Excellent Products” channel, the “official inspection machine” is printed. The label “Xianyu Youpin Official Inspection” seems to be another type of “Alipay” product created by Ali in the field of second-hand transactions, guaranteeing the quality of second-hand products with the platform’s goodwill and eliminating buyers’ concerns.
The words “Xianyu Youpin” carry the trust of countless users and the important task of a surge in transaction volume on the platform. Behind it is a self-directed and self-acted performance of the seller “being both an athlete and a referee”.
The buyer complained that the official “inspected product” turned out to be self-inspected and sold by the seller
Recently, photographer Zhang Chao (alias) bought a second-hand Canon SLR lens on Xianyu, but he experienced Time-consuming and laborious rights protection.
In order to avoid buying problematic products, Zhang Chao deliberately chose a lens labeled “Xianyu Youpin Official Inspection”. The inspection report provided by the platform showed the lens condition, internal conditions, performance testing, etc. All indicators are normal.
Reporter’s investigation and confirmation: Inspection certificates can be supplied in batches
On the back of each “inspected” product, there is a “inspection certificate code” pasted, and a string of bar codes read “provided by Xianyu’s partner Mortai Quality Inspection Center”.
In December 2019, Xianyu announced that it has reached a strategic cooperation with Shoushou Technology. Its main role is to support Xianyu’s second-hand mobile phones, tablets, laptops and digital peripherals “inspected”. project.
“The products you see on Xianyu with the label of’Inspected’ are all inspected by ourselves, and we will put them on Xianyu for defective products that cannot be sold offline.”< /p>
“There are ‘bombs’ on Xianyu. The ‘inspected’ labels can be supplied in batches. You don’t need to send your mobile phone to them for testing, just spend a little money.”
Following the second-hand mobile phones on the Xianyu homepage and the official inspection portal, the reporter found a number of Shanghai sellers who have settled in Xianyu Youpin who have been “inspected”, and their addresses mostly point to the Shanghai Communication Digital Market.
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A number of sellers revealed the secret of “Xianyu Youpin” to the reporter of “IT Times”:
The “inspected” report on each product only needs to be completed by the seller himself and published in the unified backstage to be marked with the official label. If you want to obtain an officially recognized inspection certificate, you only need to contact Xianyu and Its certified third-party quality inspection agency pays a service fee.
In other words, the seller does not need to send the second-hand digital products to the Motai Quality Inspection Center for testing. The entire inspection report is issued by the seller himself, and the Motai platform does not review the inspection process one by one. The seller is not required to provide inspection surveillance video until the buyer and seller have disputes, and only random random inspections are usually done.
However, the press release issued by the two parties previously stated that “merchants must pass all items of the Mortai quality inspection system before releasing products, one machine and one inspection, and the entire quality inspection process is recorded.”
Pro test: “good business” brought by 10,000 yuan
During the visit, a second-hand photographic equipment owner showed a WeChat group to a reporter from IT Times, which is a docking group for Xianyu’s official customer service to recruit partners who have already inspected the goods in the market.
The boss admitted that the seller’s inspection was carried out under the official permission of Xianyu, and this was an important profit model for Xianyu and third-party quality inspection agencies.
“Paying a service fee of 10,000 yuan, we can send the inspected labels to our partners, and the seller can perform quality inspection, label and take pictures, upload it to the unified background, and then publish to Xianyu.”
Xianyu App official “inspected” supplier recruitment entrance
A person in charge of Xianyu Youpin told reporters that there is no need to provide business licenses and company photos, as long as there are front and back photos of the person in charge’s ID card and a half-length photo, and the work environment, such as laptops, surveillance cameras, etc. You can apply to become an “inspected” supplier by taking pictures of the equipment and uploading it. How professional is the working environment? “As long as you can prove that you are making a mobile phone, you know.”
Xianyu Youpin “Inspected” Supplier Backstage
The “Xianyu Youpin has been inspected platform service agreement” obtained by a reporter from “IT Times” shows that for every second-hand 3C digital product sold, the platform will charge the seller 3.5% of the transaction amount as a service fee, with a minimum of 5 yuan A cap of 100 yuan (notebook products do not have a cap), deducted from the service fee. When the service fee balance is less than 5,000 yuan, you need to continue to recharge to release the product normally.
“Xianyu Youpin has been inspected platform service agreement”
This means that after the seller has paid a service fee of 10,000 yuan, he can inspect the goods he sells, and for each sale, he needs to pay a 3.5% commission to the platform and Motai.
Obviously, this is a good deal. In addition to obtaining the endorsement of the inspection report, Xianyu Youpin sellers can also get traffic support from Xianyu platform.
Xianyu platform “Inspected Seller Level Management Regulations” mentioned that new sellers who have opened 3 or more Xianyu accounts have been inspected and certified, and Xianyu’s customer service intervention rate is less than 1%, and the seller points are 60 points. Above, if the total number of products released is more than 100, you can become a big seller and get more traffic support, including big promotion resources, Taobao traffic resources, Xianyu traffic weighting, Xianyu Youpin tags, etc.
Data shows that in July 2020, Xianyu Youpin’s turnover increased by 212% year-on-year.
Picture source: Xianyu
Commodity premium is also an important reason why sellers are willing to join.
During the unannounced visit, the reporter compared a variety of offline second-hand products, products without “inspected” reports on the Xianyu platform, and Xianyu Youpin’s “inspected” products. The products of the same quality are “inspected”. The price of goods” is generally 10%-20% higher than the market price.
Reporter’s Notes: Idle fish, please cherish yourself
One inspection reportThe report is endorsing the quality of Xianyu Youpin’s second-hand products, but how many buyers know that the so-called official inspection machine is posted by the seller himself?
During the interview, the reporter always wanted to know whether Xianyu knew that the seller and the inspector were the same person? This kind of self-inspection and self-selling, is it the seller’s illegal operation or the official acquiescence? As of press time, the reporter sent the interview outline to Ali Public Relations without any reply.
Although Ali officials are reluctant to face the media directly, from the current situation, Xianyu Youpin cannot escape the question of “being both a referee and an athlete”.
Looking back at the initial establishment of Taobao in 2003, Alipay was born. The secured transaction on the platform dispelled the worries of buyers and sellers. This led to the prosperity of Ali.
The official “inspected” in Xianyu, on the surface, precedes the inspection process, eliminating the time cost of inspection guarantees, but sellers submit inspection reports and release second-hand 3C digital products. Contrary to the principle of neutrality of third-party quality inspection agencies, where is the “official”? Where is the credibility of the platform?
“IT Times” reporters continued to observe Xianyu and found that Ali seems to be a bit “preferred” for this big Taoist traffic, so that its supervision is not as strict as Taobao and Tmall, and many of them are consumer-oriented The author’s statement is contradictory: For example, Xianyu Youpin’s official announcement is “7 days no reason to return, 30 days replacement, 180 days warranty”, but on the “inspected” product page, only “60 days warranty” , And the entrance is very deep, it is difficult for consumers to find.
All second-hand trading platforms are facing the dilemma of the monetization model, especially the C2C model of Xianyu. The provision of third-party quality inspection services, traffic support, and auction service fees is one of its few profit models, and it is also the most Important “core assets” are important weights to balance the conflicts of interest between buyers and sellers, and the key to whether the platform can be favored by users for a long time, but Xianyu has made it a profit-only business.
If you can’t maintain professionalism and objectivity, the platform trust that Ali has built in the minds of consumers for 21 years will likely be exhausted in “Xianyu Youpin”.
Picture source: Alibaba official documentary
Idle fish, cherish my broom.
This article is fromWeChat official account: IT Times (ID: vittimes) author: Sun Yan