author: Cao Yang, editors: Raoxia Fei, the original title: “Wool is the party but the flow” from the title figure: Vision China
Preparing for Double Eleven, the discount rate is unprecedented, and the information is pushed 24 hours a day, the discount rate is the same as or even greater than that of the head host’s live broadcast room, and it is possible to pick up “vulnerable” products…
Nowadays, “getting the lowest price” has become the first choice for more and more people to shop online. Whether it is social platforms such as WeChat, QQ, Weibo or Douyin, or Zhihu content platforms, they are all Surrounded by various discounts and promotional information.
Professional leak-picking tutorials, free orders every day, one-click direct access to historical wool tutorials, and red envelopes when posting orders… In the two discount groups joined by Ran Caijing, for every newcomer entering, the group administrator The above information will be released once.
In addition to coupons, the group also has cash red envelopes from various e-commerce platforms and Alipay password red envelopes to receive, and there are also limited and limited free coupon activities every day, which are true and effective.
Among the many discounted merchandises, some of the merchandises are no less powerful than popular top anchors. Ran Caijing compared an Internet celebrity yogurt. The price given in the discount group was the same as the price in the live broadcast of popular anchor Wei Ya. This price also appeared in Li Dan’s live broadcast.
These product discount information are packaged into different forms, such as WeChat group, QQ group group assistants issuing coupons or posting orders to return red envelopes; Taobao money-saving advertisements and coupon special numbers seen on Weibo; Zhihu Big V attaches a link to relevant discount products under its article; the lowest price of the entire network promoted by the anchor in its live broadcast room, etc.
Behind the scenes, there is actually a mature business model operating.
This business model first appeared in 2007 and refers to people who help Taobao sellers to promote products and earn commissions, namely Taobao customers. Since its inception, Taobao has spawned a large number of practitioners to participate. With the development of e-commerce, especially the popularity of social e-commerce based on Pinduoduo, this industry has sprung up like bamboo shoots after a rain, and its operating model has also changed.
“You stare at the wool of the sheep, and the people who teach you the wool stare at your deposits and flowers.” However, in the eyes of an industry expert with rich experience in cultural and consulting related fields, With the development of this business model, on the surface, it appears that consumers are collecting merchants’ wool, but in essence, it is a traffic dispute between merchants.
I pick up the bargain in the group
“You have to buy it if it is cheap, and you have to use it if you have a coupon, otherwise you feel you are losing.” Xiaoer, a group friend in the discount group, told Ran Caijing.
Different from a newcomer like Ran Caijing who has just joined the group for two days, Xiao Er is already a veteran wool party with two years of experience in gathering wool. In addition to the WeChat group, Xiaoer also joined the QQ group, Douyin fan group, and downloaded many professional Yaowoo APP and WeChat applets.
In Xiaoer’s opinion, after spending a few hours every day climbing upstairs to look at the discount information posted in the group, I place an order. Although the money saved is not very large and the things I buy are not famous brands, they can Satisfying one’s life needs well is worth it.
In recent years, the wool party represented by Xiaoer is growing rapidly. They join various so-called wool groups and get to major e-commerce companies by clicking the shopping links issued by the administrators or smart robots in the group The coupons on the platform can be used to deduct cash when purchasing goods later.
In the article titled “Must-See for Wool Fleece” shared in the group, it was written that picking up leaks is actually very simple, and clearly gave 5 essentials for picking up leaks. After reading it, Ran Caijing found that it can be roughly summarized as Two points: First of all, the vulnerable product sets the wrong price for the merchant, so it has a strong uncertainty. If you see it, you have to start. Secondly, there are leaky products in the group every day, but the inventory is small, whoever sees it first will give it to whoever sees it first, so be sure to pay more attention to group news.
In another QQ group called “Sheep and Sheep Sharing”, all members of the group are muted except for the owner and administrator. The group announcement stated that after a few days in the group, you will discover a brand new shopping world. Every day, the group will share various benefits such as sacred cars, bug lists, missing orders, and free orders. At the same time, the group announcement also stated that in order to make it easier for everyone to find out the omissions in the first time, I hope group members will put the group on top.
Take a meal replacement food published in the group as an example. The slogan reads “History of low remarks (the lowest in history and coupons)< /span>”, after copying the link, it leads to the brand’s official flagship store. After receiving the 50 yuan coupon, the original price of 69.9 yuan for the goods at the time of settlement became 15.9 yuan, which is attractive Full.
Picture/Network Screenshot of Ran Caijing
In the several WeChat groups joined by Ran Caijing, the frequency of the same discounted products is extremely high. The group assistants release various discount links from time to time 24 hours a day. The advertising language is very refined and attractive, covering Taobao. , JD.com, Pinduoduo and other major platforms. In addition to daily necessities such as nuts, shampoos, facial cleansers, clothes, etc., the products involved also include takeaway red envelopes on platforms such as Ele.me, Meituan, and online platforms such as Ctrip and Fliggy. Hotel discounts on travel platforms are immediately reduced, and membership services on online video platforms are also available.
In addition to the preferential information released by the group assistants, in the group, consumers can also actively search for the commodity discounts they need, such as “buy bedside hangings” and “buy Tencent members”. The group assistants will be the first Time like you to feed back the discount information it retrieved.
In the group, they call this “wool information”.
CC, who lives in Beijing, has changed from a micro-shopper to the owner of the wool herd after giving birth two years ago. In her opinion, there is no essential difference between the two. CC told Ran Caijing that compared to WeChat business operating in Moments, this method of directly copying the link and sending it to the group or Moments is simpler and earns a lot. Because I need to take care of my children, I may be distracted. Even so, I can earn about 10,000 yuan a month.
CC stated that she currently has 6 groups, the largest of which is more than 400 people, and the least of which is more than 200. Most of these people are consumers living in third- and fourth-tier cities. For them, the most important thing to buy is to save money and benefit, so these coupons are extremely attractive to them.
According to Nielsen data, the population size of cities below the third and fourth tiers reached 953 million in 2019, far exceeding the population size of 427 million in first- and second-tier cities. However, compared with first- and second-tier cities, the consumption level in these areas is relatively low, and consumers have greater demand for products with favorable prices. Coupled with the saturation of the first- and second-tier cities and the improvement of retail supporting facilities, players have become more inclined to sink the market The digging in the past two years has fully exploded.
On the other hand, in recent years, many white-collar workers and mothers in first- and second-tier cities have also joined the wool party army. CC told Ran Caijing that among the groups she operated, groups 5 and 6 were built in the past half a year. Although the number of people in them is not very large, they are almost all of friends or friends around them. Friends recommended to join the group.
Gameplay loopholes breed black wool production
With the continuous upgrading of this kind of gameplay and the continuous growth of the incoming groups, loopholes have been exposed one after another, and the unbearable situation of some businesses and platforms has intensified.
Among them, there are many controversial “wool” behaviors that cost 26 yuan and 4,500 kilograms of oranges, 3.8 yuan free shipping, and 0.4 yuan to recharge 100 yuan.
The last time I was listed on a hot search by “Wool Wool” was on the JD platform named “Changhong Kitchen Appliance Flagship Store”.
On October 11th, a news that a Changhong Electrical Appliances distributor was on the verge of bankruptcy by “Wool” was posted on Weibo’s hot search. Subsequently, according to many media reports, the “Changhong Kitchen Appliance Flagship Store” was maliciously deceived, and the electric kettle sold in the store was auctioned for more than 200,000 orders in a short period of time on October 8 at a price far below the cost.
From the screenshots uploaded by some netizens, it can be seen that the Changhong electric kettle involved in the incident was originally intended to be sold at 37.9 yuan, but in the end, after the various gift certificates were superimposed, it was smashed for 7.9 yuan. Some netizens broke the transaction price of 3.8 yuan.
Picture/Network
According to the above price, Ran Caijing roughly calculated that a single loss of 30 yuan, if it is 200,000, the loss of the merchant is estimated to be 6 million yuan. According to Yibang Power.com, the store operator Zhongshan New Concept E-Commerce Co., Ltd. issued an announcement stating that the company was facing bankruptcy due to huge losses. At present, the company has reported to the relevant departments.
On the Internet, there is a lot of controversy over the woollen incident. According to some netizens, this incident is likely to be a marketing method of the merchants; some netizens believe that since the merchants have launched promotional activities, they should bear responsibility. Ran Caijing tried to contact Zhongshan New Concept E-Commerce Co., Ltd. many times, but failed.
When Ran Caijing inquired about the incident’s platform, Jingdong, the other party responded that the incident is still under further investigation and no other response was made.
In response to this incident, there are online rumors that the profit is notOrdinary consumers are professional wool parties. But what the facts are is still unconclusive.
Actually, this is not the first time this has happened on the JD platform.
On the evening of January 7, 2020, due to the wrong setting of the coupon application range, the 200 yuan coupon that should be used for large purchases was set as a no-threshold coupon, and it happened to be its self-operated beautiful oven , Microwave is available. Therefore, an electric oven with an original price of more than 200 yuan can be purchased with an actual payment of only 5.99 yuan. After this loophole was discovered, a large number of consumers poured into the order, staged the ability to squeeze wool.
After receiving the wool, JD.com intercepts and recalls orders that have not been shipped and have not been signed after delivery. For users who have already signed for, JD.com hopes that users will pay 20% off the original price of the goods. Returns.
Coincidentally, JD.com is not the only one to be stalked.
In 2019, the much-discussed woollen incident was the bankruptcy of the Tmall store “Guo Xiaoyun Store”. Public information shows that on October 26, 2019, the Tmall store “Guo Xiaoyun Flagship Store” mistakenly set the “26 yuan 4500g” Sichuan navel orange to “26 yuan 4500 kg” due to operating errors, and it was sitting on 600,000 yuan. After discovering this loophole, the fan’s “Passerby A-” not only placed orders by himself, but also guided fans to place orders in the QQ group. Within a short period of time, Sichuan navel oranges from the shop sold 230,000 orders. The amount involved is 7 million yuan.
In response to this matter, “Guo Xiaoyun Flagship Store” issued a statement stating, “Kneel to you. There are only two people in the Guo Xiaoyun flagship store. I hope everyone applies for a refund, don’t complain, and leave a way out for yourself.” /p>
After the incident was on the hot search, it attracted the attention of many people, and Taobao also helped in the first time. The identity of “Passerby A-” has also been further exposed. Some people say that his profession is to post videos to teach fans how to “sweep wool”. This time it is just a small event in his “sweep wool” career; at the same time, he has special Fan groups publish these business loopholes. Once they encounter a business mistake, he will place a large number of orders and encourage group friends to join them.
Faced with criticism from netizens, “Passerby A-” responded that he was willing to bear the cost of reopening the store regarding the closure of the store. But he said at the same time, “I didn’t take the order, nor did I receive a payment of more than 400 yuan. The pictures I used belonged to others. The shop did not ship and close the shop, and the loss was not the 7 million yuan of 200,000 orders. , It’s just a deposit and service fee.”
Compared with the shop wool, Pinduoduo’s encounter with the entire platform is even more painful.
On January 20, 2019, some netizens saidThere is a major bug in Pinduoduo. This bug allows users to receive unlimited 100 yuan no-threshold coupons, and it is universally applicable to the whole venue (except special products), and the validity period is up to One year.
After the bug was discovered, a large number of users poured into Pinduoduo and began to vigorously “sweep the wool”, so in a short time, some users recharged tens of thousands of phone bills through coupons and hoarded hundreds of thousands of Q coins.
At around 9 o’clock on the same day, Pinduoduo removed all the 100 yuan no-threshold coupons from the shelves, including how to receive coupons and receive unused coupons.
At the same time, Pinduoduo stated that in the early morning of January 20, a black and gray production group used an expired coupon loophole to steal tens of millions of yuan in platform coupons for unfair profit. The platform has fixed the loopholes in the first time , And report to the public security organ.
Pingduoduo also refuted rumors that tens of millions of yuan of coupons were stolen from the platform. The so-called “loss of 20 billion yuan” is not a fact. It is expected that the actual loss of assets caused by this incident is likely to be less than 10 million yuan.
Picture / Weibo@多多防言 Screenshot of Ran Caijing
Sun Guohua, deputy secretary-general of the Digital Economy Working Committee of the China Productivity Promotion Center Association and former director of the Industry-University-Research Innovation Center of the China Electronic Commerce Association, told Ran Caijing that the normal preferential strength of wool is a false proposition. The real wool is born out of loopholes, which is unreasonable and fair. The main reason why the fleece happens is that the rules of the game designed by the platform or the seller in the process of online promotion or marketing are unavoidable. Therefore, there is a loophole. This loophole is like a fearful black hole. Generally, the wealth gained by the platform or the seller through hard work can be swallowed instantly.
Sun Guohua said that the core and leaders of the Wool Party are the initiators of the Woollen Party. They are familiar with the rules of the platform and are good at finding loopholes in the rules. They are quick and ruthless, and they can be regarded as alternative e-commerce “masters.” These people can be divided into two categories, one is encountering vulnerabilities, discovering business opportunities, quickly realizing, sharing and disseminating quickly; the other is a professional operation team in the dark world, creating a set of algorithms,Catch the loopholes in the rules, forcibly grab rich profits, and walk on the edge of the law.
Mo Cangli expressed a different view. He told Ran Caijing that in fact, behind the numerous incidents of scalping wool, it is impossible to listen to the singularity of “malicious scalping” of businesses.
Mo Cangli said that whether it is platform-owned products or products of third-party merchants stationed on the platform, when they launch a new product or launch a new promotion, their related staff will look like the stock market. The market is staring at the changes in this commodity, including incoming traffic, order quantity, turnover and so on. “If there is a real mistake, it will intervene as soon as possible. Generally, there will be no problems that are discovered for tens of minutes or even hours after being sacked.”
The flock of wool or just the battle of traffic
“Wool is actually a very mature business model.” Mo Cangli believes that “The reason for the rise of wool is inseparable from traffic.”
Mo Cangli pointed out that from the merchant’s wrong price to the wool being sacked, this can actually evolve into a kind of marketing logic. For example, the scalping event itself can harvest the first wave of attention, and then issue a statement that the event will continue to ferment and harvest the second wave of traffic, and the final event will be resolved, regardless of whether the merchant ships or not, it will harvest another wave of traffic.
In Mo Cangli’s view, on the one hand, because the traffic is too expensive, neither the platform nor the merchant wants to spend too much money to buy a new user; the other reason is the sinking of e-commerce, as Pinduoduo and other social networks The emergence and growth of e-commerce has made more and more e-commerce platforms realize that this kind of people-centered communication method is much faster than direct material communication.
Mo Cangli said that whether it is purchased through the preferential links shared in WeChat and QQ groups, or through the links shared by big V and anchors in Zhihu, Douyin or even live broadcast rooms, the essence is the same. , That is, the merchant makes a profit. These businesses give a small part of the discounts to consumers, and most of the “discounts” are actually given to group owners, big Vs and anchors and other people who bring goods. The essence behind it is for traffic. “These preferential links are essentially helping the e-commerce platform to invigorate and activate.”
Ran Caijing found that the so-called discount groups are essentially Taobao customers, who get commissions by sharing product links.
JD.com’s commission rates for different commodities. Photo courtesy of respondents
Black is a blogger who brings goods on Zhihu. Most of the products he promotes come from JD.com. In some screenshots of discounted products provided by Black to Ran Caijing, the commission percentage is clearly written, and the percentage ranges from 2% to 80%. In other words, members of the discount group purchase goods through these links posted by the owner, and the group with the goods can get up to 80% of the order transaction amount.
At the same time, Black revealed to Ran Caijing that the profits of more well-known brands will be relatively low, and those with high profits are almost all brands that have not been heard of. The sales of these products generally receive at least 60% commissions, the highest It can reach 80%. In addition, sales of cosmetics, training industries, liquor, imported wine and those jade products can account for up to 80% of the order.
Of course, in addition to the sales share brought by the designated product link, the owner of the goods can clearly see which products consumers have viewed after entering through a single link and which products have finally been ordered. As long as it is a commodity with a commission on the whole site, after the transaction, it will be divided into the owner of the goods. The sales from a specific link may only account for 20% of the total sales, and the rest are from other products, but these commissions are relatively small, about 1% to 2%.
Black said that he used 4 days to bring traffic to JD.com, made more than 10,000 yuan in sales, and made nearly 400 yuan, and this is still the cost of this platform after deducting 30% of the platform fee. If you are a conscientious person who carries goods, it should be easy to make five or six thousand yuan a month. “If it is a special account or an official account, there should be more.”
Mo Cangli told Ran Finance and Economics that these behaviors in the current discount group are actually a kind of disguised online advertising, which is divided into accounts based on click effects.
A place where merchants fight for traffic
Mo Cangli told Ran Caijing that wool group is actually a very mature business model, which is mainly composed of e-commerce platforms, agencies and promoters (Group owner) constitute.
In 2007, in order to better communicate with merchants and consumers, Taobao established Alimama to help merchants promote. In return, merchants will pay a certain percentage of commissions to Taobao customers according to the transaction amount. This is also the original Taobao customer model .
Today, Taobao, an 11-year-old Taobao customer, has evolved from simply shopping online to being active on major Taobao websites and top e-commerce apps, and Taobao customers share via social channels The way of linking to make money further promoted the rapid development of the entire sharing discount group.
Shili Village, who is in charge of Shili Village and has many years of experience in e-commerce platform operators, analyzed in his article that there are many ways to be a Taoist, such as rebate robots, merchants, Taoke, rebate tools, Taoke agent APP, shaking Yintaoke and so on. However, due to WeChat’s continuous banning of accounts in the past two years, coupled with the impact of social e-commerce, many people have turned to Taoke agent APP.
CC told Ran Caijing that nowadays, being a discount group owner does not need to search for discount information on the whole network by himself, but only needs to register an APP to obtain various discount information. “If others register through the invitation code shared by themselves, they can also get a few dollars of new rewards.”
After Ran Caijing downloaded the app mentioned by CC, I found that you can either place an order yourself or share it with others, regardless of the method, you can get certain discounts, namely sharing earning and buying rebates. . Ran Caijing tried to click on the links of several preferential products and jumped to e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, JD, and Pinduoduo.
It can be seen that the APP referred to by CC is essentially the Taoke agent APP.
Enter keywords such as “money saving”, “money saving artifact”, “coupon” and other keywords in the app store, and you will find everything similar to this app. Some of these platforms carry the slogan of “small commission, big dream”, and some of them have tempting introductory phrases such as “find Taobao hidden coupons with one click”, “walk once and earn once”.
Part of the money-saving rebate app, burn finance and economics
Official data show that the Taobao Alliance, established in April 2010, has formed a mature business model in terms of social ecology, content ecology, and e-commerce shopping guides.Continue to share preferential product links through group promotion, Moments sharing, and public account push. Among the many rebate discount agency platforms, Miyuan, Huadaiji, Meiguan, Fanxiang Life, Money Saving and other products are all agents of Taobao Alliance, and their annual income has exceeded 1 billion yuan.
In addition, Hanna, Simba, Zhengshan Beef and other Internet celebrity anchors have all become the masters of the alliance, and have more than 50 content cooperation platforms such as B station, Kuaishou, Douyin, and Weibo.
Official data from Taobao Alliance show that as of Double Eleven in 2019, the number of employees in this field has exceeded 10 million, and they are mainly students, mothers and white-collar workers.
In addition to Taobao, Pinduoduo also has a “Promotion of making money, buying and saving money” Duoduo Jinbao. On the homepage of Toto Jinbao, the commission for goods can reach up to 90%. After the shared goods are purchased, they will get double commissions. The commissions generated by the new recruits who purchase goods within one year are owned by individuals. At the same time, it also claimed that the platform does not draw any fees to maximize profits, and as many commissions as the products launched can be withdrawn.
JD.com owns the Jingtiaoke launched by the JD Alliance. Its essence is no different from Taobao. It is also a mechanism to help e-commerce promotion. JD Alliance users use their own resources to share product links to earn commissions. Ran Caijing found through its official website that Hua Diary Diary, 劵Mom, Bigou, Nectar, Jijimeow, what is worth buying, and rebates are all its partners.
Tianyan Check data shows that there are 1565 items with “rebate discounts” in product labels. In terms of regional distribution, Guangdong Province has 337 related items, accounting for the highest proportion. Beijing and Shanghai have respectively 161 related items. 145, ranking second and third. Judging from the year of establishment, the number of related projects established every year since 2014 has exceeded 100, of which 2018 was the most, with a total of 213 establishments. Since 2020, a total of 46 related companies have been newly registered.
It is worth noting that 122 of these projects have received financing, a total of 22 products have completed the angel round, and a total of 31 products in the A round.
Among them, Meituan can be regarded as the originator of the “rebate discount” world; the nationwide saving money purchase is Xiaomi’s shopping rebate product. Wool Save Money is a rebate product of Meiyou’s Taoke. Since its establishment in November 2013, Wool Save Money has completed 8 rounds of financing. There are many investors from Jingwei China, Huaxing Venture Capital, Cathay Capital and other well-known investment institutions.
Mo Cangli told Ran Caijing that there are many types of online advertising settlement models. Traditional online advertising generally uses impressions.(CPM) or registration/purchase behavior billing (CPA), and the method of wool group is actually according to Sales billing (CPS). In this model, since the sales are only divided according to the agreement, and the sales cannot be reached, the risks are minimized for the advertiser.
This also explains one of the reasons for the rise of the wool model: The online advertising that traditional e-commerce relies on is settled by CPA and CPM, which is not cheap anymore. The main reason is that buying advertising is too expensive and CPM , CPA is easy to fake.
During the rise of e-commerce, due to the large number of new user bonuses, the cost of advertising for a new registered user was as low as a few cents. Now many categories require more than 100 yuan for advertising to attract a new user.
At the same time, the cost advantages of e-commerce companies over physical stores have become questionable. Although physical stores need to pay rent, they do not need to pay e-commerce platform fees, and the traffic cost is relatively small.
In this case, there is a social e-commerce company that splits accounts by sales (CPS).
As Mo Cangli said, with the rise of social e-commerce, major e-commerce platforms need to obtain traffic through multiple channels. At the same time, e-commerce companies with Pinduoduo are constantly tapping and sinking market traffic, and Taobao and JD must also fight.
In other words, most of the so-called flocks are actually a type of social e-commerce. But no matter what kind of rebate, no matter which platform it is, the ultimate goal is to make you spend more money.
The so-called wool comes out of the sheep, what you stalk is the platform, but what you spend is your own real money.
In the text, Xiao Xiaoer, Mo Cangli, CC, and Black are all pseudonyms.