What is the current development status of community group buying?

In recent years, the continuous emergence of group buying websites has aroused people's attention and discussion on online group buying. Online group buying websites based on e-commerce are sought after by more and more consumers, which also brings new opportunities for online marketing activities of enterprises. Therefore, the construction and future of group buying websites have become the focus of many businesses. This paper analyzes the present situation and characteristics of group buying websites, puts forward some optimization measures for the problems existing in group buying websites, such as single mode, lack of honesty and vicious competition among websites, and briefly analyzes the future development trend of group buying websites. I hope that group buying websites will go further and develop healthily in the e-commerce era.

Keywords: group buying website; Current situation; tactics

abstract

In recent years. The emerging group buying websites have aroused people's attention and discussion on online group buying. Online group buying websites based on e-commerce are more and more sought after by consumers, and at the same time, they also bring new opportunities for online marketing activities of enterprises. Therefore, the construction and future of the website has become the focus of many businesses. This paper analyzes the present situation and characteristics of group buying websites, and in view of the problems existing in group buying networks, such as single mode, lack of honesty, vicious competition and so on, puts forward some measures to optimize the websites, and briefly analyzes the future development trend of the websites. I hope that the group buying network will go further and develop healthily in the era of e-commerce.

Keywords: group buying websites, current situation, strategies

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catalogue

1 Introduction

In recent years, the continuous emergence of group buying websites has aroused people's attention and discussion on online group buying. Online group buying websites based on e-commerce are sought after by more and more consumers, which also brings new opportunities for online marketing activities of enterprises. This paper analyzes the present situation and characteristics of group buying websites, and the common problems of group buying websites, such as single mode, lack of honesty, vicious competition between websites, etc., puts forward some optimization measures, and briefly analyzes the future development trend of group buying websites. I hope that group buying websites will go further and develop healthily in the e-commerce era.

2 the status quo of China group buying websites

Nowadays, prices are soaring, and people's consumption consciousness and behavior are becoming more and more rational. Good quality and cheap goods have always been the ultimate goal pursued by consumers. This is the purpose of the development of group buying websites. Now, the once booming group buying is ebbing. From the Thousand Regiments War two years ago to the private houses of Internet giants, the phenomenon of "getting rich overnight" by group buying bosses is not a case, which also shows that the development of this industry is generally in trouble, it is difficult to continue to burn money, and it is urgent to find new development paths. Only by changing the existing profit model and moving towards specialization can group buying websites bring considerable benefits and long-term development to consumers, enterprises and websites themselves.

2. 1 the concept and category of group buying

Group buying is a business model based on network. By gathering enough people through the group buying website, you can buy or use the goods, coupons or services of third-party companies at preferential prices. Sellers make small profits but quick turnover, buyers save money with discounts, and companies that operate group buying websites charge sellers commissions. This concept has appeared in the forum. In recent years, group buying is no longer an independent behavior between some forums and some netizens, but a series of specialized group buying websites.

In this network era, online shopping has become the most sought after shopping method for young people. Although the income is not high, the pursuit of high-quality life has become a remarkable feature of young people. Now many websites are grasping this point, calling for "saving money is the last word" to attract more young people to join the group buying army.

2.2 In today's development of group buying websites

The data shows that the overall transaction scale of China group buying market reached 23.7 billion yuan in 20021year, and reached 34.885 billion yuan in 2022, an increase of 93% compared with 20021year. In 2023, the total transaction volume of the national group buying market reached 53.289 billion yuan. According to the statistics of Tuan800, as of March 2023, the turnover of the group buying market in China reached 4.83 billion yuan. 85 1 10,000 issues are on sale, which is 36,000 more than the historical peak (currently 201910.5 million issues). In the same period, the popular websites in China counted their sales, among which Meituan.com, Dianping.com and Baidu glutinous rice had the highest turnover. It can be regarded as a group buying website with high national recognition. The huge group buying turnover has handed in a beautiful "answer sheet" for the group buying industry.

However, behind the gratifying achievements, there are also the sadness of their respective enterprises. 20 19 On February 25th, Baidu and Renren.com signed an agreement, which stated that Baidu would acquire all the shares of Renren.com and become the company's wholly-owned major shareholder. Among them, Alibaba's shareholding ratio is between 10% and 15%. According to the statistics of E-commerce Research Center, by the end of 20021,there were 870 group buying websites in China, and 5376 websites were closed, reaching 86%. It is expected that the scale of group buying websites will be greatly reduced in the future. Due to the lack of operation of group buying websites, some analysts pointed out that group buying websites are slowly withdrawing from the market.

2.3 The main consumer groups of group buying websites

As a new online shopping mode, it set off a new consumption boom after entering China. For group buying developed on the basis of Internet and e-commerce, its consumer groups-young people and middle-aged people-are more willing to accept this new consumption pattern. The main force of online group buying is young people aged 24-38, which is very common in some economically developed cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi and Xiamen, among which consumers aged 20-29 account for 49.52%. Internet users aged 30-39 account for 31.92%; /kloc-netizens under the age of 0/9 account for 8.56%. On the whole, post-80s pay more attention to group buying. There are many reasons, among which economic purchasing power is the main reason, because in group buying websites, consumers generally get discounts ranging from 6% to 45% according to the number of people who buy and order products, followed by the degree of network use and attention to new things, as well as the influence of many factors such as consumption concepts. Among netizens who pay attention to group buying, the number of female netizens is slightly higher than that of male netizens, because women are more enthusiastic about shopping.

2.4 The main characteristics of group buying websites

2.4. 1 Price advantage of group buying website products.

The core advantage of group buying website is that the price of goods is more favorable. The nature of group buying is equivalent to wholesale, and the group buying price is equivalent to wholesale price. Through the platform of group buying website, consumers can take the initiative to assemble the evacuated purchased goods into a big deal. According to the principle of large quantity and excellent price, consumers can dominate the market and increase their bargaining chips with merchants. Therefore, consumers can buy the same quality products through the platform of group buying website, but pay lower prices and enjoy better services. Moreover, online shopping is not limited by time and space, which is more convenient and faster. Therefore, this way of spending less money and getting the same services and products is more sought after by sexual consumers, because this advantage is more attractive than ordinary online shopping.

2.4.2 There are many kinds of group buying websites.

The popularity of the group buying industry has stimulated the participation of the domestic Internet industry to some extent. At present, the types of group buying websites in the industry mainly include:

1, B2C self-built group buying platform: such as Taobao Juhua, JD.COM Mall group buying, etc.

2. Group buying channels opened by classified information websites: such as 58 group purchase, public comment group and Aituan.

3. Group buying platforms built by portals: such as Netease Headnet, Sina Group, Sohu Aijia Group, QQ Group, etc.

4. Group buying services launched by social networking sites: such as Happy Group Buying on Kaixin.com and Glutinous Rice on Renren.com;

5. Independent group buying websites: such as Handan.com, Meituan.com and 24 coupons;

6. Group purchase navigation websites: such as group 800, group spelling network and 360 group purchase navigation;

7. Group buying websites built by industry websites: for example, HC Group under HC Network.

2.4.3 Group buying websites are highly competitive.

Group-buying websites have experienced a series of developments since the establishment of the United States on March 4, 2020, such as capital darling, thousand-regiment war, malicious competition, IPO crash, shortage of funds, layoffs, intensive cultivation, mobile spring and so on. Today, the homogenization competition of a large number of websites has intensified. The technical and financial thresholds of group buying websites are relatively low. From its birth in 2020 to 202 1, the number of group buying websites soared to more than 5,000, with an average of 6-7 group buying websites born every day. Homogeneous competition also led to the "Thousand Regiments War". However, behind the fierce competition of group buying websites is an embarrassing profit dilemma. Group buying enterprises, including group buying giants, need huge funds to complete the preparatory work in the early stage if they want to survive. Therefore, in the short term, it is difficult for enterprises that want to attract consumers at low prices to make profits with high-cost investment. In order to win more market share, many websites have invited endorsements and advertisements to attract users with ultra-low prices and reduce rebates, but most websites have not achieved the expected results, such as 202650. "Kaixin. com" also contracted the front lines of third-and fourth-tier cities; In August, "Gaopeng. com", which Tencent cooperated with Groupon, laid off 400 people, removed the 13 site and implemented the so-called strategic layoffs. Vicious competition often occurs between group buying websites. When one company launches an activity, another company will soon launch an activity with similar content but lower price. Even some merchants who participate in group buying activities will find some people to buy their own products on the group buying network, so as to enhance their popularity and attract more consumers to buy. This behavior has undoubtedly caused many adverse effects on the market order. At the same time, for venture capital companies, the development status of group buying enterprises is not satisfactory, which will make them more cautious when investing in group buying enterprises, which will undoubtedly reduce the investment channels, so the number of enterprises that can obtain financing will also accelerate, and some small group buying websites will inevitably be merged or withdrawn from the market. Now it seems that perhaps only a few thriving group buying websites can finally survive.

3 Group buying website problems

From people's enthusiasm for group buying websites when they appeared to their closeness to Internet giants today, they have gradually become the private land of Internet giants, which shows us the problems existing in the development of group buying websites.

3. 1 mode is single and unattractive.

Take Meituan as an example, the types of businesses on its website platform are mainly catering, leisure and entertainment, and the cooperation between websites and businesses is very limited. The website is just a platform to provide preferential information about goods. There are not many resources that can be tapped and utilized upstream and downstream, which is not enough to attract more merchants to participate in the website. Looking back at the products provided by other group buying websites, nearly 90% are services, among which the catering and entertainment industry is the main product, indicating that other businesses do not pay much attention to the platform provided by group buying websites.

Most domestic group buying websites simply imitate western countries, and there is not much innovation. Moreover, the products and services launched by group buying websites are basically small consumption, mostly less than 100 yuan. The overall trading volume of the website is limited, which makes enterprises lack sufficient funds for industrial innovation and upgrading. On the other hand, it also reflects the problems of the website itself. The services provided by group buying websites are very simple. The services provided by group buying websites are mainly in the form of coupons or price discounts, and there is no more attractive way to guide consumers to spend.

At present, the three major group buying websites mainly introduce websites to consumers by traditional marketing methods such as email and SMS. In the short term, this marketing method has low cost and strong profitability, but it has small radiation area and low influence, and is easy to learn from and imitate. Group buying products are similar, which leads to homogenization. The word-of-mouth of consumers is the most important means of promotion, but the products sold by the three major group buying websites are similar, without focusing on consumers' preferences and consumption tendencies, so the marketing means have not been effectively promoted.

The three major group buying platforms all have various harsh conditions for the use of group buying cards and coupons, such as avoiding the peak of use such as holidays during the consumption process, unable to refund the online seat selection of movies, unable to make an appointment when KTV rooms are full, and unable to meet the conditions of "refund within seven working days at most". At the same time, the three major group buying websites all have poor customer service attitude and despise consumer complaints. The phenomenon of "kicking the ball" after sale is prominent, and the rigid service model cannot flexibly deal with the problems reflected by consumers, which makes users once question the integrity of domestic group buying websites.

In the final analysis, the competition in the market is the competition of talents. If an enterprise wants to achieve long-term development, managers must always observe the changes in the market, make agile responses, tap potential markets and ensure the stable operation of the platform. But the three major group buying websites still lack such compound talents. For example, in March of 20 10, when independent group buying websites were launched one after another, the senior management team of public comment did not take action; 20 10 June, when the public comment launched the group buying business, its slow action made it fall behind in the list of group buying websites.

3.2 Lack of good faith

Group buying websites are also a form of online shopping, so there are also some problems in the process of online shopping. Among them, the credit crisis is the biggest problem in the environment of e-commerce. All enterprises display in a virtual way online, and of course it is easy to appear false information. In the case that virtual goods must be paid, some unscrupulous merchants take advantage of this to conduct online fraud. There are many problems such as the seller's untimely delivery, no refund after the transaction fails, and no person in charge can be found after the sale. There are also inferior quality of group-buying goods, false information provided by merchants online, difficulty in refunding dissatisfied goods, and fake news hype, which make consumers more cautious and distrustful of group-buying websites. For example, Gaopeng.com, which claimed that 100% of its sales were genuine, was found to be suspected of selling counterfeit Tissot watches in 2021/kloc-0, and was investigated for legal responsibility by the industrial and commercial authorities. The lack of integrity of group buying websites has become a common phenomenon in the e-commerce industry.

When the group buying website was first established, it focused on helping offline merchants make full use of idle services, but now it maintains a low-cost-driven operation state and fails to implement the quality of products and services of merchants. In addition, due to the lack of an overall trial mechanism and clear policies and regulations, the service level of the whole industry is uneven. When a transaction dispute occurs, the industry lacks effective methods to solve the problem, and the disadvantages of the group buying model are increasingly prominent.

3.3 Market Risk

The emergence of group buying is mainly because people pursue better and cheaper goods, so the price is a sensitive and concerned issue for consumers. Many consumers who participate in group buying mainly come from discounts on goods, so it is difficult for consumers to remain loyal to a particular group buying website. Once other websites offer more favorable prices, users will easily betray them. For enterprises, in order to gain more market share and market share, it is necessary to provide more attractive prices than other enterprises, which will inevitably lead to the intensification of industry competition and the reduction of profits, and can also be regarded as a relatively passive intervention in the price war between enterprises. With the intensification of price competition, group buying websites themselves operate by offering high discounts. This, to a certain extent, makes the profits of merchants even more meager, which leads to the low enthusiasm, initiative and service quality of merchants participating in group buying activities, and makes it more difficult to retain consumers.

On the one hand, e-commerce is a sunrise industry in recent years, and the sudden emergence of group buying websites in a few years has made the gap between supply and demand of talents in the industry rapidly prominent. On the other hand, the group buying industry has higher requirements for professionals. They should not only be proficient in website operation, marketing, system management and other related skills, but also be good at understanding the subtle changes in the market and have certain emergency capabilities in order to be competent for related work within the enterprise. However, group buying websites do not pay attention to the recruitment and training of talents in the group buying industry.

4 China Group Buying Website Management Strategies and Suggestions

4. 1 mode innovation

4. 1. 1 business system innovation

In order to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, enterprises must find their own development model, which not only requires managers to change their consciousness, but also requires the innovation of internal business systems.

Nowadays, people's awareness of "group buying" is that merchants actively publish preferential information of some shops or commodities to attract consumers to place orders. In the future, it may develop into a consumer's initiative to "hold a group" to release some demand information, so as to actively compare the merchants providing products or services and choose the best. In the future, all kinds of possibilities will appear, which requires businesses to constantly change their inherent thinking patterns and innovate according to the actual situation. On the internal management platform of the merchant, it is constantly improved to make it more convenient and simple, such as; Business cooperation application, merchant information modification, customer reservation, customer evaluation, order processing, consultation and complaint handling, fund management, consumer reservation function, order processing and management function, group purchase goods resale, personal fund account, personal information modification and other operations not only facilitate merchants, but also let consumers know quickly.

Group buying websites lack innovation. Due to the entry and exit threshold and low operating costs, many enterprises are eager to try and start pouring into this industry. Just by rough copying and pasting, they are similar in page layout, appearance design, profit model and even products. The same marketing method and similar operation mode are difficult to form industry barriers, which will inevitably attract consumers' attention at low prices. As a result, market share and customer loyalty decline, making it difficult to maintain business advantages.

4. 1.2 Find the right position and innovate in marketing

Not only in the traditional business field, businesses need to find their own uniqueness to attract consumers, and group buying websites need to find their own positioning if they want to pursue long-term development.

For example, "Taobao Juhua" is positioned as an experiential group purchase, providing value-added, fashionable and surprising group purchase goods; "Where to Go" mainly provides hotel group purchase and travel group purchase; Jumeiyoupin is positioned as a fashionable and high-quality cosmetics group buying website in China, providing genuine cosmetics, skin care and beauty products with high value. "Treasure. Com "selects local boutique businesses such as food, hairdressing, KTV, cinemas and spas for consumers in 368 cities across the country, and launches various boutique group purchases every day; Meituan. Com serves all major cities in China, providing consumers with various local consumption such as food, entertainment, wedding photography, beauty salons and so on. , as low as 65,438+0 fold. These enterprises, which focus on their own unique business advantages, have established a good website brand image in consumers' minds, helping consumers to understand their core differences, thus gathering target users and moving towards prosperity.

4. 1.3 profit model innovation

At present, the main profit model of group buying websites depends on advertising revenue and transaction commission to increase revenue, and new profit models can also be created, such as direct selling of goods (in the name of "group buying", direct selling of goods is provided directly on the website, and the source of goods can go in by itself or cooperate with merchants to sell on a commission basis) membership card (learning from the means of offline merchants to retain customers, enhancing users' "identity" in the form of membership card, further preferential treatment and enhancing customer stickiness) and sub-station joining (learning from the traditional economy). At the same time, as a business, we should actively explore our own profit model.

4. 1.4 Key resource innovation

A. Innovation in website design: Group buying was born with the help of the market demand of local life service in essence, and it has certain regional characteristics, so we can use more subdivided administrative regions or geographical locations to dynamically launch group buying products. For example, "thousands of products. Com is committed to providing users with a service that can live anywhere and anytime according to their location, wishes, preferences and other factors.

Selected platform. Mobile phone client software launched by Handan. Com can dynamically search out the group purchase preferential information of surrounding businesses according to the location where the smart phone logs in.

B. Innovation of customer resource model: First, use existing customer resources to carry out business. For example, some websites popular with netizens have a large number of registered users, who can serve as the basis of customer resources. Second, subdivide the market, explore new markets, and gradually cultivate their own customer resources.

4.2 Establish a credit mechanism and rectify the market order.

At present, China's online consumption legislation is not perfect, so it is necessary to strengthen and improve the legislation of group buying websites to better regulate the online group buying market.

4.2. 1 Enterprises strengthen their own construction

Group buying websites and businesses is the most important reason for establishing an honest environment, because self-discipline must be strengthened. Ensure that the products or services published on the website are consistent and true with the description, do a series of work before and after sales, and improve the after-sales related guarantee services.

4.2.2 Consumers should improve their awareness of self-protection.

Consumers should carefully choose merchants when spending, do not blindly pursue low prices, try to choose websites with good reputation and credit, carefully place orders, compare more, read website descriptions carefully, and shop rationally to prevent being cheated. After consumption, you should also keep the consumption voucher in time to prevent the after-sales problem from being solved, or to protect your rights when the service is not satisfactory.

4.2.3 Establish and improve relevant laws.

The governance of dishonesty needs the constraints of laws and regulations. Relevant government departments should establish a set of laws, regulations, systems, norms, norms and punishment mechanisms for dishonesty, and strengthen relevant supervision. Clarify the legal responsibilities of merchants and group buying websites through laws and regulations and supporting institutional mechanisms, and the auditing mechanism for merchants must be strict. Vocational qualification examinations in specific industries need to be specific, and the entry and exit mechanisms should be improved.

4.3 Enhance sticky consumption

Most users of group buying websites go for various discounts, and they may not get the second time after the first time. The return rate is too low, so merchants can't keep customers and can't get long-term benefits.

As a group buying website, you need to know what the consumer's consumption focus is and where the dissatisfaction is, such as complaints about all aspects of the product. As a website, this platform can not only simply answer customers' questions, but also choose solutions to specific problems and deal with consumers' dissatisfaction in time, thus attracting consumers to shop again.

In order to enhance the user's stickiness, the website should aim at its specific target customers, consider product selection and website content, provide humanized services, improve the added value of the website and attract consumers' attention.

5 development prospects of group buying websites

The group buying industry is difficult to realize and the cost is high. The intervention of internet giants is also a new development model, which not only solves the fund problem of group buying development, but also helps to establish industry rules and further promote the orderly development of the industry. But as the website itself, if you don't want to buy it, you can also try to "change" yourself.

5. 1 business specialization

The professional online group buying market has accurate business positioning and single service, and the brand of the website is deeply branded and easily remembered by consumers. Jumeiyoupin is positioned as a fashionable and high-quality cosmetics group buying website in China, providing genuine cosmetics, skin care and beauty products with high value. Although the products of the website are single, the sales terminal of the website can still be guaranteed as long as there are a large number of consumers.

5.2 Promotion model to upgrade to sustainable business model

Group buying websites no longer take low price as their core competitiveness, create their own new profit model and focus on the future in business strategy.

5.3 Vertical development

At present, the existing models of group buying websites are mostly comprehensive, and the services provided by the website platform include every little detail of food, clothing, housing and transportation and going out to play. It is a strategic measure for group buying websites to adapt to market competition to identify the target consumer groups in future market segments and derive a vertical group buying website platform for specific social groups.

5.4 Reduce the risk of "burning money"

At the beginning of its establishment, most local group-buying websites adopted the strategy of "scale first and then profit". When the market share is high enough, they can set their own prices. In recent years, the group buying industry has invested a lot of venture capital and development capital at an alarming rate, and a number of new members have emerged rapidly. However, due to the inability to recover the first investment in time, they were forced to cut costs, expand their scale and increase their appeal to customers. Because many websites are competing for potential customers, they would rather lose money than rob them, resulting in reduced profits. According to relevant data, the gross profit margin of the whole group buying market is between 4% and 9%, and some are even less. In many related industries, there will be similar situations, because their products are standardized, coupled with their own advantages, so they will spend more money in this regard. But the difference is that the group buying platform on public comment focuses on the combination of high frequency and low frequency. For example, for their overall income, the most important thing is the wedding, which is a very low-frequency service expenditure. Hungry, Kutuan.com, Manzuo.com and other small and medium-sized group buying websites are all means to fight against these three crazy money-burning, and that is to unite. Both sides can enjoy resources and gradually expand their business scope, just like LivingSocial in the United States, which started from a little-known "Hunger Machine" consulting company. But they have been changing and merging other companies.

5.5 Enlightenment to China Group Buying Website

Group buying websites in China have developed rapidly. By March of 20021year, there were as many as 3,600 group buying websites in China.

There are not only the reasons of listed companies themselves and intermediaries, but also the reasons of the system regulating listing behavior and the government agencies as "referees". As a regulatory body, the CSRC often plays the image of "being wise after the event". Enterprises want to go public for audit, just look at the report instead of field research, and so on. It is extremely irresponsible to put all the responsibility on the company itself and the intermediary structure, but stay out of it and inform the public of the case.

The profit model of group buying mainly includes product sales, advertising fees, commercial service fees, transaction fees, franchise fees and so on. Their business, one is to control the real world materials, the other is to control the news, and their profits are often earned through different prices. In the long run, a successful group buying website will gradually become the core of many users' consumption habits, and will accumulate a certain degree of resource data, which will be gradually released through this center, encouraging more and more third-party developers to develop more and more exciting services, and making the entire business ecosystem more prosperous. In recent years, group buying network has invested a lot of venture capital and development funds, and a large number of novices have emerged rapidly. In the process of attracting customers, the cost of group buying is getting higher and higher. Dozens of websites are vying for a special target user. Some websites will lose money to compete for users. This fierce competition will make them earn more or even lose money. They invested the most money, but they haven't made any money yet, and the profit is absolutely negative. This shows that the future group buying market will become very difficult.

The combination of Meituan and Dianping is due to Baidu's 20 billion investment and some other factors, which is good for them. At the beginning, Dianping injected $80 million into Hungry, a large group buying platform, but now, both companies have become Tencent's allies. But if you are hungry, the competition for takeout with the US delegation is much fiercer than that of Dianping.com and the US delegation. Today is different. If you are hungry, you lose the opportunity to merge with other companies, compete with Meituan alone in the industry, and sometimes you may have to face the blow of public comments. This shows how fierce the competition between group buying websites in China is.

Concluding remarks

Since 2020, group buying has entered its fifth year in China. After the previous upsurge, the group buying market is facing a reshuffle. Whether relying on Internet giants to establish industry rules, further promoting the orderly development of the industry, or maintaining independent operation, finding new ways and opening up new models are all positive measures for group buying websites to cope with market changes. The massive reduction of group-buying websites does not mean that the group-buying market has no future, which indicates that under the background of a new round of capital, technology and traffic, a new round of competition is about to become fierce in the business empire that each family is constantly building related to local life.