Recently, luxury clothing brand Ralph Lauren from the United States has made it to the social media hot search list in a special way. The reporter noticed that there are reports that during the "Double 11" period on Taobao, the GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) of Ralph Lauren Tmall store exceeded 1.6 billion yuan, but the return rate reached an astonishing 95%. Originally, many consumers added Ralph Lauren products in order to make up for the full discount, and after successful payment, they chose to return them to the merchant through instant refund or "seven day no reason refund".
The thing I want to buy is only worth a little over a thousand yuan, but the 88VIP coupon requires an actual payment of 5000 yuan to get 400 yuan off. So I added a Ralph Lauren women's clothing priced at over 4000 yuan to the car purchase and successfully made up the bill. After that, I chose to refund in seconds, which made the thing I wanted a few hundred yuan cheaper, "Ms. Jia, a consumer, told reporters.
In response to this matter, Taobao customer service stated that they have noticed the situation of combined returns. Ralph Lauren official has not responded to the public as of press time.
The reporter noticed that multiple e-commerce platforms announced their revenue performance for the second round of "Double 11" on November 1st, and data from Taobao and Tmall also received attention. According to Tmall data, since the launch of "Double 11", the platform has accumulated 373 brands with transactions exceeding 100 million yuan. Among them, the platform also specifically mentioned the consumption potential and performance contribution of 88VIP. As of 24:00 on October 31, the number of 88VIP members placing orders for purchases increased by over 60% year-on-year, and the per capita purchase amount increased by over 30% year-on-year.
Behind the high growth of Taobao, public opinion has also begun to pay attention to the issue of high return rates behind GMV. It is reported that during the Double 11 period, Taotian used cross store full discounts combined with 88VIP large full discounts to drive user consumption growth, but also led to a large number of returns for bundled products. The high return rate has even begun to "backstab" some merchants, and the high growth data of Taotian's Double 11 has raised doubts.
Taobao has launched the "Double 11" full discount mechanism as usual, including "cross store full 300 minus 50", and for 88VIP members, it has launched large full discount coupons such as "full 7000 minus 560" and "3000 minus 240". But this full discount mechanism has been precisely utilized by some consumers, and many social platforms even have "full discount tips" strategies. Among them, products such as Ralph Lauren with a unit price of over a thousand yuan and quick returns and refunds are regarded by many netizens as "miracle tools" for making up large discounts.
According to previous media reports, on the first wave of final payment day of Taobao's "Double 11" shopping festival, products from Ralph Lauren's official flagship store were suddenly sold out in large quantities. Knitted shirts that cost around 1980 yuan each have been purchased by thousands of people. By the last hour, even socks priced at 270 yuan per pair showed 'sold out'.
The reporter noticed that Ralph Lauren is not the only victim, and some brands with sufficient inventory and fast after-sales refunds have also become the choice of many users when making small orders. Uniqlo briefly shut down its fast refund channel due to a surge in refund users. Phoenix Finance previously reported that Taobao's high return rate once crushed a seven year old store.
Some merchants told reporters that during the big promotion period, if they do not cooperate with the platform, there will be no traffic, but if they cooperate with the platform's game rules and cannot make money, it has become a high probability event in recent years. If the damage is under long-term pressure on the platform, choosing to leave is also forced and helpless.
Industry insiders have analyzed that during the big promotion period, the full reduction of orders has always been controversial. Users gather orders to enjoy discounts, screen suitable products, go to great lengths, and even have to be forced to purchase products they don't really need. After the platform tacitly allowed refunds, although the "first gather and then refund" policy increased the GMV during the big promotion period and made the transaction numbers very brilliant and beautiful, in reality, not only were users exhausted, but also the merchants who were selected as "order gathering tools" were harmed.