Text | Radar Finance, author | Kaijing Zhang, Editor | Deep
The trend online shopping community with a high concentration of young people was named by CCTV.
According to CCTV news reports, recently, the Shanghai Municipal Supervision Bureau conducted random inspections of 6 types of goods such as baby clothing, adult clothing, shoes, and accessories sold by 9 e-commerce live broadcast platforms, and found that 22 batches of 113 batches of samples were unqualified, with a failure rate of 19.5%. Among them, the highest spot check failure rate is the “Dewu” e-commerce platform, with a sampling failure rate of 50%.
In fact, Dewu has been named by the central media many times before, involving problems such as counterfeit and inferior goods, appraisal fees, and “sky-high sneakers”, which is also a stubborn problem in the identification and trading platform of second-hand sneakers such as Dewu.
In order to break the circle and change the stereotype of netizens as a “shoe fried platform”, Dewu is striving to extend to the layout of all categories in the field of trendy play. But the transition will not be easy. On the one hand, the trendy play categories involved in Dewu are easy to be labeled as “hype”, and not long ago, netizens snatched the Ling Na Belle Christmas limited edition key ring, which was sold for a high price of 1400 yuan in Dewu App; On the other hand, expanding categories requires platform supervision to keep up, and judging from the past experience, this is a challenge.
Dewu responded that the label description was unqualified, and the quality inspection engineer: clothing identification is very important
It is understood that the recent sampling inspection by the Shanghai Municipal Supervision Bureau involved a total of 96 brands of 6 types of products, in addition to the goods, the sampling failure rate of Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu was 40% and 28.6% respectively, and there were also some problems in the goods on e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Taobao or short video platforms. More than a quarter of adult clothing spot checks failed.
Specifically, according to its reply, the company received a test report from the testing agency on July 30, 2021, showing that the spot check involved four batches of four product samples, of which two products in two batches had unqualified items on the instructions for use (labels).
The first is the “men’s pocket logo short sleeve” sold by Shanghai Shakuma Technology Co., Ltd., which has incorrect specifications and wrong graphic symbols; The second is the “Back to the Future Black and White Plaid Down Jacket” sold by Hangzhou Black Star Garment Co., Ltd., the address, filling name, lint content and filling amount are not marked, the fiber composition of the lining material is not standardized, and the label is inconsistent with the label of the washing mark.
In response, Dewu responded that after verification, the two problematic products did not comply with the latest regulations in terms of identification and labeling, and the products had been removed from the shelves first. It said that according to the information provided by the brand owner, the physical and chemical indicators and safety of the product itself meet the national standards, and the inspection and sampling of the product identification will be strengthened in the future.
Radar Finance noted that the two national tide brands with problems this time are not idle, and both have considerable accumulation in the process of brand development, but the treatment given by the platform to the two brands after the incident seems to be different.
Tianyan inspection shows that Ulnar Technology was founded in 2014, and the company’s “Particle Fever” is positioned as a high-end sports technology brand, which has received 6 financings since its establishment, of which the amount of C round financing reached 100 million yuan.
In December 2021, Particle Fever also officially announced its global spokesperson as Zhou Xun, whose five stores are now located in Beijing SKP-S, Shanghai IPAM, Shanghai Taikoo Li Qiantan, Shanghai Pudong Kerry and Shenzhen Vientiane Tiandi, all of which are top high-end business districts, and are reported to have a valuation of more than 1 billion yuan.
Although Black Star Apparel has no financing experience, its trademark information and work copyright are highly related to the brand “KILLWINNER”. As early as 2018, Black Star Apparel has registered KILLWINNER’s trademark under the classification of clothing, shoes and hats.
From the cumulative sales of the statistics, the best product sold by KILLWINNER is “Back to the Future Graffiti Zipper Collar Thick Tricolor Down Jacket”, with a total of more than 110,000 payments, and the remaining 17 products have a cumulative payment of more than 20,000 people.
But at present, on the Dewu App, all Particle Fever products have been removed, but KILLWINNER is still live broadcasting.
It is worth mentioning that in response to this random inspection, an engineer from the National Silk and Clothing Products Quality Inspection Center pointed out, “Such products belong to three-nil products.” The so-called three-nil product refers to the product without the address and name of the manufacturer, and there is no certificate of conformity, and the three-nil product may appear to be of uneven quality, online shopping and the physical object obtained are inconsistent, and the chemical composition detected exceeds the standard, which may cause harm to the consumer’s skin and respiratory tract. ”
In addition, although the two brands were unqualified this time because of the logo, Zhang Dandan, another engineer of the National Silk and Clothing Products Quality Inspection Center, said: “The wrong or random labeling of clothing labels will deceive or mislead consumers.” “After all, if there is a quality problem in the product, the correct labeling of the logo can be used as evidence for consumer rights protection, and its importance cannot be underestimated.
Behind the unqualified goods, the inspection standards are a mystery
For the mode of selling goods, the customer service of the radar financial consulting platform learned that there are mainly two kinds of merchant sales and individual sellers selling idle. Customer service also emphasized that all goods sold on the platform will be inspected and identified to ensure that they are new and unused before they are sent.
This also makes netizens wonder, is the identification reliable? Can consumers trust the platform unconditionally?
Radar Finance has noticed that many users have recently lamented that more and more strange incidents have been encountered in the possession, and they are gradually losing the trust of heavy users of shoe circles.
In 2015, Yang Bing, co-founder of Tiger Pounce, founded the predecessor of Dewu – “Poison”, which was originally a platform with sneaker identification as the core to provide users with sneaker culture and trend information, but after the scale of users gradually climbed, “Poison” expanded the matching trading business.
In order to solve the problem of the flood of counterfeit goods in the sneaker market, Poison adopts the “first identification, then delivery” trading model, and it also has its own set of identification standards, that is, anti-counterfeiting four-piece sets: identification certificate, certified shoe buckles, packaging boxes and tapes, and goods with four sets are called “poisonous”, that is, identified as authentic.
While labeling “real shoes”, the goods also make a lot of money from them. It is understood that for each pair of shoes sold, 5 fees will be drawn in the middle: technical service fees, transfer fees, inspection fees, identification fees and packaging service fees, and the higher the price of sneakers, the higher the draw.
It has been reported that the total monthly GMV transaction volume of poison in 2018 has reached nearly 200 million yuan, and the company’s annual GMV in 2019 has reached 6-7 billion yuan. The significant increase in turnover has boosted the company’s valuation, which once exceeded US$1 billion after the Series A financing in April 2019.
But sneaker appraisers are always “metaphysics”. Some industry insiders familiar with sneaker identification said that you can start from the shoe box, and then look at the shoe label, the reverse side of the insole, the wiring in the shoe, etc., which involves a lot of professional knowledge. “The best sneaker appraiser I’ve ever met, take the shoe and smell it, and you can know the authenticity of the shoe.”
However, this methodology is not a test and panic. The industry-recognized classic shoe, the AJ6, which replicates the black and red color scheme, has had a large number of fakes entering the market without being identified. The reason is that fake shoe manufacturers use solid materials, genuine shoe midsoles are covered by plate making, unable to check the midsole routing and rubber injection holes are the key, and more appraisers are bought and participate in counterfeiting.
“There is still no 100% reliable identification standard, but in the absence of a perfect anti-counterfeiting solution from Nike and Adi, identifying shoes is currently recognized as the most reliable way to judge authenticity in the sneaker market.” An appraiser has revealed.
In this context, there have been many “overturns” of Dewu.
In June 2020, the China Consumers Association released the “618” Consumer Rights Protection Public Opinion Analysis Report, which pointed out that during the monitoring period, a total of 8,735 pieces of negative information related to the “Dewu App” were collected, mainly involving counterfeiting, appraisal fees, coupons and other issues. If consumers have reported that they bought defective shoes with a crooked toe on the right foot on the Dewu App, they therefore questioned the appraisal level of Dewu.
There are also sneaker sellers who bought shoes from the official website of Dewu and then sold them from Dewu, and finally showed that the appraisal could not be passed. “The conclusion of the appraisal is different on different dates, and this kind of appraisal is not reliable at all, and we lose a lot.”
This is true of sneakers backed by years of Sneaker culture, not to mention other trendy products other than sneakers.
In the first half of 2021, because of a Gucci belt, there was a tug-of-war between Dewu and Vipshop. At that time, after the consumer Mr. Guo bought a belt at Vipshop, it was identified as a fake on the Dewu platform, which caused heated discussions.
It is worth mentioning that the inspection and identification of China Certification and Inspection Group Shanghai Co., Ltd. issued by Dewu showed that the sample was false, but the identification result of China Certification and Inspection Group Guangdong Company issued by Vipshop showed that the sample was true. In the end, according to the judgment of the Guangzhou Internet Court, the Gucci belt provided by Vipshop was not counterfeit, and the reports given by platforms such as Dewu were not enough to prove that the goods were counterfeit.
If you want to break the game, it is still difficult to escape the circle of “hype”
How to improve the identification and supervision of goods, so as to enhance its credibility in the minds of consumers, is only one of the dilemmas facing Dewu at present. In the process of moving from a second-hand sneaker identification platform to a full-category platform in the field of trends, there are still many problems in front of the goods.
One of them is how to get out of the shadow of “fried shoes”. From shouting out “shoes are not fried” in 2019 to twice rushing to the hot search for fried shoes in 2021, although Dewu has repeatedly responded that “the price is the seller’s personal setting”, it is difficult to escape the suspicion of promoting fried shoes in the eyes of many industry insiders.
In order to change the platform attributes in the eyes of consumers, Dewu not only captures the young group, but also attracts a large number of brand merchants, celebrity Internet celebrities, and MCN agencies to settle in.
For example, in 2020, the trendy brand CANOTWAIT_ managed by Chen Weiting has officially settled in Dewu, and has chosen to launch the “summer special limited fly grass” series of clothing on the platform. Other celebrities such as Xue Zhiqian, Chen He, Lin Yun, Li Chen, Zhang Yixing, Yang Chao and other stars have also brought their brands to settle in, and many trendy new products also use Dewu as a launch platform.
However, after expanding the trendy play category, it is still difficult to change the nature of “speculation concentration camp”, as long as it is profitable, there will be merchants who will continue to push product prices to skyrocket.
At the end of 2021, Disney’s debut “Chuansha Daji” Ling Na Belle came out of the sky, and at the same time, the supply of Ling Na Belle’s surroundings on major e-commerce platforms exceeded the demand, and scalpers who smelled business opportunities took advantage of this to start the idea of Ling Na Belle’s limited model.
In the Dewu App, the Christmas limited Ling Na Belle and Christmas limited Ling Na Belle key rings just launched on December 12 are priced at 1929 yuan and 1729 yuan respectively, and the price of Ling Na Belle ordinary dolls is also 1259 yuan. Taking ordinary dolls as an example, their original price is only 219 yuan.
According to a trendy play seller, the bubble mart MEGA series “Molly 1000% Earth Daughter”, the original price of 4999 yuan, the price of the thing was once as high as 80,000 yuan, and now the model has been removed. The newly released “Molly 400% Earth Daughter” in 2021, the original price was 999 yuan, and the transaction price of the property was as high as 12,999 yuan in September 2021; Even if the market falls slightly by 2022, the price is still 6989 yuan as of press time.
OGs (elders) of the trendy game such as KAWS and BE@RBRICK Building Block Bear have a higher price tag in the getaway. Among them, a BE@RBRICK 2G empty mountain base called “Bear King” released in 2019, the offer price marked on the platform is 8,800 yuan, and the price in 2021 once exceeded 170,000, and the price has been close to 150,000 so far.
“Although the platform does not actively promote shoe speculation, it gives sellers ‘pricing freedom’, and also provides loan products for both parties to the transaction to stimulate consumption.” It’s hard to argue that platforms can stay completely out of the hype. A voice pointed out.
And the prevalence of hype is not a good thing for platforms trying to build long-term trust with young people. From the current situation, Dewuben has many urgent needs to be improved in supply chain management, logistics, product identification, etc., and its cumulative number of complaints in the black cat complaint platform has reached 120,000, far exceeding the general brand.
Can the future thing get rid of the “fried shoes” label and successfully break the circle? Radar Finance will continue to pay attention.