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Pinduoduo is heating up the price war during China’s 618 shopping festival by providing sellers with a tool to quickly adjust the cost of goods

Posted on by darion

The innovative system Pinduoduo rolled out on Wednesday provides sellers on the platform with a fast and smart way to “keep pace (pricing strategy) with competitors,” according to a Thursday report by Chinese digital media DoNews.

For example, the report shows that the system will automatically adjust its user’s online prices whenever it finds a competitive seller offering lower prices.

According to system screenshots posted by Pinduoduo sellers on Chinese social media, subscribers can set a specific range according to which the system will adjust the price of the goods. The system will operate until June 21, i.e. until the end of the Pinduoduo 618 sales campaign.
Pinduoduo’s automated price tracking system is expected to give sellers on the platform a competitive advantage during this year’s 618 shopping festival. Photo: Shutterstock
Pinduoduo’s latest initiative reflects the escalating price war among Chinese e-commerce service providers facing slowdown in retail sales.
ByteDance-property Douyin According to Chinese media reports, internal tests of a similar intelligent pricing system for sellers have recently begun.
These moves show how online shopping platform operators want to increase sales during the 618 shopping festival relatively calm course in 2023. All major domestic e-commerce players are expected to offer heavy discounts and cash subsidies.
Festival initiated by, among others, JD.com in 2010, it began as a simple promotion to celebrate the company’s anniversary on June 18. Since then, the event has become the second largest shopping event in the country Singles’ Day in the fourth quarter.

Pinduoduo launched its 618-product sales campaign on May 19, but has yet to release any sales figures.

618 shopping festival promotion advertisement on Alibaba Group Holding’s Tmall platform at a Shanghai metro station. Photo: Bloomberg
Alibaba Group Holding, which launched its promotions on May 20, touted last week that 59 brands on its platforms recorded gross merchandise value (GMV), or the total amount of goods sold, of more than 100 million yuan ($13.8 million), while 376 products recorded GMV exceed 10 million yuan. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.

Meanwhile, JD.com launched its 618th promotion on Friday evening.

Alibaba Taobao Group and Tmall updated the price guarantee feature on their devices apps for this year’s event, allowing consumers to receive a refund of price differences until July 5 if they find further discounts online after making a purchase.

In 2021, Pinduoduo became the first major e-commerce platform to introduce a returns policy that allowed users to get their money back without returning goods that did not match the seller’s description. This policy is credited with helping Pinduoduo lure more price-sensitive Chinese consumers away from its competitors.