China-Singapore Jingwei, April 4th (Zhao Jiaran) "The clothes I bought in winter are approaching summer and have not yet shipped. Is the pre-sale a test of my loyalty to the store?" "Who said the customer is God? The current seller Yes!" Recently, the topic of pre-sale of Internet celebrity e-commerce has caused a lot of discussion, and many netizens said that they have gradually lost patience with pre-sale that can be seen everywhere.

  Is the pre-sale a helpless move of the merchants, or is it a loophole to pass the risk?

The lawyer said that unilaterally delaying the delivery or even not delivering the goods in the end is a serious breach of contract.

In this regard, the industry recommends further strengthening supervision and smooth complaint channels.

The winter sweater has not been received in the spring, how troublesome is the super long pre-sale?

  The term "pre-sale", as the name implies, refers to the fact that consumers need to pay in advance for the product before it goes on sale, and merchants will not start production and ship the product until the pre-sale reaches a certain amount.

On the increasingly convenient and fast e-commerce platform, the practice of pre-sale was originally limited to some complicated products, but recently the phenomenon of pre-sale has become more and more intense.

  The "post-95" white-collar Yue Shan admitted that after several super-long pre-sale, she has blocked the word "pre-sale" from her online shopping career.

  "I placed an order for a top on an e-commerce platform on March 2, and the sales interface did not display the word pre-sale, but after paying for it, it showed 'Shipment on April 1'. After waiting for a while, I saw that the merchant did If there is no delivery, I will refund the money. The spring in Beijing is very short. If you have to wait a month to receive the goods, you will have to press the bottom of the box if you don’t wear it a few times.” Yue Shan said that the pre-sale experience she has experienced is limited. A week or two, or more than two months.

"This situation has directly caused my enthusiasm for online shopping to be greatly reduced."

  Bao Ma Qianqian encountered many pre-sale situations when buying clothes for her children.

"I bought a small skirt through a WeChat applet in January, but it was written that it would be shipped in April." Qianqian said that due to the long pre-sale time and the rapid changes in children's sizes, many parents are unsure about pre-ordering The size of the clothes, and some merchants are still marked in the pre-sale, "If there is no inventory, we will not accept any code change requests after delivery due to delays."

"For some handmade works, this is almost a consensus in the circle, and many merchants will put forward many requirements."

  It is understood that the products currently sold online have different labels for pre-sale.

Some merchants clearly mark the product title, some attach a line of small characters to the product description, some note the delivery time when adding to the shopping cart, and the most difficult for consumers to accept is to display the delivery date after payment. , and even change the delivery time again and again.

  "If the pre-sale time is clearly informed in advance, I can still accept it, but if the pre-sale is not informed when purchasing, or the label is not obvious, it will cause a great psychological gap." Qianqian said.

  On social platforms, the topic of "hate pre-sale" has been viewed more than 7.4 million times, and netizens complained about the frequent pre-sale and super-long pre-sale.

"I hate pre-sale! If you don't have stock, don't put it on the shelves, okay?" "It has not been shipped, and I urged the customer service to reply that the delivery time is uncertain, but the return is too cheap for them!" "Everything has to be pre-sold, I'm afraid they will be I'm used to it!"

  social media screenshots

  According to netizens, the pre-sale period has now changed from 7 days, 10 days to 14 days, 30 days and even 45 days.

Ran Gaoming, a debater of "Wonderful Flower", also complained on the short video platform: "The merchants don't want to overstock goods, I understand, but the sweater I bought in February shows that it will be shipped before April 10. What does this mean? You are lacking the truth. Wool, or lack of my 'dumb wool'?"

Merchant: The cost of pressing goods is high, and the data is high before they dare to be produced on the shelves

  Not only consumers but also businesses speak on this topic.

Some merchants bluntly said that they were under a lot of inventory pressure, so they had to adopt the method of pre-sale.

  Mr. Li from Chengdu is the manager of an online women's clothing store. When it comes to pre-sale, he told Sino-Singapore Jingwei that merchants are often more anxious to deliver goods than consumers, mainly because of the cost, storage and maintenance costs of women's clothing, especially winter clothing. Higher, once the goods are pressed, it will involve a large amount of funds.

"Because the factory has a minimum order quantity limit, we dare not make goods casually. Only when the order data improves after the fan base warms up, will it be put on the shelves and start production."

  "General e-commerce sellers are divided into two types: purchase and production. The store that purchases the goods follows the upstream wholesalers in terms of delivery time. They cannot control themselves, and sometimes it is difficult to ship according to the estimated time; while the merchants who make their own goods choose from fabrics. There are many links between production and shipment, and a problem in one link may increase the delivery time by several days.” Mr. Li further explained that the normal delivery time of his own store is about a week, but in case of fabric logistics and other problems, it may be extended to 10-14 days, so in most cases, the advance amount will be made and consumers will be clearly informed.

  At present, there are existing platforms to supervise and restrict the super-long pre-sale.

According to media reports, Pinduoduo will not give priority to products with a pre-sale period of more than seven days.

  Mr. Li bluntly said that there was an Internet celebrity merchant who changed the factory on his own and failed to ship the goods for a long time, resulting in many complaints and finally being punished by the platform.

"Consumers can use the description on the product details page and the commitment of customer service as evidence. If the delivery is not delivered beyond the promised date, they can file a complaint with the platform."

Industry: Call on e-commerce platforms to improve early warning mechanisms

  In response to the situation that some merchants unilaterally delayed delivery or even canceled delivery after setting up pre-sale, Li Min, a senior partner of Shanghai Hansheng Law Firm, told Sino-Singapore Jingwei that according to the "Consumer Rights Protection Law", consumers such as It does not violate the shopping principles stipulated by the merchant. The merchant unilaterally modifies the delivery date and unilaterally cancels the order without communicating with the consumer and obtaining their consent. It is a serious breach of contract, and the merchant shall be liable for breach of contract according to law. and compensate for losses.

Consumers can protect their rights through negotiation and settlement with merchants, feedback to sales platforms, complaints to consumer associations and market supervision departments, and lawsuits to courts.

  Fu Yifu, a senior researcher at Xingtu Financial Research Institute, said in an interview with Sino-Singapore Jingwei that the reasons for the repeated extension of the pre-sale time are more complicated.

"Some merchants use the pre-sale model as a means of marketing promotion and traffic growth for profit-seeking purposes, and while delaying the delivery of goods enjoys reduced inventory pressure, they do not have to bear losses such as returns and exchanges. Pre-sale to pay, this obviously has the suspicion of merchants passing on risks.”

  Fu Yifu said that objectively speaking, the method of pre-sale, which is based on sales and production, is reasonable and can help stores to relieve the pressure on costs and inventory to a certain extent. However, in actual operation, if the delivery time is delayed for a while Any further delay will inevitably have a negative impact on the shopping experience of consumers, and may even damage their legitimate rights and interests, which is not conducive to the healthy development of the industry.

  Li Min also believes that the super-long pre-sale is an unreasonable measure. This form simply increases the shopping risk of consumers, but does not bring any shopping convenience to consumers.

"Consumers often pay the full amount or the so-called 'deposit' during pre-sale. During the pre-sale period, once consumers' shopping needs change, they often suffer losses."

  In response to some merchants blindly pre-selling and maliciously delaying shipments, Fu Yifu suggested to further strengthen supervision.

"Relevant departments should strengthen the supervision of e-commerce platforms and strengthen rigid constraints on platforms and merchants; at the same time, they should unblock the complaint channels and simplify the processing process. In addition, e-commerce platforms should also establish an early warning mechanism to timely detect defects in super-long pre-sale. Behavior, using credit rating management, blacklist and other means to urge merchants to rectify as soon as possible, and then help the e-commerce industry to develop with higher quality."

  "The platform should limit the maximum pre-sale period, and the products that exceed the maximum pre-sale period will not be put on the shelves. At the same time, the platform should require merchants to pre-sell goods in terms of price, duration, quality, delivery date, return conditions, etc., in The sales page should be clearly regulated. Moreover, the platform should establish a convenient complaint channel." Li Min suggested.

(Sino-Singapore Jingwei APP)

  (At the request of the interviewee, Yue Shan and Qianqian are pseudonyms in this article)

All rights reserved by Sino-Singapore Jingwei. Without written authorization, no unit or individual may reproduce, extract or use in other ways.