Is opening an online store a good way to make money?
□ Since the beginning of this year, on many e-commerce platforms, individuals only need to pass steps such as identity authentication to quickly open stores, and the threshold for merchants on the platform has been further reduced.
□ Opening up zero threshold for natural persons to settle in has certain risks, such as product quality control, service capability guarantee and other potential legal risks. This places new demands on both platforms and regulators.
Jingdong small store "0 yuan store" trial operation, the trial operation stage does not need to pay a deposit; Douyin small store "0 yuan settled", no business license required, the fastest 1 hour to open the store... Since the beginning of this year, on many e-commerce platforms, individuals only need to pass steps such as identity authentication to quickly open stores, and the threshold for merchants on the platform has been further reduced.
The era of rapid growth of the e-commerce industry has passed, and the introduction of natural persons to open stores is one of the ways for platform companies to find increments after entering the second half of the Internet economy.
"The addition of new groups to the platform will naturally generate demand for various services, which will bring value-added services, transaction commissions, advertising and other income." Hu Qimu, chief researcher of China Steel Economic Research Institute, said that in addition to bringing tangible benefits to the platform, natural person stores can also increase user activity and contribute to the growth of indicators such as total commodity transactions, which will affect the valuation and financing of enterprises.
Zhang Yi, chief analyst of iMedia Consulting, believes that the platform can attract more users through individual store opening and continue to attract traffic. "The platform launches a no-threshold store opening, which can provide more opportunities for individuals to find employment through multiple channels and start their own businesses, and is also the embodiment of the platform's fulfillment of social responsibility." Zhang Yi said.
However, there are certain risks associated with opening up the zero threshold for natural persons, such as product quality control, service capability protection and other potential legal risks.
The value of the platform lies in providing services to both the supply side and the demand side, and if the personal store does not have the corresponding capabilities, it affects the shopping experience of consumers, such as a large number of after-sales problems that cannot be solved, etc., which is not worth the loss for the platform.
In this regard, Gong Xu, a lawyer at Guangdong Lianyue Law Firm, said that platforms should carefully review the qualifications of online store operators, especially for goods or services related to consumers' lives and health.
At present, individuals basically do not need a business license to open a store on the platform, but the E-commerce Law clearly stipulates that operators can register as market entities, and only a few types of circumstances can be exempted from registration, such as "individuals selling self-produced agricultural and sideline products and cottage industry products", "individuals using their skills to engage in convenient labor activities that do not require permission according to law", "sporadic small transaction activities", etc. Gong Xu explained that custom-made, commissioned processing, and resale at other entities do not meet the "self-production" provisions and need to obtain administrative licenses.
Individual stores can also increase regulatory costs for platforms. Zhang Yi believes that opening up individuals to settle in is the result of the platform's weighing of pros and cons. "Platforms need to spend more resources to deal with potential risks, but in the current situation of peak traffic dividends, how to acquire more potential users is the most urgent task for e-commerce platforms." Zhang Yi said.
How does the platform control risk? How does regulatory enforcement work? Hu Qimu suggested that, first, it is necessary to do a good job in the construction of a platform credit reporting system for individual stores, and the weight of store recommendations can be reduced if there is non-honest business behavior; The second is to continue the margin system for compensation; The third is to hedge risks with the insurance system, such as the establishment of a risk reserve mechanism within the platform; The fourth is to control the transaction volume and category, and control the risk within a certain range; Fifth, make good use of big data real-time monitoring, and timely early warning of abnormal personal store business behavior. "Opening up the personal credit reporting system can form effective constraints on individuals, avoid them from being separated from legal supervision, and is also of great significance to cracking down on cross-platform crimes." Hu Qimu said.
At the legal level, some experts suggest that platforms should strictly implement the user's real-name system registration, so that infringers can be locked down in a timely manner after infringement occurs. In addition, it should achieve a prudent supervision obligation that matches its business interests to avoid joint infringement or joint and several liability with the infringer. For sporadic and small individual stores, the registration of business entities may be gradually implemented, and after registration, they may enjoy preferential tax policies according to law according to the transaction volume and transaction frequency.
For ordinary people, is opening an online store without a threshold really a good way to make money? It is understood that many platforms will strictly restrict the sales categories of individual stores during the trial operation stage, and still need to pay a deposit after formal operation.
Some insiders remind that individual stores have their own advantages and can carry out customized, small-scale, multi-batch supply, but it is not easy to take the differentiated route among many competitors.
(Economic Daily, Zhao Xinyi)