标签： 上海龙凤419

Group buying in online community： a new way of shopping

The picture comes from the Internet.

　　"A box of fresh free range eggs 55 yuan, a piece of Pizza Hut steak 23 yuan, and a bag of pasta 17 yuan." On October 26, as soon as the group announcement of "Head of Mission" was released, the residents in the WeChat group responded quickly. In just a few minutes, the buyers had already picked up the long queue.
　　Simple purchase, timely delivery, time-saving and labor-saving … As a new online shopping mode, online community group purchase is mainly carried out through the way that community residents buy online orders and then deliver them to the community in a unified way, which can not only help reduce logistics costs, but also help consumers avoid "difficulty in choosing" and effectively improve shopping efficiency.

Socialization and group buying win-win situation

　　"The group dish group in our community was established last year by the elder sister who opened the laundry in the community. At that time, many people in the community organized dishes at his place. The group purchase price was cheap and the dishes were very fresh." Ms. Zhao, a citizen of Taiyuan, said that at first group buying was for convenience, and now it has gradually become a habit.
　　In fact, the emergence of online community group buying has already changed people’s traditional consumption concept. The "team leader" posted a message in the group, and the user placed an order in advance as needed, and it could be delivered for delivery the next day. Through group buying, community residents can get goods at lower prices, and at the same time avoid the time and energy needed to go shopping in supermarkets.
　　"Neighbors in the community often bask in the fresh dishes bought by the group. Everyone exchanges and interacts together, which not only brings the neighborhood closer, but also allows everyone to have a more intuitive understanding of the items bought by the group, because everyone is familiar with each other, which is different from the kind that is praised by online stores, and can help everyone avoid the pit more effectively." Ms. Zhao said that with the accelerated pace of life, like most young people, they are increasingly choosing online shopping, especially for food and daily necessities, and more consideration is given to price and delivery time.
　　Obviously, social communication is an important driving force of community group buying, which can effectively expand the influence of group buying and attract more users to participate. But at the same time, social communication also faces some challenges, such as information overload, user loss, trust problems and so on.

Supervision and self-discipline go hand in hand.

　　With the growing prosperity of the online community group buying market, large-scale e-commerce platforms and various new players are accelerating their entry, making the community group buying market more dispersed and diversified. For the residents of the community, some of the "heads" are familiar neighbors, but more are strangers.
　　"Sometimes other people in the group don’t know what link to send, and it’s either a group buying applet or a stranger’s online shop." Ms. Zhao said that she chose to be trustworthy when buying a group. Instead of shopping in an unknown small program, she might as well place an order on big platforms such as JD.COM and Taobao.
　　In fact, there are not a few people who step on the pit in online community group buying. A series of problems, such as false propaganda, substandard goods and shoddy goods, have also caused many consumers a headache. A few days ago, a case involving "community group buying" announced by the General Administration of Market Supervision said that in March this year, because the operator of a food store falsely exaggerated the function of disease prevention and treatment for ordinary food, it induced consumers to buy it, and was finally made by the local market supervision department. Administrative punishment was imposed and the final fine was 125,000 yuan.
　　Is the group purchase activity reported? Where does the supply come from? Is delivery and refund guaranteed? ….. Faced with these problems, Shanxi Provincial Market Supervision Bureau issued "Guiding Opinions on Standardizing Group Buying Operation Behavior in Online Communities" (hereinafter referred to as "Opinions"), aiming at the group buying operation behavior in online communities, promoting the supervision mode of fair competition in online markets, realizing the whole chain, all fields and normalization supervision before and after the event, and promoting the healthy and sustainable development of group buying standardization in online communities.
　　In terms of the prohibition of group buying in online communities, the Opinions clearly pointed out that unfair price behaviors such as low-price dumping, price collusion, price gouging and price fraud should not be implemented, and monopolistic behaviors should not be illegally implemented through monopoly agreements, abuse of market dominance, and illegal concentration of operators; Do not engage in acts of unfair competition such as commercial confusion, commercial slander, and speculation, which will endanger the market environment of fair competition; Do not deceive or mislead consumers in a false or misleading way.
　　Lawyer Liang Yi of Shanxi Shuoming Law Firm reminds consumers that the formal platform is guaranteed in terms of goods quality, distribution and after-sales, and priority should be given to the community group purchase package organized by the formal network platform. Once the "head" is lost, goods are delayed for a long time, product quality problems, etc., relevant evidence materials will be provided to public security organs, market supervision and other departments in time to protect their legitimate rights and interests to the greatest extent. At the same time, it also warns merchants of group buying platforms that they must conscientiously abide by the E-commerce Law, the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions and other laws and regulations, and strengthen industry self-discipline, otherwise, they will face severe punishment.

Our reporter Wang Yang.

Related reading
Expand new channels of consumption

　　In recent years, new consumption channels, such as online shopping, live delivery and community group buying, have risen rapidly, bringing huge business opportunities to the retail industry. In the first 10 months of this year, the online retail sales of physical goods nationwide increased by 8.4% year-on-year, accounting for 26.7% of the total retail sales of social consumer goods. The rise of new consumption channels is of great significance to promoting the recovery and development of physical retail industry.
　　Online and offline exploration attempts have promoted the rise of new consumption channels. During the epidemic, more and more consumers gradually became familiar with and accepted consumption patterns such as instant retail and community group purchase. The new consumption channel provides consumers with a more convenient and personalized shopping experience, which not only reduces the shopping cost, but also meets diversified needs, and also urges online and offline businesses to move from competition to cooperation to achieve a win-win situation online and offline.
　　On the one hand, new consumption channels have expanded the boundaries of the retail market. The traditional retail market is limited by geographical location and time, but the new consumption channels have broken these restrictions, allowing consumers to shop anytime and anywhere. This makes the retail market cover a wider range of consumer groups and provide more sales opportunities. Take instant retailing as an example. Consumers place orders on the online trading platform, and offline physical retailers take orders. From picking, packaging and delivery to door-to-door, it is basically completed within one hour, thus achieving the goal of "relying on local retail supply to meet local instant demand".
　　On the other hand, new consumption channels have promoted the digital transformation of retail industry. In order to adapt to the development of new consumption channels, retailers have increased their investment in digital technology and promoted the digital transformation of the industry. Digital transformation not only improves the operational efficiency of retailers, but also provides consumers with a more convenient and intelligent shopping experience. With the help of online platform, entities can expand their sales channels, and at the same time, the sales data precipitated by online platform can help entities to operate more finely.
　　We should also see that the rise of new consumption channels has also brought challenges to the retail industry. Not only is the competition increasingly fierce, but it also puts forward higher requirements for retailers’ data capabilities and supply chain management capabilities. In this regard, the retail industry should actively respond, seize new opportunities and meet challenges.
　　Strengthen the research on new consumption channels, deeply understand consumers’ needs and shopping habits, and provide strong support for the development of new consumption channels. Facing the omni-channel competition brought by "embracing online", entity enterprises should use online to develop business, maintain and expand new consumer groups, reduce the cost of commodity distribution, and realize online and offline two-way drainage.
　　Increase investment in digital technology and promote the in-depth development of digital transformation. Through digital technology to improve operational efficiency, optimize shopping experience, and provide consumers with more convenient and intelligent services. Online enterprises are not simply "1+1" with physical enterprises. They should use big data intelligent recommendation to achieve accurate matching between supply and demand, and constantly strengthen the capabilities of enterprise traffic support, marketing and digital systems to meet the diversified needs of consumers.
　　Strengthen supply chain management and improve the flexibility and response speed of supply chain. Strengthen cooperation with suppliers to ensure product supply and inventory balance.
　　New consumption channels have also played an important role in consumption expansion, industry innovation and social employment. Retail industry should seize new opportunities, continuously expand and make good use of new consumption channels by strengthening research, increasing investment and strengthening cooperation, so as to promote the consumer market to better meet consumers’ needs with richer and more more innovative business models and consumer goods, and stimulate new consumption.

Feng Qiyu

Crisis： After Detroit, are there cities in the United States going bankrupt？

　　　　　　　 Flint, USA, suffered from public service crisis one after another and was in depression.

　　　　　　　 On August 1st, Flint, Michigan, USA, announced the suspension of garbage collection services in the whole city because the new contract of service providers has not been finalized, which caused the city to fall into a new crisis after the water crisis. Although on the second day, the city urgently reached a temporary agreement with the original service provider Republican Service Company, the economic and financial difficulties faced by Flint once again attracted attention.

　　　　　　　 Flint, who didn’t collect garbage, suffered from "shutdown" of public services.

　　　　　　　 In June this year, the mayor of Flint, Weaver, proposed to replace the new garbage disposal service provider in the city for financial reasons, but this move was rejected by the city Council. Later, Weaver vetoed the decision of the city Council, and the city government and the parliament turned into a "tug-of-war". Finally, the two sides went to court.

　　　　　　　 However, before the court ruled, the contract between the city and the current garbage disposal service company expired at the end of July, so the garbage collection service stopped on August 1. Flint residents can only "store their garbage at home". This triggered the anger of the people in Flint.

　　　　　　　 Although the city urgently agreed with the current garbage disposal service company, it will continue to provide garbage collection services during the transition period. However, there will still be delays in the recent garbage disposal.

　　　　　　　 Flint: The birthplace of General Motors used to be the "Automobile City"　

　　　　　　　 Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of American automobile giant General Motors, is called "Motor City" together with Detroit. But in the 1980s, the automobile industry began to withdraw from Flint, and the city also declined rapidly.

　　　　　　　 At present, the unemployment rate in Flint is 13.9%, which is twice the average level in the United States, and the per capita income is less than $15,000, which is only half the average level in the United States. More than 40% of the city’s population lives below the poverty line, and the crime rate remains high, ranking "the most dangerous city in the United States".

　　　　　　　 In 2014, in order to save the government’s public expenditure, the Flint municipal government decided to abandon the Detroit water supply system and take water from the local flint river, which eventually led to the serious lead content in tap water consumed by 100,000 local residents.

　　　　　　　 Economic and financial difficulties, many cities in the United States are facing a crisis of decline

　　　　　　　 In fact, Flint is not a case. There is a well-known "rust zone" in the United States. The "rust zone" refers to the area where industry once flourished and now it has declined. In the United States, the Great Lakes region belongs to such a "rust zone", and Flint is located here.

　　　　　　　 The "rust zone" in the United States used to be the gathering place of old industrial areas, but now, many cities are facing the difficulties of old infrastructure and economic and public services. When talking about this topic, I have to mention Detroit, the "city of bankruptcy".

　　　　　　　 Detroit: the scenery is infinite to bankruptcy protection

　　　　　　　 As the three major automobile companies in the United States — — Detroit, the home base of GM, Ford and Chrysler, became synonymous with American cars as early as 100 years ago. However, due to the single industrial structure, with the decline of the American automobile industry and the migration of production bases, Detroit went into decline.

△ Detroit (data map, from the network)

　　　　　　　 In July 2013, Detroit filed for bankruptcy protection because of its debt exceeding 18 billion US dollars, becoming the largest city in the United States to file for bankruptcy protection.

　　　　　　　 In 2014, the total population of the city has dropped to 700,000, and as many as 40% of the houses in the city have been abandoned. At the same time, the unemployment rate and crime rate have soared, and education and public service facilities have declined. Some people joked that an Apple mobile phone can buy a suite in Detroit.

　　　　　　　 Cleveland: manufacturing base to the most miserable city

　　　　　　　 Cleveland, Ohio, used to be the transportation center and steel manufacturing base of the United States. In the 1950s, it had a population of more than 900,000, but after that, the manufacturing industry encountered bottlenecks and the city gradually declined.

　　　　　　　 At present, Cleveland has a population of less than 400,000, of which African Americans account for 44%; The crime rate here is very high, with more than 100 murders every year. In 2010, Forbes magazine published the list of the "most miserable cities" in the United States, and Cleveland ranked first.

　　　　　　　 Chicago: The next Detroit?

　　　　　　　 Chicago, a third-party big city in the United States, started from the steel industry and manufacturing industry. However, in the 1970s, the steel industry was depressed and manufacturing enterprises moved out, and Chicago constantly encountered challenges. In recent years, Chicago is facing the pressure that the government cannot make ends meet and the huge deficit is difficult to resolve.

　　　　　　　 Statistics show that in 2015, Chicago’s budget deficit reached 1 billion US dollars, about 6 billion yuan. In order to control government spending, Chicago even raised the charges for 911 calls. Many people say that if Chicago can’t solve the financial crisis, it is likely to be dragged down by huge debts and become the second Detroit.

China people taste the Lantern Festival tradition from glutinous rice balls.

　　　　Xinhuanet Taiyuan, February 21 ST (Reporter Liu Xiangyu) "Sweet-scented osmanthus is wrapped in walnuts, and the rice is like a pearl well. Seeing that Ma’s family is good at dripping powder, try to sell Yuanxiao in the wind. " A poem "Poems on Bamboo Branches in Shangyuan" written by China in Qing Dynasty presents a wonderful picture of making glutinous rice balls to the world.


　　　　Tangyuan is a round dessert made of glutinous rice flour. China is called Yuanxiao in the north and Tangyuan in the south, which are slightly different in size, making method and preservation time. In China people’s diet dictionary, eating glutinous rice balls means "family reunion" and "everything is perfect".


　　　　For this traditional food, many famous people in China have recorded it in poems. In the Song Dynasty, there was a poem in Jiang Baishi, saying, "The Lantern Festival competes to see the lotus-picking boat, and the BMW sedan picks up the cymbals. In the stormy night, people are exhausted, and the lonely lamp still calls for selling glutinous rice balls. "


　　　　Nowadays, this delicacy has been given more meanings. At the same time of family reunion and sharing dumplings, many people in China like to immerse themselves in the tradition and savor its infinite meaning.


　　　　China merchants have clearly captured this information sensitively, and paid more and more attention to highlighting the traditional flavor in the production, packaging and sales of glutinous rice balls. In addition to catering to the harmonious and auspicious values of Chinese people in the outer packaging, China merchants also pursue exquisiteness in the "connotation" of glutinous rice balls, such as full-grained black sesame seeds, crisp and mellow peanuts, chocolate, roses, red bean paste and sweet-scented osmanthus.


　　　　In order to keep the glutinous rice balls original and mellow, some merchants resumed using the traditional stone mill processing method, striving for perfection in grinding fineness, keeping the temperature just right when baking, and making every second count when freezing.


　　　　The small glutinous rice balls, inside and outside, have soaked up the traditional health care concept of China people. In the south of China, there is a kind of small dumpling with no stuffing, which can be cooked with longan red date soup or longan ginger soup. According to Chinese medicine, even soup can strengthen the body and dispel cold.

Editor: Liu Li