The price is 199 yuan a year. Who will pay the bill

The legendary oriental selection membership system is coming. On October 16, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily logged on to the Oriental Selection App and found that Oriental Selection will officially launch the paid membership system on October 17. The price of paid members selected by Orient is 199 yuan/year, and the rights and interests include 8.8% off on 100 self operated products, 12 membership tickets a year, 66 yuan coupon package, etc.

Compared with the 88 yuan/year and 99 yuan/year Taobao 88VIP and JD PLUS members, the price of members selected by Orient is on the high side, and "refunds can be made if you can't use up". When it comes to the fact that the price of members does not have price advantages, the relevant personnel of Orient Selection responded to the Beijing Business Daily reporter. According to the information provided by the customer service of Orient Selection, "if the user is dissatisfied with anything during the validity period of membership, he/she can contact the customer service to propose to withdraw". For Internet platforms involving transactions, the membership system is the standard configuration, but members are still rare in the live broadcast e-commerce track. Can this mechanism be replicated? What is the business logic behind the Oriental selection move?

199 yuan vs 88 yuan

"Expensive", without waiting for a question from the reporter of Beijing Business Daily, Cherry (a pseudonym), a senior online shopping user, first expressed his opinion on the membership selection system of Dongfang, "The 88VIP of Taobao is only 88 yuan, and it is not cost-effective for Dongfang to select members". According to the forecast poster released by the Oriental Selection App, the version was updated to 2.3.0, which was launched by members on October 17.

On October 16, the reporter of Beijing Business Daily found that users can click to enter the "My" page of the Oriental Selection App and purchase "Selection Member" through the entrance at the top of the page, with the price of 199 yuan/year. Benefits include member price - 8.8% off for 100 self operated products, and up to 1000 yuan can be saved per month; 12 non proprietary products coupons worth RMB 12 that can be used for more than RMB 100 a year; A 66 yuan time limited coupon package can be used to buy fresh meat and eggs, books, entertainment, drinks, tea, etc.

"The rights and interests of the selected members are too single". Xiao Xin (not his real name), who has purchased Taobao 88VIP and JD PLUS members, is not too fond of the selected members. During the promotion of Orient Selection, he once bought many self operated products of Orient Selection at discount prices. As an old user of Orient Selection, he hesitated because of the price.

Beijing Business Daily reporter compared Taobao, Jingdong and Dongfang's member selection system. Taobao 88VIP life card and shopping card were 88 yuan/year, and Jingdong PLUS members were 99 yuan/year.

"There is still a clear difference between the members selected by Orient and those selected by Taobao and JD," Chen Tao, a senior analyst in the retail industry of Analysys, told the Beijing Business Daily reporter, "The members of Taobao are more like ecological members, while the members selected by Orient are similar to those selected by Sam, and they want to bind users to long-term consumption."

Brand awareness is also one of the thresholds for Oriental selection to promote the membership system. "What is Oriental Selection?" "Is it Dong Yuhui's?" Many of the users interviewed randomly by the Beijing Business Daily reporter are not familiar with the Oriental Selection brand. Tang Guo (not his real name), who bought books in the Oriental Selection studio, does not plan to start selecting members. "I just watch Dong Yuhui's live broadcast to buy some". Some netizens saw the poster of member selection on October 16 and immediately joined members and bought goods.

Membership fee is refundable

"The appeal of the membership mechanism mainly depends on the needs of users, and the platform needs to bind its target users, not all users". Chen Tao believes that the user group selected by Dongfang is not as broad as the phenomenal App. Compared with the larger platform, the membership system of Oriental Selection is relatively simple. One bright spot is "refunds can be made if you don't run out of money", which was disclosed to the reporter of Beijing Business Daily by the related person of Orient Selection.

As for the refund, the reporter of Beijing Business Daily got the rule from the customer service office of Orient Selection: during the validity period of membership, if the user is dissatisfied with anything, he can contact the customer service to withdraw. The balance after deducting the value of used equity in the current membership period shall be deducted when returning the card. Case 1: If there is a balance returned, the member's rights and interests will become invalid; Case 2: Return without balance - no balance can be returned, and the member's rights and interests will become invalid directly.

"In many member systems now, there is a provision that member services can be refunded or paid after enjoying preferential treatment. The platform adopts this mode to attract new members," Chen Tao said. Taking JD as an example, "the first to enjoy and then to pay members is 0 yuan, which is calculated according to the benefits used by users. For example, if the benefits used by users during the membership period do not exceed the member fees, only the benefits used by users will be charged. If the amount of benefits used by users exceeds the member fees, only the member fees will be charged", explained by JD customer service.

Guo Tao, an angel investor, said when communicating with reporters of Beijing Business Daily, "Refundable money can be used as a measure for Oriental selection to compensate for the high price of members". Zhang Xiaorong, president of the Institute of Deep Science and Technology, also believes that refund is a bonus item, and he also points out that "this also exposes the lack of confidence of businesses in this measure. Instead of refunding, it is better to directly give profits to consumers".

Whether peers follow

In fact, a number of e-commerce, video and other Internet platforms have already launched member services. Why is it worth paying extra attention for Dongfang to select online paid members? "In the live broadcast e-commerce track, membership system is micro innovation", Chen Tao said.

As for whether the peers will follow up, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily interviewed Youyi and Yuanwang Network. Youyi related people told the reporter that "there is no plan for paying members at present". As of press release, Yuanwang Network related people did not respond.

Zhang Xiaorong told the reporter of Beijing Business Daily that "e-commerce enterprises focusing on live broadcasting may follow this model to increase user stickiness and repurchase rate". Guo Tao believes that "the membership system is not suitable for all live broadcast e-commerce enterprises".

Generally speaking, online member service is based on a certain scale of loyal users, and it is better to establish an independent user system. In Chen Tao's opinion, "the first point is more important. Whether to build an app by oneself is not the key, but it can also be done on other platforms. The essence is how to convert public domain traffic into private domain traffic".

The specific effect of this model will take time to give an answer, but it is no secret that Oriental Selection aspires to the paid member model. In January, Sun Dongxu, CEO of Dongfang Selection, mentioned building a paid membership system on the financial report conference call, and disclosed that the membership function will be realized through self built apps, which will customize the exclusive functions and services for customers selected by Dongfang. In a live broadcast in July, he took the establishment of a membership service system to provide premium products to paying users as one of the three points of planning in the future.

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