On June 18, which just passed, the ceramic tile industry was extremely low-key in this e-commerce mid-year promotion, with only a few brands promoting their sales. Going back to the three years from 2016 to 2018, e-commerce channels were once considered to be the main channel for ceramic tile sales growth. Many ceramic tile brands invested heavily in e-commerce channels. On 6.18 and Double Eleven, sales records were broken again and again. refresh.
However, after 2019, the enthusiasm of ceramic tile brands for e-commerce channels has rapidly retreated. The reason is that ceramic tiles, as bulk commodities and their service requirements, are destined to not be highly dependent on e-commerce channels like fast-moving consumer goods.
"Ceramic Information" has sorted out many complaints about online ceramic tile shopping since the second half of last year. It can be seen from this that there are many problems in the e-commerce of ceramic tiles. Not only are consumers easy to get into trouble, but merchants are also troubled.
Poor quality, many fakes, poor service
Be careful when buying ceramic tiles online!
Recently, a consumer complained anonymously on the Sina Tmall complaint platform that in November 2019, he sold ceramic tiles from a certain first-tier brand in Guangdong during an event on Qituan.com (a home product video group purchase website), and sold the ceramic tiles of a first-tier brand in Guangdong. Place an order in the brand's live broadcast room, and the reservation amount is 6,300 yuan. The reservation order clearly states that any excess will be refunded and less will be paid. Consumers went to offline stores to transfer orders within the specified time, but merchants said they had no inventory and had registered for stocking. They urged many times to no avail and gave various reasons to buy other products.
Online traffic and local offline store transactions are the main transaction methods for ceramic tile brand e-commerce channels today. But the problem is that compared with the variety of products and specifications displayed at the headquarters, offline dealers do not necessarily have the inventory purchased by such consumers. If they replenish the goods, the LTL logistics cost will be too high and offline stores cannot satisfy.
Even if the product is shipped directly from the manufacturer or merchant without going through an offline store, it is time-consuming and laborious to replace parts if damage or other quality problems occur along the way.
In March this year, a consumer complained that he purchased 13,500 yuan of ceramic tile products from Foshan on the Taobao platform in January this year. The goods arrived five days later, but he found that 23 of them were 800×800mm floor tiles (unit price: 31 yuan). ) there was a quality problem, so we sent it to the merchant for confirmation, and the merchant reshipped it free of charge. However, due to the logistics outage during the Spring Festival, it had to be fulfilled after the year. However, the merchant declined and refused to contact us after that.
Renovation has a certain construction period, even if the quality problems of the 23 ceramic tiles mentioned in the above consumer complaints are only due to logisticsYes, it can be replaced eventually, but later replenishment not only requires time and cost for communication, but also requires a certain amount of time to go back and forth for replenishment, which invisibly greatly extends the construction period.
It is also difficult to determine whether ceramic tile products purchased online are quality defects. During Double Eleven last year, Mr. Wang from Beijing also spent more than 1,000 yuan to buy more than 40 pieces of antique tiles on an e-commerce platform. However, after arriving, he found that the tiles were not flat enough and could not be laid flat, so he contacted the seller to return the goods, but the seller Please bear the shipping cost. But the round-trip shipping costs 1,200 yuan, which is more expensive than the product itself.
According to the principle of "Whoever is at fault shall bear the responsibility" in the "Consumer Rights Protection Law", if there is no freight insurance, it is a ceramic tile quality problem, and the merchant should bear the responsibility. However, the flatness is not an obvious quality defect. If you find For inspection by professional institutions, the cost of investment in time, manpower and money will be higher.
In online shopping, complaints about obvious quality problems or even fake products are the most common among all complaint categories, and returning products can also make consumers feel all kinds of bad.
In January this year, a consumer purchased a certain brand of ceramic tiles on JD.com, but after receiving the goods, he found that they were of another brand and the packaging was poor. At least four or five pieces in each package were damaged or the ceramic tiles fell off, which was a serious problem. It affected the renovation period. The merchant insists that it is genuine and the problem lies in logistics. After complaints, the merchant agreed to return the goods and bear the shipping costs, but the problem came again. Ceramic tiles are bulk goods, and the handling fees are also a large expense, which need to be borne by the consumers themselves.
The after-sales responsibilities for online ceramic tile purchases are even more difficult to divide. In 2017, a consumer purchased 66 wood grain tiles from a major brand's Taobao flagship store, paying an actual amount of 3,778 yuan and promising a three-year warranty. The consumer laid the tiles in accordance with the construction requirements, but the tiles began to crack in 2019. During this period, he communicated with the customer service of the flagship store many times, but the customer service initially shied away from responsibility and finally did not respond at all.
Selling bricks online also hurts merchants
Do you think that in ceramic tile e-commerce channel transactions, only consumers are injured? In fact, even merchants with no quality problems are prone to fraud, and there are many complaints about merchants.
In May this year, a merchant completed a transaction through the Pinduoduo platform. Since the ceramic tiles were bulk goods, they could only be shipped by logistics, but the platform required express delivery information, so the merchant sent a cross with seams to the buyer via express delivery. , ceramic tile delivery logistics. On the premise that the buyer has received the goods and confirmed receipt, the merchant is judged to be a false tracker by the platform and 100 yuan is deducted.
The experience of another Pinduoduo merchant is even more puzzling. goIn July 2019, a customer purchased 1,455.5 yuan of ceramic tiles on Pinduoduo, excluding shipping costs. The negotiated shipping costs were borne by the buyer. However, after the goods arrived, the buyer refused to sign. There was no quality problem with the product, and he was unwilling to bear the responsibility for the return. In terms of round-trip shipping costs, the platform determined that the merchant had falsely shipped goods, forced shipments, and forced refunds.
As bulk goods, ceramic tiles cannot easily be shipped free of charge like other small items, but they also involve costs such as handling fees. Moreover, ceramic tiles are fragile products and there are certain risks during transportation.
In addition, ceramic tile products come in many colors, with large differences in quality, and problems of discrepancy between the actual product and the picture occur from time to time. These have greatly restricted consumers’ trust in online shopping for low-frequency consumer products such as ceramic tiles.
Compared with the uncertainty of online shopping, consumers are more willing to believe that seeing is believing in offline ceramic tile stores, and the responsibilities and services are clearer.
(This article is reproduced from Ceramic Information)
