Low price alone should not drive Nov 11 sales

With the annual e-commerce sales season, better known as Singles' Day, round the corner, almost all e-commerce platforms and bricks-and-mortar establishments are busy sharpening their promotional campaigns to take advantage of the Nov 11 sales.

Unlike previous years, many outlets claim they will not play the old raise-price-and-then-offer-discount trick this year and, instead, really lower the prices of products to attract more buyers so they can make profit following the small-profit-fast-turnover strategy.

That may be good for consumers, but e-commerce platforms should not focus only on the price factor, which is merely one part of competition. They ought to stress on product quality and after-sales services, too. In e-shopping, consumers mainly rely on photographs, videos and other consumers' comments on a product to determine its quality before deciding whether or not to buy it. Also, since most of those merchants selling products on e-commerce platforms are small and micro-sized enterprises, individual businesses and family-run shops, their after-sales services may not be as good and efficient as those of big companies.

Therefore, the e-commerce giants, as platforms connecting consumers and goods producers, are obligated to ensure the information the latter's promotions and advertisements provide is not misleading or exaggerated, and make clear the sort of after-sales services the buyers can expect.

A healthy market competition should never be only about low prices. It should also be about products' performance, protection of consumers' rights and interests, and good consumption experience. That's why the media outlets urging the e-commerce platforms to focus only on price competition are doing a disservice to e-commerce. They should realize that fierce price competition will make many struggling SMEs and other businesses bankrupt soon.

When production, marketing and labor costs, as well as raw materials' prices are all rising, it is unrealistic to raise consumers' expectations of getting extremely low-price products. Quality products always cost money, and a certain profit margin is necessary for enterprises to make innovative products and improve quality control and management. That's why successful enterprises don't rely on low prices to win competitions.

The Singles' Day gala may have succeeded by offering products at low prices for 14 years, but since the country is transitioning from labor-intensive quantitative growth to high-quality innovation-driven development, there is no reason for it to not highlight the importance of product quality and efficient after-sales services to build a healthy e-consumption market.