The top seller in East China crashed! Suppliers blocked the door to demand payment

Yesterday, it was revealed that Zhiyu, a major cross-border e-commerce seller in East China, owed a large amount of money to suppliers, and was blocked by suppliers who came to collect the debt!

Zhiyu is a cross-border e-commerce platform. All merchants who join the platform sell their products to Zhiyu. The cooperative merchants only have the right to upload products and ship them to Zhiyu's warehouse according to the time regulations. All other sales and promotions are operated by Zhiyu, the platform. This model is a bit like JD.com's self-operated store, but with the appearance of a cross-border e-commerce.

Jollychic, the main brand of Zhiyu, is the leader in the Middle East e-commerce market. According to official information, Jollychic is the most well-known and the No. 1 mobile e-commerce in the Middle East. Its main categories include clothing, home furnishings, baby products, beauty and personal care, 3C electronics, smart life and other categories. Currently, Jollychic has more than 30 million registered users on mobile and web terminals, with sales of nearly 5 billion yuan, covering more than 80% of the e-commerce market in the Middle East.

With such dazzling achievements, Zhiyu has also been favored in the capital market. From 2013 to 2019 when it was founded, capital from all sides has been investing in Zhiyu, hoping to catch the cusp of the Middle East e-commerce trend.

But the good times didn’t last long. Since last year, Zhiyu has been in arrears of wages and debts, and the situation has become increasingly serious. According to Zhiyu, it was because of the shrinking local consumer market in the Middle East caused by the epidemic, and the severe congestion and price increases in logistics that made Zhiyu’s capital chain unable to connect. Coupled with the previous operation of robbing Peter to pay Paul to repay the 19-year debt, the big thunder finally broke out this month. Dozens of suppliers have formed a group from Shenzhen to Hangzhou to collect the money, and more people will come to block it in the future.

You should know that Amazon took off last year. As long as there was stock, third-party sellers could run wild and double their sales easily. Amazon's stock price broke through the trillion mark. However, Zhiyu, which is a big seller on the independent website, fell into such a situation during the epidemic. Why is there such a big difference between Zhiyu and Amazon, both of which are e-commerce platforms?

As the e-commerce form with the highest degree of freedom, independent websites also have very big disadvantages, because everything needs to be handled by the sellers themselves, including building the website, placing orders, collecting payments, delivery, customer service, and most importantly, directing traffic.

During the epidemic, blockades everywhere have put severe pressure on the logistics system. Amazon, which has a huge distribution network and resources, can even mobilize government agencies to give warehouse workers policy green lights, so it has barely survived. Although we sellers have criticized it for slow warehousing and delivery, it is at least operating normally.

Even Amazon, with its logistics level, had to stop sellers from entering the warehouse in March last year to ease logistics pressure. Most independent website sellers use third-party logistics and overseas warehouse systems, and Zhiyu, with its size, must have already deployed some of its own logistics systems. The cost savings are not a little bit, but once it encounters a black swan event like the epidemic, its ability to withstand pressure is definitely not as good as that of a professional logistics system. Logistics is the blood vessel of cross-border e-commerce. Disrupted circulation directly affects the entire cross-border business, resulting in a broken capital chain and ultimately crushing the independent website seller.

We have been stressing the importance of multi-platform operation recently, because each platform and each form has its own problems. Amazon’s commission is extremely high, and its policies are extremely biased towards buyers. There are various unreasonable policies and competition between self-operated and sellers. However, it is under such extreme conditions that the company can show its amazing ability to withstand pressure. Your uncle is still your uncle. Independent sites have low costs and are controllable in all aspects. The problem is that you have to do it yourself. Once you encounter unexpected situations, it is obviously not as stable as Amazon, which is backed by a large platform.

Therefore, whether it is Amazon, Walmart or an independent website, a multi-platform diversified layout is the most important. Don't put all your eggs in one basket!