Yiwu Merchants Fined For Delayed Delivery Due To Closed Market

People are isolated, goods in the warehouse ash, delayed delivery is fined notice on the mobile phone one by one pop-up.

This is a recent portrait of many e-commerce people in Yiwu. A boss who opened a shop on an e-commerce platform in China told time finance and Economics: "the peers around him basically sell 1000 orders a day, but they can't deliver goods, and the fine is at least over 10000 yuan."

On August 2, four new crown pneumonia positive cases were found in Yiwu centralized isolation point, and on the 4th, Yiwu announced that the city's closed places were closed for business.

According to the latest report of 388 Cases in Yiwu City since August 8.

As the footprints of confirmed personnel involved in Qingkou night market and Qingkou Baolong square, the nearby Qingkou logistics center was also affected. A boss engaged in logistics in the province told time finance that his store address was located in building 12, south of Qingkou logistics center. Nearby, it was designated as a control area and could not be opened. In order to facilitate customers, he set up temporary receiving points in other places on the 8th.

A Yiwu resident also told time finance that she had a pinduoduo express. After the "next stop: Yiwu Qingkou bidding" was displayed on August 4, there was no news since then. However, she said that she lives in a low-risk area, and other express delivery can be sent and received normally.

He was fined by the platform for failing to deliver the goods, with a fine of nearly 10000 yuan for 12 days

In 2005, Yiwu was rated by the United Nations as the world's largest small commodity wholesale market. Due to its strong wholesale market, Yiwu's e-commerce industry is also very developed. As of 2021, there are nearly 200 Taobao villages in Yiwu. There are a large number of e-commerce practitioners in these villages.

According to the notice issued by the office of the Xinguan epidemic prevention and control headquarters of Yiwu City, the first four cases of positive infection found in this round of Yiwu epidemic situation live in shitatou village, Jiangdong Street, which is also the stronghold of e-commerce man Wu Chao (pseudonym).

He told Shidai finance and economics that his village was sealed off on the afternoon of August 2, resulting in the delivery of orders and parcels starting on the 1st. He said, "on the 3rd, an application was made for the whole store for filing, and the platform failed to pass the manual audit for 3 days, and the ticket for delay and non delivery was still issued.". On the evening of the 3rd, Wu Chao was also sent to quarantine.

Source: photos provided by interviewees

As the number of tickets increased, Wu Chao called tmall customer service on the 4th, and the other party suggested that he apply to block the store first. Until the afternoon of the 8th, the nail group of Jinhua tmall merchants where he worked finally responded, and the customer service said that Yiwu had been exempted from logistics liability from that day. "But the previous fine should not be refunded, and can not appeal after the end of isolation," Wu Chao said.

At the same time, he also predicted the problems faced after the end of the quarantine, "customers can't deliver goods when they place an order, and they will be given a refund. The refund will directly affect the flow of the store. After the epidemic situation is over, there will be almost no flow. The shop needs to invest a lot of money to get up again.".

Not only Wu Chao, but also many e-businessmen in Yiwu have been fined by the platform for being unable to deliver goods.

Chen Yue (pseudonym) is a businessman in Houzhai street of Yiwu. From June 30 to July 11 this year, due to epidemic prevention and control, his residential area was temporarily sealed off, resulting in failure to deliver goods on time. The e-commerce platform also imposed a fine on him.

He said that after the platform filed a complaint, the platform made a total of six calls to him, and each time said that a high commissioner would reply to him, "but the result was that the platform was delayed again and again, and finally my appeal function was closed directly, and no one on the platform could be contacted."

During the 12 day period, Chen Yue was fined 9500 yuan in total. He told time finance and economics that his colleagues in a circle around him basically sold 1000 orders a day, which at least exceeded 10000 yuan. "The penalty rule of the platform is: if the goods are not delivered within 48 hours, the penalty will be 3 yuan per order; if the goods are not delivered for 5 days, it will be calculated as the shortage of goods, and each order will be fined 5 yuan, that is, 8 yuan; if the goods are not delivered after 5 days, each order will be fined 5 yuan, that is, 13 yuan.".

Chen Yue said that on the e-commerce platform, even if the seller cannot deliver goods due to being in an area affected by the epidemic, as long as the seller contacts the buyer through the privacy number of the platform, and the other party finally applies for a refund, the seller will be fined 5 yuan per order, because the platform will detect that the seller has made a call to the buyer, "Once the buyer contacts the platform for refund, the buyer will not be able to contact the buyer through the virtual platform, and then contact the buyer through the virtual platform

Although Chen Yue has not been affected by the epidemic for the time being, he has Qingkou's colleagues and is now in quarantine. Time finance and economics has noted that e-commerce practitioners have also published articles on platforms such as Shuo Yin and xiaohongshu, expressing dissatisfaction with the practice of platform fines.

Chen Yue started to be an e-commerce company in 2017. He said that the epidemic did not lead to the reduction of his orders. However, in 2018, the e-commerce platform launched the "refund only function", and now the platform has more and more loose control over buyers, "For orders less than 10 yuan, the buyer can only refund (no need to return the goods) by making up a reason casually. There is no way for the merchants to provide complete evidence. We have reported to the police and complained to the anti fraud app, which is useless."

The foreign trade boss cut off the order in advance and "send out the goods that can be delivered first"

In addition to e-commerce business, the foreign trade industry which occupies an important position in Yiwu is also affected. Time finance and economics learned that some foreign trade companies had to cut orders in advance and "send the goods that can be sent out first".

Yang Zhi (pseudonym) is an Amazon operation of a foreign trade company. Her company's main business is selling toys on platforms such as Amazon, express and Alibaba international station.

She said that at present, some of the company's colleagues have already worked at home. "The warehouse keeper of our company can only stay at home. He is from Dongyang and can't enter Yiwu now. If he doesn't come, some goods in the warehouse can't be delivered.".

According to Yang Zhi, the frequency of the company's shipment by sea is once a week. "The goods are cut off on six days and opened three times a week on Saturday. If the goods are missed, they can only wait for the next week, but there is a lot of uncertainty under the epidemic situation.". The products were originally ordered on Saturday. At 6:00 a.m. last Friday (August 5), her working group informed her to cut off the orders on the same day in advance due to the influence of the epidemic situation, so as to send out the goods that can be delivered first.

She told time finance that the impact of the epidemic on the company in recent years is mainly reflected in the logistics and product quality.

On the one hand, the company will purchase goods from factories in Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places, but the sudden epidemic along the way makes the delivery trucks unable to enter Yiwu, or sometimes the goods can be transported to the warehouse, but they are not transported to the port to load containers, so they can not be delivered to the FBA warehouse in the United States.

Yang Zhi said that because he was worried that the goods would not come in, the boss had considered moving the factory to Yiwu, "but changing the factory will lead to unstable quality. The quality of many styles of products in Guangdong will be much better. If you want to make a good order, the quality is still the first.".

On the other hand, factories sometimes shut down because of the epidemic, "which may lead to buyers purchasing 3000 pieces of a certain style, but can only ship 1000 pieces." At the same time, rush work will also lead to a decline in product quality, and buyers will therefore give travel reviews. She told time finance that bad reviews have a great impact on product sales, and she needs to contact buyers as much as possible to explain the situation.

However, Yang Zhi pointed out that the domestic epidemic situation was not the most important factor affecting the company's business. The foreign epidemic situation and economic environment had a greater impact on them, which led to a lot of decline in orders.

In response to the changes in the environment, businesses in Yiwu have also taken some measures to solve the problem, including increasing domestic sales, live broadcasting on platforms such as Shuo Yin, opening commodity cities and building warehouses overseas.

According to the report of Yiwu Business Daily, the Market Development Commission data shows that from January to June this year, Yiwu city carried out 253000 live broadcasting with goods, with a retail sales of 19.467 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.19%, and the direct broadcast economy showed a ladder like growth.

In addition to the daily loan of RMB 120000, he also opened the e-commerce platform at one o'clock every day.

In addition, in order to avoid the risk of foreign trade business as much as possible, at the end of June this year, Yiwu China small commodity city officially opened in Dubai. According to public information, the commodity city covers an area of 200000 square meters, with a construction area of 160000 square meters. It is composed of 1600 commercial spaces and 324 warehouses, which has both display and storage functions. This is conducive to attracting overseas purchasers and facilitating overseas purchasers to look at samples, select products and place orders in different places.

Although the challenge is not small, according to the statistics of the world Yishang Research Institute, the total value of Yiwu's import and export reached 222.25 billion yuan from January to June this year, an increase of 32.8% over the same period last year, of which the export was 202.95 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 28.3%. For foreign trade enterprises in Yiwu, challenges and opportunities may still exist in the future.