How to bid farewell to "pricing by goods" in e-commerce transactions

Editor's note: a few days ago, by the Ministry of Agriculture, China traditional Chinese Medicine Association, China traditional Chinese Medicine Logistics expert Committee and other departments of industry experts, the Chengdu Tiandi Network Information Technology Co., Ltd., completed by the Chengdu Tiandi Network Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "standard") has been adopted, creating a precedent for the electronic trading standard of agricultural products. How is this standard formulated and what are its characteristics? How will it be implemented? What are the implications for the e-commerce of agricultural products in China?

What is the price of Fritillaria for relieving cough and resolving phlegm? The connoisseur will certainly ask you, is it Zhejiang Fritillaria from Zhejiang, Pingbei from Jilin, Xinjiang Fritillaria from Xinjiang or Chuanbei from Sichuan? And chuanbei is divided into pine shellfish, green shellfish, furnace shellfish three kinds. The price varies from high to low with different varieties of origin. In addition, according to the grain size, crack rate, oil grain rate and other characteristics, the price has to be a different matter. Due to the wide variety of categories and specifications, "pricing based on goods" is a trade rule that has lasted for thousands of years in the trading of traditional Chinese medicine.

Under the tide of "Internet +", it is nothing new for traditional Chinese medicine to touch the net. According to statistics, the annual sales of e-commerce platform for traditional Chinese medicine in China has reached 20 billion yuan, but the transaction disputes caused by unclear standards and specifications have become a bottleneck in the development of e-commerce.

From generality to precision

Thousands of specifications for carding and refining 202 kinds of commonly used traditional Chinese medicine

During the National Day, long Xingchao, chairman of Chengdu Tiandi Network Information Technology Company, made a special trip to Shiwuzi Village, Jifeng Town, Zhongjiang County, Sichuan Province, where the harvest season of Radix Paeoniae Alba has arrived. Long Xingchao wants to start from the ground to re-recognize this medicine, hand-processed, grading, in order to further refine and improve the e-commerce trading standards of Radix Paeoniae Alba.

Long Xingchao, who has been in the field of traditional Chinese medicine for 26 years, is the founder of Tiandi Network of traditional Chinese Medicine on the B2B platform and the core promoter of the Standard. "the formulation of the" standard "is not made out of nothing, but a systematic analysis, induction, summary and refinement of the existing transaction specifications with scientific methods." Long Xingchao said that in the traditional Chinese medicine industry, some recognized specifications and standards have been formed, such as origin, size and diameter, dry humidity, fragmentation rate, impurity rate, and so on, but because these standards are relatively general, in the environment of online transactions, it is often difficult for buyers and sellers to reach a precise and unified consensus on these standards only based on each other's description, resulting in disputes and seriously affecting the development of e-commerce of traditional Chinese medicine.

In 2012, long Xingchao specially set up a standard-setting team, and made use of the industry network resources accumulated over the years, and began to contact senior experts from several major Chinese medicine markets in Guangxi, Chengdu, Sichuan, and dozens of Chinese medicine producing areas across the country. discuss the formulation of standards together. After 3 years of systematic summary and carding, 1184 subdivided product specifications of 202 commonly used varieties of Chinese herbal medicines have been put into application.

"the formulation and improvement of standards is a long-term and continuous process." Long Xingchao told reporters that by the end of 2016, the Standard will cover more than 5000 product specifications of 1200 commonly used varieties of traditional Chinese medicine. Moreover, "with the deepening of understanding and the refinement of market demand, the standard will continue to be refined, such as the content of agricultural residues and trace elements may be included in it in the future."

From offline to online

Medicine merchants taste the benefits of e-commerce standardization

Tang Ning has been in the business of traditional Chinese medicine for eight years. In August this year, he began to open a store on the B2B platform of Tiandi, a traditional Chinese medicine, with the mentality of giving it a try. Out of caution, he only put on "burdock", and strictly observed the "standard" classification in the commodity specifications. To his surprise, more than 200 tons were sold in just two months, several times that of offline sales.

"in the past, I thought that online trading could not be seen by people and looked at goods, which must be unreliable. Let's say burdock. It is generally divided into two types: net goods and unified goods. The dry degree of net goods is good, the rate of impurities is low, and the overall goods are poor, but the specifications of the unified goods are different, and the corresponding prices are also different. Generally, we can only look at the pricing of the goods." Tang Ning said that because of concerns that the two sides have disputes over standard specifications, they have been slow to develop e-commerce business.

After two months of experiment, Tang Ning made a big reversal in his thinking and decided to shift his main energy from offline to online. "after this set of standards is used, it will be of great help to both sales communication and goods supply management." Tang Ning told reporters that because customers have a clear understanding of the differences between different specifications of the same variety, the communication between the two sides is very smooth; and after using the standard, it is no longer the supplier to pick up what comes, but requires it to supply goods strictly according to the standard, although the cost has increased, but it is much easier to worry, and the price is better.

Long Xingchao revealed that in order to truly "land" this set of standards and allow more buyers and sellers of Chinese herbal medicines to benefit from this system, starting from November 1 this year, the e-commerce platform of Tiandi net Chengshitong will comprehensively push out this set of standards. resident merchants are required to classify goods strictly according to the standards, and carry out special certification for those who use this set of standards.

In order to make businesses fully understand this set of standard specifications, in addition to using information technology to carry out training and popularization, Tiandi Network has also produced a number of standard samples, which will be sent to platform e-commerce one by one.

From production driven to consumption driven

The standardization of ordinary agricultural products is not a difficult problem.

"ordinary agricultural products, like traditional Chinese medicine, are standard in the traditional trading system." Long Xingchao believes that it is not difficult to extract a set of operational standards from the existing fuzzy and general system of standards for agricultural products. "take Chinese cabbage as an example, its height and diameter can be quantified to ensure its merchandise." Long Xingchao said.

Since it is not difficult to set standards for agricultural products, why do fresh e-commerce still face the problem of standardization? The relevant person in charge of the Information Department of the Chengdu Municipal Commission of Agriculture believes that the current agricultural product market is driven by production rather than consumption is the key. "Agricultural producers' understanding of consumer preferences is vague, they can only follow the feeling in the layout of production, and there is no fine sorting in post-natal processing." The official said that even if the establishment of a set of agricultural standards is promoted, it will be difficult for the standards to fall to the ground without changing the traditional agricultural production-driven tradition.

Long Xingchao also believes that consumption-driven order agriculture is the most useful for standards. "for example, for large purchase orders for agricultural products, it is entirely possible to exercise strict control over the quality and specifications of agricultural products by refining the standards, so as to avoid disputes between buyers and sellers because of disagreements between buyers and sellers on grade specifications." Long Xingchao said that, in turn, a set of authoritative and scientific standards for agricultural products is conducive to the development of contract agriculture.