Rich and capricious! As soon as Alipay called out to netizens to confirm receipt and help with payment as soon as possible after receiving the courier. A few hours later, the online merchant bank responded that it is expected to advance 50 to 100 billion yuan before March 31, so that merchants can repay in seconds.
On March 2, a reporter from brokerage China noticed that Alipay called on the official Weibo to take the initiative to confirm receipt of the goods as soon as possible after receiving the express delivery, so that small merchants can quickly return their funds; and @网商银行. It turns out that before Taobao buyers did not confirm receipt of the goods, the online merchant bank had already “paid out of the bank” to advance 50 billion yuan free of charge to small and micro merchants as sellers.
As a result, some market voices think, “Alipay @网友确认收款 is to ease the financial pressure on online merchant banks.” However, a few hours later, it was @的网商银行干脆和淘宝联合发起倡议缩短中小企业账期, and will take the lead in implementing a “zero account period,” indicating that before March 31, online merchant banks will be expected to advance 50 to 100 billion yuan to allow merchants to repay in seconds. The advance costs and risks will be fully borne by online merchant banks and Taobao — the lives of rich people are so simple, unpretentious and boring.
Rich and capricious! “Paying out of pocket” 100 billion dollars to allow merchants to “pay back in seconds”
On the evening of March 2, the Internet Merchant Bank and Taobao launched a joint initiative calling on the whole society to shorten the accounting period for small and medium-sized enterprises, not to intercept and not to arrears, and stated that they would take the lead in implementing a “zero account period.”
The so-called “zero account period” means that the merchant applies for early payment, and there is no need to wait for confirmation; the consumer as the buyer continues to enjoy the Alipay guarantee transaction, and the protection of rights is not affected; while the online merchant bank advances the loan to the merchant first.
Just a few hours before the “0 account period” initiative was launched, Alipay's official Weibo “shouted” online shoppers, “after receiving the delivery and making sure everything is correct, click 'Confirm Receipt' as soon as possible, so that sellers can receive payment as soon as possible and increase the possibility of revitalizing the store.” A Chinese brokerage reporter learned from Alipay that considering the efficiency of the use of funds by small and micro sellers during the epidemic, on the basis that Alipay's guaranteed transaction mechanism did not change, after Taobao buyers made payments, online merchant banks first deposit money to sellers free of charge, and it is expected that an advance of 50-100 billion yuan will be required. Also, the advance is free for merchants until the end of March.
This also means that online merchant banks will “carry” tens of billions of yuan of financial pressure until the buyer confirms receipt of the goods. As a result, some market voices think, “Alipay is at @网友确认收款 to ease the financial pressure on online merchant banks.” A few hours later, the “rich and willful” online merchant banks simply introduced a no-cost “0 account period.”
According to data from online merchant banks and Taobao, after the introduction of the no-cost “0 account period”, the seller account period was shortened by an average of 7.5 days. FMCG, fashion, and home improvement are the three types of merchants that use the “0 account period” function the most. Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Shandong, Shanghai, Hebei, Henan, Anhui, and Beijing are the top ten regions that use the “0 account period” function the most.
The online merchant bank is one of the first 5 private banks established in China. It was founded by Ant Financial and officially opened in June 2015. By the end of 2018, the total assets of online merchant banks were 95.9 billion yuan and total liabilities of 90.5 billion yuan; at the end of 2018, the bank had a non-performing loan ratio of 1.3%, and issued loans and advances of 47.689 billion yuan throughout the year; it covered a total of 12.27 million small and micro enterprises and small and micro operator customers, with an average credit balance of 26,000 yuan.
According to data from the Internet Merchant Bank, at the end of September 2019, the Internet Merchant Bank had cooperated with 482 financial institutions to provide comprehensive financial services including supply chain finance and credit to various merchants online. The reporter learned that since the outbreak of the epidemic, online merchant banks have joined forces with 25 commercial banks including Postbank, Pudong Development Bank, China CITIC Bank, China Merchants Bank, Guangfa Bank, and Bank of Guangzhou to provide small and micro stores with credit funds to resume work and resume production; as of March 2, the relevant loan amount received by small and micro merchants reached 25 billion yuan.
Is it industry practice to “confirm receipt” and then pay?
What many online shopping users don't notice is that in an online shopping process, some e-commerce platforms start from securing the interests of the buyer and seller, and only when the seller “confirms receipt” will the seller's store receive payment.
Specifically, in the Taobao e-commerce transaction payment process, the backstage is Alipay's guaranteed transaction mechanism; Alipay's third-party payment agency with online payment and other qualifications has payment and settlement functions during the transaction; in this process, when the seller buys the product and clicks “confirm receipt”, the money will only be sent to the seller; if the user does not click “confirm receipt”, the Taobao system will automatically “confirm receipt” after more than ten days. At this point, the buyer's financial settlement is finally completed.
Meanwhile, at the JD Mall, the reporter learned that the buyer never clicks “confirm receipt” after receiving the goods, and the system will automatically change the order status to a status of confirmed receipt (already received) after 20 days.
Previously, the e-commerce platform Pinduoduo did not hold a third-party payment license (that is, a qualification license), and cooperated with Ping An Bank products to achieve functions such as account verification, transaction, recharge, and payment. In the process, a person from a third-party payment agency in East China analyzed to the reporter that the flow of funds from consumers' platform transactions after shopping on Pinduoduo was:
“(Consumers pay the purchase price through WeChat, Alipay, etc. — the transaction payment enters Ping An Bank's e-commerce transaction funds to be cleared; the Pinduoduo platform and payment institution pushes the transaction information to Ping An Bank — Ping An Bank divides the payment to the merchant's sub-account based on the transaction information — the merchant withdraws the payment through the linked bank account.”
“As a result, it is already an industry trend for platform companies in the e-commerce, travel and other fields to allocate payment licenses due to considerations such as fund settlement compliance and the storage of big transaction data during the transaction process.” Liu Gang, founder of Payment Industry Network, told reporters in an earlier interview. According to incomplete statistics, currently, in addition to Alibaba's Tmall and Taobao, which have Alipay, and NetEase carefully selected NetEase Bao, since 2015, JD has successively acquired Online Banking Online, Meituan, Vipshop has acquired PayPay, Didi has acquired 19 Pay, and Youzan has acquired GaoHuitong.
The transaction volume is cold in spring, testing the cash flow of small online stores
On March 2, data from Taobao showed that in the past day, 7 million new consumers confirmed receipt of goods on Taobao.
However, it is worth noting that under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cash flow of small and micro sellers is being tested. Not only does it come from the payment transaction habits of online shopping users, the impact on express logistics and the resumption of work and production of enterprises cannot be ignored.
For example, in response to Alipay's appeal for online shopping users to confirm receipt as soon as possible, some netizens also reported that it was not that the receipt was not confirmed in a timely manner; the main reason was that logistics were affected. “Previously, it was possible to arrive at most 5 days, but now it hasn't been delivered in 15 days.” The most direct reflection of the cooling in online store transactions this spring is that under the impact of the epidemic, the business of many express delivery companies directly linked to online store transaction volume and transaction volume has cooled down.
According to statistics from the State Post Office, in January 2020, the business volume of express delivery service enterprises nationwide reached 3.78 billion units, a year-on-year decrease of 16.4%; business revenue reached 50.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 16.1%. In January of this year, the logistics business performance of the four A-share listed companies, SF Holdings, Yunda Co., Ltd., Yuantong Express, and Shentong Express, which is the main express delivery business, showed positive year-on-year growth (express logistics business revenue of 11.15 billion yuan, up 10.64% year on year).
Wang Jingyi, a researcher at Peking University's Digital Economy Research Center, told the reporter that his team's big data analysis found that “in the two weeks after January 31, 2020, active self-employed individuals in Hubei Province fell by 59.3% and turnover by 69.7%; in the rest of the country, it declined by about 40% and 50%, respectively.” He suggested dividing the risk levels of the epidemic, adopting precise measures, and taking multiple measures to effectively reduce the operating costs of sole proprietors, actively use fintech methods to improve the efficiency of financial services, and encourage credit white individual entrepreneurs to help them maintain their operations and overcome the difficulties.