Pinduoduo and The Rise of Social E-Commerce

Pinduoduo found room in e-commerce, not as a competitor to search-based websites like JD, but as a new e-commerce platform focused on interactive and social shopping experiences online. Social shopping may seem like a new concept, but the reality is that in the physical world, shopping is meant to be “interactive and fun” and purchases are regularl... See more

The daily check-in is a simple yet brilliant feature that encourages users to engage with Pinduoduo on a daily basis. While each check-in does not generate revenue for Pinduoduo, the product experience eventually ties back to commerce if/when users redeem their vouchers. This theoretically should yield a higher customer lifetime value for Pinduoduo... See more

The daily check-in is a feature, prominently featured in the centre of the home page. It encourages daily usage by rewarding users with redeemable points each time he or she checks into Pinduoduo. The user experience is laid out in the image below. First, the user clicks the yellow icon to administer a check-in. Each time the user checks-in they ar... See more

There are large indicators that there is major demand for more sophisticated social commerce in the US marketplace already. An obvious example of this is Instagram, which has over one billion users and is now, arguably, one of the world’s largest social shopping platforms. Similarly to Pinduoduo, Instagram has fostered a browsing-based feed from fr... See more

The core of the Pinduoduo experience is team purchase, where buyers form a group in order to receive discounts from suppliers. The user experience, as laid out in the graphic below, is as follows: (1) for each item, merchants decide two prices – one for individual purchase and one for team purchase. If the user opts for a team purchase, he or she m... See more