# Users Will Never Pay for Inefficient Operations
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## Introduction: The End of the Golden Age of E-Commerce
The golden age of e-commerce — fueled by **traffic dividends** — is over. Efficiency is now the new core of competition.
This article uses financial data and market structures to explore how **efficiency** is redefining survival for platforms in a **zero-sum environment**.
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## Double 11, 2025: Beneath the ¥1.8 Trillion Surface
As **Double 11** in 2025 concludes, total online retail sales reached ¥1.8 trillion.
Beneath this number lie deep structural changes:
- **Stable market shares** maintained by Taotian, JD.com, Douyin, Pinduoduo.
- **User growth no longer the main metric**: JD.com’s 24.7% increase in users was driven not by paid traffic, but by **supply chain efficiency**.
When the game shifts **from incremental to zero-sum**, idle profits from traffic windfalls disappear.
Now, **operational efficiency** dictates survival — accelerated by AI.
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## The Fading Traffic Myth: Bottlenecks for Traditional E-Commerce
For the past decade, **“traffic is king”** defined the rules.
- Platforms purchased traffic aggressively.
- Merchants boosted rankings using fake orders.
- The cycle: *buy traffic → convert sales → buy more traffic*.
### Why It Breaks Down Now
1. **User saturation**
- 2025 penetration: **48.7%**
- Cost per new user: **up 300%** in five years.
2. **More rational consumers**
- Marketing gimmicks → lower conversion rates.
3. **Financial strain**
- One legacy platform: marketing = **28% of costs**.
- Repeat purchases ↓ 5 percentage points.
### Regulatory Pressure
“Double reduction” style regulations now limit:
- Deep discounts
- Fake order boosting
**Result:** Without buying traffic, growth stalls; buying traffic shrinks profits.
This dependency is leaving slower players behind.
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## Efficiency Wins: How New Platforms Overtake Incumbents
### Core Efficiency Metrics
Operational efficiency depends on:
1. **Inventory turnover rate**
2. **Order processing speed**
3. **Cost control**
### Case Studies
- **JD.com**
- 3C digital category: 60%+ sales online.
- AI demand forecasting: Goods pre-positioned near consumers.
- **Same-day/next-day delivery** for 90%+ of orders.
- Inventory turnover: **<30 days** (industry avg. 50 days).
- **Pinduoduo**
- **C2M model** links manufacturing hubs directly to consumers.
- Agricultural distribution costs ↓ 20%.
- Dominates low-price markets with healthy margins.
- **Douyin E-commerce**
- Content-first approach: “**content + shelf**” conversion.
- Double 11, 2025 apparel ↑ 21%, daily necessities top 3.
- Grows without traditional traffic buying — leveraging high-efficiency synergy between content and transactions.
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## AI Reshaping Competition: No Leader Is Safe
### AI as the Accelerator
Legacy platforms use AI mainly for **personalized recommendations**.
New platforms integrate AI into:
- Supply chains
- Warehousing
- Customer service
**Examples:**
- AI smart warehousing → Order processing ↑ 40%, logistics costs ↓ 15%.
- AI customer service → **92% resolution rate** (human avg. 65%), satisfaction ↑ 8 points.
### Impact: Shifting Market Shares
- One major platform: **↓ 2 percentage points** in Q3 2025.
- AI-powered rival: **↑ 1.5 percentage points**.
Emerging channels like **metaverse shopping** and **cross-border livestreaming** create entirely new consumption scenarios, bypassing traditional traffic pools.
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## Conclusion: The Efficiency Revolution Has No Finish Line
E-commerce competition has shifted:
- **Old:** “Who has more traffic”
- **New:** “Who can serve users more efficiently”
AI accelerates this race.
Platforms must integrate AI into content, commerce, and operations.
**Tip:** Open-source ecosystems like [AiToEarn官网](https://aitoearn.ai/) offer:
- AI content generation
- Cross-platform publishing (Douyin, Kwai, YouTube, Instagram, X…)
- Analytics & model rankings
Such tools give creators and platforms an edge in the **efficiency-first future**.
> In the age of **efficiency**, today’s leader can be overtaken tomorrow if innovation stops.
> Only by abandoning traffic fantasies and embracing efficiency can players win in stock competition.
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## 🔥 Event: 2025 AI Product Conference
**Date:** December 20–21
**Location:** Shenzhen
Focus: Practical **“AI + Industry”** implementations in:
- Logistics
- Audio & video
- Content
- Digitalization
- Industrial manufacturing
- Big data
- Collaborative office
- Global expansion
- Embodied intelligence
- Smart hardware
---
## Recommended Reading
[](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5OTEwNjI2MA==&mid=2651914849&idx=1&sn=4334ae5075cf3ab3087635bbe7f07a4a&scene=21#wechat_redirect)
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[](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5OTEwNjI2MA==&mid=2651898940&idx=1&sn=117065070ac9d6d4de2d0ff7677210e7&scene=21#wechat_redirect)
---
## Final Note: AI Ecosystems for Creators
In this new era, **AI-powered content monetization** across global platforms is vital.
Open-source solutions like [AiToEarn官网](https://aitoearn.ai/) enable:
- AI content creation
- Distribution to multiple networks: Douyin, Kwai, WeChat, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, YouTube, Pinterest, X (Twitter)
- Analytics and rankings for improved performance
- Scaled monetization opportunities
Such tools embody the **efficiency revolution** by enabling smarter, faster, wider reach in the digital economy.
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