At the beginning of May this year, Lin Jia (a pseudonym) in Dongguan, Guangdong Province saw an advertisement of "opening an online store without source of goods for 58 yuan" put by an institution on the short video platform. She had originally planned to open an online store, so she clicked the link below the video and added the social account of the enrollment teacher of the institution for consultation.
The enrollment teacher of the institution told Lin Jia, "as long as you spend 388 yuan, we can teach you to open an online store without source of goods, help you connect the source of goods, and there is no secondary charge." After paying the fee, the other party instructed Lin Jia to successfully register an online store on an e-commerce platform. However, when looking for the source of goods, the other party said that "it will cost 1000 yuan to buy the source of goods software, otherwise it will need to find the source of goods by itself".
A reporter from the rule of law Daily recently found that there are a large number of advertisements that claim that "you can open an online store without a zero basis, without a source of goods, and without knowing how to operate. You can open a store, supply goods, and operate" on the web, short-term screen platforms, etc. What about this so-called "e-commerce startup project without supply" and can you really make money easily? In this regard, the reporter launched an in-depth investigation.
Originally promised supply
Not cashed after payment
Beijing citizen Wang Peng (a pseudonym) is a tourism practitioner. Due to the sluggish tourism industry in recent years, his income has decreased significantly. He plans to find a sideline to increase his income.
In April, 2022, Wang Peng saw the e-commerce advertisement without source of goods put by Chengdu shengmaikun Network Technology Co., Ltd. on the short video platform, and advertised that e-commerce can be done without source of goods. Because he thought this model was very suitable for him, Wang Peng clicked the link below the advertising video and added the social account of the training teacher of the institution for consultation.
At first, Wang Peng was not in a hurry to sign up, but later, the training teacher would share some very tempting information with him every day, such as "three days after the students sign up, more than 2000 people flow every day". Therefore, Wang Penghua paid 500 yuan for the registration, of which 400 yuan was the cost of using the non source system and 100 yuan was the training cost.
However, after signing up, Wang Peng found that it was not as good as the advertising.
"The store registration and certification are all operated by me, which is very simple. I don't need their training. The training they do is to refer to the free courses on the e-commerce platform. These courses are available online. They just share these links for me to see. These training courses are of no use to me." Wang Peng said.
When the reporter entered Wang Peng's online store, he found that the store had been open for more than a week. At present, only one person has paid attention to it, mainly selling some daily necessities, such as garbage cans, home storage, etc.
"Don't mention the order. There isn't even a visitor." However, Wang Peng did not enjoy the "supply of goods" service that he was most concerned about, because the organization said that it must first achieve a certain sales volume.
"If there is no actual source of goods, I can't do event promotion and publicity. Even if I know how to operate, I can't implement it, and the store can't make profits." Wang Peng said helplessly.
Wang Peng said that he has not enjoyed the services mentioned in the contract by the institution, such as "providing a system without goods source, which can be launched, selected and delivered with one click". At present, he is contacting the institution to safeguard his rights, but the other party said that Wang Peng has listened to the course and enjoyed the relevant services, and can only refund 200 yuan at most.
"I paid 500 yuan, which is relatively small. I know that some people have been cheated for more than a few hundred yuan, even tens of thousands of yuan." Wang Peng said.
So-called "open shop and source of goods"
Alleged false publicity
"Do you want to make money easily? Do you believe that opening an online store in a month can make a qualitative change in your income? Opening an online store on a zero basis has low cost and low risk. From opening a store to promoting one-stop services, you can open an online store at home. You only need to spend oneortwo hours a day processing orders, and the products sold are delivered directly by the manufacturer. You don't need to store goods, don't worry about logistics, use other people's goods to make your own money, and start your own business as a boss."
This is a promotional advertisement for e-commerce without source of goods that the reporter saw on a short video platform. The video advertisement also reads "new opportunities, no source of goods online store project. Open a store, source of goods and operation".
In order to find out, the reporter clicked the link at the bottom of the video and added the social account of Mr. Zhang, a shop consultant of Qizhong vocational training.
As soon as he arrived, Mr. Zhang enthusiastically introduced his organization's "Taobao store entrepreneurship project without supply" to the reporter. The so-called "no source" mode is one click distribution. There is a special source of goods software, which contains pictures of goods, introduction details pages, etc. online store owners without source of goods can paste the goods in the source of goods software directly on their own stores. Institutions can also help students collect goods. After the buyer pays successfully, they can provide the buyer's receiving address and telephone number to the previous home in the source system. The previous home will deliver the goods, and the owner will earn the price difference as an intermediary.
In the meantime, the shopkeeper has no access to any goods. Even if the goods can be delivered smoothly, the quality of the goods is unknown.
When the reporter asked whether the supply could be provided, Mr. Zhang said, "we can recommend the supply of manufacturers for you, covering the supply of high-quality manufacturers of men's clothing, women's clothing, shoes and socks, bags, small commodities, toys, furniture supplies and other categories." these supply sources have made product pictures and details in advance. The shopkeepers can directly choose the products they like to upload for free, and these products support the manufacturers to deliver with one click.
According to Mr. Zhang, according to the different conditions of the students, the institution has three kinds of discount packages for opening stores, namely, the bronze package of 498 yuan, the silver package of 798 yuan and the gold package of 998 yuan. Among them, the service of bronze package is to provide basic teaching for opening a store. The comprehensive building and optimization of the store can normally set up the store for business. However, the bronze package does not cover the supply. Only the silver and gold packages with higher prices increase the supply services.
The reporter found that there is no charge to register an online store, and there are ready-made tutorials online. You can register an online store free of charge on the e-commerce platform only when you are 18 years old.
In order to let the reporter sign up, Mr. Zhang told the reporter that as long as the plan guided by the teacher is strictly implemented, the bill can be issued on the same day. The stores they support earn a few hundred yuan a day. If they operate carefully for a long time, the turnover will be about 1000 yuan a day, and the profit will be between 20% and 30%. Subsequently, Mr. Zhang sent some chat screenshots with other students to the reporter, mainly about the online shop flow of the registered students.
When the reporter said that the profits were so considerable, whether Mr. Zhang opened a shop himself, he said he was teaching, and the employees could not open a shop.
Subsequently, the reporter entered the "Qizhong education" search on the black cat complaint platform and found that many consumers complained that they were suspected of false publicity. One of the consumers said that he bought a 998 yuan gold set meal under the guidance of the store opening consultant. As a result, he simply went through the store opening process without any professional guidance, and the promised services were not achieved. The traffic of the newly opened stores is not as good as its publicity, so the teachers of Qizhong education began to recommend him to buy an investment plan of 3888 to 13888 yuan, saying that only in this way can the stores get on track.
Investment should be rational
Don't trust the so-called high return
As for the e-commerce model without source of goods, Ye Lin, a professor at the school of law of Renmin University of China, said that today, with the rapid development of the Internet and technology, if you only pay the registration fee and learn how to open an e-commerce without source of goods, users can not make profits by opening only one store, which can only be a tool for training institutions to make money.
The reporter's investigation found that some advertisements of e-commerce without source of goods were promoted under the banner of "58 yuan for source of goods, opening of stores and operation". However, many netizens found that they had to pay 388 yuan for teaching after consulting, and they had to pay for subsequent source of goods software and learning operation knowledge. After refusing to pay the second time, the institution teacher began to play missing.
In this regard, zhaozhanzhan, a lawyer from Beijing Yunjia law firm, said: "this is a false advertisement, because the advertisement advertises that 58 yuan is all inclusive, but there is still a second consumption in the follow-up. After the consumers refuse to pay for the second time, the basic services originally promised by this institution should also be provided. If the institution loses contact and no longer provides services, it will constitute a breach of contract and may also constitute fraud."
In addition, the reporter's investigation found that in practice, there are still cases where institutional shop consultants induce minors to use their family ID cards to sign up for open online shops without supply.
"Although minors use their family ID cards to open online stores, in fact, the users who specifically handle the opening of online stores are still minors. The contractual relationship between the minors and institutions belongs to a civil legal act. Minors belong to persons with limited capacity, and cannot engage in such civil legal acts as signing a contract for opening a store that is incompatible with their age and intelligence. Therefore, this contract can be revoked." Zhaozhanzhan said.
At present, in addition to the advertisements of "e-commerce entrepreneurship projects without supply", there are also many advertisements under the banner of "low investment and high return" and "making money easily". Ye Lin reminded that this violates basic common sense. When "low investment and high return" or similar words appear, it means that this is "cheating" and consumers should stay away from it. For such advertisements, consumers can complain, and the regulatory authorities should also timely supervise or issue relevant tips to reduce the risk of investors being cheated.