Autumn Battle of Delivery Platforms: Taobao Flash Sale "Crashes"?

On August 7th, as the Mid-Autumn Festival approached, various delivery platforms fiercely competed to launch autumn-themed promotions, attempting to seize the initiative in this consumer hotbed.

For instance, Meituan partnered with a tea brand to offer "Autumn's First Cup of Milk Tea" to riders; JD.com launched the "Autumn's First Bite of Fried Chicken" red envelope promotion; and Taobao Flash Sale pushed out "Autumn's First Meal" gift vouchers.

However, this seemingly thrilling promotional activity suddenly ran into unexpected problems.

As the delivery platforms' autumn battle kicked off, their service capabilities also became a focal point for competition. On August 7th, users on social media shared screenshots of orders, claiming they had ordered food from Taobao Flash Sale only to discover that the delivery was extremely slow and prepared to cancel the order when the platform displayed a "network error" message and customer service inquiries were stuck at over 2,000 people.

"After ordering, there's no progress; it can't be canceled either. Seeing everyone else in the same situation as me, I just gave up," a Guangdong user joked.

Other users from Shanghai, Liaoning, and Guangxi also reported that when they opened Taobao Flash Sale, all merchant addresses showed out of delivery range. IP address users from Shandong claimed that their in-progress meals were showing as exceeding the delivery range.

Until 7pm on the same day, a user from Shenzhen contacted China's securities reporter, saying that originally, the order was scheduled to be delivered at around 5:00 pm but discovered the rider was stuck and not taking the order; after contacting customer service from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm, they were unable to reach either the rider or the automated customer service system, "How can we contact you? The message doesn't respond, nor does the phone ring. I don't know if the order will be delivered."

Subsequently, the user finally reached online customer service, but the response was extremely slow, and they had to periodically enter something to keep themselves online.

Taobao Flash Sale's official customer service said, "System APP failure; currently being gradually restored."

The user from Shenzhen later told the reporter that possibly due to their VIP status as an 88 member, the order cancellation was relatively prompt at around 8:20 pm and they received a customer service apology call, "Customer service said they indeed experienced system failure and are working hard to fix it." The user said.

Aside from this, many users online vented their frustrations about the "Autumn Battle of Delivery Platforms" on the day, with orders blowing up, riders, and merchants in disarray.

Some users reported receiving multiple cups of milk tea after ordering just one cup; others said they ordered dinner at 8:00 pm but still hadn't received a call from the rider by 10:00 pm. A user shared a chat screenshot with a rider, who claimed that the merchant's orders were too chaotic and he couldn't accurately identify order information, so he just took two cups of milk tea and delivered them.

Industry observers pointed out that merchants and platforms pursuing business scale and market share must highly value the stability of their systems and service quality, "The platform's autumn battle exposes a systemic shortcoming in terms of business strategy, technology investment, merchant operations, and rider guarantees. It is ultimately driven by capital and efficiency, and we need to achieve sustainable development through standardized competition, optimized infrastructure, and returning to the essence of services."

In reality, recent promotional activities on platforms such as Taobao Flash Sale, Ele.me, and Meituan due to "Autumn's First Cup" etc. have caused system crashes, delayed orders, and sluggish customer service responses, which has also triggered widespread user dissatisfaction and the failure of marketing campaigns.

The person pointed out that the platform's "service capabilities cannot keep up" problem is fundamentally a result of short-term traffic shocks and long-term operational capabilities not matching. He suggested that in the future, platforms should optimize system stability before similar promotional activities, such as conducting stress tests beforehand, to avoid system crashes during promotional periods.

Furthermore, dynamic adjustments can be made by establishing more flexible collaboration mechanisms with rider teams and merchants, responding to order peaks. Meanwhile, improve customer service efficiency by introducing AI assistance or temporary staffing, reducing user waiting time.

"Most importantly, we need to balance promotional strategies and avoid over-relying on low-price subsidies, shifting towards more sustainable marketing models." The person emphasized.