After three years selling on Pinduoduo, a merchant with monthly GMV exceeding ¥800,000 shares why his net margin sits at under 3% — and occasionally turns negative during promotional campaigns.
The core issues: mandatory deep discounts during platform-wide sales events, a returns policy that almost always favours buyers, ever-rising in-feed ad costs as competition intensifies, and fulfilment costs that don't scale proportionally with volume.
The lesson for any seller considering Pinduoduo as a primary channel: model your unit economics at the lowest possible selling price before listing, not at your preferred price.