The product life cycle theory was first proposed by Raymond Vernon, a professor at Harvard University in the United States, in his book “International Investment and International Trade in the Product Cycle” in 1966. It refers to the market life of a product, that is, the entire movement process of a product from preparing to enter the market to being eliminated and exiting the market, which is determined by the production cycle of demand and technology. In the process of market circulation, the cycle of commodity decline caused by changes in consumer demand and other factors affecting the market is mainly determined by changes in consumer consumption methods, consumption levels, consumption structures and consumption psychology. Therefore, the product life cycle is generally divided into four stages: introduction (entry) stage, growth stage, maturity (saturation) stage, and decline (decline) stage.
Alibaba International Station has specific rules for the product life cycle, that is, the system imposes mandatory restrictions on each product: if a product is a zero-effect product for 180 consecutive days and is not operated, it will be forcibly removed from the shelves, which is regarded as the end of the product life cycle. Zero-effect products refer to products whose visitor count, favorite count, share count, price comparison count, Trade Manager (TM) consultation, wholesale orders, credit guarantee orders, etc. are all zero. Simply put, if the product has no data for 180 consecutive days, it means that the product is not popular with buyers, and thus needs to be eliminated.