From incompatibility to intimate contact, the Internet and the department store giants are holding hands

From the incongruous to intimate contact, the Internet and the department store Giants, in the new round of O2O enclosure war, have held hands.

Ali from "Iron Buddy" Yintai department store started, until recently, won the Wangfujing (600859), Yintai Business (01833), the New World (600628), Hualian, Big Yue City, such as a number of online retail giants, Tencent is relying on micro-letter This ride Super soldier, cited many department stores have "upper body", in addition to Tianhong shopping malls (002419), Wangfujing and Shanghai outside the new World, the relevant "micro-letter" concept department store, also began to stir.

"The idea of the difference is too big, offline shop is the need to make money, and the line is used to hit the money, both sides even together, also need time to run, now it seems, do not say 1+1>2, if you can reach the 1+1=2, it is very good." "For department stores and the internet," said Fan Yanju, Deputy secretary general of China's Department of Commerce. Both sides of the running-in is only the beginning, the follow-up can really play their respective advantages, integration, it is too early.

Ali Tencent Enclosure War

Department stores, became Ali and Tencent, a new round of 020 enclosure war important battlefield.

February 26, Ali aspects of the start of "38 Taobao Life Festival", by the mobile phone Taobao, covering food, KTV, cinemas and many other fields, and department stores are becoming the most important part of this life.

In addition to already into the alliance of Yintai Business, This Life festival, Ali is the wooing of Wangfujing, Hualian, Yue City, New World, such as one or two line department store giants. The 5 retail giants have begun to move to Taobao, an attempt to explore offline retailing.

As early as 2013 years before the double 11, Ali and Yintai business has begun small-scale test water 020 electric business shopping. November 15, Alipay and Yintai strategic cooperation, in addition to public services, mobile phone payment, the two sides will also be in the background system, membership and other extension areas of cooperation. At that time, the entire Yintai system, supporting Alipay's offline resources have reached 37, including Yintai department stores and shopping malls.

This year, Tencent and Ali line of resources under the competition intensified. Tencent, although the social and gaming industry, the electric business has been tepid, but after the rise of micro-letter, Tencent in life services, O2O and other areas of the imagination space, has been the market hype.

September 12, 2013, Tianhong Mall Bulletin, and micro-letter cooperation in the development of O2O business application platform to achieve the seamless docking of member systems, the first Test water Micro-trust department store. Subsequently, including the Friends of the shares (002277), Nanjing Chinese Business (600280), top grade discount, red flag chain (002697), step High (002251), but also began to intervene in micro-credit ecology.

Later announced the cooperation with the micro-letter wangfujing, February 13, the price of the contrarian rose 4.25%, but also triggered the capital market for offline retailing and micro-letter cooperation, some a-share companies even dubbed "micro-credit concept stocks."

Physical pressure

Entity retailers collectively and the electrical business cooperation, helpless or inevitable trend?

A veteran Shanghai department store executive told the Huaxia Times that in the past two years department stores have had a big impact, although the consumer is different, but the distributor diversion has become a fact. "Before many enterprises in order to compete with the electric business, are trying to do the site, but subject to talent, logistics and even the system, and so on, very few do well." And the Internet giant cooperation, can be said to be a helpless under the test water, if the effect can, in the future may be more companies willing to try. ”

In Fan Yanju's view, physical pressure and internet trends are contributing to a series of attempts to "get out of line" to "O2O".

"In the past, physical stores and electric dealers have always been out of tune. Fan Yanju said, but now the general trend, physical stores also have to embrace the electrical business. She also said that although the electrical business has a fake and other ills, but in a number of standardized products to provide, the electricity business is very convenient. "Retail, your children, your family have to go online shopping, you can not indifferent?"

Fan Yanju said that now the real store pressure is too big, the big city some only 3%-5% growth, some even negative growth, "we are very anxious to find a way to do their own electricity, or to dig some internet people to get, and then cooperation with the Internet, but this can not be too blind, the two sides of the idea is too big, to do online, The idea of the line must be changed. ”

In fact, traditional department stores have been hard hit by slowing economic growth and the impact of the electricity business. From the incomplete statistics of the network, as of late February, the country more than 140 key shopping malls, shopping malls, 41 enterprises only sales, year-on-year negative growth.

The first step that the retail business thought of was to do it alone, but it failed to make a breakthrough. Fan Yanju admits that the entity store has invested heavily in the electricity business, but it does not seem optimistic at the moment. "Online shopping is not what you want to do to do it." Some offline before the retail to do their own electricity, put in a few billion, set up their own online mall, the external claim to do how much, but the effect of how many, their own heart is very clear. ”

New World department store officials in the interview revealed that although the New world has a proprietary electric platform, but only in the initial stage, the contribution to sales is negligible. "Some companies in the industry invest a lot in the vertical electric business, but the return on investment is very low, the new world is reluctant to replicate the old ways of competitors, but more willing to work with internet companies to create O2M (online to mobile) shopping model." ”

Fan Yanju that the physical store contact with the Internet to the second stage, the inevitable need to join the Internet companies, whether Alibaba or Tencent. At the same time, the development of electrical business also faces some need to make up the place, whether it is before the fake, defective, or brand resources, user experience and so on.

The analysis of Shanghai Department of Business executives traditional retail and Ali and other internet giants to cooperate, Fancy is the other side a large number of user resources, convenient payment channels, at the same time, they also hope that through cooperation with the online giants, learning to learn from the experience of Internet operations, and Ali and other Internet companies, through the cooperation with offline enterprises, To make up for the lack of physical store weaknesses, to increase online shopping does not have the shopping experience.

Pies or traps?

It is noteworthy that, although the current department stores and the internet giants appear hot, but still in the water test stage.

First step of the enterprise, began to try to do membership management system, menu customization, prepaid cards and other fields of cooperation. The New World department head told reporters that from the beginning of last year, the company has been working with Tencent low-key cooperation, research and development through the line under the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.

"Tencent is looking at the number of our members, we want to learn from each other's Internet experience, we have developed an electronic prepaid membership card, is currently testing, members only need to recharge in advance, so that when the use of micro-letter payment, you can get more points and concessions." The owner said.

For the cooperation with Ali, the official told reporters, and Yintai, Big Yue City, the new world has not been offline payment system and Ali through. "Whether there will be further cooperation in the future depends on the effect of the activity." ”

Overall, the current Internet and offline department store cooperation scope is still relatively limited. To participate in Ali "Life Festival" Hualian as an example, its landing resources for "Beijing Hualian million Liu Shopping center", and Tencent also revealed that the cooperation with department stores, is not to say that the overall flowering, but a region to promote a region, "such as Beijing is the wangfujing of some stores, Shanghai is a new world of some shops." ”

Tencent also revealed that the relative depth of cooperation, mainly rainbow, Wangfujing and the New World.

In fact, even if the test water O2O, department stores will not only bind one. Among them, Wangfujing, although alleged to cooperate with the micro-credit strategy, but it also has cooperation with Alipay. The new World participates in Ali "Life Day" interaction, and micro-letter is also trying CRM system cooperation.

At the same time, the so-called cooperation is also deep and shallow. "Some with the micro-letter or Ali cooperation, in fact, is a hitch-ride, the concept of the Internet, in the capital market Bo a color, the most is the use of marketing ideas." In addition to simple marketing, activities, the two sides can come up with the extent of their own core resources, and the other party to share cooperation, really will line up under the various systems to get through, this is the true touchstone of O2O. A person familiar with the internet industry told reporters.