A brief analysis of the new "business" of traditional retailing--electronic commerce: retail trade

Speaking of China's traditional retail industry to enter E-commerce, many people's first reaction is no! Although the history of electronic commerce in the United States tells us that the traditional retail industry is ultimately the leading role of E-commerce, the United States today ranked the top ten of the consumer Web site, there are up to 8 of the offline traditional retail industry. But this trend seems a bit out of reach for China's traditional retailing industry. Even on my Sina Weibo: Http://t.sina.com.cn/zhuangshuai also forwarded a microblog to tell me that the traditional retail industry in China cannot develop e-commerce as the traditional retail industry in the United States. In my official franchise Oriental Home E-commerce Company as general manager for one months, there are friends in the industry directly and I said: Zhong, you should not accept such an offer, China's retail industry can not achieve success in E-commerce, you will only waste time. Of course, in my opinion, any thing that cannot be achieved, there will always be someone to do the difficulties to do, including myself and join the Oriental Home group.

Now let's take a brief look at the history and status quo of the traditional retailing industry in China and the United States. (The following information is only understood in the process, if you need to obtain detailed information to refer to the relevant information or books, if there is not the correct place to point out)

The traditional retailing industry in the United States began to grow in the last century and 60, Wal-Mart was just set up, mart chain stores have broken thousands, in the 80 's official acquisition of Wal-Mart Mart, the United States chain-type stores have reached hundreds of thousands of (including chain catering), whether the supply chain, retail chain, Logistics three main support business information even ahead of the development of IT services, Wal-Mart, such as investment in 1 billion of dollars to develop their own ERP, VRM\CRM, Antananarivo Management, POS and other systems. and Wal-Mart's innovative "DC (Central warehousing model)" opened up the traditional retail industry to quickly open shop and enhance the customer experience of the precedent, the U.S. offline retail industry into the rapid development period, followed by the Amazon.

From this brief understanding (not necessarily particularly precise and meticulous), the development of E-commerce in the United States itself is based on the development of a mature traditional retail industry, in information systems, logistics, cash registers (payment), talent reserves, business intelligence, operating mode and so on have very good ready-made experience can be transformed into E-commerce, Even E-commerce itself is a lot of advanced experience in learning the traditional retailing industry. And China so far, has 10,000 square meters of business area and chain shop more than thousands to the present still does not appear, the retail industry has been considered to be low value-added, the quality of workers generally low population-intensive enterprises, in a long period of time did not rise to a strategic height or even military strategic point of view to develop. This is doomed China's traditional retail industry to enter the development of E-commerce needs to learn from the existing E-commerce business development experience, and their many experience is not representative, and not "standardized" and can not be replicated. For the retail industry, high standardization and process is the root of rapid development.

Before facing the retail industry in the United States and China's retail industry to carry out a very simple contrast thinking, the focus of this article is to the retail industry "business" to carry out an analysis.

As the general manager of the Orient Home Electronic commerce company and the senior Chinese E-commerce expert, my experience and retail business and E-commerce are closely related, what is the retail industry "mode"?

Or is it a real-life example to explain this seemingly professional term, in real life, we are exposed to the retail industry has "Wal-Mart, Carrefour, outlets, Mau industry department stores, Lufthansa department stores, hundred Homes, Red Star Mei Chiron, 7-11 convenience stores, supermarket hair Community shop, Oriental home building materials Supermarket, Oriental Plaza Shopping Mall, McDonald's, all kinds of clothing stores "and so on." So these are a variety of "business", they are: shopping malls, leasing business stores, supermarkets, community stores, convenience stores, brand stores, discount stores, department stores, shopping malls, food chains and so on.

So how is "karma" differentiated? There are several main conditions:

First, business area: According to the difference of business area, is divided into various forms, such as shopping malls (Shopping Mall) business area is currently the largest, which can include a variety of business, including brand stores, supermarkets, department stores and so on.

Ii. Product or brand positioning: department stores of clothing and shopping malls, supermarkets operating apparel positioning is certainly different, the former is brand, high-grade, the latter to meet the basic needs of clothing, although will be upgraded, but positioning is still to meet the basic needs, the price is its most concerned;

Third, the location: Like department stores, brand stores are mostly concentrated in a city's most prosperous business circle (such as Beijing Wangfujing, Xidan, Shanghai, Hang Lung, Xujiahui, Guangzhou, Beijing Road, Tianhe, Shenzhen Huaqiang North, East Gate). And supermarkets will also appear in these places, but a small number, and Carrefour, Wal-Mart unless in the formation of the business district before the shop, otherwise its operating area and positioning to the site, most will be far away from the mature commercial areas or even remote location site, in the early period to reduce the price pressure of the store

Price positioning: The price positioning of each type of business is different, like the same commodity supermarkets and convenience stores, we know that the latter price is certainly more expensive than the former, but the convenience store is still there, it is convenient, shop small location convenient, 24 hours of business you can buy at any time. And not because the price is more expensive than the supermarket by the supermarket this kind of business competition and disappear.

V. Population positioning: In fact, in the traditional retail industry, the majority of the crowd is overlapping, but this overlap is to a large extent the consumer partition. To give a simple example: you are an individual and are unique and identical. But when you enter the supermarket, your crowd positioning becomes a supermarket consumer, even if the supermarket shelves the new only brand of women's clothing, you will also think that this is a discount or even think it is inferior to its demand for lower prices, are not necessarily purchased; and when you enter a brand store, even if there are some minor flaws, You are able to accept and do not make a high demand for the price; when you go into a department store, you ask for a discount or a promotional campaign to make you buy more; into a convenience store, the same bottle of water, the supermarket to sell 1 yuan, It sells 2.5 yuan, you will gladly buy, because the cashier here is faster, in your house downstairs. As a result, although the various types of people are coincident, but their positioning is clear, can be clearly described into the store is "what kind of person", which is based on the characteristics of the industry itself and goods, prices, service positioning decision.

Vi. operating mode: For supermarkets, convenience stores, these businesses, their mode of operation are the procurement of suppliers of goods, and set a settlement cycle, through the commodity spreads profit and account period and other value-added costs to obtain business income, there is a unified register and warehouse. And for like leasing industry: department stores, building materials City, these industries, they are mainly charged rent and merchandise sales commission, there is no independent warehouse, many of the cashier or by the settled merchants to complete their own, promotional policies and the implementation of a more flexible way, by the merchant to complete their own.

In fact, there are many more detailed indicators, such as procurement methods, settlement methods, sales methods, promotion methods and so on. We understand this mainly through the six main areas.

This is the "traditional retail business" described in the previous article, so why do you define E-commerce as a new "business" rather than a simple emerging channel or channel supplement? Because the electronic commerce also has the characteristic which the mature industry form has, simultaneously in the electronic commerce this big "the business state", many refinement "the business state" also gradually forms. Of course, for E-commerce itself, it should be an industry, only in the traditional retail business e-commerce, it needs to be its operating system as a "business" to treat, how to treat and develop? We'll make a detailed introduction in the next chapter.