China's retail industry has undergone a transformation from the surface to the concept of O2O mode

However, the changes in the industry are bound to be completed within a short period of time. This year, this "revolution" is still going on. Still not much change opponents, is still a powerful e-commerce ; the environment is not much improvement, there is no fundamental improvement in consumer demand.

But what is worth to be sure is that during the past six months, retailers have got a more rational understanding of the O2O transformation and the main targets and targets of M & A have changed.

After a long period of operating downturn, the path to change in the retail industry has gradually become clearer since 2014 - in the opinion of the industry, the retail industry will break first and this round of changes is expected to bring new developments to the entire industry opportunity.

The rise of omnichannel concept

Last year, the concept of O2O suddenly stirred up the entire retail sector. Not to mention whether this brought any tangible benefits to those businesses who actively participated in it. The concept of this wave really made these enterprises a real fire and the share price soared That is the best evidence. However, this year the situation has changed a bit, and the concept of "omni-channel" that really connects with consumers has become another focus.

In the 2013 Annual Report, department store leading Dah Sing shares pointed out that there will be no fundamental change in the unfavorable factors affecting the retail industry in 2014 and in the future. The rise and stimulation of e-commerce will push the large entity retailers to channel omni-channel retailers Transformation.

In addition, the "Daily Economic News" reporter noted that BBK Chairman Wang also previously publicly stated that BBK Group in the future like the Wanda Group, the true sense of the whole industry, omnichannel operators. At the end of last year, BBK launched the e-commerce platform. In its view, consumption scenarios under the backgammon full-format layout will become its own advantages when constructing O2O closed-loop.

For the retail O2O model, in fact, the controversy has existed, and even point out that such a model is actually a false proposition, mostly by the concept of business hype. For example, Qiu Hao, deputy general manager of Shanghai Hi-tech Information Co., Ltd., once publicly pointed out that most entrepreneurs know that O2O is a false proposition. What the retail enterprises need to do is to take the opportunity to develop the whole channel. In his view, "China's hot O2O, in fact, is called worldwide omni-channel management."

In fact, many enterprises have realized that the simple "store + online shopping" is definitely not O2O. And the omnichannel retail model is the innovation needed by retailers and the way out for the physical store.

There are people in the industry to define a full range of channels: to achieve a variety of ordering platform, payment options, delivery of any choice, seamless integration of online and offline retail model. It is reported that the essence of omnichannel retail model is through the different orders - payment - delivery links with different forms to form a 32 kinds of ordering mode: the next channel can choose their own / partners PC network / store / phone / cell phone, payment channels can choose Online self-help / nearest store payment, delivery methods can choose to store / delivery.

However, some people in the industry said that building a "omnichannel" channel is not something that can be achieved through tools such as WeChat and micro-stores. Businesses need to have six core competencies: point-of-sale, merchandising, promotion, payment, membership and distribution, while costs and talent are also important factors.

Lin Shou-chang, director of retail solutions for IBM Greater China, had publicly stated in a forum that all channels need to be positioned in three areas: building a digital foundation, establishing a new customer interaction model and delivering omni-channel brand experience. "All channels must be implemented from the customer, can not just look at technology."

In addition, despite the changes that retailers have made in understanding online and offline, it is noteworthy that "omni-channel" is not the ultimate retail success. The real purpose of omnichannel is to respect customer habits, comply with the trend of evolution, and continuously optimize the products and services within the controllable cost so as to achieve customer satisfaction and sales growth.

E-commerce to find the floor

This year, in order to develop the omnichannel mode, not only the offline physical retailers are making continuous efforts, but also the e-commerce enterprises are actively exploring. Taking Jingdong as an example, in the first half of the year, Jingdong and 10,000 convenience stores in more than 15 cities comprehensively promoted online and offline cooperation.

For convenience stores, the greater significance of cooperation lies in omni-channel mode innovation. However, in the opinion of industry insiders, this kind of cooperation is more advantageous to Jingdong because the cooperation with the convenience store can enable Jingdong to start the offline platform business and realize the more difficult category management. More point of view that such cooperation can give full play to the advantage of the information system in Jingdong, Jingdong integration in the future a large number of entities, the future may be built Jingdong its cost of life service platform.

In April this year, No. 1 store also announced a formal strategic partnership with Shanxi Meitex. Meitute will open an online flagship store in No. 1 store and at the same time open up all its offline stores for marketing and end-delivery. Some analysts pointed out that through this cooperation, No. 1 store can take this integration of offline resources, optimize the supply chain.

Another typical case is Alibaba shares Yintai. Since last year's "double 11" first taste of online and offline cooperation sweetness, in March this year, Ali announced that it will be 53.7 billion Hong Kong dollars in strategic investment in Intime, the two sides will open up the online and offline business infrastructure system, and will set up Joint venture.

Many people think that this is an era of e-commerce. Why do these well-known e-commerce companies take the opposite direction and start laying down physical channels?

In the industry view, Ali in shares Yintai model is mainly for offline diversion, and whether it is "Jingdong + Beijing Jiujiu convenience store" or "Shop No. 1 + US special good," are through online and offline cooperation, Integrate the supply chain and advantageous resources to solve the distribution problem of the last kilometer of electricity supplier and realize online and offline linkage.

Even if the practice is rather special SF, its Hey shop mode although the general online and offline interactive mode is different, but its essence is the virtual shop entities. The core of the model is experience, which leads the passenger flow from the offline to the online through the customer experience. It is reported that on May 18, SF Express first 518 "Hey customer" convenience store opened welcoming. Except for Qinghai and Tibet, they are all covered by provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country.

All along, the experience is the physical retailers to defend the electricity supplier's magic weapon. In many industries, although e-commerce is fast and convenient enough, but out of the physical store, in some non-standardized products, consumers are often troubled by the product is expected to wait for the problem, but the physical store experience can be perfect solve these problems.