The development of mobile Internet and O2O is in full swing

In recent years, the development of mobile Internet and O2O is in full swing, many traditional chain retail enterprises have also been involved in this wave, in China, there are Yintai department stores, step-high supermarkets, Ling to the group and the United States and other O2O, such as the implementation of a pilot strategy, there are no lack of international, such as Wal-Mart, Target, Tesco, 7-11 convenience stores have been on the O2O to achieve a successful stage of the retail giants, which, the most representative, can really turn the O2O is Wal-Mart, in fact, the chain of retail giants since the establishment of more than 50 years, has been through the mode of innovation to lead the development of traditional retail enterprises, From its innovation and development history and the latest trends can be measured in the future development of the industry.

Wal-Mart was established in Arkansas State in 1962, and has grown to now has more than 10,000 stores in 27 countries, as well as a network of 10 countries, the main business including Wal-Mart Shopping Plaza, Sam member stores, Wal-Mart medium-sized supermarkets and Wal-Mart community stores. Like the well-known chain expansion, supply chain optimization, large-scale information system construction, Wal-Mart is also quite prescient in E-commerce, from 1996 Wal-Mart online to the current mobile application of active layout O2O, Wal-Mart's electric business can be summed up in 3 stages:

The first stage: independent operation period-entity shop and the operator operate independently, the line is offline without interference

1996, Wal-Mart Online mall Walmart.com Online, when the store on the image of Wal-Mart more than substantial sales promotion, the consumer's online experience is poor, so Wal-Mart Online Mall in the next few years after the poor performance. In 2001, Wal-Mart established a long-term strategy for e-commerce development, and began to work to build a truly online retail business. Through the redesign and transformation of the Walmart.com, Wal-Mart can provide online shopping, order search and tracking, return exchange, preferential information and other full-service to suburban residents without physical stores nearby, this service has been recognized by consumers, Wal-Mart's online retail product category is also increasing, over time , Wal-Mart has built up an online retail system covering more than 10 countries, and with the integrity of the Wal-Mart supply chain, consumers around the world can shop online via Wal-Mart or its affiliate stores.

The early Wal-Mart Online mall, although to a certain extent to make up for the physical store in the commodity and geographical distribution of the limitations, but compared with the physical store, the company's contribution to Wal-Mart is very small, and at that time the entire online retail market is still in its infancy, the size of a little, no threat to Wal-Mart, Therefore, the online retail business has not caused enough attention to the company's headquarters, the entity store managers have the absolute right to speak, the electricity business is only a supplementary channel, in the period of 10 years, Wal-Mart online retail and physical store retail has been parallel two lines, independent operation, Non-interference, Wal-Mart to make use of the traditional retail procurement and inventory resources, on the one hand, also set up a unique procurement system, but there is no excessive intersection between the store and the electricity business, including logistics integration, marketing, member interaction are separate development.

Phase II: Interactive period-the initial cooperation in logistics coordination under the line online

Online retailing is increasingly a threat to Wal-Mart's real business, as online retail categories become richer, and Amazon and other electric-business platforms compete with traditional retailers through low-cost strategies. By 2010, Wal-Mart's US real-store sales had fallen 2.5 in a row, while US sales were up 14.8%, and Amazon, the originator of online retailing, had an annual growth rate of 42%.

At this time Wal-Mart began to realize the importance of E-commerce, to set up a global e-commerce sector global.com to try to find a new way, in E-commerce and its own offline advantage of the resources found in the combination between the two, groping out a novel model against the pure online retailer Amazon's low price threat.

Wal-Mart in the exploration line under the integration, the first step can be summed up as "online ordering + Store Pick-up" mode, which is embodied in the launch of the site to store and pick up today two services. The site to store service allows customers to bring their own products to the nearest Wal-Mart store. The launch of the service was a great response, when more than 50% of customers began their first Wal-Mart shopping trip through the site to store service (because U.S. shipping costs were too expensive), which accounted for 1/3 of Wal-Mart's online sales 4 months later. 2011, Wal-Mart upgraded the original site to store service to the pick up today service, accelerated the logistics efficiency, the store's product management system and the electrical business, allowing customers to order goods online on the same day to the store to extract the purchase of goods, greatly improve the timeliness of consumer access to goods. The online and offline integration model has brought huge passenger and sales volumes to Wal-Mart's Web Mall, and in 2011 Wal-Mart sales climbed to $4 billion trillion ($ 1.6 billion trillion in 2005), and its online shopping rankings rose from 13th place in the United States to 4th place.

Phase III: Integration-borrow mobile applications to play O2O, line online to achieve deep integration

At present, Wal-Mart in the field of E-commerce exploration into a new phase, smart phones and mobile internet technology has been widely used, mobile maps, mobile payment and other O2O tools to the traditional retailer brings a good opportunity to integrate, Wal-Mart also began to consider how to rely on existing resources, to build online under the integration of mobile O2O new retail The strategy is: through the mobile end of the technology application to achieve the line under the coordination, to improve user interaction with the entity shop experience, services and marketing, all to "simplify the consumer shopping process, enhance consumer shopping experience" as the core, to the mobile phone as the core, the convenience of mobile phone with the offline logistics, experience and services integration.

To implement this strategy, Wal-Mart has made a series of efforts.

1 Development of Technology innovation application: Develop own app and innovative application, optimize shopping process

In 2011, Wal-Mart built a Silicon Valley laboratory @walmartlabs to analyze consumer behavior and constantly develop innovative mobile apps that interact with real-store users by spending 300 million of dollars on acquisitions of Kosmix. After several years of efforts, @WalmartLabs developed a series of mobile applications, these new technologies in the overall O2O layout strategy of Wal-Mart occupies a central position, but also gradually promote the change of consumer shopping behavior. Wal-Mart's innovations in mobile applications include:

In-store mode: Using mobile map positioning technology, Wal-Mart app allows customers to enter a Wal-Mart store, automatically switch to "in-store mode", and provide customers with shop navigation, electronic coupons and self-service checkout services. According to statistics, 60% of the users of Wal-Mart apps often use this model, and this part of the user's shopping will be more than the user does not use the store mode 40% more, "in-store mode" so that each entity shop with the site to interact with the user, you can freely customize the store's concessions, promotions and merchandise information, Improve users ' shopping pleasure, convenience and conversion rate.

A more convenient shopping search engine: Wal-Mart from the PC end of the electric business inspiration, add a powerful search engine in the app, users can not only search all the online goods, when switching to the store mode, you can also instantly search the store of goods, opened the store management ERP, in the search box to enter the product name, There will be all brands of the product, placed in the location, and a map to help customers quickly find them, so that users can quickly find specific products through the mobile phone app, saving user time.

Scan&go:scan&go is a mobile checkout system solution for Wal-Mart's own app, mainly for users with a clear shopping budget. When users in the Wal-Mart consumption, only need to use Scan&go software scanning items bar code, automatic statistics shopping amount, and then directly to the dedicated self-service checkout, you can complete the purchase process, eliminating the distress line.

Storage Cabinets system for customers to help themselves to pick up goods: In order to more easily provide services to customers, Wal-Mart launched its retail locker program last year, when users shopped on Wal-Mart's web site, buying goods placed in a designated Wal-Mart Locker, where users could go to Wal-Mart's physical stores and take their goods out of their lockers within two weeks.

2 Create "mixed channel", realize the bidirectional diversion on line

In order to improve sales, Wal-Mart in addition to the use of mobile phone app to optimize the shopping process, but also actively use mobile technology, social networking site information Push, store shop assistant guide and other ways to achieve the line under the two-way flow.

Mobile App Precision Marketing: When the "in-store mode" starts, the user can see our newest preferential product handbook through the app, can also use this program to scan the bar code to compare the price, through the mobile phone app lets the user choose between the entity shop and the consumer website, creates a "mixed channel" experience. According to Wal-Mart's official statistics, more than 12% of online sales are done through Wal-Mart apps when customers are in the shop or at least the smartphone is in store mode.

Unlimited shelves (endless aisle): When a user is unable to find the desired product in a particular physical store, the store's salesperson proactively recommends Wal-Mart to its customers as a corollary to the retailer's online purchases as part of a near-physical store's earnings. As a result, real-store employees can get performance bonuses and no longer view Wal-Mart's online stores as rivals. Unlimited shelves are also easy to buy by Suning, when the category of stores can not meet the needs of users, shopping guide will take the tablet recommended users on suning easy to buy, shopping guides and stores will get the corresponding commission.

Facebook Web App "My local Walmart": This app is developed by Wal-Mart and Facebook, synchronized on Walmart's official website and Facebook's home page, showing the latest offers and various shopping information, Wal-Mart's tens of millions of fans can see the location of Wal-Mart stores near the site, supply of goods and discounts on promotions, and fans can receive two messages a week from Wal-Mart's online mall and nearby physical stores. When users enter the physical shop, they can also download the store map of the store from my local Walmart, and the map will show the location of the specific goods to facilitate their shopping. By working with Facebook, Wal-Mart has strengthened its experience of interacting with its fans, content marketing and services.