The essence and dilemma of tourism electronic commerce

The nature of tourism e-commerce can be launched from three aspects: Tourism + electronics + business.

Tourism: It is different from 3 C, cosmetics, clothing and other sites, the user's core demands are not the same. For example, 3 C is a standardized product, the user is concerned about the price, cosmetics are chemical products, users pay attention to safety, that is, whether authentic; clothing is fashion products, users focus on styles, so models and pictures are particularly critical.

Based on the characteristics of different products, resulting in different points of operation of the site, this also means that the industry does not understand the nature of the site, not the same industry, direct plagiarism is often very outrageous.

Electronics: The essence of electronics is virtual, and virtual means unreliable: companies can not see, products can not see, customer service can not see, only the description of words and pictures. In China, the general lack of integrity of the society, how to let users have a sense of security, is a difficult problem. The best way Out is brand building (who am I?) is a prerequisite for building trust. Of course, brand building is not to invite a spokesperson, to the real service for the support: Price, distribution, after-sale and so on.

At the same time, because of the virtual, for the heavy appearance of the products, in order to reduce and the difference in kind, in the picture and description, some products must make great efforts, such as clothing, shoes, diamonds and so on.

Business: The nature of business is trading, business. And for E-commerce, narrowly speaking, is the retail channel: the sale of goods to users of the site. A core basis for a transaction or business is the degree of trust. In the street a stranger to sell you iPhone4, although as long as 70 percent, you dare to buy? What if it's a friend? The construction of trust degree, the core is the brand. If you can not build a channel brand, such as vertical scenic sites, how to operate? The following will unfold.

Finding the point of analysis is the first step in the analysis.

The essential characteristics of tourism products

Since the Ctrip 2003 Nasdaq listing, tourism E-commerce, seems to be a dream of many entrepreneurs. But have you found that to be listed, or to make a lot of money, the need for products and business characteristics?

Can scale!

How to scale: product standardization + business simplification. In this way, the scale can be replicated.

Ctrip is listed, fully equipped with two characteristics.

From the user's point of view, the hotel and air tickets are standardized products, standardization means that the transaction process is simple.

From an operational standpoint, standardized products mean low skill requirements for customer service personnel and low communication costs for customers because they can learn about product information from other sources. For example, the Apple Web site describes the IPhone4 very carefully.

Simple business means easy operation and easy control of service quality. Hotels and air tickets are agent-style services, no inventory (the backlog of small risk), almost no distribution, simple to pay (the hotel front desk pay, tickets can be door-to-door collection).

Because the product standard and the business is simple, the entry threshold is low, homogenization competition intensifies. Homogeneous competition, finally must be price competition (because only the price of this purchase decision conditions), and price competition, is the supplier cost and enterprise content operation efficiency competition.

Because the scale effect, those management mature, the user quantity big enterprise, certainly has the superiority, for example Taobao ticket, 12580, 118114 and so on. Those small businesses, even in the subdivision area, are difficult to survive, such as buying tickets, with little localized advantage.

Ctrip is now extended to free line products, that is, Hotel + ticket + ticket packaging services. Because the backstage has the huge product storehouse to do the support, this is the ripe.

But Ctrip has never been like the way cattle nets, do travel line products (eat live travel Entertainment shopping package services), such as group tour and small package group. Because they are a personalized service, each order of human, time cost is too high, can not bulk scale.

It is also one of the tens of thousands of travel agencies that are struggling.

The complexity of tourism products

For packaged products such as tourist routes, to play a popular analogy, the group tour and small packet group, like the computer city to sell compatible machines, from the user to buy, assembled to install the system, a computer to spend one or two hours, and computer accessories are standardized products, price transparency, fierce competition. A storefront of 3 or 5 people can only install a few computers a day, making a lot of money is almost impossible.

This in the catering industry is also very obvious, listed catering enterprises, must be fast food services, chain operations (chain = bulk copy), a single species, such as McDonald's, China's rural base fast food. Because the process of cooking is complex (authentic mapo tofu heard that there are hundreds of procedures), if there are many dishes, in order to achieve the taste of each restaurant dishes, chef training costs very high, slow, which means that rapid expansion is difficult. In addition, the cuisine is complex, meaning that the size of the meal is not going to go (personalized ordering, rather than ready-made).

For tourism line products, are generally very complex, personalized, because of complexity, resulting in a single upfront and user communication time cost is very high, the ability of customer service personnel requirements are very high. After receipt, the business operation (the adjustment) time-consuming and laborious. Therefore, travel line products are difficult to scale.

Because the product is complex, often use instant messaging tools, such as MSN/QQ, into a single cost is too high (a customer chat one hours of cost?) , large travel sites have abandoned this approach.

Tourism practitioners know that tourism is generally divided into wholesale and retail, professional point is to connect and organize. Each store is responsible for the group, that is, the customer (retail), and then transfer the guest to operators, namely the local reception agency (wholesalers, a number of people in the same car to start).

Of course, some of the big travel agencies and places are the same home, because their stores can collect enough guests on the same day, such as 30 people, and then together to the destination (group), such as Mount Emei. For many small travel agencies can not make their own regiment, can only transfer guests to peers (wholesalers).

In other words, most of the travel agencies have stores, is a tourist product retailer, that is, the computer city, a storefront. They do not have a guide, a vehicle, and certainly not a hotel or a plane. But for guides and vehicles, most of the guests think it is the travel agent, and on the train found that the guide took the flag of another travel agency, which led to a lot of guests will have a feeling of being cheated, thus causing complaints.

Online Price Disadvantage

Everyone online shopping, there is a feeling: online things than physical stores cheaper.

Because the travel agency provides the proxy service, a kind of fictitious product, does not have the stock, causes the retail and the on-line price difference is not big. This is different from 3C and apparel products, 3C products are a large store of the cost, and 3C E-commerce can save this cost. Clothing products, in the department store price may be 8 times times the cost price (100 yuan, 800 sell), so even if the 30 percent sales still have profits, if sold online, even if the low price sales, or there is profit.

We have rarely seen travel line products sold by discount, except because the line products themselves do not have the industry standard (no discount base price, tickets, tickets can be discounted prices), the margin itself is not allowed, because the price is generally on the basis of cost price plus percent, unless the supplier direct sales, For example, 30 percent of group buying online.

There are reasons for the low margin: strong suppliers (scenic tickets belong to monopolistic products, such as Jiuzhaigou), and the low threshold of tourism practice (the company registration cost is low, the cost of brand rental is lower, the staff cultural quality requirements are very low). Tourism is a low wage industry.

Based on the above two points: product complexity and low margin, resulting in online sales of tourism line products, it is difficult to scale.

What if a computer-compatible shop has to scale? Can learn about Dell's DIY, but Dell itself is selling its own products. To form the scale, only Jingdong, a company with a large customer base: online orders, and then let a group of computer technicians in order to assemble the configuration, only repeat this thing every day.

Development and rhythm of tourism e-commerce company

Hint: I refer to the travel E-commerce companies, mainly travel agencies to sell line products mainly, rather than booking tickets, hotels.

Stage One: Web site Sales Peer products This is more than 95% tourism site models, such as independent, Taobao Consumer-to-consumer, Taobao. At this time, the site has no brand, no member, are one-time guests, mainly rely on search engine keywords and platform exposure to bring traffic and orders (such as Taobao, the same network, etc.).

Because of the non-standard and large transaction of tourism products, the business website is inherently lack of trust, especially for non-local tourists:

1. Is there anything fishy about the price?

2, after the remittance disappeared?

3, the problem, the money would not come back

4, the ability to reserve the suspicion: In case of arrival, there is no vacancy to do?

5. Inconvenient Payment

Taobao, the turnover rate of the most influential factors: shop level (such as Crown) + local businesses (a good problem to save, logistics fast) + history into a single rate (there is cash, trustworthy), followed by factors such as price. One of the core, is the shop level, that is, brand, trust degree.

See my article about the components of trust.

Taobao is a restrictive environment, such as Alipay's trading period funds custody, you can complain (shopping more secure), and no brand of the business shop, this is a mishap, so the order conversion rate is difficult to peaceful Taiwan-style shop comparable.

No matter how the website user experience does, because the user's core appeal point is not the website is beautiful, although this helps to enhance the website trust degree. Of course, the user experience does not just refer to the shopping experience, delivery speed, payment convenience is also a user experience elements.

Stage Two: the website product line is rich, has the member system member, means that the user has the duplicate purchase demand, if is the one-time type consumption, the best does not do the member and the community, for example vertical type Jiuzhaigou traveling network. Meet the needs of users, is generally a one-time type of consumption, to meet the needs of users, you can do membership, such as every trip to find you.

At this stage, the company has a more fixed supplier, the procurement cost reduction, with the price reduction, order turnover rate is higher.

At this stage, the site began to do brand building, that is, brand advertising, not pure hard advertising. Not like stage one is mainly hard ad +seo.

Phase III: Have their own tourism products, suppliers have a strong relationship at this time to order a single day of a certain line of tourists enough, can be their own group, such as the way cattle nets, although the beginning of the way cattle network may be their guests to the peer, but the peer reception must be hung Road cattle network logo flag.

At this stage, the supplier relationship is relatively secure, start can be self-help booking: prices and vacancies are real-time display, users submit orders, only need a text message can be confirmed. Like me in the Ctrip hotel and air tickets, no need to communicate with the customer on the phone. At this stage, the telephone communication can gradually reduce (jingdong and when all deliberately hidden No. 400 code), as long as through the user background self-help solutions, such as returns, change orders.

Natural operating costs are down and prices are lower.

Of course, there is a premise that the site's product line, product introduction and help system should be extremely powerful.

Stage four: Tourism products online custom Ctrip currently for free line products, you can achieve personalized booking: their own choice of air tickets flights, hotels, etc., combined into a packaged tourism products, the youth travel can also be, but the product is relatively thin, but mainly for Beijing tourists.

The difference between this and stage three self-help bookings is that phase three is for packaged line products (only the departure date, airfare and hotel are not personalized).

At present, there is no travel website can do full service (Car Room meal Guide ticket five items) can be customized online.

Of course, a site in phase one blindly cross to do phase four of the things, is undoubtedly to find death, because at the beginning at all do not receive customers, orders also do not go down.

As a tourist company, we must first understand the development stage, then take the corresponding operation strategy, and can not blindly learn from the mature large companies management model.