Traditional furniture retailer "electric shock" test

Recently, the domestic famous furniture retailer actually announced that its e-commerce platform "actually online" will be launched on this year's double eleven, becoming the second largest furniture retailer in China after Red Star Macalline.

Two years ago, the domestic furniture industry was still struggling with whether furniture products should be e-commerce based on the problems of large, difficult distribution and no experience of furniture products. Nowadays, e-commerce has become an important tool for traditional enterprises to start new business. Taobao, JD.com and other comprehensive e-commerce platforms have also successfully developed furniture sales business. Domestic large-scale furniture retailers have no reason to “get out of the way”. . However, the traditional e-commerce road of furniture retailers still faces many difficulties. After all, doing e-commerce is not simply to build an e-commerce platform, but also needs to adjust from products, transportation, sales channels, after-sales service, etc., and these changes are the biggest test faced by traditional enterprises.

"Electrical shock" to go on

Traditional enterprises do not do two layers of e-commerce, and they need to develop online and offline.

In 2012, Red Star Macalline quietly tested water e-commerce and became the first large-scale traditional furniture retailer in China to conduct e-commerce business. However, half a year later, there was a skepticism about the Red Star Macalline e-commerce platform, Hongmei Mall. There were rumors that Hongmei Mall failed to obtain the support of the offline store, the online traffic was not good, and the operation was half a year. Quite a lot, the turnover is very small.

Although the real operation of Hongmei Mall is not known to the outside world, what we can see is that in early 2013, Wang Qiqi, the general manager of Red Star Macalline's former Central China region, took over as the head of Red Star E-commerce, and Hongmei Mall also in March. Renamed "Xing Yi Jia" re-launched.

It is understood that after undergoing a substitution and a change of name, Red Star Macalline did not have the idea of ​​abandoning e-commerce. Wang Qiqi said that for e-commerce, Red Star Macalline has confidence and patience, and Red Star Macalline is doing e-commerce, and definitely not making money to make a name.

The criticisms of the Red Star Macalline e-commerce business cannot stop the pace of traditional furniture retailers entering the e-commerce business. The domestic famous furniture retailer actually released the e-commerce development plan recently, and its e-commerce platform "actually online" will be launched on this year's double eleven. Actually online general manager Wang Xiaokang said that the development of e-commerce has become an inevitable part of the development of the enterprise, and the home is no exception.

“At present, in the furniture industry, different companies develop different models according to their respective resources.” Wang Xiaokang emphasized that there are 69 specialty stores in the country, so they have inherent advantages in product distribution and after-sales service. Therefore, online will be the first to focus on the existing offline store coverage area, relying on offline businesses to start business.

It is understood that in order to avoid conflicts between online and offline businesses, the actual family has formulated the principle of “the same business entity, the same brand, the same price, and the same service”. That is to say, in the same business area, the online store and the offline store have the same business subject, the online products and the offline products are the same, and the same product has the same online and offline prices, and the consumers enjoy whether they are shopping online or offline. The service is the same.

As for how to measure the performance of online, Wang Xiaokang said that traditional enterprises do not do two layers of e-commerce, and they need to develop online and offline. The ultimate goal is to use the new means of e-commerce to make the original competition of the home. Force upgrade. Therefore, the actual online performance will not be measured by the platform trading volume, and will be displayed in a variety of business indicators.

It is difficult to control the brand

Whether it is a traditional enterprise or an e-commerce platform, allowing brands to obtain more incremental users, sales and profit margins are the channels that are in their interest.

Although the fact that the family has entered the e-commerce seems to have been well thought out and formulated a clear development strategy, Jingdong, Tmall and other integrated e-commerce platforms, as well as branded e-commerce companies such as Melaleuca, have entered the furniture e-commerce market first, and Gained a certain market share and consumer recognition. Therefore, it is not a smooth road for traditional home retailers such as the home to enter the e-commerce.

For the mainstream consumer groups of e-commerce after the 80s, whether “experience” is an inevitable factor in furniture retailing is still inconclusive. In 2009, the “Qumei” furniture of the wading e-commerce company can be described as “the first person to eat crabs” in the industry. After four years of testing the water and electricity business, Qumei intends to abandon the offline store and switch to pure e-commerce. In 2012, Qu Mei, president of Qumei, said in an interview with the media that the current stage is the best time for the industry to do pure e-commerce. If Qumei chooses the pure e-commerce model, it will re-create an "affordable, positioning young, design. Products that are out of the box, only online sales do not provide offline experience. As for the delivery and after-sales service, the related costs directly benefit the dealer.

On April 20th, the newly launched furniture e-commerce platform Wood Park still has no plans to open an experience store online. Liu Yuming, president of Wood Park, said that offline stores may not bring traffic to online stores. Furniture sales must pay attention to user experience, but user experience does not mean that online must be combined with offline. He believes that the experience problem can be solved by other means. For example, Wood Park will launch a “0 yuan experience” activity, allowing consumers to take the goods home for a month without paying the fee. After one month, if the consumer is satisfied, they can pay for the purchase; if the consumer does not Satisfied, just send the product back, the consumer only has to pay for the logistics.

The shortcomings of traditional furniture retailers entering e-commerce are also obvious. In this case, how to control the brand under the line has become a problem. For example, Huari Furniture, one of the top ten furniture brands, has opened a flagship store called “Hua Ri Home” in Tmall, and it is also the home of the actual home. Now, if you want to open an online store and stipulate that all offline brands must go online, then all the furniture under the Huari line will be online. However, for the brand, where there is sales, the resources will be invested. After all, the resources of the company are limited. Compared to actually online, Tmall obviously has a more traffic advantage. At the same time, since online and offline are the same price principle, there is no price advantage compared with Tmall. If online, in order to attract traffic, forcing a furniture manufacturer such as Huari to be more effective than Tmall, then its offline price should follow the discount. As a result, the high cost of offline makes the brand business unprofitable and even directly affects its offline business.

At present, the profits of domestic furniture brands are mainly from offline, but Jingdong, Tmall and other integrated e-commerce platforms have a large number of users. In recent years, the sales of furniture products on the integrated e-commerce platform have also risen rapidly, such as furniture such as Huari. The manufacturer does not put the eggs in a basket. In the short run, the two evils are taken lightly. Zhuang Shuai, former general manager of Beijing Oriental Home E-Commerce Co., pointed out that furniture brands must choose to lean toward the e-commerce platform of traditional furniture retailers, or put different products on the integrated e-commerce platform to make traditional furniture retailers satisfaction. However, in the long run, furniture brands will inevitably be dissatisfied with the constraints, and brand owners will be forced to plan independent B2C and support the development of new brands.

In fact, whether it is a traditional enterprise or an e-commerce platform, allowing brands to obtain more incremental users, sales and profit margins are the channels that are in their interest.

Need to make up the e-commerce "gene" class

Traditional enterprises are “traditional” genes, and innate ideas are difficult to eliminate. In this case, can business leaders change their mindset and invest in e-commerce on the e-commerce platform. Development plays a decisive role.

In recent years, problems such as furniture distribution and installation that have been plaguing furniture retailers have been gradually resolved. For example, Haier has developed furniture logistics on the basis of the original home appliance installation and distribution business, and has become China's largest furniture logistics provider; and Debon and other logistics companies have begun to develop furniture distribution and installation business, and enter the furniture logistics industry. Undoubtedly, the follow-up of logistics professional service providers has promoted the forward development of independent B2C for furniture e-commerce, including furniture brands. However, traditional furniture retailers still face many difficulties in doing e-commerce.

Wu Nani, vice president of Qumei Group, said that e-commerce is not simply to build an e-commerce platform, but to make organic adjustments from products, transportation, sales channels, after-sales service and so on. These changes are the biggest challenges facing traditional companies.

These changes need to be supported by “talent” and “technology”. However, the original staff and e-commerce staff of traditional enterprises have very different work content and ability requirements; the technical work of traditional enterprises and the work of e-commerce technology are completely incompatible. Therefore, the introduction of talents in e-commerce business and technology becomes a must.

According to Zhuang Shuai’s analysis, Tmall currently has more than 6,000 technicians covering search, website architecture, page design and other fields. The current number of technicians in Jingdong Mall is about 2,000; Suning Tesco plans to recruit 10,000 technologies this year. personnel. Traditional furniture retail enterprises have always focused on “investment promotion”. The core personnel of enterprises are investment personnel rather than technical personnel. Whether traditional enterprises can change their concepts and focus on investing in technology has become an important reason for the success of their e-commerce platform. Wu Nani also frankly said that Qumei Furniture had encountered technical problems in the early days of entering the e-commerce business, so it did not hesitate to establish a technology development company of its own, and solved many problems in the process of doing e-commerce.

In addition, traditional enterprises are “traditional” genes, and innate ideas are difficult to eliminate at one time. Under this circumstance, whether business leaders can change their concepts and invest in e-commerce will “go ahead” The development of the platform plays a decisive role. Even if the business leaders have made up their minds to develop e-commerce, it is uncertain whether the grassroots staff understands what e-commerce is and whether they understand how to do e-commerce. This will also affect the operation of the e-commerce platform.

More importantly, China's traditional furniture retailers have always adopted a "lease-style" business model, that is, furniture retailers first rent a site and then introduce a large number of furniture brands through investment promotion, traditional furniture retailers rely on collecting rent to benefit. Under the leasing system, traditional furniture retailers only act as “managers”, and furniture brands are managers. The resulting competition and sales gaps are difficult to solve, and it is difficult to standardize services and after-sales.

In the "take-and-buy" mode, which is completely opposite to the "rental" model, all products in the store are bought by the merchants. The quality of the goods bought by the buyers will directly affect the sales of the products and the profitability of the stores. Among the enterprises that implement the "buy-and-buy system", the business is not only the manager, but also the operator. The enterprise is an organic and unified whole, so that the problems faced by the "rental" enterprises and the problems that are difficult to standardize after sale are solved. At present, it seems that the furniture e-commerce platform such as “Mele Le” and “Wood Park” adopting the buying and selling mode has gradually gained market recognition.

It is foreseeable that in the future, furniture e-commerce will present a diversified development trend. The integrated e-commerce platform furniture channel, the e-commerce platform built by traditional furniture retailers, and the independent platform of furniture brands will bloom. At present, all kinds of furniture e-commerce platforms are using their own methods and ideas to explore e-commerce, there is no right or wrong in this exploration, and there are no advantages or disadvantages in various furniture e-commerce platforms. Zhuang Shuai believes that the most important thing is that different platforms will find their position in the market and work together to make the market bigger and achieve their own benefits.