Some people say that e-commerce is the future development trend of the Internet and can meet the daily needs of consumers staying at home. Everything can be done easily without leaving home. For grassroots webmasters, only by occupying the high ground of e-commerce can they have a place on the Internet. It’s just that many people have no way to enter the industry and are still wandering outside of e-commerce.
On August 19th, Admin5 Forum held a chat event in the A5 version on Thursday. Mr. Li Hu, Vice President of Baina.com www.ic98.com , was invited to discuss e-commerce topics and experiences. This article has compiled some of the questions and answers in the chat, and you are welcome to discuss them together.
Question: What is e-commerce? Is there any specific concept? Is this the most common way to sell things online?
Answer: I don’t like “professor” level answers, otherwise it’s still confusing. Generally speaking, e-commerce is the entire process of selling things online. You can imagine this process as a chain, in which products, procurement, logistics, distribution, personnel management, network technology, etc. are all links. What we usually call Internet marketing is the technology of selling things online. Internet marketing is a part of e-commerce, but it is the most important part.
Question: Baina.com feels very similar to Alibaba. Is this a platform similar to Alibaba? Does all the user information seen on the website need to be charged? Can you briefly introduce the situation of this website?
Answer: Doing e-commerce is actually the same as building a house, both are in the "Bauhaus" style, and the exterior design is boxy (just to suit the user's usage habits), but the interior of the house is different, such as comfort, Sense of belonging, warmth, etc. In fact, each platform has its own unique business model, which is the soul of the platform. We at Baina.com have our own soul. We do not repeat the path of others, but follow the "socialist road with Baina characteristics." I believe that one day I can share Baina's soul with everyone.
Question: A5 Interview "Admin5 Interview: Conversation with Li Hu, Director of Operations of Baina.com" Speaking of Baina.com, which was established in 2005, it has been several years. The website was operated according to the company's model from the beginning, right? In the initial stage, the website was What difficulties have you experienced? Can you tell us specifically about the process from one user to one hundred users?
Answer: Baina.com has been operating as a company from the beginning. This is the minimum condition for an e-commerce platform. How do you make users trust you? We encountered many bottlenecks in the initial stage of the website. As a comprehensive e-commerce portal, our road is destined to be more difficult than others. As for the accumulation of users, it is a long-term process. The process of Baina.com from one user to one hundred users is very short, but it is difficult to maintain these one hundred users. You must start from the users. If a platform develops to After reaching a certain scale, the first hundred users are still supporting the platform, and the platform is invincible.
Question: There are many e-commerce platforms on the Internet nowadays, such as Alibaba, HC, China Netku, Baina.com, etc. Alibaba may be the most familiar to ordinary users because it has the most advertisements. In addition to word-of-mouth publicity and promotion among users, what other promotion methods does Baina.com have?
Answer: Alibaba’s success is because it has the right time, location, and people, so it has unique advantages and is familiar to users. The so-called "first impression" means that the first thing to attack a city is to capture people's hearts, so we latecomers need to make more efforts. Its advertising is mostly because it has accumulated enough capital, which is a good way of publicity for establishing and maintaining the brand. Our promotion methods basically rely on users. In the Internet era, users are also a kind of "self-media". This word-of-mouth marketing method is more real and effective, and it is also more relevant to people's hearts. It is a kind of marketing that goes longer and further. Methods, of course we are also currently doing some cooperation with the media.
Question: I just researched Baina.com. I wonder, Mr. Li, how you identify the authenticity of information? Is there a good method you can introduce? The second step is how to stop those who post psoriasis advertisements?
Answer: Baina.com has now fully launched real-name identity authentication. Whether it is individuals or enterprises, their identities will be verified. We hope that the information on our platform is true and effective, so we would rather sacrifice some users to implement it. This is the foundation of the e-commerce platform. If the users of your platform are real users, naturally the psoriasis advertising industry can be avoided.
Question: 1. What are the shortcomings of e-commerce? 2. What are the main factors restricting the development of Baina.com at this stage? 3. How to increase the popularity of Baina.com to another level? 4. How to increase the profitability of Baina.com model?
Answer: 1. In fact, this problem is big, whether it is specific to the industry or the target group or something else. It is a common problem in the entire industry. The issue of integrity is a matter of constant concern. Although the regulations issued by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce on July 1 have regulated it from a policy perspective. , but the problem still involves awareness. Whether it is many entrepreneurs or consumers, their awareness has not yet risen. 2. The main factor restricting the development of Baina.com is actually the third question you want to ask, which is the improvement of the brand.
3. Brand improvement is a continuous process. We need to use different strategies to implement it, and it cannot be effective in a short time, so we will pay more attention to user effects. 4. A single profit path cannot promote the growth of Baina. Therefore, we have been committed to exploring a diversified profit model. Of course, this profit model is based on creating more value for users. We believe that this It is also a benign ecological environment for e-commerce.
Question: For individual webmasters, strength and funds are not enough to build a platform. A5 is not an e-commerce platform, but in what way can it be combined with e-commerce? There is a saying, "The future In ten years, you will either have e-commerce or no business at all." How can that webmaster take the e-commerce train?
Answer: There are big ways to do big things, and there are small ways to do things small. In fact, as a webmaster, if you want to be a successful webmaster, you must have your own thinking. The train is for thinking webmasters. If your strength and funds are not enough to build a platform, then choose What you are best at is to use a certain aspect as an entry point, use points to lead to areas, and arm yourself with Chairman Mao's thoughts. Surrounding the cities from the countryside, haha, there are also digging holes deep and accumulating grain widely.
Q: How feasible is it for local websites to join e-commerce? If it is feasible, what is the best entry point?
Answer: The combination of local websites and e-commerce has always been a good business model. Jack Ma said, "In the next 10 years, if companies do not engage in e-commerce, they will have no business." This has also successfully awakened many businessmen. Nowadays, more and more local companies have used the Internet as one of their marketing channels, and local websites will be an important strategic area for e-commerce in the future. One of the incomparable advantages of local websites is regional advantages, so if you segment the market well and be accurate to a certain point, it will be easier to succeed. As for the entry point, I can't blindly give you any advice. It mainly needs to combine the advantages of your place and your own resource advantages. You can choose the most advantageous side to enter. Don't be blind and comprehensive. Today's "information "Hong Kong" is too much!
Question: Is it more competitive for local shopping websites to support door-to-door collection, bank transfer, and Alipay payment in parallel?
Answer: I’m not sure about the implementation form of your local shopping website. If I interpret it purely from the literal meaning, I hope that the form of expression of your website must have certain characteristics. It may be combined with the form of online games and expressed using WEB. As for the collection, You can combine various payment methods and decide according to the habits of users. They are gods, and localized services are good gods.
Q: How to cleverly combine physical store operations with e-commerce?
Answer: This is actually a common question. First of all, we cannot blindly combine it with e-commerce, nor can we simply combine it. We must know who I am? What products am I selling? What are the advantages of my product? Then we can consider how to sell it online. Combining is actually a promotion. In the process, you need to combine your products with some characteristic Internet packaging, whether it is word-of-mouth marketing, viral marketing, gimmicks are essential, and even in the early stage, you need to have the spirit of "not being able to let go of children and not being able to trap the wolf". The combination of physical store operations and e-commerce is a good development trend. The two are not purely competitive, but develop in a coordinated and complementary relationship, exerting an integration effect of 1+1>2.
Question: The guest said in the A5 interview that "six years of sharpening a sword, there is still an edge even if there is no edge." This can be regarded as a summary of the growth of Baina.com over the years. What stage do you think Baina.com is at now?
Answer: Baina.com is now "crazy", haha, in a state of "Others laugh at me for being crazy, but I laugh at others because they can't see through it."
Question: How to promote the website in the early stage? I want to quit my job and start a business. I hope you can give me some suggestions. Thank you!
Answer: There are many ways to promote a website, just like practicing martial arts, such as fists, palms, feet, etc. You need to use them flexibly according to different situations, so this depends on your own accumulation, and other people's methods may not be suitable for you. ~! Only if you have a certain amount of accumulation and resources can you have the prerequisites to start a business. There is a lot of gold in the Internet, but it depends on whether you have such ability. It is more important to do it than to think!
Question: Hello, we have regional specialties and want to do marketing activities online. We are going to build a website specifically for sales. We have many farmers in Guan County, Shandong Province who breed Ganoderma lucidum. We would like to ask guests to analyze it and get involved in online e-commerce. How should we market our Ganoderma lucidum? Now everyone is in contact with the purchasers individually and has no say in the price, so we really want to expand sales channels and get rid of the situation of being controlled by others, but we just don't know how to operate it.
Answer: Congratulations on guarding a "gold mine". It can be well integrated with e-commerce. Focusing on the agricultural product market, it will be a good time to launch an agricultural e-commerce website. The world food crisis and China's tilt towards agricultural policies will be a good time. You now have two options. One is to grow bigger yourself, build a mall-like platform or open an online store on Taobao to conduct direct sales online. You can also directly negotiate with manufacturers in need of Ganoderma lucidum through some B2B e-commerce platforms to reduce the middleman. links to maximize profits. The second is to expand the industry, combine the advantages of local resources, and establish an e-commerce platform "China Ganoderma Net" to achieve the purpose of controlling the entire industry chain (time constraints, of course, there are too many details, you can discuss it further with me if necessary) .
Question: I would like to ask: How about making online furniture based on the local mall (which is big enough, not yet open for business, and the building is being topped out), similar to B2B, please give me some advice.
Answer: The furniture industry is actually a personal hobby of mine. I think combining physical and e-commerce is a good development trend. Local malls can give full play to their offline advantages, cover the local market and be in-depth and thorough. The online B2B format can effectively connect the upstream (raw material suppliers) and downstream (broader sales market) of the furniture industry. Don’t know what brand your mall is? Like IKEA, Red Star Macalline, etc., you can do some research.
Question: E-commerce is a word that has been talked about a lot recently. Can the guest talk about the specific ways for individual webmasters to combine it with e-commerce? In addition to selling things online, what other ways are there?
Answer: The "Ganoderma" and "Furniture" friends mentioned just now are actually good examples. To combine with e-commerce, you must have unique resources, whether it is regional or distinctive, there are many combinations with e-commerce. Method, indirect or direct, selling things online is the most direct way.
Question: To do e-commerce, you need unique resources. What about ordinary personal websites? Because many personal websites have no way to make money, they can only combine profitable projects as much as possible. Can the guest’s reply mean that a personal website with little resource advantage cannot be combined with e-commerce?
Answer: A personal website with little resource advantage cannot be combined with e-commerce? Yes, it can be said to be so. The right time, place and people must be considered, and the timing of launching e-commerce for the project must be determined based on its own popularity, development stage, and quality of user groups.
Question: Hello, Mr. Li. Looking at your domain name, I thought it was a platform specializing in "IC" chips. After opening it, I discovered a comprehensive e-commerce platform. I would like to ask how this type of platform started out. Promotion?
Answer: There is an essential difference between the operation of a comprehensive e-commerce platform and a vertical portal. Throughout the development of China's e-commerce, many comprehensive e-commerce platforms have collapsed, and their sacrifices have made significant contributions to the development of China's e-commerce. The promotion of a comprehensive e-commerce platform, especially the initial hardships, can only be understood by those who have experienced it. It is difficult, very difficult! The details are comprehensive, and I will not review them one by one here. It is recommended that you do not choose this path if you do not have enough resources and a special business model.
Question: I would like to ask, how effective is e-commerce for industries with strong local characteristics? If we want to make gold in these industries, what key points should we focus on as e-commerce companies?
Answer: In fact, we have also discussed this issue at the beginning. The most important thing is to give full play to regional advantages, integrate outstanding industry resources, and combine this industry with e-commerce. This is the best way.
Question: Nowadays, e-commerce platforms are very competitive. There are many different types and styles. How to stand out from them? How should e-commerce websites be maintained and managed? If you want to build an e-commerce website, what kind of inspections should you make and observe the local area? What about the form?
Answer: The competition among e-commerce platforms is indeed great. If you want to stand out, you must first meet certain conditions. What advantages do you have over other platforms? The maintenance of e-commerce websites is a long-term process. I don’t know if you just open a store online or If you want to take root in an industry, the resources you need to invest are different. First, what kind of e-commerce website you want to build, what industry you have, and what competitors you have. I won’t go into detail here.
Question: I want to start my own e-commerce company. I currently plan to build my own e-commerce company and go to the manufacturer to pick up a few products directly. But is there anything I need to pay attention to in the early stage?
Answer: What needs to be paid attention to in the early stage is: what market space do these products have, who is the target group? What are their features and advantages? Then who are making this product now, how do they make it, and what bottlenecks do they have now? It is necessary to do a careful planning and investigation in the early stage, and avoid starting blindly, otherwise it may lead to an abyss of destruction.
Question: In small cities, the Internet is not developed and there are insufficient talents. Is it meaningful to develop local e-commerce?
Answer: First of all, what do you want to do? How do you want to make money? If the market is not mature enough, I suggest you wait! I prefer to follow other people's paths and leave others with no way to go.
Question: Profitability has always been a key issue. What is the profit model of Baina.com? A5 said in the interview that Baina.com does not have a separate marketing system. In addition to advertising revenue and membership income, what other profits does Baina.com make? model?
Answer: Actually, I said at the beginning that the business model is the soul of a platform. Our thoughts are constantly improving, and our souls are also constantly being cultivated. The profit model has always been a "pain" in the heart of Baina.com and the e-commerce platform. Baina.com has learned from the pain. Since it involves some deep things, it is not convenient to elaborate now. Please forgive me.
Question: A grassroots webmaster is now running an information website, and his main profit is through Google Adsense. He wants to do e-commerce, and I hope he can give me some practical suggestions. For example, steps and so on, what products are good to sell.
Answer: What products do you have that are more advantageous? Who do you want to sell to? Consider it carefully based on your resources and region. I believe that as a grassroots webmaster, as long as the target is selected, you will be able to follow the path in the future. .
Question: Baina.com is an e-commerce platform. For individual webmasters, the most direct question is, how to make money through e-commerce? Do guests have any specific examples in this regard? Many personal websites now have a vague idea of the profit model. , many websites rely purely on advertising alliance revenue. If combined with e-commerce, it should no longer be difficult to make money.
Answer: In fact, this question boils down to how to make money. Here I want to say "seriously", comrades, please be patient and don't be impatient, you can't eat hot tofu in a hurry." The Internet itself is an ocean where you can fish big fish with long-term goals. In reality, the profit model of each platform is different.
The profit model must meet the needs of its own resources and industry! Large sites and large industries are suitable for establishing independent e-commerce platforms, while small sites and small industries are far less suitable to introduce advertising alliances or Taoke Mall. Several industries that are regional, can provide sufficient business income, and have many merchants and products, such as digital, second-hand housing, home furnishing, weddings, automobiles, parent-child, etc., are suitable for using e-commerce to solve business model problems. Those who build their own e-commerce platforms must be larger local portals. Local communities in small geographical spaces, with a small number of merchants and lack of sufficient profit margins in the industry, are not suitable for developing their own e-commerce platforms. The so-called conditions are adapted to local conditions, adapted to the times, and draw inferences from one case to another. Just because there are no conditions today does not mean there will be no conditions tomorrow.
Answer: Thank you Mr. Li for your thoughtful words, haha. The issue of profitability is indeed more urgent, so I have asked it many times. In your reply, it boils down to a concrete analysis. You must recognize your own environment and resources, make use of your strengths and avoid weaknesses, and have a long-term vision. Your words of "no conditions today does not mean there will be no conditions tomorrow" are very useful. Today, there will be no conditions. Representing tomorrow, this is a hope. However, because there is no profit, I am anxious. After all, advertising alliance is not a long-term solution. But if you can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry, you just need to calm down and slowly achieve it. It's just that if there is even a little bit of sweetness, we can continue.
In the next ten years, you will either have e-commerce or no business at all. This sentence is very warning. E-commerce is the trend of the future. If you give up this high ground, it may be difficult to move forward. However, as discussed in the forum, there are certain thresholds for entering e-commerce. You must formulate appropriate methods based on your own situation. Ask yourself what resources and advantages you have, and find the right solution in the process of searching for answers. method will ultimately lead to success. I hope that the above discussion on e-commerce can help you gain something. Please also continue to pay attention to the A5 forum’s chat activities held every Thursday at 3 p.m. (Text/Mengjiang)
For more discussions about the content of the forum chat, you can also check out the post. The post address is: http://bbs.admin5.com/thread-1938236-1-1.html