Advantages of market segments
If a company wants to imitate Dangdang, Excellence, and 99 Online Bookstore to do B2C books, it will be almost impossible to have any competitive advantage, and the so-called success will be out of the question. However, there is such a book e-commerce website founded by a few freshly graduated college students. The average monthly sales reached one to two million yuan, with the highest reaching 4 million. What is even more commendable is that, at least for now, they have temporarily There is no direct competitor yet - they are a book B2C website called "Magazine Shop".
True to its name, this website called Magazine Shop only limits its products to the magazine field, and it is this that allows them to maintain their uniqueness and competitive advantage in the industry, and therefore they can keep pace with industry giants such as Dangdang and Joyo without any problems. .
"Ruili" is 25% off, "Sanlian Life Weekly" is 30% off, "Reader" is 30% off, "China National Geographic" is 22% off, and some expired magazines are 10% off... Open the magazine store's web page and you can see almost all the products currently on the market. All magazines, but their prices seem more attractive. By selling low-discount magazines through the Internet platform, the operation model of the magazine store is similar to a "thin" version of Dangdang: a discount website focusing on magazine subscriptions. But what is certain is that if readers only need to buy magazines, it will be more professional and richer than at Dangdang and Excellence. This is the value.
Market segmentation is naturally an old and classic topic, but it is not easy for most companies to make up their minds to limit their market coverage. When companies have become accustomed to a large, comprehensive, and meticulous business model, it is difficult for them to accept or be persuaded to give up the bigger watermelon and focus on the sesame seeds in front of them.
However, this is not the case. In September 2009, two months after Jiang Zhongchao graduated from a university in Chengdu, he led others to found the website Magazine Shop. “Now there are more than 600 upstream magazines that we directly cooperate with. , this number is still increasing.” He said that for magazines, magazine stores provide them with a new channel in addition to traditional sales channels, and for the website itself, more partners mean a complete range of categories. Bringing good user stickiness, the aggregation effect of members will increase the negotiating weight with upstream suppliers.
Because after all, we have to believe that not only competitors of the same status lack the ability to cover the market to every detail, but even powerful and outstanding industry giants such as Dangdang find it difficult to do impeccably in every industry segment. . For new entrepreneurs who are unable to directly resist them, their lack of segmented industries is precisely an opportunity for enterprises to seek professional segmentation paths. Jiang Zhongchao took a fancy to this, saw the omissions in the coverage density of Dangdang and Excellence in the magazine field, and also saw the future of his own operating model.
The contradiction from starting a business to staying in business
There is no doubt that when Dangdang started its business, it was purely book sales. At that time, the industry was also segmented to the extreme, and no one could compete with it for a while. However, with the rise of various bookstores, independent book sales not only have slim profits but also increasingly face the risk of homogeneous competition. Of course, for Dangdang, books are just a move, the first step in its long-term comprehensive B2C model, but there is no doubt that when a specialized and segmented market is clearly seen by the public, it will also It is difficult to maintain its mystery and unique advantages.
In terms of positioning without any technical barriers, there will be no shortage of imitators in any market. By then, perhaps the first person to eat crabs will have earned the first pot of gold for the company, but as a long-term Considering the development strategy, the strategy of over-segmentation in terms of products is not a long-term solution after all. And today's magazine stores cannot be unique forever. Perhaps in the near future, there will be more novel stores, English book stores, antique book stores, and even underwear stores, sock stores, etc.
From Dangdang.com, we can easily see its active expansion into new businesses in recent years. Initially, it delved deeply into the book market and took the top spot in this industry. However, the situation it faces is also very embarrassing. It is difficult to make a profit just by selling books. Therefore, it has launched other product lines such as department stores in recent years, shifting from vertical to horizontal, and trying to get rid of the single book website imprint.
However, as to whether the magazine shop would be worried about the conflicts Dangdang had encountered, Jiang Zhongchao obviously looked at it indifferently from the perspective of an entrepreneur: "For us, surviving is more important than how to live." Even now, it is said that the magazine There are already many imitators of the store. Facing competitors, he admitted that "I am not worried, but feel pressure." He said that because e-commerce is a scale aggregation effect, all resources will be directed towards the top three in the industry, and all customers will only remember the top ones, or even the first one, so the magazine store must redouble its efforts and set the entry threshold high. higher.
Therefore, for more companies or individuals who hope to use e-commerce to develop markets, going from professional segmentation to diversification is almost a must-go, especially for the vast number of small and medium-sized enterprises that are not strong in strength. Starting from the most precise market segments and launching the richest and most comprehensive products for the customers who know best may be relatively easier for companies in the early stages of entrepreneurship. Survive first, and then become bigger and stronger. This is what many companies should imitate.
Author: Mao Congren
Original source: New Commercial Route http://www.bizark.cn/articles/894.html . Please indicate the original source when reprinting.