Selling diamonds online, would anyone buy such a precious thing? The largest online jeweler in the United States, "Blue Nile", has an annual revenue of more than US$300 million, and its prices are 30%-40% lower than traditional jewelry stores. %, and there is no stock.
E-commerce is not a new topic, but there are not as many successful cases as we expected. Even large companies such as Amazon and Dangdang have only recently passed the profit margin. People can't avoid these questions: What is the best thing for me to sell online? How do I promote my online store? Do I have to compete with others on price, and how do I provide logistics and after-sales service?
What to sell: Red Ocean and Blue Ocean
Although the “greatest Internet company” Amazon is, to put it bluntly, “selling books”, please note that book-related business only accounts for 57% of Amazon’s total sales in its current territory. It is as stable as Dangdang, “80 More than % of its business is still in publications." It has also made plans for categories other than books. Its goal is to become a "one-stop shopping website" - that is, to move Wal-Mart online.
So, is the publishing market a Red Ocean? Research reports show that the publication market is the most mature market segment in the online retail industry. Under the current model, it is difficult for new manufacturers to enter and develop rapidly. But some people don’t believe this evil, or they may have met a truly knowledgeable person who was sifting through the almost forgotten “old paper pile” and actually found the “world’s largest XX used book” with an annual transaction volume of over 100 million yuan. website". It is not known whether this website is profitable, but the reporter has heard positive comments from many industry insiders, including the favorable opinion of another senior executive of "the world's largest ×× online bookstore".
There are also those who analyze the online shopping market from the perspective of social psychology, and the research conclusion is as follows: "As long as the proportion of female Internet users increases significantly, the B2C e-commerce boom will come. ... In 2008, the proportion of female Internet users increased sharply from 42.8% at the beginning of the year to 47.5% at the end of the year. Nearly 5 percentage points." This can be seen from the "taste" of investment institutions in recent years (see table for details): companies or industries that have received two or more rounds of venture capital, such as "Red Child", "Nine Diamond Network", and "Diamond Bird", all coincide with This is the common saying (it is also true) that "children and women make the best money".
But that doesn’t mean we can ignore men’s needs. Men play more than just the role of bill payers. Some studies even show that “men’s spending power is slightly higher than that of women.” For example, 85% of the consumers of “Blue Nile” mentioned above are men. Therefore, the design of this website is centered around "allowing men to purchase jewelry comfortably."
So, what is not suitable for selling online? The answer given by former Taiwan Sina executive Huang Shaolin is "Coke and instant noodles". The reason is very simple. They are "things that can be bought downstairs."
Start e-commerce without money? You are wrong
PPG, a direct-selling clothing brand, once took the myth of "four ounces to make a thousand pounds" to the extreme: no clothing factory, no physical store, and no warehousing equipment. After the "escape incident" of the head of the family occurred, people suddenly remembered that in fact, this most "light" clothing company was once a "rich man" - it had obtained nearly 300 million yuan in risk for three consecutive years. Financing.
We interviewed several industry insiders, and they had a similar view: e-commerce is not cheap.
For example, PPG, according to public media reports, spent most of its financing on advertising and marketing. VANCL, another former "light company", has learned from PPG's mistakes, refined management from both design and logistics ends, developed multiple production lines to scale up, and strived to get rid of its "light" gene. But its CEO Chen Nian also said: More money is necessary.
While Dangdang and Taobao are "price killers" for the upper reaches of the industry chain, they are not fuel-efficient: they first need the support of a scale, and customer cultivation does not happen overnight, so they must go through a long process of burning money in the early stage.
Is the price war "the only road in Huashan"?
Why do you buy things online? Nine times out of ten people will answer: because it is cheap.
But Huang Shaolin, who has studied e-commerce for a long time, told us: For those who run B2C e-commerce websites, what they fear most is that netizens make price comparisons through various channels. Because “In the physical world, it is very costly to compare the price of the same product among many department store counters or stores. However, price comparison can be done with just a few clicks on the Internet, which makes B2C websites fall into into the nightmare of endless price-cutting competition.”
He gave an example. It is precisely because of these factors that Taiwan's B2C websites such as PCHome or Xingqi Shopping have become larger and larger (both have a turnover of more than 1.4 billion yuan in 2008). The rest of the Chinese companies that sell 3C computer products online The longer a small shopping website lives, the harder it will be. Because the purchase cost of large B2C shopping websites must be lower than that of small and medium-sized websites, they are more capable of lowering prices. In other words, if JD.com becomes bigger and bigger, it will definitely squeeze out the computer sellers on Taobao in the future.
Of course, price competition is not impossible, but price competition has the following problems: 1. There will always be only one company with the cheapest price, which is definitely a red ocean; 2. If it is the cheapest, it must mean that it purchases goods in large quantities. Procurement can lower the purchase cost and reflect the low price in the terminal selling price.
Therefore, it must be an enterprise with large capital to do it.
Several imitation show subjects
Is there no other way out for poor families? But after all, big companies like Amazon and small shops like grassroots stores are starting to make profits, so the situation may not be as bad as you think.
In order to attract readers' interest, Amazon once launched the "Chain Creation Grand Prix", inviting novelists to write the beginning and end of the suspense story, and readers to complete the rest. One winner will be selected each day from the entry system and awarded a $1,000 prize. It not only aroused the interest of a large number of readers, but also attracted the attention of global media. ——This is the first step to retain customers.
"PG Beauty Network", an online store from Taiwan, specializes in women's backpacks. It pursues "first-class design and third-class prices." Its online store on Taobao shows that the price of a women's backpack is mostly less than 50 yuan, and some even cost 29 yuan. Do you remember the object of its imitation? Yes, it is Zara.——This case is specially dedicated to the processing plants and foreign trade small and medium-sized enterprise owners who have been affected by the financial crisis.
As for VANCL's self-built logistics, in addition to the above-mentioned risk control considerations, it is said that it can directly bring cash flow to the company. ——But it will take time.
For traditional enterprises transforming into e-commerce, we also boldly recommend Li Ning’s e-commerce story. "Li Ning" is an early adopter of e-commerce in China. For businesses and individuals selling "Li Ning" products on the Internet, Li Ning adopts a "co-optation" strategy. On the one hand, it has reached an agreement with e-commerce websites such as Dangdang and Joyo.com to authorize them to sell their products; on the other hand, for personal online stores, although Li Ning has not signed a formal authorization agreement with them, it has through supply, With preferential conditions for products, services and training, Li Ning has brought them under its control. At present, more than 400 personal online stores have been incorporated into Li Ning's management system.
With the development of the Internet and the development of user consumption habits, e-commerce may become more and more powerful in the future. If you can play with it, both traditional enterprises seeking new breakthroughs and ambitious entrepreneurs can find it. New directions.