After 2017, Chinese mobile phone manufacturers fell into confusion: According to statistics from Operator World Network, the number of mobile phone users in the Chinese market only increased by 3% in the first half of this year. The saturation of mobile phone users nationwide is close to 95%, and some eastern provinces and cities are close to 140%. Bonus Times have passed.

How can we achieve more quality growth today when dividends are no longer available? For mobile phone manufacturers, this is a big problem.

Online and offline integrated development is the way to go

However, there are also mobile phone brands that have bucked the trend, and that is Honor. According to data from market research institutions such as GfK and Sano, in the first half of 2017, the Honor brand ranked first in sales and sales of Internet mobile phones in China.

According to Sano's statistics, in the first half of this year, Honor's sales in offline markets (including offline public markets and operator markets) surged by 51.8%, the fastest growing among the top ten mobile phone brands. You know, the cumulative sales in the offline market during the same period also dropped by 0.9%.

So, how does Glory do it? In addition to the strength of its own products, it also has a lot to do with Honor's new channel strategy. Honor President Zhao Ming said that although Honor started from the Internet, it is now pursuing the dual integration of online and offline.

This year, Honor's two most important products, Honor V9 and Honor 8 Youth Edition, were both launched on Suning.com's e-commerce channels. Sales exceeded 70,000 units in just half a day of release.

Honor has chosen Suning as its important partner. Offline, it adheres to the "light asset" strategy and relies on partners to achieve rapid expansion. Zhao Ming revealed that as early as August 2015, Honor and Suning reached a strategic cooperation plan for thousands of stores, and successfully achieved the cooperation goal of entering 1,000 Suning stores and opening 100 Honor flagship stores. At the same time, Suning also helped Honor vigorously expand offline channels, fully enter the third and fourth tier markets, and achieve the goal of entering 1,500 Suning.com service stations.

As the saying goes, after Honor’s online and offline layout was basically completed and synergy was formed, its sales exploded in the first half of this year.

Now, Honor's success has also attracted the attention of the entire Huawei Consumer Business Group. On August 8, Huawei Consumer Business CEO Yu Chengdong visited Suning’s headquarters and met with Suning Group Chairman Zhang Jindong. The two parties announced the signing of a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement.

According to Laoji’s understanding, the cooperation model between the two parties is very in-depth, including in-depth cooperation in product planning, channel cooperation, marketing, big data, etc., as well as in-depth cooperation in the “Suning.com Flagship Store”, both parties’ “Tmall” The interaction between the self-built flagship stores in "Mall" has continued to deepen; the two parties are also matching offline the construction of experience stores that Huawei is implementing, relying on Suning's layout and coverage, and jointly cultivating in cities below T4.

Judging from the specific cooperation intentions between the two parties, Huawei, as a leading brand in the global communications industry, attaches great importance to Suning's dual channels and O2O's unique advantages. It actually represents the mobile phone industry's thinking on the future retail model.

The retail revolution of mobile phones

Speaking of the future, we need to look back at the past and present. In Lao Ji’s view, China’s mobile phone market has experienced three retail revolutions in the past ten years:

In 2009, with the issuance of 3G licenses, operators established terminal companies one after another and intervened in mobile phone channels on a large scale. They also guided mobile phone manufacturers to launch customized mobile phones through centralized procurement and spending subsidies. As a result, the four mobile phone giants "China Cool Alliance" were born in the Chinese market. They all customize mobile phones on a large scale for operators. At the same time, operators and related channels accounted for nearly half of the market share of mobile phone channels.

In 2012, with the launch of Xiaomi's cost-effective mobile phones such as Xiaomi 1 and Xiaomi 2, and the collective efforts of e-commerce channels such as JD.com, Suning, and Tmall on mobile phones, e-commerce has gradually become the most mainstream in first- and second-tier cities. mobile phone sales channels and continues to expand to lower-tier cities. At this stage, new mobile phone brands such as Xiaomi and Honor emerged that focused on online sales.

Starting from 2015, mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO and vivo, which have been working offline for many years, began to exert their efforts. They relied on the offline channel community with shared interests, strict price control, dense store distribution and well-trained shopping guides to rise rapidly. , becoming the fastest growing mobile phone brand in the Chinese market in recent years.

Nowadays, in the Chinese market, a tripartite channel pattern has been formed with operators, e-commerce, and offline stores. If calculated according to time, China's mobile phone retail model will undergo a major change every three years. Some mobile phone brands will take advantage of the situation to rise, and a number of mobile phone brands will also sink.

Today, the mobile phone industry is about to usher in a new round of retail revolution. Future retail is smart retail, which uses the Internet and Internet of Things technology to sense consumption habits, predict consumption trends, guide production and manufacturing, and provide consumers with diversified and personalized products and services. Specific to the mobile phone industry, mobile phone manufacturers must have online and offline omni-channels and link big data, big logistics, and big finance together to provide consumers with better experiences and services.

From sales channel to experience center

Let us analyze in detail what characteristics the upcoming smart retail has.

First of all, mobile phone manufacturers no longer dwell on the so-called online and offline, but integrate online and offline development.

Previous mobile phone manufacturers, on the one hand, were stepping up their efforts to expand offline channels, and on the other hand, they began to cooperate online with Tmall, Suning, and JD.com. However, the final result proves that mobile phone manufacturers face a big problem in diverting traffic from offline to online. The conversion effect of an online flagship store is also very poor. For products like mobile phones, online and offline integration scenarios Experiential consumption is king.

Therefore, not only Honor, Xiaomi also realizes the importance of online and offline integrated development. As the saying goes, where the users are, manufacturers should be there, and products should be deployed wherever they are. Since this year, Xiaomi has accelerated the opening of Mi Home directly-operated stores and plans to open 1,000 stores within three years.

Xiaomi is also paying more and more attention to leveraging the power of partners to accelerate the integration of online and offline. In March this year, Xiaomi and Suning collaborated on Super Brand Day, with sales exceeding 100 million yuan in 17 minutes, breaking Suning's single-brand sales record. At the same time, the two parties have also in-depth cooperation offline. Currently, a total of 348 Xiaomi zones have been opened in Suning stores across the country.

On the contrary, we see that Nubia, which also started on the Internet, has not been resolute enough in integrating online and offline, and has not invested enough resources to complete the layout of offline stores. This has hindered Nubia's development to some extent. So fast that sales in the past two years have been hovering around 10 million units.

Secondly, both online and offline are not just sales channels, but must become consumer experience centers.

In this regard, Apple does a good job. No matter which city it enters, Apple usually chooses a landmark location to open an Apple store with a unified logo. In addition to displaying and selling Apple products, it also sets up specific sections such as "Genius Bar" for Apple fans to experience the products in depth.

In addition, after-sales service is also an important part of user experience. Currently, Apple's only more than 20 stores in China are obviously unable to meet such huge demand. To this end, starting this year, Apple will work with Suning to promote the construction of integrated sales and service areas in 20 cities, providing Apple fans with personalized settings for new phones, professional classes, rapid returns and exchanges, and quick screen replacement and replacement. Battery and other services to comprehensively upgrade the shopping experience for fruit fans.

This is also the change Suning is making. In the future, Suning will promote and cover more business districts with a full-scenario consumption model that integrates eating, drinking, entertainment and learning, and connects store services with mobile phones and web pages. This new model of online and offline integration not only adapts to and changes consumers' purchasing habits, but also provides more display opportunities for mobile phone brands, and increases opportunities for mobile phone brands to acquire "quality" users.

Ultimately, mobile phone manufacturers will fully understand consumers' individual needs through "smart retail", provide them with more targeted products and services, and even reversely customize products. Not long ago, Samsung and Suning jointly customized a customized version of the Samsung Galaxy S8+ Inter Milan mobile phone. This high-looking global limited edition mobile phone was exclusively sold on Suning.com, causing fans to rush for it. On some third-party platforms It was once sold to a high price of 30,000 yuan.

Looking at the actions of the three mainstream platforms represented by JD.com, Suning, and Tmall, it is not difficult to understand this trend. JD.com has frequently deployed offline in the past two years, and recently announced that it will open 300 JD Home offline experience stores; Suning has adhered to the O2O model for many years and has created a mature form; and Tmall, Suning has become After becoming a strategic partner, it now directly gives the online home appliance 3C entrance to Suning, juxtaposing Suning.com with Tmall Supermarket, Juhuasuan and other modules. In other words, Tmall’s online traffic also relies on Suning’s presence in the market. A strong foundation in the home appliance 3C field.

The future has arrived, and the retail revolution in the mobile phone industry is coming. For mobile phone manufacturers, following the trend is more important than anything else.