What is the core thinking of new retail?

Introduction: New retail is a major trend in the future. However, most companies are still at a loss as to what new retail should look like and how it should be implemented.

This article explores various challenges and solutions in the implementation of new retail. Now share it with everyone.

In October 2016, Jack Ma proposed the concept of "new retail" for the first time, believing that e-commerce will no longer be mentioned in the next ten or twenty years, and retail will enter a new stage -Online and offline activities tend to be unified and professional.

In such a retail era, I believe that many entrepreneurs, whether they are producing their own products or building brands, will face major changes in the entire market competition, management and other aspects.

First of all, China’s economy has entered a new normal, and the era of rapid economic growth is gone;

Secondly, the competitive and cooperative relationship between e-commerce and traditional industries has entered a new stage;

Finally, the mobile Internet will trigger waves and trends in business model innovation.

Based on this, whether it is the development of intelligence or the changes in the entire e-commerce, it will raise new topics for retail and trigger heated discussions.

Interpretation of the future

Our interpretation of the future is divided into three aspects - new users, new media and new scenarios. We think this is the eternal part.

new user

Everyone can ask themselves this question – who are your users?

For those of my generation, the user base was those born in the 1970s; later, we had working partners who were born in the 1980s, and the users were also those born in the 1980s; now, we are starting to study those born in the 90s, but there are already people born in the 00s who have entered the store.

In such a rapid iteration, you must understand, research, and gain insights into consumers all the time, and know who your users are. Your understanding of consumers in the past does not represent your understanding of consumers now and in the future.

I dare not say that I know the post-90s generation very well, let alone the post-00s generation, so we do a lot of market research almost every year to understand consumers, and we find that the users have really changed.

Someone once said that the post-90s generation is an unprecedented generation. Unlike the post-70s and 80s generations, they have to work hard for life. They live in an era of relative material prosperity and freedom of choice. In addition, most of them are only children and enjoy a lot of care, which gives them a strong sense of self.

We have a survey result that shows that the keywords of those born in the 1970s and 1980s are more about family and friends, while those born in the 90s are freedom, individuality, enjoyment, and self. In other words, the post-90s generation respects their own choices more and does not blindly follow them.

They will not choose you just because you advertised on CCTV. Most of their choices are based on recognition of brand value. This is also the reason why more and more trendy brands and magic stores, including Internet celebrity stores, have emerged. Because they have their own characteristics that attract the post-90s generation, everyone recognizes them. Activities in circles.

The most important thing is that they have their own judgment and selection ability. It is precisely this that gives all brands a new opportunity because the brands have been reordered.

new media

After figuring out the target, you also need to figure out how to talk. Just like talking to friends, different methods of communication are different for different targets, and the same is true for communicating with customers.

In my opinion, the most difficult thing for a company to do is the marketing department. Other departments still have rules to follow. What the marketing department faces is that the entire media environment is highly fragmented, decentralized and iterative.

In this case, they must continue to learn and innovate, which may not necessarily yield results. They need to know what the current hot topics, mainstream media habits, culture, and language environment of consumers are like.

If the marketing department does not understand consumers and ignores the post-90s generation, then the post-90s generation will abandon the company and brand. At the same time, when you don’t understand a consumer’s culture, it’s difficult to have a conversation with him or really impress him.

new scene

Nowadays, in many online shopping apps, as long as you have searched, all relevant recommendations will come out. This is the thousands of people and faces behind big data. What you see is exclusive to you, including WeChat Moments, you can customize the interface, etc.

Against this background, new consumption scenarios are taking shape, including new knowledge scenarios, new sales scenarios, and new experience scenarios. Today’s food delivery platforms, shared bicycles, short-term rental B&Bs, etc. are all new scenarios.

Simply put, when users change, brands will conduct a new ranking. Like lululemon, it is a segmented yoga wear brand within a sports brand. It does not advertise as soon as it comes out, but uses social marketing to attract a lot of new fans and audiences.

The main reason why its products are so popular is that it combines yoga clothes with home clothes, which is both fashionable and comfortable. You can usually wear it to go shopping and buy groceries, or you can do exercises anytime and anywhere. Finally, in the American women's sportswear segment, it defeated Nike with a share of 58%, while Nike only had 20%.

so,A brand that truly has an attitude and its own value proposition can still thrive even if it has only been established for a short period of time.This also gives us something to think about – how should your brand develop next? Who are your users? Do you have your own position and attitude? How do you impress users? How to make him really willing to pay the bill?

In short, in the new market environment, brand competition has been reordered, which is both a challenge and an opportunity for everyone.

Mind is more important than matter

As we all know, it is difficult to build a brand, but it is very valuable to make it bigger. This value is more of a virtual value, not like how much a physical product can be sold for. Just like Coca-Cola's brand valuation is very high, this does not mean that the value of its bottle of water is high, but that its status in the minds of consumers is high.

In fact, there are three core links in building a brand.

consumer insights

Do you know your users? What on earth were they thinking? what do you need? This is the first question that companies must figure out.

Brand identity/positioning/personality/value

A brand is like a person. People have their own personalities, looks, and charms, and different people attract different people. The same is true for a brand, which has its own personality identity and value positioning.

Then, what kind of positioning the brand occupies in the minds of consumers, what kind of personality the brand has, and what kind of value proposition it dominates determine the attributes of the people the brand can attract.

Emotional connection/consumption experience of consumption A well-known overseas professor has done research on retail brands for many years and found that connecting with consumers is becoming more and more important. In the past, our branding may have been more about brand communication, but now it is more important to connect with consumers.

Brand communication is still a "shallow relationship". Only true binding can establish a "deep connection" with consumers.

To put it simply, does your marketing include brand interaction? Do you have more interactions and exchanges with consumers? How can you continue the relationship with consumers and give them a better experience? In fact, this is what we need to think about.

New retail thinking with new user desires as the core

When users change, whether you can build products, innovate operations and management models with them as the core is the core thinking of new retail.

When we first started doing O2O, we had both online and offline parts. We went from online in 2002 to offline experience stores in 2005, then integrated online and offline in 2008, and then in 2017 The year leapt into the new retail era. In this process, these few things cannot be separated.

The first is traffic cost.Just like now that we are moving from online to offline, don’t you think this is contrary to the model you claimed in the past? We went offline precisely because online costs are getting higher and higher. The cost of acquiring customers online even exceeds the cumulative cost of renting offline stores.

In this case, especially when second- and third-tier cities still have traffic dividends, they should quickly seize offline traffic. Many big brands are scrambling to share this traffic, because the cost of traffic determines marketing efficiency andprofitability.

The second is operational efficiency and experience.Whether it is online or offline, it is inseparable from the essence of new retail - combining the characteristics of online and offline to achieve operational efficiency improvement and consumer value.

From promotion or user word-of-mouth recognition to us, to registration on the official website, then entering the store, completing or not completing the transaction, and then following up, it forms a closed loop. Everyone has this process, which is not unusual. However, its biggest change is the addition of SCRM, which is social user relationship management.

We understand users, spread the brand, and communicate with consumers, which is the upper end of the funnel. If we make this funnel as wide as possible, we will have the influence of the brand.

Our store is like a conversion tool. Whether entering our official website, Tmall store, JD store or offline store, we must maximize conversion traffic and retain users. Tie your pocket in the back, analyze all the above consumer data and behaviors, and use the SCRM system to form connections between consumers, such as social e-commerce.

Social e-commerce is not exactly the same as micro-business in the circle of friends. Micro-business is about individuals. Trust relationships are established between individuals, and transactions are generated through connections between people. Social e-commerce integrates everything by establishing a cloud platform to complete all supplies, warehousing, products, customer service, information chains, etc. It only needs to expand the user base at one end of the terminal and expand the supply at the other end. When these two ends are connected, a very large transaction can be formed.

Therefore, when we can truly achieve SCRM, our user value and quality value can be maximized. We have only completed the system now. The essence is whether we can make good use of this tool and precipitate and amplify the above traffic value and user value.

O2O reinterpretation

Data-based precision marketing

What can data do? We can do more precise marketing based on data, which is part of the SCRM system. What we want to do is to get to know consumers through this system in the future, and even make sure that as soon as consumers arrive downstairs, you will immediately know who has arrived.

As soon as a consumer enters the store, you can call him by name, know his shopping habits, what kind of products he has seen, and make targeted recommendations to him, giving him a sense of surprise and making him feel that this is not a strange experience. visit.

This means that companies can achieve higher efficiency with less marketing costs. But that’s easier said than done. This is why online platforms such as Tmall are actively developing smart retail and smart stores. It can help companies supplement missing offline data.

Only when online and offline data are available and connected can it truly be unmatched. Therefore, data-based precision marketing will be a core of new retail.

In addition, once the brand culture and brand values can be deeply rooted in the minds of consumers, consumers will become loyal fans of the brand.

Return to business essence

From the perspective of the Internet or new retail, I think companies should return to two origins, which are also the essence of business.

One is the improvement of efficiency.For enterprises, efficiency equals profit, and we should maximize efficiency as much as possible.

The second is to create unique value and ultimate experience for consumers.This experience is not just a service, but also includes products, emotions, spirit, etc.

Next, we can try the following three points.

First, use data to gain insight into users.Now the platform provides us with many opportunities to obtain more data. We should gain insights into consumers based on this data.

Second, use technology to expand scenarios, including small programs, apps, etc.All industries can be transformed. It depends on whether we are willing to try and dare to innovate.

Third, use experience to shape the brand.A brand is a living "person". Only when the brand and users can have a deep connection can users truly recognize and recognize the brand. (Full text ends)

Author: Xu Xiao, founder and CEO of Diamond Bird

Source: Selected Business Reviews