Social New Retail: Social networking and community may be one of the core competitiveness in the future

Manned versus unmanned is one of the focal points of controversy in new retail. In fact, more people believe that the future normalization will be the combination of "unmanned technology" and "manned service". In the new community retail market, this will be more Clear manifestation. "Humanity" capabilities will be one of the core soft strengths of community new retail companies.

Situation 1: Theoretical "community socialization" is still far from reality

Social networking and community will become the core competitiveness of new community retail in the future, but the social networking referred to here is not a theoretical community social project. In fact, when I first came into contact with the community market 5 years ago, I started with community social projects. However, times have changed and the entire Internet has undergone earth-shaking changes, but community social projects have always been stagnant. Even Nextdoor, which was very popular in the United States, has not moved forward. Failed to continue to achieve dazzling results.

To this day, there are still many people who are obsessed with community social networking. Because the case of Tencent is in front of them, some people will mistakenly think that they have mastered online community social networking and can leverage larger community businesses in the future. But at least for now. Look, community socializing hasn’t come yet. I specifically analyzed the problem of community social interaction in my book "New Retail in Community". In fact, domestic community owners do not have strong demand for in-depth social interaction in the community. Some basic social functions can be solved through WeChat.

Current situation 2: It is normal for fruit shop owners to use WeChat to sell fruit

Pure community social projects are a bit complicated to analyze. If you are interested, you can read "New Retail in Community", but I won't repeat it here. The "social" that this article will emphasize is, more precisely, to assist the development of community retail business based on existing social relationships in the community. This social relationship is not only limited to online WeChat friends, but also offline neighbors who are familiar with each other. The neighborhood relationship includes the relationship between the owners of the same community and the relationship between the owners and the shopkeepers around the community.

In the new community retail market, it is necessary to use WeChat social networking and communication tools to assist operations. For example, there are many resourceful fruit shop owners who add friends to all their neighbors who come to shop, and then use WeChat for marketing communications and online delivery, which can lead to good transaction volume. This kind of thing is very common in life, and there are many of them when you search online. It is normal for fruit shop owners to use WeChat to sell fruit.

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Situation 3: What the community market needs now is "social new retail"

However, in the long run, if community new retail wants to expand, it needs a set of standardized and exportable (social) new retail solutions. This problem may be solved by the micro-business market. Fang Yu, a well-known self-media person and micro-business industry expert, is also studying the feasibility of "social new retail" based on community scenarios. He said that the community is a semi-closed scenario with fixed social relationships. The built community is stable and can effectively utilize social relationships. Helps stimulate multiple conversions of community consumption of daily necessities.

Micro-business - social e-commerce - social new retail, retail services based on social relationships are evolving simultaneously with the retail industry. The initial micro-business sold products through online social relationships, and the later extended social e-commerce used online Social relations are used for communication and sales, and products such as Pinduoduo, Yunji Weishang, and NetEase Tuishou have emerged. Today's social new retail has increased the importance of offline scenes, using online social relationships and tools to reversely drive the stickiness and frequency of offline community consumption.

Value 1: Community new retail will also be a competition between cost and efficiency

The industry has always had strong objections to the introduction of unmanned convenience stores into communities. Many unmanned convenience stores want to expand into the community market, euphemistically calling it "low cost", but in fact, in addition to labor, the costs of unmanned convenience stores are all the same. The items are not spared, and the content that can be operated is also self-limited. Regarding the development of community unmanned convenience stores, I introduced it in "New Retail in Community: Unmanned Convenience Stores Are Repeating the Mistakes of Community O2O". You can refer to it directly.

New community retail in the future will also be a competition between cost and efficiency. In terms of efficiency, in the logic of unmanned convenience store companies, people cannot contribute to the cost of profits. However, in the actual retail industry, there is an indicator of "human efficiency", which regards people as the driving force that can produce benefits. Micro-business or social e-commerce have directly proven that people can create benefits. The core of community new retail should not be to eliminate labor, but to use the Internet and IoT tools to more efficiently improve human efficiency.

Value 2: In addition to user base, FMCG pays more attention to user stickiness

Business district retail and e-commerce retail pay more attention to the user flow of the user base, because with the support of a large user base, the retail performance will not be bad. In the community market, the user base is very small and growth is limited, so it is necessary to pay more attention to user stickiness. There are two ways to ensure user stickiness in the traditional retail market, either good products or good services. In the community, a consumer environment that integrates "social relationships" and "retail services", you can also fight for favors.

In the community market, urgently needed fast-moving consumer goods, fresh food and other commodities are seriously homogenized. Competition at the product level is mainly focused on whose store is closer, fruits and vegetables are fresher, and prices are lower. Competition at the service level is mainly about who has a better attitude, considerate service, and better experience. If the products and services are almost the same, you have to fight to see who understands "human feelings" better and is better at marketing, because in the community, a small business with "semi-acquaintances", consumers will unconsciously be affected by emotional affiliation when choosing a store. Influence.

Value 3: Fixed single-point market, endogenous drive is more efficient

In the community consumption scenario, the population is relatively fixed, and the market capacity has mostly reached its peak. Although the current community new retail is a blue ocean market in general, when it is implemented in each community, it is basically in a state of competition like the red ocean. Recruiting customers only through offline stores can no longer meet the competitive pace of new retail, because in addition to competitors in the same industry around the community, large e-commerce and chain supermarkets have set their sights on the community market, and have begun to adopt a comprehensive approach to online and offline operations. Orientation action.

To compete with these giants who are entering the community market, there is no way to compete with who has more SKUs and cheaper prices. Therefore, we need to try to make effective use of online social relationships to deeply maintain consumer groups in the community, and stimulate consumption and conversion through lower marketing costs. The giants’ goal is a broader market, and store owners who are deeply involved in the community can do more detailed work. There are opportunities, but the key is to tie online social relationships to performance, so as to stimulate the enthusiasm of store owners and store employees.

Value 4: Community unmanned self-service terminals also need community managers

From express delivery lockers, self-service water dispensers, waste recycling bins, and fresh food front warehouses, to today's unmanned convenience stores, unmanned fitness warehouses, and unmanned containers. Although there are still many market uncertainties in unmanned convenience stores and unmanned fitness warehouses, it is an irreversible development trend for unmanned self-service terminals to enter the community market. Among them, the most optimistic about new community retail is unmanned containers. I will write a special article to analyze the market value of unmanned containers.

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There is something that needs to be mentioned first. First of all, unmanned containers are different from express cabinets and waste bins. They are equipment for users to consume. They need to be guided in the early stage. Once problems arise, they need to be solved as soon as possible. This can ensure the conversion of users and prevent users from being unfamiliar with the equipment. And lost. In addition, unmanned containers are "dead" and cannot speak, and can only wait for customers to come to their door. If it cooperates with social marketing communication in the community, the "marketing activity" of people will help promote multiple consumption by users.

Value 5: Marketing, after-sales, distribution, maintenance, member management

Many people do not have a good impression of WeChat business, but Fang Yu said that if you take away the colored glasses, the social new retail based on the evolution of Wechat business is actually an upgrade of the membership management system at both the online and offline levels. In the traditional In the membership management system of retail channels, member maintenance mainly relies on one-way marketing communication implemented by software system mass messaging, and its effective conversion rate is lower than that of a micro-business communication system based on humanistic marketing. The core of social new retail is not simply selling goods, but repeatedly activating customers.

In the community scenario, one of the footholds is people. It can not only establish effective social relationships and enhance marketing value, but also provide after-sales services, front-end micro warehouses, door-to-door delivery, equipment maintenance, member management and other aspects. Work. What needs to be pointed out here is that don’t think of “people” as a cost, and don’t just think of “people” as a marketing tool. The community needs an executor who is responsible for the normal operation of the project. This person can be full-time, part-time, or a franchisee. By.

Value 6: Take precautions before they happen, and property prices may rise in the future.

The difference between community new retail and previous community e-commerce lies in the recognition of offline value by enterprises. In the book "Community New Retail", many cases of community e-commerce that only focused on online but failed or transformed were introduced. In the current development process of community new retail, whether it is unmanned convenience stores, unmanned containers, or Alibaba, JD.com With the integration of mom-and-pop convenience stores and the opening of small community supermarkets around the community market by chain stores, everyone is beginning to pay attention to the value of offline entities.

Then we have to face a problem, which is venue rent. In addition to ordinary store rents rising every year, an issue that is now being ignored is the rental fees for unmanned convenience stores and unmanned containers. Bingo claims that the 6-8K rental fee is only a temporary bonus and is not sustainable. Currently, the rent for a single device in Beijing is 8K-1W/square meter, and it is already above 1W in Shenzhen. If competition intensifies, spot rents will continue to rise, so more efficient manpower is needed to promote consumption, increase stickiness, and establish brands.

Value 7: How to understand the community deeply before big data

Nowadays, everyone knows the importance of data and is emphasizing big data. However, in "Community New Retail", I also specifically pointed out that before a comprehensive community business information system was formed, where did community big data come from? At present, a common practice is to conduct on-site research on the target community, quantify the surrounding information, classify the community according to the city location where the community is located, surrounding second-hand housing prices, commercial and transportation facilities, and then examine whether the vehicle and crowd structure in the community meet the requirements. landing conditions.

However, based on the practical experience of some community new retail projects, a lot of the reference information is not practical. For example, housing prices are not enough to reflect the purchasing power of a community. In fact, property companies know the community situation better, but they will not disclose this information to other commercial companies, so they can try to find a breakthrough from the community owners and develop a community owner as a partner or person in charge of the community, so that It acts as a hub for effective information transfer between businesses and owners.

Problem 1: Finding a qualified community partner is not easy

This article continuously emphasizes that it is very important to develop a community social system that serves the community's new retail, but it is not that easy to implement it in practice. In fact, similar to this logic, e-bag Laundry had previously implemented the "Little e-Butler" project, and promoted and implemented e-bag laundering and other value-added projects through the development of community leaders, but now it has almost disappeared. Jiajiaidian.com also expanded a large number of community partners through investment and franchising, but was ultimately considered a "scammer" company.

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It is difficult to judge whether there is a problem with the operation and management method of setting up community leaders, or whether there is a problem with the timing or operation strategies of e-bag washing and Home Point. In fact, I have also seen a community retail company encounter problems with being brushed off and lack of motivation when developing partners. I pointed out in "New Retail in the Community" that developing retired aunts in the community to work part-time is a direction that can be tried, but in fact it is difficult to find a suitable role in the community.

Problem 2: Without offline, the role of community partners is limited

There is another question worth pondering. Not long ago, when I was communicating with the CEO of a new community retail company that operates unmanned containers and specializes in rice, he mentioned whether unmanned containers can be omitted in the community market and directly use community partners to expand the market online. In this way, the cost of unmanned containers and the cost of renting within the community are eliminated, and a single community can recover its costs faster and have stronger revenue capabilities. At present, I do not agree with this kind of community management method that breaks away from offline and only operates online.

Judging from the experience of projects such as Community 001 and e-bag washing, one thing they have in common is that they have separated from the offline community and only focus on online. In fact, having a store or unmanned container offline not only makes it easier to gain the trust of consumers, but is also a continuous output of brand advertising. Otherwise, if there are so many similar products in the community, your users will be competed by other competitors in a few days. Intercepted, especially fast-moving consumer goods that are highly substitutable. At this stage, without offline, the role of community partners will be limited.

Question 3: There is a gap in the market and there is no way to learn from it. You can ask micro-business for advice.

The community market needs to pay attention to the value of the social system. It is simple to talk here, but currently no company has a complete and systematic social marketing and sales system in the community. Perhaps we should learn more from the micro-business industry on this issue. However, we are currently working seriously Only Fang Yu’s team is researching the direction of “social new retail” that combines online and offline services. How to do this part of the work is still in the early stages of exploration, and most companies have not even considered it.

Regarding the construction of a new social retail system in the community scenario, Fang Yu believes that although the "warmth and depth" membership management system established with an "artificial" attitude can maintain a limited user group, the practice in the micro-business market It has been proven that the more warm and in-depth a community system is, the more obvious its transformation effect will be. Although the communication ability of the machine system is strong, users are tired of it, so a large number of users would rather trust WeChat friends’ Moments than corporate WeChat and SMS push.

Maybe it’s too early to discuss this issue now, and you may be indifferent

Due to space limitations, some trivial details cannot be discussed in depth. For the time being, this is just a teaser. If you want to know more about community business, you can refer to the book "New Retail in Community". In fact, at this stage, it is too early for most community new retail companies to discuss this issue, because they cannot ignore this point for the time being. However, some companies that are ahead of the market are already thinking about this issue, and there are also some well-known The company has made attempts in this regard, although the results are not rational.

Therefore, whether it is the previous wave of community O2O or the current community new retail, some companies have thought of establishing community social communication and sales systems to assist business development. This is not a coincidence, but when startups develop in the community market to a certain stage. inevitable questions that need to be considered.

Micro-business or social e-commerce has proven that people will be affected by the emotional spread of online social relationships and their consumption. The community is also an emotional place. Although the relationship between neighbors may not be that close, it is precisely this kind of Only by "knowing but not being intimate" can a relationship have more business space.

It should be emphasized that I am not encouraging micro-business in the community, but exploring how to leverage the social value in the community and promote the development of new retail in the community. The professional system of micro-business does have room for learning and reference. In addition, taking the fact that fruit shop owners can promote sales through WeChat, new community retail projects are worthy of serious consideration.