Chen Congrong’s answer is yes. Right now, she is trying to get the offline retail industry out of the woods under the impact of the turbulent e-commerce through the O2O model.
Chen Congrong, who has served as President of Phoenix Satellite TV East China and Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Focus Media, chose to start his own business this time and set his sights on the opportunities that traditional retailing brings to the Internet.
In 2012, Chen Congrong founded EasyNet to try to provide an integrated marketing solution for the offline retail industry using the O2O model. The company's products include intelligent shopping guide system, in-store terminal interactive screen, member service system and online and offline integrated marketing activities strategies to attract users to store consumption.
Despite the trivial and arduous development of offline, Chen Congrong values ​​the huge prospects for the transformation of the retail industry.
At the moment, the number of shopping malls in the country has soared, and many new shopping centers are not disconnected. According to Deloitte's statistics, there were more than 2,800 national shopping centers in 2011, and it is expected to reach 4,000 by the end of 2016. In the process, which shopping malls will flourish and which will be ruthlessly eliminated are the most concerned and anxious issues for major brands, shopping centers and department stores. On this basis, how the offline retail industry should use the Internet to transform, avoid homogenization, and create a true O2O closed loop, is a startup company like EasyNet, which can expand its space.
Open up the "internal loop"
As we all know, the offline retail industry is facing great challenges. With the rise of e-commerce platforms, people have more choices in their shopping methods. In addition to dealing with the impact of e-commerce, there are fierce competition between different shopping malls, department stores, shopping streets, and various wholesale and retail markets. In addition, today's consumers go to the mall no longer just for shopping, but more likely to go to the movies and meals with family and friends. This means that traditional department stores that sell goods such as single clothing will face the dilemma of rapid user-to-store declines.
Under this circumstance, many traditional commercial entities have started to set up online malls and apps, but in Chen Congrong's view, many malls have just opened an online department store on the war, making O2O a B2C+ store. Lose its most competitive links.
“As a result, department stores have to compete with other department stores offline, and they have to compete with B2C websites online, so they often make them miserable.†Moreover, single stores often invest a lot of money when trying to transform, and there are few shopping malls. Get the rewards you expect.
“The key point is that those shopping malls don’t want to know how to do the O2O internal circulation.†Chen Congrong said, “If you just do a set online, do a set offline, and the membership system does not open up, then understand and behave to consumers. Demand analysis can't be achieved through the network."
Chen Congrong does not confess that it is very difficult to build a perfect O2O system based on the status quo of the traditional retail industry in China. In general, the retail industry used to adopt a model of real estate leasing, which is closer to commercial real estate than direct retail. In this process, the retail owners do not touch the goods, so their understanding of the goods is not deep, and the communication with the consumers after the transaction is relatively lacking.
From this perspective, "underline retailing should establish an Internet-based communication method, it is necessary to turn traffic into specific users, and align the user's needs with the merchant's services," she said. The easy network approach is to build a set of “easy to visit†shopping mall service system for businesses to achieve communication and interaction with users. The system includes a smart terminal shopping guide in full-screen touch form, a mobile app, a WIFI service, and a series of marketing service products based on these platforms.
Specifically, the electronic terminal screen in the mall can provide human-computer interaction "O2O" guide/shopping services, including merchandise display, shopping guide, preferential access, member management, indoor navigation, and in-store activity organization. Its built-in electronic member management system can identify mall membership based on QR code and NFC technology, and provide member registration, point inquiry, point redemption, membership event notification and registration.
"These platforms have different roles and different costs. How to use these platforms, there are actually a lot of attention." Chen Congrong said. In her eyes, WeChat is a relatively broader and shallower level of communication, and user acquisition costs are lower. In contrast, APP is a concept of deep communication, which needs to start from the pain point of service and provide the most distinctive service. On the electronic interactive screen, in addition to the traditional floor guidance, parking navigation and other functions, there must be a one-stop membership service. In short, "interactive screens must interact with users more to electronically undertake." Role, not just a simple shopping guide."
For the C-end users, EasyNet has developed an “easy to shop†app, which is a shopping guide software based on various businesses, activities and offers in the shopping mall, and gradually added some group purchase products and functions. It is not difficult to find that EasyNet tries to make full use of the time when users are fragmented to provide consumption information, and also helps retail owners to capture users' needs more efficiently.
Promote retail change
On this basis, Chen Congrong found that many retail owners like to study big data when doing O2O, but in fact, many brand stores, shopping malls or chain stores, the foundation for building big data is very weak.
A clear example is that offline shopping malls tend to focus on strong promotions during holidays, along with some ground-themed construction. However, the mall does not know which consumers are coming, what their needs are, and the promotions appear to be extensive and casual. In this case, collecting user needs and understanding the target customer base is the first step in the O2O cycle.
Therefore, Easily try to integrate electronic interactive elements into the promotion activities of the mall. For example, let users collect various activities such as lottery through mobile phones or QR codes to collect user information.
"We focus on all interactions with users." Chen Congrong explained. Data such as store frequency, purchase preferences, and customer price are easily available online, but it is difficult to obtain online. What easy network to do is to establish a platform for offline communication with users to help merchants collect and analyze user data.
After collecting user information, EasyNet will promote more new members to register, while revitalizing the flow of those old members. In Chen Congrong's words, many members of the mall are “silent membersâ€. How to make these members more active and active, and improve the efficiency, is a very important issue for shopping malls and brand stores.
Only after revitalizing and analyzing the online data, the offline retail industry can better drain offline through various online marketing methods. After guiding the user to the store, the store will use the Internet to communicate with the customer, record and feedback the user's needs. This offline change is a very core part of the O2O system.
Furthermore, to use the big data to complete the O2O cycle based on the store, the user's data must be recorded, the demand can be satisfied, and the store can build a full platform based on mobile phones, PCs, electronic screens and other terminals.
“Many times, the original data of the business is scattered, there is no system and can't analyze. We now aggregate these data through various marketing activities and become a system that can be analyzed,†she said. For example, the merchant updated the in-store terminal screen, APP and WeChat stores, and then its WeChat got some new fans. Under normal circumstances, the merchant does not know whether the new fans have come to the store because the data has no feedback. Through the sign-in system, discount downloads, membership points and other activities, businesses can know when members come to the store.
In Chen Congrong's eyes, the 2 in this O2O is a fusion. "Many people say that we want to do this 2. In fact, this 2 is a connection concept. All companies that can connect Online and Offline may have opportunities."
She also admitted that the biggest challenge for retail O2O is that the habits of users and businesses are not fully mature. Many brands' online and offline marketing departments are separate and fragmented. Users who have accumulated offline for many years have not been deeply analyzed and explored, nor have they interacted with online. In other words, the market still needs to go through a process of nurturing.
"The wheels of the retail O2O are very heavy. If the business is not willing to move forward, you can't push it." Chen Congrong said, "It is not just a concept of technological change, but a large operational concept and operational capability. Upgrade."
In the increasingly competitive world, offline merchants must not only compete with other stores, but also compete with online merchants. Therefore, the offline retail industry has put forward higher requirements for investment, operation, service, membership gathering and attraction of people, and these all point to more refined operations.
So, will O2O be the force driving the offline retail revolution?
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