Gome, once the first choice for the elders to buy electrical appliances, is now becoming a treasure land for the Z generation to "chop their hands" to buy and buy.
On January 1, 2022, Gome will turn 35. Gome's youth was full of vigor and opened up territory; the adolescent Gome kept its job, precipitated, and was ready to go; entering middle age, especially after the return of Huang Guangyu, the pace of Gome's innovation was also accelerating.
In 2021, with the upgrading of the "Home · Life" strategy to the second stage, Gome has embarked on a large-scale change of course. The major business sectors of Gome, which were previously silent in the consumer's field of vision, seemed to have been summoned in this year, shaking off the snow on their bodies, "the six major plates became a trend", and they began to converge to the center and start an iterative journey.
On the journey, the platform of "True Happiness" has attracted much attention as a "newcomer". In January this year, after the Gome online platform was renamed "True Happiness", it really shocked the industry.
Subsequently, True Happiness innovated its positioning, no longer aiming at the first stage of positioning of the "online mall", but began to assume the "bearing" of Gome's all-platform strategy.
True Happiness is incubated within Gome, which is full of retail genes, and what it wants to do is an all-retail platform in the Internet era. The gene of "retail + Internet" lays the foundation for the difference of true happiness. Therefore, True Happiness has welcomed an Internet veteran with rich retail experience: Ding Wei, who was in charge of all the import business at Amazon and all the export business at Alibaba.
As the executive vice president of True Happiness, Ding Wei revealed that the "name change" is the appearance, and more importantly, the "more Zhang" behind it. In an interview with reporters, Ding Wei said that in her eyes, the real happiness "has a very thick foundation": in addition to inheriting the retail gene of Gome Group that has iterated many times, she also dares to create and break through like the 35-year-old Gome, "like a startup, spell out its own world." ”
Gome 35 years old: still the year of the fight
At the 35th anniversary conference of Gome, Fang Wei, senior vice president of Gome Retail, reviewed gome's 35-year development history with three stages: "opening up the territory and expanding the world", "digital technology to promote transformation" and "three-dimensional layout of all retail".
On January 1, 1987, Gome's first store was born in Beijing. At that time, 18-year-old Huang Guangyu relied on the ideas of "small profits and high sales" and "diligent and fast sales", so that the household appliances that the "well-off families" could afford at that time began to cover more families. This line of thinking has also opened up Gome's business pattern.
In 1993, Gome named its Beijing stores "Gome Electrical Appliances", and the electrical chain stores also began here. Ten years later, in 2003, the number of Gome's stores nationwide exceeded 100, and the sales of that year were 10.896 billion yuan. It is also in the past few years that Gome has established a brand image of "buy electrical appliances and go to Gome".
As the offline king, Gome's Internet era did not actually eat dividends at the beginning, and its Internet journey did not start early.
From 2010 to 2016, it was regarded as the second stage of the group within Gome. During this period, Gome began to develop an online platform, Gome began to launch an online mall, and tested the "double brand + dual mode" e-commerce development strategy of "Gome Online + Kuba Network", after difficult exploration, Gome gradually explored the use of digital e-commerce platforms and technologies to help partners open up services. However, it should not be ignored that the growth momentum of e-commerce platforms that have risen in the Internet era at this time has become sharp.
Fang Wei said that after 35 years of ups and downs, Gome knows the importance of innovation and change, and also has insight into its own growth and development concepts, and has never stopped pioneering and forging ahead.
From a small shop of less than 100 square meters on Zhushikou Avenue in Beijing to more than 4,000 stores across the country today, if Gome wants to create a vision of all-retail, the online link is indispensable: Gome needs to make up for the lesson of the Internet. It is just that the development of the platform economy has exposed certain shortcomings so far. At this time, how should Gome learn from its strong points and make up for its weaknesses?
"Startups" are so happy
Ding Wei is a newcomer to Gome. By January 2022, she has been working for True Happiness for 6 months. Before coming to Gome, Ding Wei had a lot of experience, and successively served as the number one position in Amazon's cross-border e-commerce service and Ali's overseas outside the sea.
After more than 5 months of work, Ding Wei's biggest feeling for Gome is that it has a strong "retail gene". "Gome is a very deep-rooted retail group. What we're going to do now is to integrate retail with the Internet, and there's a lot of opportunities and challenges, and there's a lot to do. It is necessary to give full play to the advantages of its own Gome, and at the same time to input more Internet thinking, in order to truly exert the advantages of Gome in the future. Ding Wei said.
At the beginning of 2021, Gome's online mall suddenly announced that it would change its name to "True Happiness", which attracted great attention from the industry. Ding Wei also asked Huang Guangyu about the significance of changing his name during the interview. The chairman said that it is not a matter of simply changing the name. Behind it is the iteration and renewal of the group's strategy. Ding Wei recalled Huang Guangyu's explanation during her interview.
In 2017, Gome launched the "Home · Life" strategy. In 2021, home life has entered its second phase. At this stage, true happiness is undoubtedly the first main battlefield on the home life line. How to link the six major platforms is the mission of True Happiness. In this state, True Happiness revised its own goals in conjunction with the Group's strategy. At present, True Happiness is mainly based on three dimensions of business goals: first, around goods related to "home"; second, around services related to "home"; and third, around entertainment content related to "home".
This means that in terms of goods, True Happiness is no longer positioning itself as an "online electrical platform", but has opened a full-category strategy.
At present, among the 15 major commodity categories of True Happiness, only 2 categories are related to home appliances. At the same time, the obvious difference with the e-commerce platform is that in terms of service, True Happiness has also begun to link up with offline Gome stores to serve consumers through digital construction; in addition, entertainment has also become a major grip to attract young consumer groups.
"The first, second and third rings of True Happiness itself echo the Group's home life strategy. Combined with the real selection of goods, strict selection of merchants to do the 'true', combined with the convenience and fast service to do the 'fast', combined with the rich entertainment to do the 'happy', renamed true happiness. Ding Wei introduced.
Ding Wei has publicly stated that True Happiness will become the backbone and pioneer of Gome. In this regard, she explained that as a retail group that started offline, gome's experience to customers is something that many pure online platforms cannot give. "Four thousand stores offline are our strengths. If you use the thinking of the Internet to continuously iterate and optimize the experience of online customers, and truly echo with the six major platforms, online and offline can achieve the effect of 1+1>2. The role of retail plus Internet fermentation cannot be ignored. Ding Wei said.
In the past 30 years, Gome has become a household name as the king of electrical appliances, but this time, Gome hopes to redefine itself: the true happiness platform of all categories and entertainment will be an important support for Gome to become an all-retail platform, and it is also the second business card of Gome.
At present, Zhenfu is less than 1 year old, and Ding Wei has been working here for less than a year. In these few short months, Ding Wei has felt a huge sense of urgency. "In my definition, True Happiness is now a startup. At present, the products, technologies, and experiences of real happiness are indeed relatively young. So there's a lot to do. We will continue to polish and refine, and the speed of future iterations will be faster and faster. Ding Wei said.
Retail background: Middle-aged Gome does not lack courage
When the year of the fight, Gome, during this year like a teenager, there is no lack of courage to change. There is no shortage of determination to keep right and innovate.
True Happiness is currently positioned in such an important position, but insiders describe that in the beginning, True Happiness's positioning was not an independent platform on the Internet. Gome only sees True Happiness as a complement to the online retail scene of Gome Retail, an online platform that did not stand on the C position at the beginning.
But Huang Guangyu's eyes were sharp. He started retailing at the age of 18 and his understanding of retail is deeply embedded. At Gome's media conference in October this year, Huang Guangyu conveyed a firm positioning to the outside world: the 34-year-old Gome has always done retail.
The essence of the retail industry is the familiar "user thinking", rather than the "traffic thinking" of e-commerce. When Gome's omni-channel is opened, online platforms such as True Happiness and Dress Up Home will serve as online channels to facilitate users to directly trade and place orders; offline Gome electrical appliances and Gome home will become experience stores, providing a scene-based space for "model houses" before purchase.
The 35-year-old retail veteran should be a full retail platform, and the "true happiness" platform will be reversed from the original "online OTO scene of the Gome offline platform" to the "Internet independent platform". In a way, Gome is giving up its comfort zone and taking itself as a newcomer to the online retail competition that is already in full swing.
But Huang Guangyu was very firm about this. In a media interview in October, he said, "This is the best way to integrate all-scene offline and online." ”
Wei also mentioned that true happiness "user thinking" first. She said that the first important thing in the future of True Happiness is user experience. He also said that the main work in 2022 is to put user experience on the agenda.
"Secondly, we will continue to deepen the cultivation of the module of 'Le' and 'Buy'. At present, entertainment is still in its infancy, and we hope to officially operate as soon as possible; third, the service of local life will also be launched as soon as possible to meet the needs of users for service goods. Fourth, we will launch cross-border goods to attract high-quality users with richness and high quality. In addition, we may also do a lot of channels and joints, combined with offline store transformation, online and offline to better do the '1+ 1>10' effect, which is also the responsibility that true happiness cannot shirk. Ding Wei counted the really happy "schedule" of 2022, she said that although the pressure exists, it is full of motivation.
Ding Wei frankly said that she has encountered some difficulties in bringing Internet thinking to the retail field. For example, how to communicate with retailers about the way the Internet plays, how to recruit talents who understand both retail and the Internet, and how to run into synergy and run faster. But for these challenges, she is happy to accept.
"I am full of curiosity and awe about the full retail closed loop, online and offline connection. The founder of a group wants to personally turn this matter into a full retail ecological closed loop, and this determination makes me see hope, and I will definitely regret it if I don't try it. She said. Text/Du Peng
Daily economic news
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