Text/Wu Chenguang, Cui Zhilei
Edit/Gale
In 2022, with the continuous acceleration of the pace of national pension co-ordination, the three-child "escort" policy has accelerated, and the favorable policies related to the "home" economy have been continuously released. Especially since the "two sessions", from childcare to pension, suggestions about "home" have been frequently searched, and the family consumption and service track may usher in new growth points, which has also become the next outlet for the market and the industry to continue to increase.
Opportunities are always left to prepared businesses. Traditional retail platform Gome, with its forward-looking "home and life" strategic layout, has seized the favorable terrain of the market before the tide of "home" economic policy. At the same time, as an important part of its online layout, the True Happiness APP began to exert its strength, with 70 million monthly active users and an average daily active of 3.5 million in February, which undoubtedly indicates that Gome's concept of "all retail" is becoming more and more mature and has entered a stage of rapid development.
Online channels are starting to gain momentum
On March 1, Gome opened the first big promotion of the year with the theme of "True Value, Dare to Compare", in which the online platform True Happiness APP launched the "Family Tesco Season", and the offline platform Gome Electrical Appliances simultaneously opened the "Black Wu" promotion of the Huimin Consumption Month.
As gome's online platform, True Happiness APP plays an important role in this promotion, integrating social networking and shopping, focusing on the two major sections of "music" and "shopping".
On the shopping side, the True Happiness APP "strictly selects good stores", returns to the essence of retail, and works with manufacturers to share and build an online retail platform; professional buyers and platforms adhere to the concept of high quality and real low price, jointly "really select goods", shorten the customer shopping decision chain, and realize the real "closed eyes".
On the "Le" page, users can share great content and follow other users, and can also browse the notes of different channels according to their personal interests. At this time, the True Happiness APP acts as a social entertainment software, which can attract a wide range of traffic, but also increase the frequency of users' opening and strengthen the stickiness with consumers.
Not only that, the True Happiness APP has also opened a live broadcast portal to transform the user resources of existing physical stores into potential consumers of live e-commerce.
These moves show Gome's determination to seize the young market. According to the "Research Report on the Integration and Development of China's Retail Industry and Household Service Industry" jointly released by Gome and People's Daily Digital Communication, the post-95 and post-00 consumer groups, which are regarded as representatives of the "Z generation", have become more prominent in the trend of younger, social and entertainment consumption.
It can be seen that with the rise of new consumer groups, the development of digital intelligent new consumption is accelerating, and the integration of online and offline is the only way for the transformation of the entire retail industry.
In this regard, Gome has built an entertainment platform featuring events and lists with the online platform True Happiness APP as the carrier. In the era of traffic anxiety, we have created a new model of entertainment marketing of "merchant entertainment selling, user entertainment buying, and sharing music together", which has set an example on the road to breaking the situation of traditional retail enterprises.
Of course, Gome does not blindly chase the young consumer market, and attaches equal importance to consumer groups of other age groups.
The "Video Shopping Guide" service launched by True Happiness APP is to cover more age groups of consumers. Compared with the service process of text and pictures in the traditional customer service industry, "video shopping guide" has simplified the communication method. Under the trend of the country's vigorous development of the "silver economy", the "video shopping guide" service just responds to the call for smart products to "adapt to aging".
On the other hand, in the stage of normalization of epidemic prevention, the "video shopping guide" service can also solve the problem of consumer home consultation and reduce unnecessary offline contact.
At present, the "video shopping guide" service has been fully rolled out in the True Happiness APP and more than 4,000 offline stores of Gome across the country, becoming an important "weapon" to open up the closed loop of gome's online and offline all-scenario consumption, and realizing the three-end coverage of "to the store, to the network, to the group" and the deep integration of "people, goods and fields".
Thanks to this differentiated service, the online platform has become the standard in the retail industry, so that Gome has more competitive chips.
According to gome's latest disclosed data, in February 2022, the monthly active users of the True Happiness APP reached 70 million, with an average daily active of about 3.5 million. Such a number is eye-catching enough for Gome, which has a late online channel, and is the consumer's recognition of the True Happiness APP, and it is also the market's affirmation of Gome's omni-channel strategic transformation.
Perhaps encouraged by the market, Gome expects that by December 2022, each household will spend an average of 8 to 10 hours a month on entertainment and consumption in the Gome ecosystem. The socialized and entertaining True Happiness APP will undoubtedly be the "traffic responsibility" within the Gome ecosystem.
"True value • dare to compare" is the killer skill
In the era of the integration of online and offline channels in the retail industry, in order to further enhance the core competitiveness, it is necessary to make a fuss about the "quality" and "price" of the product, and this is exactly the killer skill of Gome.
At the launch meeting of the promotion, Zhao Liming, vice president of Gome Retail, explained that "true value dares to compare", the value is really selected goods, high quality and low price, thoughtful service; it is better than the knowledge and practice of adhering to the essence of retail and user value, and it is better than the joy and happiness of blooming quality life and wonderful life.
It is reported that through the offline platform Gome Electrical Appliances, Gome also subsidizes about 1 billion yuan nationwide, in addition to continuing to increase the preferential treatment of home appliances and 3C categories, the subsidies for non-home appliance categories also exceed 100 million yuan, covering "famous and special" products across the country.
In addition to consumption subsidies, gome's "true value and dare to compare" lies in the brand effect and strong supply chain advantages that have been precipitated for many years.
Zinc Finance learned that Gome, which started with offline retail, has established in-depth cooperative relations with many brands in the past 35 years. Especially in terms of electrical appliances, Gome has accumulated many big-name manufacturer resources such as Haier and TCL, which can not only control the quality of goods from the source, directly according to user needs from manufacturers to order goods, but also cut the premium through direct sales of manufacturers, and truly benefit consumers.
Take the "black Wu" promotion as an example, among them, the market price of 3290 yuan dyson net red explosive hair dryer, to the hand price is only 2790 yuan. You should know that during the "Double 11" period last year, the price of Dyson's live broadcast room was 3190 yuan. It can be seen that Gome's "true value and daring to compare" is not lip service.
Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting, told Zinc Finance: "Price competitiveness needs to be backed by sales scale and financial strength, and Gome's sales scale in the home appliance category is still very advantageous." At the same time, Gome's offline physical stores, home appliances and home improvement supply chain and delivery integration service capabilities, as well as Gome brand and stable organization are all advantages. ”
In fact, Gome has occupied half of the domestic home appliance sales market for many years, during which time Gome has accumulated many cooperative manufacturers and a large number of loyal users by virtue of its brand effect. Until now, most of the old customers who have developed consumption habits are still willing to consider Gome first when making home appliance purchase decisions.
According to Gome's financial report, in the first half of 2021, the revenue was about 26.04 billion yuan, of which offline store revenue is still the main source of income of Gome, about 22.15 billion, an increase of 34.06% year-on-year. In addition to revenue growth, other positives were: GMV increased by 24.42% year-on-year, consolidated gross margin increased by about 2.6 percentage points, and losses narrowed.
It should be noted that Gome's "black wu" promotion has been held for many years, and from the multiple growth of the financial report, it can be seen that Gome's "true value and dare to compare" is not relying on "sacrificing" prices to exchange for sales growth, but in the real knife and real gun.
On the other hand, since Gome proposed the "home and life" strategy in 2017, it has begun to penetrate from home appliances to the home and home improvement fields. Not only that, Gome has also reached in-depth strategic cooperation with JD.com on the procurement end and supply chain end. Jingdong provides supplements for Gome's retail with non-home appliances, and Gome introduces high-quality products such as food and drinks, clothing, shoes and bags, home improvement, daily necessities, maternal and infant toys, and beauty and personal care from Jingdong.
The improvement of the supply chain has allowed Gome to achieve almost all categories of coverage, which has further increased the confidence of "true value and dare to compare".
5 years of deep ploughing ushered in the outlet
In fact, whether it is the breaking of the circle of the True Happiness APP or the confidence of "true value and dare to compare", behind it is the forward-looking strategic vision of Gome.
In 2017, Gome launched the "Home · Life" strategy, from home appliances to home, home improvement and other fields of penetration, to achieve a rapid extension from a trillion-level home appliance track to a trillion-level household goods category.
For this strategy, Zhuang Shuai pointed out that home appliances and home improvement belong to a strong related category, which is determined by Gome's strategic and steady business philosophy and competitive status. However, the home improvement market is also fiercely competitive, and Gome is still facing greater competitive pressure and growth pressure.
Another industry insider told Zinc Finance that many companies in the retail industry have a misunderstanding, that is, blindly broadening the product line, and it is very dangerous to broaden it under the premise that the core things have not been done well. Only when you are at the head of the industry, when the team, resources, and knowledge reserves are very rich, can you free up your hands to try to broaden.
At the very least, Gome, which has almost written the "half history" of China's retail industry, is qualified and has the capital to broaden its product line.
In the traditional home and home improvement market, the competition is relatively chaotic, and the situation is not as clear as the 3C retail industry. Therefore, it is undoubtedly more difficult to extend from home and home improvement to home appliances and 3C. In addition, it is not easy to change the user's cognition.
From this point of view, the first step of Gome's "home and life" strategy is stable.
In 2020, Gome announced that the "home and life" strategy was upgraded to the second stage, and Gome was no longer limited to a single consumption scenario, but aimed at "all retail".
At the 35th anniversary of Gome, Fang Wei, senior vice president of Gome Retail, said that the core goal of the second phase of the "Home · Life" strategy is "all-retail ecological sharing platform", and its main implementation path is to build an ecological closed loop of "online, offline, supply chain, logistics, big data & cloud and sharing and co-construction".
In the view of Zinc Finance, the core of Gome's "all-retail" lies in the integration of resources and the opening of the ecology, which puts forward higher requirements for Gome's brand operation capabilities and omni-channel digital capabilities, and is also a barrier for Gome to truly distinguish its peers.
In fact, the integration of online and offline resources and omni-channel development are not only the retail industry, but also the e-commerce platform. In recent years, e-commerce giants such as Ali and Jingdong have laid out the real economy and launched offline stores such as Hema Fresh and Jingdong Qixian respectively, and omni-channel competition is inevitable.
But Gome also has its own views, both competition and competition. Gome has reached strategic cooperation with e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Pinduoduo to achieve mutual empowerment in terms of traffic, joint procurement, logistics and other levels. Through the competitive relationship, Gome's goods are brought to more scenes, prompting its supply chain to gain more vitality in the output angle, and the track in the retail market is getting wider and wider.
Of course, the most important thing is that the current state continues to release policy dividends to promote family-style consumption, and the "home" economy is becoming the current outlet.
At gome's "True Value • Dare To Compare" press conference, the relevant person in charge of the People's Daily Digital Communication Center said that the deep integration of retail industry and family service industry is in line with the long-term development trend of the times, and retail-related enterprises can actively seize digital transformation, upgrade new opportunities, and show their skills in the "home" economic field to make the real economy truly "alive".
I remember that someone once concluded that the outlet is not to catch up, but to wait out, you need to cultivate deeply in an industry.
Catching up with the current "home" economy, Gome has actually laid out 5 years in advance.