Recently, JD.com and Vipshop have successively released the first quarter of 2022 financial reports, but it has shown a very interesting phenomenon.
As a big hit player that occupies half of the e-commerce industry, "Jingdong" lost 3 billion yuan in the first quarter, while vipshop, the "unpopular player" in everyone's eyes, achieved profitability.
● Source: Vipshop's official Weibo
Vipshop can be said to be a legendary platform in the field of vertical e-commerce. In 2012, Vipshop rushed to the United States with the story of "online outlets", and its market value soared from $200 million to $10 billion within two years. But after only three years, vipshop's "demon stock" showed its appearance, and its market value plummeted and fell into silence.
When the outside world thought that Vipshop would become the next "Fanke Eslite" or "Jumei Premium" and disappeared in the long river of history, it reversed the trend and returned to the "10 billion dollar club" when other e-commerce platforms lost a large area, and continued to make profits.
What are the advantages of Vipshop? In the future, will it be possible to successfully find its own living space in major e-commerce companies? Can the sale of this business continue?
01
growing against the trend,
Vipshop held the basic plate
"Very stable" is an evaluation of Vipshop's financial report for the first quarter of 2022.
In Vipshop's financial report for the first quarter of 2022, its net income reached about 25.2 billion yuan and its net profit reached 1.1 billion yuan. Although net income fell 11% and net profit fell 29% compared to the same period last year, it was still profitable overall.
● Source: Oriental Wealth
After all, under the influence of the repeated global epidemics, the obstruction of the supply chain, the cold consumption and other influencing factors, the business situation of enterprises can no longer be the same as in the past; Coupled with the gradual disappearance of the dividends of the Internet industry, the competition between e-commerce companies is becoming increasingly fierce, and it is very rare for profitability to show stability.
Behind vipshop's stability, it is inseparable from the support of high-viscosity users.
According to the first quarter data, Vipshop's high-value users increased by 37%, and it is this group of users who have contributed more than 38% of the online business, they have higher purchasing power and higher usage rate, which can be described as "fond of Vipshop". And this group of users is an important cornerstone for the long-term development of Vipshop.
In fact, as a vertical field of e-commerce, Vipshop has been mainly playing the slogan of "big brand tail goods sale" from the beginning of its establishment, and buying big brands at lower prices to attract users, this strategy has helped Vipshop accumulate a large number of initial users.
● Source: Vipshop official website
In the past two years, in order to further retain this batch of users, Vipshop has also made many attempts. First of all, in order to maintain the advantages of selection, a selection team of nearly 1,000 people has been formed, and the selection team will select according to the preferences of different types of consumers every year, so as to ensure the quality of selection.
Secondly, in order to improve the user experience, Vipshop will change its logistics to cooperate with SF, which greatly improves the logistics speed. All products purchased in self-operated stores are transported by SF and assist in providing unconditional door-to-door return and exchange services within 7 days.
Xiao Chu, a loyal fan of Vipshop, said: "If it is not the epidemic in Shanghai, our family has at least 1 Vipshop package every day, whether it is buying large, buying small, buying dislike, etc. There are SF brothers who return goods at home, and it is seven days without reason to return, which is very convenient." ”
Although the return policy is also the reason for the high return rate of Vipshop, it actually plays a very important role in user satisfaction and improving user stickiness.
● Source: Vipshop's official Weibo
In fact, not only Vipshop, in the current internal and external economic situation, more and more e-commerce platforms are no longer blindly chasing GMV, but pay attention to the importance of user experience, how to retain more loyal customers by improving the consumer experience is the key to long-term operation.
For example, JD.com, which has just announced its first quarter financial report, although there has been a loss of 3 billion yuan from the data, the reason is mainly due to other businesses other than e-commerce, such as support in logistics.
Up to now, Jingdong has established a total of 1400 warehouses across the country, with a total area of 25 million square meters. This initiative will further improve the user experience, as long as there is a jd.com warehouse nearby, consumers can experience the half-day delivery service.
At present, Vipshop has achieved 38 consecutive quarters of profitability, at least stabilizing the basic disk of the business.
02
Vipshop, is losing the "Z generation"
In recent years, Vipshop has gradually weakened in the field of public opinion, especially in the Z generation group.
When it comes to Vipshop, although many Generation Z can quickly say the phrase "a website specializing in selling", and even remember that it is Jay Chou and Kunling's endorsement and advertising implantation in various domestic variety shows or TV series, but there are not many real orders.
As we all know, Vipshop has played the role of "stock scavenger" since its birth. Since clothing is deeply affected by factors such as seasons and trends, it is easy to backlog inventory, so Vipshop will compress the cost of goods through off-season procurement, vertical delivery by manufacturers, etc., to ensure the discount price advantage of its own goods, thus establishing an "online outlet".
● Source: Little Red Book
However, for this model to succeed, two major prerequisites must be met: First, the merchant must be able to maximize the benefits in Vipshop; The second is that for users, they can pick up cheap and easy-to-use goods at Vipshop.
But will Vipshop really maintain its position as the "leader in the discount retail market"?
Not even so. In recent years, in order to clear the backlog of inventory, the brand side has taken two measures, on the one hand, using its own brand advantages to establish its own sales business, such as opening offline factory stores, Outlets stores and other sales of seasonal discount products to attract the attention of users.
On the other hand, the brand side is also cooperating with the head e-commerce platform, and the discount stores opened online sell goods at low prices through juhuasuan and second sales.
● Image source: Pexels
As a regular customer of Vipshop, Lily said: "Last winter, I bought a 2020 down jacket at the discount online store in Bosideng, and the price I bought was less than 30% off the label price. "Since then, she has found that she can choose the clothes she wants to buy on a larger scale, and she can buy 'big brands' with high cost performance, both online and offline."
Compared with Vipshop, she said: "Every time I receive a high-value advertisement push from Vipshop's store, I will point in because of the value, and then because the price point out, and over time, the frequency of using Vipshop will be reduced." ”
03
Barriers are no longer,
It is difficult to say that the "vertical field" is in decline
In fact, behind the high and low going of Vipshop, it is actually the e-commerce industry' ups and downs.
It is true that at the beginning, Tmall Jingdong competed for hegemony, demarcating the two worlds in the field of e-commerce, but the giant pan huan does not mean that there is no new growth space, and the rise of Pinduoduo is the greatest proof.
In 2016, before Pinduoduo attacked the city, Ali and JD.com together had more than 80% of the market share. However, with the onslaught of the sinking market for many years, the total number of annual active users of Pinduoduo is almost the same as that of Ali, forming the momentum of the three giants of e-commerce, and finding a glimmer of vitality for itself in the cracks.
● Image source: Pinduoduo official Weibo
When people remember that after Pinduoduoduo, there is no longer any way to challenge the e-commerce competition pattern, Kuaishou Douyin once again "killed the siege". In recent years, with the rapid rise of short video platforms, Douyin and Kuaishou have also begun to enter the field of e-commerce on a large scale, and a large number of brands, stars, and anchors have broadcast live on the road with goods.
Vipshop, on the other hand, seems to have been tepid in recent years, without much splash.
In fact, vipshop represents the "small and beautiful" vertical e-commerce field, which also has a broad blue ocean market at the beginning. Such as the fashion boutique Mushroom Street, the beauty business of Jumei Premium, and the luxury e-commerce temple library have emerged in front of the public.
However, with the passage of time, these platforms have gradually faded the aura of the past, and mushroom streets have been laid off in large numbers, Jumei has been delisted, and Secoo has launched a privatization offer, which has become a speck of dust in historical development.
In the end, the root cause is, on the one hand, due to the extreme "vertical" of platforms such as Vipshop. For Vipshop, it is also sold and sold, although the sale of self-operated clothing contributes more than 70% of the GMV of the whole company, but this has also become a shackle that it cannot successfully tap the second growth curve.
● Source: Vipshop's official Weibo
On the other hand, it is due to the Matthew effect in the e-commerce field. Compared with the head e-commerce platform, vertical platforms such as Vipshop are slightly inferior in both the warehousing system and the back-end service system, or even the value system, and as the living space in the vertical field is squeezed by the head e-commerce platform, its bargaining power will be further weakened and its own development will be restricted.
Judging the future trend of Vipshop from the decline of vertical e-commerce may be too early. But in general, Vipshop has gathered a group of high-sticky users on one side; On the one hand, backed by the traffic support given by well-funded shareholders such as Tencent, it can be said that it is still a "survivor" in this battle.
However, it is not easy for Vipshop to return to the road to highlight, the main "sale model" business advantages are gradually replaced by the head e-commerce platform, and the attraction retention rate of young user groups such as Generation Z is not high... All of the above are the problems that Vipshop urgently needs to solve.