Source: See the truth
In the early days, early e-commerce models like Taobao have revealed the importance of private domain in the rise of e-commerce. By building a user base and maintaining user stickiness, they have opened a precedent for private domain marketing in a narrow sense.
With the passage of time, especially after 2018, with the emergence of Mini Programs and WeCom tools, as well as the impact of the epidemic on business models, the private domain began to show its true potential. Businesses are starting to see it as an amplifier that allows them to grow explosively in specific areas and play a vital role in contributing to performance within the organization.
This shift is not just at the operational level, but also a fundamental change in business strategy. The transition from refined operation to refined operation marks the evolution of the private domain.
This is evident from the experience of Miya, General Manager of Plaza Premium Group's Fashion & Beauty Division. Miya's experience at Procter & Gamble, Tencent and other companies has given her a deep understanding of platform policies and the core of brand growth, and her transformation is a microcosm of the evolution of the private domain.
Through the analysis of the rise of the private domain, we can summarize three main stages: the launch of the Mini Program era, the role change in the post-epidemic era, and further adaptation and innovation in the current stage. At each stage, companies are facing different challenges and opportunities, and private domain strategies are constantly adapting and evolving.
This evolution is not only limited to the technical level, it is also related to the deep changes in the business model, that is, how to more effectively integrate the private domain into the overall strategy of the enterprise and transform it into direct economic benefits, in layman's terms, - to make a profitable private domain.
This requires companies to not only focus on the technical and operational aspects of the private domain, but also understand its place in the overall strategy. Whether it's a new attempt by an online sales team or an offline team's transformation and exploration, the essence of private domain marketing is to help companies return to the basics of retail - understanding and satisfying consumer needs. It is only by constantly adapting and innovating that companies can find certainty and achieve sustainable growth in an ever-changing business environment.
However, in the current business environment, it is not easy to do private domain, is it salvation or bubble, how can private domain help enterprises break through operational bottlenecks, improve efficiency, expand revenue, and how to help enterprises find their place in digital transformation.
If we need an expert who is familiar with the changes and laws of platform policies, as well as the growth and core of the brand, and can constantly discover new trends and dividends in these changes, then there must be Miya. Next, let's go back and listen to MIYA, General Manager of the Fashion and Beauty Division of Plaza Premium Group, talk about how the private domain has become a weapon to contribute to global growth, as follows, Enjoy:
01 "Private domain = direct money" is the key to breaking through the bottleneck
No matter what stage it is, the business model of the enterprise will definitely evolve with the changes in the channel structure, user structure, commodity structure, and the underlying logic of retail, and the evolution of the organization will definitely be endless, but the only truth that we can pass through the cycle and let the private domain team and the digital team play a continuous and important role in the enterprise is that we must make our own business as much as possible to have a greater relationship with the direct income and direct operation of the enterprise, rather than just being a supporter in the back.
Based on the perspective of private domain GMV growth, looking back at the entire process of the rise of the private domain, we can see three transformations of enterprises from refined operation to refined operation:
In 2018, with the widespread application of Mini Programs and WeChat, the private domain team within each enterprise is basically thinking about how to provide more value to the enterprise state around these two core tools.
Coupled with the special period of the epidemic, basically at that time, enterprises will do their best to make good use of the private domain, how to stop the decline of offline store closures, so that the private domain can make up for the losses of this part of the enterprise operation online, so at that time, the private domain played the role of helping the offline to stop the decline and help the entire enterprise stabilize the omni-channel operation market in the entire enterprise structure.
The second stage is the post-epidemic era, especially since the beginning of 2022, after two or three years of exponential growth in the private domain, after accumulating so many user assets, and accumulating the application and familiarity of the entire team with data tools, the offline has begun to gradually recover, everyone can go to the store again, and the online business has gradually returned to normal.
At that time, many private domain teams began to choose to transform into a global user operation team, a global digital membership management team, and many teams that do private domain performance on the front line will also carry a greater mission, that is, how do I do the team that knows the most about the operation of digital and intelligent tools in the enterprise, and empower the enterprise in digital transformation, which is the mission of many private domain teams in the second stage.
Therefore, at this stage, we are talking more about how to use tools to improve efficiency, how to improve application efficiency, how to continuously verify the value of the team's contribution to the business in the enterprise through the fission model, how to make only one person through fission, how to earn 10 people's money through fission, or can earn 1 person's money but earn 1 person's more money through efficiency improvement, this post-epidemic stage of the private domain team transformation to do its own positioning process.
At the end of 2023, it has entered the third stage, and after breaking through the performance bottleneck through the improvement of efficiency, the channel pattern has changed again at the end of 2023 and 2024.
At the same time as the channel structure changes, the company's own business focus and the functions and roles of each team will also change.
But in this process, it will also be accompanied by some painful soul torture, how can I get more resources with the boss, how to prove the greater value of my team to the boss, and even how to adapt to the original to do A and now I may have to do A + do more things B, in this process, I will share a few solutions that have been explored from within our own enterprises, hoping to give you some different perspectives.
02The evolution of the private domain is the evolution of the business model
The first is the way out of the dealer and store model.
Private domain is from the beginning of the enterprise to do this situation often encountered, in the service of this type of object, the previous very common business model and method is to make an ordering platform, the platform carries a variety of functions, stores can order, dealers can order, it also carries the function of training, but also carries the function of performance to the internal kanban, better purchase, sale and inventory management and sales tracking, which is a typical scenario that everyone has just started.
Later, the platform linked digital tools and business to a small program, which can directly allow dealers and stores to TOC or do fission diversion.
Nowadays, what brands are basically doing is "one store and three openings": the first store must be an offline store digital online management, the second store is opened to a mini program, which is also a typical path for everyone, and the third store is opened on Douyin.
Among all the channel changes, interest e-commerce and community group buying, like Pinduoduo, everyone who pays attention to the financial reports of different platforms can also feel that these two channels have shown exponential growth in the past two years.
Within the enterprise, many teams and manpower may invest in researching how to capture this wave of growth.
In fact, the private domain team can also think about whether we can open a store on Douyin, and how to mobilize the enthusiasm of dealers and stores after opening Douyin, so that they can open a store on Douyin, and after opening a store, they can really see a rapid return in performance.
Recently, we are conducting a Douyin competition, that is, calling on all dealers and the stores covered to open a personal account brand authorized store on Douyin, and after opening, we will uniformly control what products can be sold and what price can be sold, and do a good job of omni-channel price control in the process.
This model is very suitable for strong offline, which can not only increase the voice of the entire brand on all channels, but also help offline stores and dealers find better traffic outlets, help them run better dynamic sales, and thus obtain incremental circulation in districts, cities and counties.
The second mode is ToB (or b).
When the service object becomes a consumer, it may not be directly toC, but for big B, small B or even small B, and small B will not break and change. There are a lot of this model, and this kind of enterprise that started as a micro-business and Taoke has this gene. In the past, this kind of enterprise used to use more how to do 1VN or 1V1 relationship maintenance, or fission based on social tools.
Recently, we are doing some new explorations - not only based on the shelf field, the previous model is more based on how the shelf field can fully mine the value, and sell a stock to more people through the fission model, but today, we see the opportunity in the content field, which is actually very similar to Taoke distribution, except that the distribution was done in the past, and now the distribution is content.
What are the benefits of content distribution for business?
Whether it is a video account influencer, a Taobao influencer, or a Douyin influencer, many influencers have recently been building their own content distribution teams, by distributing short videos one by one, batch trailers or grass planting, and allowing consumers to buy through the shopping cart or back to your online store or even offline store.
Content distribution is a direction that private domain teams can try to transform, not only to learn to distribute goods, but also to learn to distribute videos, behind which is the construction of a whole new capability model.
How do you recruit people to be choreographers, how do you recruit people to do editing, but also how the shooting team produces content in batches, and how to distribute content in batches, and uses this model to help the whole brand achieve a virtuous circle.
And this cycle is the process of combining quality and efficiency, not pure effect, distribution content and distribution of goods in the challenge coefficient is very different point, distribution needs to understand this product, but the distribution of content to understand this product and this brand, how to distribute content when the process of both to ensure the effect and ensure that the brand's concept and belief can be accurately passed on to consumers, but the combination of quality and efficiency must be a very important long-term business path for the future development of the enterprise.
The third mode, ToC.
We all have a huge user base, and this huge user group, user assets and member base can support the development of new products and new products in the whole enterprise, so that new product development and research and development can have faster consumer feedback and reduce the cost of trial and error in the enterprise.
I believe that companies that have started to do such exploration at the earliest stage of their performance, including some e-commerce, have already had a lot of good methodological precipitation, how to support the research and insight activities, and can also support the improvement of enterprise operational efficiency.
Offline teams can also have more exploration, what is the most difficult thing for offline teams? It is not easy to stop the decline, let alone grow, which I believe is a challenge that many offline teams are facing this year.
Either stop the decline, or do the channel structure transformation, or tap more business opportunities in the stock market.
The transformation of offline teams is an ongoing project, and private domain and digital teams can transform enterprises from self-use to platform-based.
Because the team that does the private domain must be the team that knows the most about digital operation.
Since you know the most about the use of digital tools, why not imagine boldly and open a small program, you can not only sell your own goods, but also sell goods from other brands.
As a store manager, there must be not only A but also B, C, and D goods, but this product is provided by brand A, and the store manager also wants to sell BCD's goods, but BCD does not have the ability to make digital tools, so it does not give such tools.
It's not good for the store manager to tell brand A that I want to sell BCD goods, but today brand A can jump out more boldly and say, I allow you to sell BCD goods, but you have to give me a commission share of the goods you sell, which is equivalent to giving the company an additional revenue channel.
This is the offline exploration from "self-use" to "small platform".
No matter which model it is, in the final analysis, if the private domain team wants to continue to stand and play a very important role within the enterprise, in essence, we need to think about how to change as a private domain team behind the consumer and channel structure changes every year to keep up with the evolution of the company's business model.
03 Return to the essence of retail and find certainty in change
How to find the certainty of your role positioning in the changing environment?
Different brands, different enterprises, some belong to the offline team, some belong to the online independent operation team, and some may belong to the middle team from the enterprise, such as marketing, membership, middle office, etc., these are all appearances.
Which team you come from and what department you play in the enterprise structure is not the core and most critical, but you have to find out how you have a direct relationship with the company to make money and operate.
The underlying logic should return to the essence and origin of retail - how to sell a product to the audience, this audience can be consumers, distributors, big B or small B, this is the essence of retail.
Who are you serving today? This is the starting point of everything. Based on this, what is the unmet need of the object you are serving, and what is their untapped value?
When you go back to this starting point, you will find that many thinking patterns will have different changes, and you may have a steady stream of inspiration to think about how I can make my plate more and more lively, bigger and bigger, and more stable.