"Double 11" is no longer a sure ocassion of winning a windfall for any participant but is becoming a routine in the retail world, so all companies must go back and ensure they do the basics right so as to continue to profit from this shopping festival, if any, stressed some ecommerce experts in a seminar in China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) today.
The Double 11 Shopping Festival is becoming a routine and mature retail event in China, and is losing its heretofore excitement and novelty, just like the traditional Spring Festival TV gala of CCTV that has become a routine in the way the Chinese celebrate the age-old festival but has shedded much of its excitement among the Chinese, said Shao Shuai, Founder of Sowow, a company that operates online shops for brands.
More and more MNCs are joining the festival and emerge as among the top players, proving that companies that have done their basics right will turn out to be winners in the end as consumers are more sober and selective, observed Yang Wei, Founder and CEO of Quicktron (快仓), a storage firm using hundreds of robots to supplement their staff force.
Today's seminar was the last of the 25 ones in 2019, organized by CEIBS's E-Platform, a platform that caters to discussion of entrepreneurism and innovation.
Yang said that the Double 11 is a big day for concentrated marketing efforts for brands, but it is also a big test to brands' entire prowess in production, branding, delivery and post-sale service. Resource-poor companies are liable to make fatal mistakes on and around this day.
"I have witnessed at least three or four brands in the fashion industry, each with annual sales of RMB 300 mn or 400 mn, disappeared soon after attending the festival," said Yang. It was reported that the little black box (a "youth regenerating" skincare product) of L'Oreal fetched RMB 500 mn worth of sales within five minutes of starting the day.
Yang said that to those brands that have done solid work from ground level up, "every day is a Double 11!", adding: "The carnival is over!"
Companies which have done their basics right will have more bargaining power, and will also more likley be able to make an independent choice of which platform to use as the de-fault platform of the season, based on their own needs, rather than falling into the dilemma of having to pick one out of the two as both sometimes may so literally demand, according to Yang. And it's also likely that the two platforms will think twice about forcing them to use only either for the shopping spree, he added.
From left to right are CEIBS Vice-Professor Zhang Yu, Zi Hai Guo's founder and CEO Cai Hongliang, Detong Capital partner Chen Chao, Sowow Founder and CEO Eric Shao Shuai, and Quicktron's Founder and CEO Yang Shuai. Note that 100.me's Founder and CEO Liang Changlin was also a speaker in the conference but had to rush off shortly before the panel discussion was supposed to begin. 100.me is a three-year-old online vegetable ordering and delivering firm operating in coastal regions. Vice-Professor Zhang urged in his opening speech that all brands must return to the essence of e-commerce entrepreneurship and never deviate from the focus of cost optimization and efficiency improvement.
Cai Hongliang, Founder of Zi Hai Guo (自嗨锅), a self-heating hot pot food manufacturer and delivery firm, said that with the war between Alibaba and JD.com escalating, these two platforms and other platforms will most likely launch their own brands and products in future. "Even an individual can become an important channel," he said.
This pressure is also coming from the fact that more platforms will emerge to challenge both Alibaba and JD.com. This year, Pin Duo Duo (拼多多), a group buy ecommerce company, joined the festival. The real-time video broadcasting companies have also emerged as formidable competitors to the two stalwarts, both are in response starting to have real-time video broadcasting on their platforms too, said Detong Capital partner Chen Chao.
Cai himself uses multiple channels and media to drive sales of his self-heating hotpots. He engaged in marketing in both online channels and via TV series-embedded ads. Cai was formerly founder of Bai Cao Wei (百草味), which he sold to Hao Xiang Ni (好想你), a jujube-based snack company listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, in 2016.
Cai believes that local delicacies that are limited to one geographical region will have a big opportunity of gaining traction in a different region and on a wider geographical scale, by carefully-crafted marketing strategies. ###
About the author: Sam Gao is a dedicated industry analyst and blogger on the food industry, with a focus on bakery, cage-free chicken and alternative protein , and advisor to food-related VCs and PEs as well as food manufacturers / start-ups. He also serves as Editorial Consultant and guest writer for Ringier's FoodPacific Journal. Email: samgao@ngoihealth.sg.
网友评论