Everyone is talking about new retail, but how can we open a convenience store to do new retail?

Recently, many friends asked me what new retail is. As a senior practitioner in the Internet industry and O2O industry, I can't answer it at the moment. Recently, after studying various materials (related books, statistical reports, think tank literature), combined with my own understanding of the industry, I systematically expounded my understanding of new retail. If you have any misunderstanding, you are welcome to correct me.

The meaning of retail: all activities of selling consumer goods and related services to final consumers or social groups for their final consumption.

There are several core points:

Retail not only sells goods, but also includes related services;

Retail activities are not necessarily carried out in stores, but also in other ways, such as mail order, vending machines, online sales and so on.

Retail consumers are not necessarily individuals but also social groups;

Retail should be regarded as the final consumption, such as a wheel, which customers buy and install in their cars, which is retail; If a car dealer buys an assembled car for sale, it is not retail.

Metro, Wal-Mart and other hypermarkets selling physical goods belong to the retail industry.

Sales services such as beauty salons, spas and foot baths also belong to the retail industry.

JD.COM and other end-consumer oriented e-commerce platforms also belong to the retail industry.

We want to see the development direction of new retail in the future. First of all, we must understand the development history of the retail industry and what has promoted the development of this industry.

Development history of American retail industry

The stage of mom-and-pop shop (19 before the 1980s): At that time, the population of the United States was only 56 million, but now it is 1/6, and two-thirds of the population lives in rural areas. At this stage, the so-called "retail" is basically in the form of traditional street shops, many of which are small couples' shops.

Mail order stage (from 65438+11980s to1920s): In the 1960s, a great technological and social change was born in the United States, that is, the American railways developed greatly. /kloc-In the late 20th century, the United States laid a nationwide railway line, which enabled farmers who were originally in remote areas to enter the modern consumption system. The mail order giant represented by Sears was born. Features and advantages of mail order: (1) The former lovers' shops can't cover rural users, but the emerging postal and railway systems can reach these customers. (2) Couples' shops have little influence on upstream suppliers. Because mail order companies can purchase relatively uniformly, they can reduce prices, which is also very concerned by rural users. (3) Farmers' consumption habits are relatively conservative, and they tend to buy the most needed daily necessities, so mail-order enterprises do not need to prepare too many kinds of goods, so they can better control their inventory. Under these favorable circumstances, the mail order industry in the United States developed very rapidly at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century. There is a set of data to prove that Sears' turnover in 1900 was only about 165438+ million dollars, and it increased to 60 million dollars ten years later. Ten years later, that is, around 1920, Sears' annual turnover was about $250 million.

Chain stores and supermarkets (1920s to 1950s): Chain stores appeared in the early 20th century. From 1920 to 1935, the mileage of newly paved roads in the United States has tripled. Road transportation has large capacity, high speed and low cost, which allows chain stores to have their own fleets and travel to and from various warehouses. In this way, we get rid of the control of middlemen on the supply of goods, and the chain stores directly connect with the manufacturers, which improves the efficiency of the supply chain and reduces the cost. The new retail format after chain stores is the supermarket we are familiar with now. There are three key technological inventions behind this-automobile, refrigerator and TV. Cars let people get rid of the shackles of distance and go shopping farther away, so many supermarkets opened to the suburbs at that time because the rent in the suburbs was cheaper. Refrigerators appeared in Germany, but they were carried forward by Americans. The appearance of refrigerator can keep food longer, people can buy more goods at one time, and the shopping frequency is reduced. The emergence of TV as a super media makes it possible to build a national brand, which is just suitable for large supermarkets.

Large shopping center stage (1960s to 265438+early 20th century): The two decades after World War II were the golden period of American economic development. With the prosperity of economy, the change of social trend (the release of apartheid, the suburbanization of population, the change of consumer psychology caused by the increase of the overall income of the public) and the promotion of technology (the further increase of the number of cars and the invention of credit cards), large shopping centers represented by Wal-Mart came into being. After the 1970s, the American economy entered a stagflation period, people's income decreased, their spending power declined, and large shopping centers ushered in a period of historical opportunities.

E-commerce and mobile shopping stage (1990s-present): In 1990s, the Internet was invented. Technological innovation has once again promoted the development of retail industry. E-commerce represented by Amazon began to reshape the retail industry. 1995, 30-year-old Bezos founded the Amazon website in a building in Manhattan. Thanks to the rapid development of the Internet industry and Bezos' genius business strategy, Amazon has become the largest e-commerce website in the United States. After 20 10 years, with the invention of smart phones, people entered the era of mobile shopping.

Development history of retail industry in China

Supply and marketing cooperatives stage (1950s-1980s): After the founding of New China, due to the lack of materials, the central government adopted the "planned economy" policy of planned production and unified distribution, so the retail industry was not developed at that time, and the supply and marketing cooperatives all over the motherland were the most authentic portrayal of the retail industry at that time.

Department stores dominate the retail market (1980s-1990s): From the beginning of the reform and opening up to the end of 1989, the market form changed from "planned economy" to "market economy", and materials were gradually filled. At this historical stage, traditional department stores occupy an absolute dominant position in the retail market.

Supermarkets and various new retail organizations flourished (from the early 1990s to the late 1990s):1At the end of 992, supermarkets began to rise, shaking the market foundation of department stores. 1993-1By the end of 1995, various new retail organizations had sprung up and a hundred flowers were blooming. Baijia Supermarket, Shanghai Hualian Supermarket and Wuhan Zhong Bai Supermarket have become the representatives of this era.

When multinational retailers entered China, e-commerce was born and flourished (from the mid-1990s to 265438+the early 20th century): 1996- 1999, and the entry of multinational retailers (such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour) accelerated the modernization of the retail industry. Wal-Mart 1996 entered China and opened the first Wal-Mart shopping plaza and Sam member store in Shenzhen. By 2016,65438+2,31,Wal-Mart had opened 439 shopping malls, 8 dry warehouse distribution centers and1fresh food distribution centers in 89 cities nationwide. 1999, Ma Yun founded the Alibaba website. In 2003, Taobao was born.

Mobile shopping stage (since 20 10): After 20 10, with the emergence of smart phones, the world entered the era of mobile internet, and mobile shopping began to flourish.

From the development history of Chinese and American retail industry, we can see that:

First, the demand of consumers is constant, and "how fast and how many provinces" is the eternal demand of consumers, but its arrangement will change in different historical periods or different environments.

Second, new technologies are always iterative. Whoever can tap the potential of new technologies and tools will get the dividend of the times. The so-called business model is not the result of clever ideas, but a keen insight into new tools.

Third, social trends are always changing. Political environment, birth policy and economic development will all produce new consumer groups and consumption cultures, thus changing the social trend, shaping a new consumption environment and changing the retail industry format.

The "five new" cycle drives us to explain the historical development track of retail industry more vividly with a picture:

New environment->; New consumers-> New problems-> New demand->; New tools-> New environment

The development of retail industry in China and the United States is spiraling closely according to this change. For example, the "suburbanization of white population" in the 1960s was the result of the United States' policy of desegregation and the development of the equal rights movement for blacks and whites, and it was a "new environment" at that time. Society has produced a large number of middle-class "new consumers", who live in the suburbs, have a rich life and are engaged in lawyers, doctors and other professions. It is inconvenient to shop, and they want to buy more goods at one time. This is a "new problem", and a large shopping center that provides convenient shopping and one-stop shopping is their "new demand". The development of the industry brought by the "new demand" has also promoted the emergence of "new tools" such as credit cards, which have created a "new environment"

With the development of mobile Internet, Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence, as well as the decline and gradual depletion of online traffic dividends, offline products and services are extremely rich, and post-90 s or even post-95 s consumer groups with high requirements for experience and personalization came into being, and they became contemporary "new consumers". In front of this group of consumers, the "new problem" of the retail industry is:

How to abandon a thousand people?

How to improve the user experience?

How to shorten the physical distance and make the goods reach customers faster?

How to optimize management, realize intelligence and automation, and reduce operating costs?

How to optimize the supply chain? Manage goods and services dynamically and intelligently to reduce inventory and transportation costs?

How to manage customers well? More accurate customer purchasing preference perspective, more targeted marketing strategy, more effective customer expansion and retention?

How to transform and upgrade your retail? The era of pure e-commerce has passed. In the next ten or twenty years, there will be no such thing as e-commerce. Only new retail, that is to say, online and offline and logistics must be combined to give birth to real new retail. ? —— Ma Yun

Ma Yun put forward the argument of new retail at the Yun Qi meeting in June, 20 16. Later, he grabbed the beach platform for his own TaoCafe Taobao member store and Box Ma Xiansheng Alipay member store.

Under the leadership of Ma Yun's father, various giants have invested in new retail enterprises, such as Suning Store invested by Suning and Carrefour's Tesco Carrefour, and various types of "new retail" have appeared one after another, such as unmanned supermarket "Scarlet Convenience", smart home supermarket "Guo Bin Box", and "Guo Xiaomei" and "Seven Koalas" that shorten the distance between convenience stores and customers.

As a practitioner in the traditional retail industry, do you feel panic?

Will you be eliminated? Is this wave just an opportunity for giants? How to kill others before being killed by others?

To do a good job in new retail, the basic conditions are: online and offline interconnection and omni-channel.

Let's look at these problems from the new "5 new" drive ring and go back to the problems we threw in the last section. We will find that all the problems are just old problems under the background of consumption upgrading. However, in the current environment where "new tools" such as mobile Internet, big data and artificial intelligence technologies are booming, the basic conditions for doing a good job in new retail are: online and offline interconnection and omni-channel.

Only by connecting online and offline and doing omni-channel sales can we make use of "new tools" such as mobile Internet, big data and artificial intelligence.

There are many omni-channel sales tools in the market that can help retail enterprises realize online and offline interconnection, such as Xiaojuyun Store ().

In addition, to keep up with the new retail wave, I think we can start with the following points:

Starting with marketing: New consumers represented by the post-90s generation are more sensitive to eyeball economy. They are the aborigines of the Internet, and they were born on the Internet. They are more interested in personalization and are more easily attracted by high-quality content and emotional scenes. In marketing, we need to be diversified, content-oriented and socialized, from "passive search" to "active attraction". The special page marketing, poster marketing and social marketing of Little Orange Cloud Store () can fully meet your marketing needs.

Starting with experience: In front of discerning consumers, the goods or services we provide must better meet customers' aesthetic needs and emotional needs, and have high value and a sense of belonging.

Starting from the distance: starting from the physical distance, improve the availability of goods. According to the survey, the best acceptable distance for customers to go to convenience stores (here we take convenience stores as an example) is within 300 meters. Supermarket and convenience store industries can optimize the experience by shortening the physical distance. Traditional convenience stores and supermarket enterprises can learn from new retail enterprises such as "Guo Xiaomei" and "7 koalas" and put smart shelves in enterprises around office buildings to improve sales and user experience by shortening physical distance.

Start with management: do a good job in member management, sales forecast, replenishment warning, automatic price change, etc. Reduce operating costs through technical means.

Start with the supply chain: start with the supply chain, optimize the supply chain through the results of big data analysis, improve the efficiency of commodity distribution, enhance user experience and reduce logistics costs.

Of course, if you can do all these things well, your retail will be in an invincible position in this great change of retail industry. But perhaps, you only need to do one or two of them well, and you can leave your business behind.

If this article can help you and your enterprise, I am deeply gratified.