Thoughts on New Retail Operation

The previous article discussed the new retail from the perspectives of retailers and categories. This paper focuses on the difference between new retail and traditional retail from the perspective of operation and how to do it.

( 1)? Old thinking can't make new things.

First of all, let's sum up that the essential problem of most enterprises' new retail operations is to operate new things with past thinking. Although I have settled in the public domain platform, I have also played private domain traffic operation and tried some online and offline integration, but I still found that there is not much improvement. The reason is that they are still using the traditional retail operation ideas to do new retail.

Why new retail is a more efficient retail model, not only because there are more online channels, but also because digital technology makes the freight yard more efficient in reconstruction and matching, and the starting point of new retail is to follow the essence of Internet thinking and "take users as the center".

According to the three dimensions of "people and goods yard", traditional retail is basically "field-goods-people" or "goods-field-people". No matter which comes first and the "person" comes last, traditional retail is centered on "goods" and "field". But the new retail is different. Everyone refers to "people-goods-field", and the new retail is centered on "people".

In order to transform traditional retail into new retail, the first thing that needs to be changed is the way of thinking, which takes "people" as the core and identifies "people" so that "people" can match "goods" and "fields" more accurately.

(2) Identification and Portrait of People

Traditional retail is divided into who to sell and what to sell. Generally, the headquarters decides what to sell, no matter who it sells to. The shop decides who to sell it to, but it can't decide whether to sell it right or not. The whole system is a bit like a planned economy, that is, the headquarters formulates and dismantles performance figures according to this year's business objectives and plans, as well as a series of business implementations such as product selection, supplier negotiation, procurement, distribution, store shelves and sales, which are plan-driven rather than market-driven.

Based on Internet thinking and digital technology, new retail can reach consumers in more ways, interact with consumers and give feedback, and complete the identification and portrait of people in this process, which is no longer scattered in the minds of stores and clerks, but has become the core digital asset.

Knowing who consumers are, where they are, and what their needs are means that people, commodities and markets can be more accurately matched around these, and the growth of performance can be guided by scientific methods in combination with operational ideas and methods, instead of relying on the weather to eat or relying on personality and explosive products to break out occasionally.

(C) the new retail operation mode

Based on the above thinking, combined with my relative familiarity with the pharmaceutical retail industry, this paper summarizes a new pharmaceutical retail operation model from two dimensions of professionalism and urgency, and defines four different quadrants, corresponding to different consumer groups and operation strategies, for reference only.

1, drainage type: the common scene of this kind of consumers is that they need to take medicine urgently for minor illnesses at home, such as sudden cold, children's fever, or physiological needs. The demand is clear and no guidance is needed. What they are most concerned about is when the demand can be met, which is more in line with the current medical O2O scenario.

These people tend to be younger in age structure and are easily attracted by preferential treatment. After all, the demand is very clear and standardized. If only one order can bring limited value, it is not the customer group of traditional pharmaceutical retail. It is necessary to establish brand mentality and form consumption habits among this group of people through the satisfaction of each discount and demand, so that it is possible to produce subsequent repurchase.

2. Interest-oriented: The common scene of this kind of consumers is that they have no clear needs and purposes, but just wander around. Maybe in the process of shopping, they suddenly found a good product, or someone else bought a product and bought it.

This kind of people are not without demand, but just need some marketing tools to guide or stimulate them. The population base is large, and it is easy to generate non-drug demand in combination with the scene. Traditional medicine retail is difficult to be fully satisfied in stores. Because of the control of medical insurance, physical pharmacies in many places are not allowed to display non-drugs, and there is a lot of demand. However, due to the limited area, shops can't provide enough goods to meet people's needs.

For this kind of people, the new retail actually provides an infinite shelf in the cloud, giving people more choices and fully satisfying the scene of "people looking for goods". At the same time, combined with social relations, some commodities will be turned into "goods looking for people", and the spread and fission of social relations will be realized through marketing methods such as sharing, bargaining, grouping and distribution.

3. Cash flow type: These consumers are generally the main consumer groups of traditional medicine retail, and they have a certain understanding and concern for their own health. They not only need professional services to meet their own needs, but also need professional services to meet their own needs, which is the source of cash flow and the survival foundation of pharmaceutical retail.

The core operation strategy for this group of people is repurchase, that is, to provide ready-made and reliable professional services for this group of consumers and continuously meet their needs, whether online or offline.

In addition to professional services, some brand marketing needs to be combined with manufacturers, such as advertising and promotion of some well-known brands, so that such people can clearly perceive that they are buying branded goods. When the relationship between such people and enterprises is very stable and sticky, enterprises can also launch some self-owned goods to meet the demand in multiple dimensions.

4. Strategical: The common scenario of this kind of consumers is critical illness and urgent medicine, which is based on the demand generated after professional diagnosis, but it is very urgent and needs to be met immediately. This kind of scene often appears because some drugs did not enter the hospital procurement catalogue after centralized procurement, but after the doctor diagnosed that these drugs were needed, the procurement scene changed from hospital to pharmacy.

This kind of consumers are often not regular consumers of drug retail, but drug retail enterprises. Out of the background of "separation of medicines" and the consideration of resources hoping to undertake "prescription outflow", they make strategic layout, such as establishing hospital stores or DTP professional pharmacies, and undertake and meet the needs of this kind of consumers according to these resources.

Satisfying this kind of consumers is not for the present, but for establishing the brand and influence of the enterprise itself and for the longer-term strategic layout in the future.

(4) Summarize in one sentence.

I think of a sentence quoted by teacher Liu Run in the lecture on "The Power of Evolution" yesterday, which is a perfect way to summarize this article's thinking on new retail operation. Only by truly changing the way of thinking can the new retail really operate and promote the growth of retail enterprises.

This sentence has been adjusted according to the context of the new retail of medicine: it seems that we are selling medicine for the pharmaceutical industry, but in fact we are helping consumers buy medicine.