Author｜Fish Brother
In its 14th year, e-commerce Double 11 is even quieter than last year. But it does not mean that the Double 11 Shopping Festival is on the decline. If you broaden your observation horizon from e-commerce to the entire domestic retail market, you will find that the Double 11, which was only a carnival for e-commerce in the past, has some more obvious new features this year. Changes - A number of physical stores have also entered the double 11 track competition, and new consumption methods such as "digital takeaway" and "beauty makeup takeaway" are favored by more people.
On November 1, Suning.com announced that it had delivered 45,000 orders of "digital electrical appliances" on a certain food delivery platform from the opening of Double 11 to November 1. Meituan data shows that in the first three days of Double 11 this year, the instant retail orders of Apple’s offline stores increased by 495% year-on-year. Some Apple store managers said that half of the orders during Double 11 came from instant retail scenarios.
From the carnival of e-commerce platforms, the loneliness of offline stores, to the crazy involution and melee between e-commerce platforms, to the adjustment of thinking and multi-line operation of offline stores, and the double 11 gameplay with e-commerce, it is a wrestling . The extension of Double 11 is expanding and its meaning is changing, which declares that Double 11 is no longer a one-man show for e-commerce, and physical stores can also get a share of this carnival! And behind it, it reflects that China's retail business ecosystem and business operations are shifting gears. In this change in the retail landscape, instant retail is occupying an increasingly important position.
"Digital takeout" takes off
"In previous years, on Double 11, I would go to the mall to have a look and try it out, and then place an order on the e-commerce platform. Now I prefer to order takeaway when buying mobile phones. First, the price is not much different, and there are 12 installments that are interest-free. Second, Compared with the long wait for e-commerce, the minute-level shopping experience makes people buy more enjoyable." On November 2, Ms. Zuo, who lives in Fuchun Street, Fuyang District, Hangzhou, ordered an Apple Iphone14 Pro through a food delivery platform.
There are many cases like Ms. Zuo who buy mobile phones through food delivery during Double 11. From a recent data released by Meituan, it can be seen that "digital food delivery" is on the rise. , the number of products on sale in the digital category increased by 500% year-on-year, and the turnover of digital 3C products increased by 1300% year-on-year. Searches are up more than 200%.
On November 4th, the sales staff of several authorized Apple stores in Beijing that the author visited said that overall, the orders from the real-time retail scene during the Double 11 period can reach half of the store’s sales, and the orders mainly come from Meituan Flash Shopping and JD Daojia. . After inquiry, it was found that a number of Apple authorized stores in Beijing had accumulated more than 1,500 orders in Meituan.
Previously, Suning.com mentioned in the "Double Eleven Consumer Trend Report" that as of November 1, Suning.com had sent 45,000 orders for "digital appliance takeaway" on the Meituan platform. Vivo Y76S, iPad 9th generation, Huawei P50 Pro, Honor 70, and Lenovo R9000P have become the most popular "digital takeaways" among consumers.
▲More and more physical stores are stationed on the real-time retail platform to find new growth (Source: Internet)
"In previous years, our stores were off-season during Double 11, but this year is different. The sales in the first four days of Double 11 increased by 130% month-on-month, mainly because this year's stores also joined the exclusive discount of Double 11 on the food delivery platform." Chaoyang, Beijing The person in charge of a Suning Tesco in the Changying area said. After searching the Meituan App, the author found that many digital 3C brand stores such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Xiaotiancai, and Alienware are also on the subsidy list of Meituan Double 11.
Double 11 "digital takeout" is popular. According to Cui Lili, a professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and director of the E-commerce Research Institute, it is because of the epidemic control and the increasingly "stay-at-home" living habits of young consumers. Some well-known 3C brands High-quality products or products with high quality and sufficient market information are relatively easy to realize consumption through online product selection, price comparison, and offline instant purchase.
According to the "Research Report on China's Instant Retail Industry in 2021" released by iResearch, with the upgrading of consumption, the domestic consumer market presents a fast-paced feature. During the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, consumers gradually develop online consumption and instant consumption habits . Consumers, after enjoying the convenience of instant delivery, are more inclined to develop the shopping habit of instant delivery.
Post-95 Wang Xiaoqi's food delivery consumption record in the past year confirms this change. In addition to the dozens of orders for food and beverage delivery, from the first emergency cleansing oil at the beginning of the year, to canned food and cat scratching boards for cats, and fur slippers bought after the temperature dropped, the most recent double 11, and 12 She bought an Apple Watch interest-free, and her consumption footprint on instant retail platforms continues to expand.
As instant retail platforms such as Meituan and JD.com dig deep into local supply, the product categories covered by instant retail continue to expand, and more personalized consumption needs of consumers can be well met. "Digital takeaway" has entered the lives of more people. The field of view is no surprise.
Physical stores, no more pain points
In previous years, before Double 11 opened, most of the stores were consumers trying out goods in stores and placing orders from e-commerce. The carnival of Double 11 only belonged to online e-commerce, while offline stores were often reduced to "fitting rooms". The most unsatisfactory time of the year for physical stores is Double 11.
Faced with the attack of e-commerce, in the early years, physical stores scrambled left and right. Even though the paper advertisements were all over the floor, it was still difficult to follow the online and offline links. Get a share of the double 11 shopping festival that everyone is carnival for. Obtaining new traffic, converting it into new sales, and bringing in new increments has always been a difficult problem for physical stores.
With the rapid development of instant retail in recent years, online and offline are truly integrated, and physical stores can also use instant retail to serve consumers during Double 11. Instant retail with both online and offline genes is also an incremental pool with more room for imagination.
“The price of products on all platforms is now uniform. The takeaway channel is chosen mainly because it is fast, and the physical store is because it can be seen and touched. Online shopping usually takes a few days to arrive. Now the instant retail model is between physical stores and online stores. In between, there is no need to wait." A manager of a Mi Home store in Chaoyang Joy City, Beijing said.
▲Starting from emergency scenarios, consumers' consumption footprints on instant retail platforms continue to expand (Source: Internet)
In addition to "digital takeaway", beauty stores are also benefiting from real-time retail. A business manager of the natural hall said that after cooperating with the real-time retail platform, two data have increased significantly. The overall order growth has been very impressive. On the other hand, the sales of products of Nature Hall in stores such as Carrefour, RT-Mart, and Watsons, as well as sales on the Meituan platform recorded triple-digit growth. "Currently, it looks like 1+1>2. It doesn't mean that because the brand enters the real-time retail platform, it will lead to some decline in the performance of the existing partners, and everyone will form a complementary state."
For physical stores, instant retail means new channels, and new channels mean new increments. Instant retail keeps demand, supply, and fulfillment all local, leaving traffic and benefits to brick-and-mortar stores. For consumers, the rapid development of instant retail means more choices and faster access.
Ding Xiaofei is a Xiaohongshu beauty blogger who uses cosmetics very frequently. She said, "Usually online shopping is just a single product in the brand flagship store, but there is no such restriction on takeaway. In the beauty collection store, you can choose products of different brands and categories, with more space for matching and faster delivery.”
From watching from the sidelines to being attacked by e-commerce to counterattacking online, driven by the online and offline integration of instant retail, physical stores are participating in the Double 11 on a large scale. On the one hand, they provide local consumers with more authentic services, and on the other hand, they also find a breakthrough for their own traffic difficulties.
Pei Liang, president of the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, believes that instant retail is a good retail model innovation. It does not rely solely on online traffic, but through the integration of existing offline resources, the cooperation between the platform and offline retailers Form a 1+1>2 capability, which will bring about the improvement of supply-side efficiency and value mining.
▲ It is becoming more and more common for takeaway boys to walk into physical brand stores to pick up goods (Source: Internet)
In September, on the day the iPhone 14 was released, a picture of a Meituan takeaway boy occupying an Apple store was circulated on the Internet, and many people were surprised. It is foreseeable that in the future, more and more takeaway riders will appear in offline brand physical stores until all consumers get used to it.