How to solve the LED channel conflict problem?

E-commerce not only created a Ma Yun, but also led to the development of a number of industries. In the LED industry that pays attention to "the channel to win, the terminal is king", e-commerce seems to become a magic weapon for LED to expand sales channels, major LED companies have tested water. However, is the e-commerce road really smooth? Is the profit split between the online and offline sales channels of the company balanced? The LED e-commerce channel is not the ultimate magic weapon to make money, but it is not just a game of a few smart people.

Target customers: individual customers vs. business customers

E-commerce and traditional sales channels are divided into two different areas, the former relying on online online media, the latter relying on offline markets. The difference in the market also determines the inconsistency of the target consumer groups faced by e-commerce and traditional sales channels. Therefore, targeting the target group and positioning products is the first step towards the e-commerce path. Under the route of traditional sales channels, the customer groups faced are mostly corporate customers, and the products are mainly sold to lamps and lanterns, building materials, and so on. Through e-commerce channels, most of the customers faced are individual consumers such as 80s and 90s. The difference in target consumer groups determines that sales of products cannot be generalized. The current direct customers of most products in the LED industry are B (Business) rather than C (Customer). According to industry insiders, the retail target audience accounts for less than 35% of the Chinese market. At present, LED lighting end users use engineering and decoration companies. For the main, engineering companies and the like are directly looking for manufacturers to supply. Compared with the project, retail objects do not seem to be optimistic. “I think that the orders made by e-commerce are not connected to the project. Most of this thinking is done by traditional companies. The main customers are still contractors for the project, wholesalers for agents, etc.” said Li Yong of Guangzhou Aladdin E-commerce Co., Ltd. New Century LED Network reporters, LED companies want to do e-commerce, we must first clear that they will face the customer groups have been converted from B-side customers to C-side customers. Zheng Hongbin of Aidelang Lighting Technology Co., Ltd. stated that the special nature of e-commerce determines that it is directly facing the end consumers. Therefore, it is required that e-commerce LED companies should target the target customer groups and do a good job of product positioning. For Edron, for example, only home lighting, not engineering lighting and commercial lighting. The price is positioned in the middle, taking the cost-effective route and staggering competition.

Regarding the problem of customer group transformation, the New Century LED Network reporter learned at the China E-commerce Research Center that as of December 2012, China's online retail market transaction volume accounted for 6.3% of the total retail sales of social consumer goods, and this data in the first half of this year It has reached 8.2% and is expected to exceed 10% in the second half of the year. At present, it is the key stage that LED transforms from outdoor lighting into indoor lighting. E-commerce is also a young consumer group that is relatively easy to accept new things. It is considered by most people in the industry as an effective method to open the civil home market. “Online shopping has become the first choice for young people. Now many LED companies have established their own network sales channels. The e-commerce channel will impact the existing dominant position of traditional channels in the next three years. By 2018, it will probably replace traditional channels and become mainstream. "Liu Wei, general manager of the lighting division of Tsinghua Tongfang Co., Ltd., said that Tsinghua Tongfang has established its own brand flagship store in Tmall, Jingdong Mall, and home electronics, and currently sells LED lighting products this month. Twenty thousand, accounting for about 15% of total sales.

Price Contradiction: Online Low Price VS Dealer Benefits

Pricing is an inevitable issue in product sales. The same product, because the cost of e-commerce is relatively low, it is able to do online pricing below the line. For most consumers, if the products are the same, they will choose to buy at a lower price.

“The current successful case of e-commerce channels and distribution channels is not yet done,” said Chen Zhongyi, marketing director of Guangyou Lighting. “Although LED lighting has already become the first brand online, electricity providers are imperative, but they cannot Conflict with offline channels, which is a headache for traditional lighting companies when they operate e-commerce."

When the vested interests of offline agents and distributors are lost, it will inevitably cause dealers to boycott online products, which will lead to online and offline conflicts. For LED companies, how to handle online and offline pricing issues is inevitable and must be resolved. Taking Philips as an example, Philips Online Mall is relatively mature, relying on its own official website. New Century LED Network reporter found that Philips official website online mall LED lighting product page, despite the "original price" and "discount price" two price, but the price displayed by both is the same. New Century LED Net Reporter as a consumer to the official website of Philips official website online store customer service staff learned that the mall's products are all normal prices, "have never had discount activities, did not receive notification of price promotions." to a price For example, when it comes to sales, the 699 yuan LED table lamp said that it "sold well." New Century LED network reporters can not help but speculate, Philips is to ensure that this move is to ensure the interests of offline dealers. Some analysts pointed out that China's official website online store like Philips is more for the full complement of product display and promotion.

However, the strength of self-built e-commerce platforms such as Philips, after all, is a minority, and more LED companies are adopting a third-party e-commerce platform. In this regard, Wu Yulin, chairman of the Foshan Lighting Association, reminded: “By the e-commerce platform, prices must be very competitive. Therefore, the positioning of high-end brands or products must be very cautious, and it is recommended not to enter the e-commerce. Because the domestic LED lighting standard is not perfect, and it has no execution power, in order to occupy the market, many companies do not hesitate to sacrifice the quality of the price war. This is a very dangerous signal, will make the entire LED lighting industry damaged."

In early July, the reporter heard a typical example from the Op Art dealers. Opt Lynx official online has a small spotlight online shopping price of 29.9 yuan / only, for the Op dealers in terms of such a price is lower than the merchant's purchase price, not to mention the selling price. Terminal distributors are subject to the price shocks of e-commerce, and they will have a resistance against e-commerce. In order to avoid the occurrence of similar situations, according to Wang Long of Guangzhou Aladdin E-Commerce Co., Ltd., when dealing with the price difference between online and offline products, many companies will establish a "based on the prices negotiated with distributors." "Lowest price" to ensure the interests of offline dealers.

However, for more companies, in order to completely solve the contradictions and conflicts between the online and offline products of the same product, they will choose “a new path” and take the brand differentiation route, that is, create a new brand that only sells online. Different from the original brand under the line. Fan Xiaoyu, executive vice president of Zhongshan Aotuo Lighting Co., Ltd., introduced that Madden Lighting is a new network brand under Alto Lighting, focusing on the manufacture and sales of ceiling lamps. The reason why we chose the online channel is because the cost of developing the market is relatively low. Low, and the market is expanding faster.

Product Experience: Can't see VS multi-link display product details

The LED lighting industry is a relatively special industry. The products involve after-sales installation, maintenance, and application of products. Although relying on the Internet, it can display the details of the product more comprehensively than offline, but unlike general consumer products, it takes more time for technically-aware LED products to allow customers to understand the characteristics of the product. Insiders pointed out that LED products need to demonstrate the ability to control light. Clothing products still have a "color difference" on the e-commerce platform. It is even harder to rely on pictures to show the "light experience" on the Internet. difficult. A Taobao store told the New Century LED Network reporter: "LED products are decoration materials, more people tend to go to physical stores, look at the effect, see the quality."

Xia Siyuan, director of the office of Snowlight Lighting Division, believes: "At present, most of the LED shops that are doing better on Taobao or other malls are some kind of no-name brands, mainly for some 80, 90, and sales are good for some conventional products. Most of the large-scale LED lighting companies still rely on traditional channels, and even if they have opened stores, there are more dealers, and the company's focus is still on traditional channels. After all, lighting is still an experience product, and consumers still pay more attention to offline experience. ."

Li Xi also made it clear that the product experience problem is not only encountered by LED companies when they enter the e-commerce business. The disadvantage of each product when doing e-commerce is to let customers lose the process of using facial features. "However, e-commerce's other aspects of performance can be better than the offline." According to Li Wei introduced, in order to make up for the lack of product experience, e-commerce in product display, price, customer service and other aspects are striving to provide better than offline The service, with a view to achieve extra points. "For example, from the time you enter this shop, the system calculates the dwell time to see if the page is perfect. It even breaks down the time spent by women and men to calculate the layout of the page. Use color, etc. Through data analysis, we are committed to solving every problem that consumers will encounter when purchasing online."

Zheng Hongbin believes that for the problem of insufficient product experience, more product details can be displayed through page design and real pictures. Secondly, we can use the process of communication between customer service and customers to explain the product in detail; relying on the physical maps of products uploaded by other buyers, allowing customers to have a more intuitive understanding of the product. If the customer has a psychological gap after purchasing, he can cancel the customer's worries by returning the goods without any reason and taking the freight.

Express Logistics: fragile items VS packaging protection

As an emerging channel, e-commerce has developed rapidly in recent years, but there are still many problems. Unlike traditional sales channels, e-commerce relies heavily on logistics, and therefore imposes higher requirements on product delivery speed and safety. Lag of product distribution will drag on the orderly development of the e-commerce market. Without an efficient, reasonably smooth product distribution system, the advantages of LED e-commerce can hardly be effectively used. Therefore, a perfect product distribution system is especially important for LED e-commerce. LED lamps are fragile goods, how to ensure the integrity of the goods in the delivery process, and how to solve the damage caused by the delivery process, not only the consumer concerns, but also a headache for the business.

It is understood that distribution security is one of the most worrying issues for consumers in online shopping. A large part of the customer complaints about the store involve disputes caused by distribution. For the fragile items such as LED lamps, consumers are even more worried. Some consumers said that they would rather go to large retail malls such as IKEA to purchase in order to avoid the troubles caused by the distribution of damaged lamps. In addition, because online channels are mostly for individual consumers, orders are scattered and it is difficult to meet the basic requirements for large-scale logistics for travel. A person in charge of the company said: "The light is actually a product that is also easily damaged, generally unless the big customer has a car, ordinary express logistics, our samples occasionally appear different degrees of scratches, but customers will generally think that your goods are out It's a problem."

LED lamps as fragile items, there are limitations in the choice of courier company. Considering that the damages that may occur during the transportation process may be compensated, and the shipments are small and there is no long-term cooperation, many courier companies are not very willing to cooperate. If the enterprise adopts the logistics method to deliver goods, it cannot achieve the effect of “home delivery” like express delivery, and it needs the customer to go to the logistics and freight transportation station to pick it up, causing great inconvenience.

According to Hu Xiang of Guangzhou Aladdin E-commerce Co., Ltd., to solve the problem that distribution may cause damage to LED lamps, the first thing to be solved is product packaging. "Packaging requires every manufacturer to be tempted to think and solve their own problems. If wines like Jiuxianlianlian can be dropped from the floor with the packaging, then there is no problem with the lamps, because their commonality is glassware. A similar approach can be taken.” It is understood that most shopkeepers now use a split form for packaging. Taking a ceiling lamp of a peacock plume as an example, the manufacturer makes a special foam, and after the pit is completed, each part of the lamp is split and inserted into the pit to achieve the purpose of shock absorption and product protection. It is reported that such a package can basically ensure that the LED luminaire is not damaged during the throwing process.

Zheng Hongbin told the New Century LED Network reporter that product packaging must be specially designed for e-commerce. Multi-layer kraft paper and foam plastics can be used for packaging, so that even if falling from a two- to three-story building, there is basically no problem. Even if damage occurs during transportation, the cost should be borne by the LED e-commerce company, reducing consumer losses.

Online and offline integration of new models

Guangyou Lighting Marketing Director Chen Zhongyi said: "Although LED lighting has already had the first brand on the line, electricity supplier is imperative, but it can't conflict with offline channels. This is a comparison of traditional lighting companies when operating e-commerce. Headaches.” But in fact, online sales can not solve the offline service problem, a new model - O2O (onlinetooffline online to offline) mode has emerged in the LED lighting e-commerce field. O2O's emerging business model is quite representative. It combines online and offline interactions, looking for consumers online, completing purchases offline, and making the Internet a frontline for offline transactions. It is a combination of payment patterns and traffic creation. This new type of e-commerce model can better satisfy consumers' demands for consumption. A LED lighting company executives believe that: "The emergence of O2O model, making many LED lighting companies to enter the e-commerce journey, shortened a large part." As the first batch of LED lighting companies entering the electricity supplier, Han Yuen Lighting Engineering Co., Ltd. accumulated In terms of rich operations, when it comes to improving online online channels, the chairman, Li Quan, revealed that Hanyuan will establish a strong O2O operations team and broaden the e-commerce business through the introduction of high-quality distributors under the line and cooperation with the agents. The direction of development will be from scale to diversification.

In fact, in the final analysis, e-commerce is still a kind of channel, with the main purpose of selling products. For LED lighting, the future is likely to be a combination of online and offline trends, rather than a pure alternative. The online advantage lies in the convenience of shopping, and the offline advantage lies in the shopping experience. LED companies can fully combine the advantages of the two. Online brand promotion, investment promotion, sales, experience, after-sales service, installation and maintenance under the line; future LED lighting retail formats will likely form a omni-channel structure such as 'offline store + shop + logistics distribution network' and other multi-dimensional structure. , "Stereo Marketing" will become possible.