European Retail Giant &Nbsp; How To Digitize?

When Suning and Gome offline retailers expand their online businesses, will Jingdong mall and Dangdang open shop in the future?

"Our data show that the multi-channel mode will be 30%-40% higher than that of a single channel."

Senior partner of Boston consulting company (BCG), global

Rune Jacobsen said that large retailers in Europe have a large number of storefront stores, capable of providing inventory inventory, store inventory inquiry, branch collection and other services. These retailers are trying to penetrate the online market through the advantages of physical stores.

For example, a British consumer wants to buy a TV, which may be 3% to 4% cheaper online. He can first log on to a traditional retailer's website to see if there is a stock in the vicinity of the physical store, compare products online, select products from the physical stores, submit applications for his reservation, then go directly to the store to experience products, decide whether to buy or not, this consumer experience may be better, or at least consumers' after-sale problems can be solved by physical stores.

Rune Jacobsen talked about WAL-MART, Carrefour, Tesco, etc.

At the same time, online retailers in the UK have begun to develop physical stores. For example, a business started with a catalog has a large number of online customers, which can provide about 20000 kinds of goods. Two or three years ago, the entities started to set up offline stores, because they realized that having a physical store is very important because they can provide customers with better choices, get products faster and know where to return products, and some customers do not want to buy online.

Today, the company has more than 100 stores in the UK market.

Each storefront can provide 12000-15000 kinds of goods to choose from, but the physical area is usually very small. It may be only 1/20 of the traditional retail stores with the same number of SKU. The user first checks which stores are stocked, then orders through various mobile terminals, such as iPad, deciding when to pick up the goods, and the staff will pick up the goods from the storage center.

In the UK, the flexibility of online and offline selection is becoming more and more important compared to the mode that can only be purchased online or can only be purchased from physical stores.

In Germany, some of the traditional retailers' apparel sold on line can be returned to stores offline if they are not satisfied.

"When

Of course, European retailers' online trial also faces many challenges. After all, it is not easy to integrate online and offline in the short term.

In China, Gome and Ningdu began to split and operate independently. Some retailers in Europe have taken similar measures. "Some retailers in the UK want to speed up the development of e-commerce, they either split inside the company, or directly peel off them. First, they hope to respond more quickly to the market changes. A small team can focus on this change. Second, the traditional part of the attention is often focused on the recent performance and work, and the new business part is hoping to develop new businesses, and there is bound to be a contradiction in a system."

Jonathan Sharp said.

Jonathan Sharp knows most of the cases, if the listed companies are not listed or sold, they will often merge with their parent company, because when the spin off company reaches a certain scale, the parent company begins to regard it as an important asset and is committed to creating synergy advantage.

In addition, apart from the self built department, retailers in Europe and the United States often create diversified channels through the M & a mode. For example, Dixon, the largest electronic retailer in the UK, has bought some independent consumer company and fused with itself to create a multi-channel mode.

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Because there are more competitors on the Internet and more brands and companies, BCG's research team thinks that differentiation is the way to stand out in the Internet environment. "Even if the company with the first advantage has a certain scale in advance, it must also have a distinctive attraction to win."

BCG partner Francois Aubry said that in particular, small vertical Internet operators should be committed to becoming a specialist in a small category or to propose a new value proposition that satisfies the shopping experience. "For example, a website that buys gifts for men can provide some integrated solutions for the wife to buy gifts, so as to create a new shopping experience."

"I think selling products is not the most important thing. It is a common misunderstanding that many brands expand their online channels to expand sales."

Rune Jacobsen believes that for brand suppliers, the most likely way to succeed in e-commerce is to enhance brand experience. For example, an ice cream brand regards its online channels as a channel of communication with customers, invites customers to design ice cream and ice cream design competition, so as to enhance interaction with customers and convey their brand meaning to customers.

Rune Jacobsen frankly said, "basically, large European and American consumer company have not been very successful in opening up their e-commerce business, and the number of large brands that have strong direct selling capabilities to customers is very small."