The Trouble Of Teenage Customer Service: Expanding Slightly, Causing Problems To Be Magnified.

Once vivid vancl All of a sudden, it was pushed to the cusp of the electricity supplier bubble theory.

After IPO was blocked, the industry exploded its material, saying it Capital chain There is something wrong with stock. Van denial denies this, and comes up with the F round of financing in June this year to prove that he is okay. But the industry does not seem to listen to these explanations.

Familiar with customers told reporters that customers are nothing but a microcosm of the entire electricity business adjustment. A slightly aggressive expansion led to a series of problems being amplified.

　 Question

Customers are the key to breaking the electricity supplier bubble. When the public has just questioned the round of the group buying network, it immediately broke news of layoff 5%, postponing IPO and vice president Wu Sheng's resignation to Jingdong mall. At the beginning of December, the author of the "old staff of van guest" broke the news that it was not enough for anyone to make ends meet.

The revelers revealed that the sales of all customers were not strong enough, the inventory amounted to about 1000000000 yuan, and revenue was only over. Marketing Cost has accumulated a deficit of about 2 billion yuan in 4 years. Another person familiar with the guest said to the newspaper that the loss was 700 million yuan this year.

Everyone seems to be dissolving questions. CEO Chen disclosed the information of $230 million in F round this July, but it can not dispel doubts.

In the near future, customers really give people the impression of "de Stocking": the promotion activities of "200 full back to 200" and "full 200 return to 300" are constantly launched.

The question of cost is not groundless. According to people familiar with the matter, unpublished prospectus shows that logistics costs accounted for 20%, and storage costs per US $2.2. Compared to the 140 yuan unit price, there are some imbalances.

Logistics construction is more cost - effective. Van Kok plans to expand 28 cities this year, laying 300 km wide distribution circle around key cities. In recent years, F financing is mainly used for logistics development and advertising. Media sources said that so far this year, Fan Ying advertising has invested 300 million yuan. Chen said, everyone Jovan employees. The industry estimates that the cost is 500 million ~6 yuan per year, and the cost of manpower is not low.

These costs have resulted in the fact that about 30% of the gross profit margins of customers are still unable to get out of the deficit.

Chen said earlier that this year's sales target was 10 billion yuan. The bottom line is based on data in recent years: its annual revenue figures for the past 3 years are 100 million yuan, 500 million yuan, and 2 billion yuan. Li Chengdong, an analyst at PDA, said that it expects to sell 4 billion ~50 billion this year. Another close to the top of the crowd said that this year's revenue is only about 3 billion 500 million yuan.

Scale growth slowed down and can not be profitable, everyone's life is not so wonderful. For it, IPO may be imminent, but now it has been postponed. The above sources said that after the muddy water raid on the crowd, the inventory information in the customer financial data was once again attracted much attention.

An investment community said that everyone missed the window of December, which is a pity. As usual, the fastest restart will be in the first half of next year. {page_break}

Growing pains

An electric business executive said that customers should reflect and reflect.

Everyone was originally officially IPO at the end of next year, but the cooling of the external environment accelerated its pace. Therefore, in the past year, many of its actions have been radically radical. For example, to increase the category, customers began selling electric rice cookers, mops, kitchen knives, etc.

"Management, internal control, radish quickly washed mud." The source said.

A long-term observation of the industry's customers said that customers have a vague personality. On the one hand, in the face of the public, customers still maintain the mentality of start-up companies. Previously, as a small company, the twists and turns of rapid growth are often ignored. Now it has been regarded as the benchmark of the industry. The attention of suppliers, media and the public has magnification effect. On the other hand, it seems to face a series of management problems with a large company mentality, such as the sharp adjustment of the team and the strong strength of the suppliers. Earlier, the industry disclosed that hundreds of billions of dollars were owed to customers.

This person said that since this year, assistant president Xu Xiaohui, former vice president Zhang Xiaojun, Wu Sheng and Li Gang, former vice president in charge of finance, have left all customers. In the middle of this year's departure, the middle class said there was no attachment to it.

Another senior executive thinks that customers should rearrange their development models and balance them in terms of pricing and gross margin.

At present, the best selling products are cheap T-shirts, shirts and canvas shoes. Li Chengdong said that the price of 29 yuan T-shirt restricted the gross margin space and reduced the room for adjustment. At the beginning of the development of electricity business, low prices can cater for consumption, but nowadays such products can not cover more mainstream people.

Gong Wenxiang, vice president of Huaqiang North online, believes that the trouble of everyone has opened up the gorgeous coat of B2C in the past. It is a symbolic symbol of the whole industry, but it will not be so bad in itself. He believes that for a company with nearly four yuan annual sales of nearly 4 billion yuan, "annual loss of 700 million yuan is not an unacceptable big problem." Van now has a very good brand, and the situation will be improved after the product line is adjusted and the business is more practical.

Li Chengdong believes that this year, customers have had a clear definition of brand definition, product line stretched too long, but as a trial and error can be understood, at present, all customers have been making adjustments. He said that the trouble of customers is more like the inevitable product of the development of e-commerce enterprises. At present, the core founding team of 7 customers is still there, and management problems can also be adjusted after the crisis. The future positioning of all customers will be similar to "IKEA", and it will form an interactive force with the open brand platform V+.

Everyone seems to be ambitious, and next year's advertising momentum is still small. According to people familiar with the matter, next year, customers will only put up 75 million yuan in Baidu SEM.

In recent years, Chen has always expressed confidence: "I have not yet let one thing sink into the mire with me, and nothing has dragged me down."