Luxury Websites Encounter Soft Spots In Waterloo'S Industry

In January 1st this year, NetEase's luxury online shopping platform announced that NetEase's products were closed at 24 in December 31, 2011, that is, from January 1, 2012 zero, domain names will stop providing corresponding services.

In the past year, "luxury online shopping" is almost a very important annual keyword in the electricity supplier industry.

In November 2011, Jingdong mall recruited high-end luxury buyers, and the news of its launch of the independent online luxury website topLife also attracted attention; in December, the famous international brand Coach began to test the Taobao mall.

"Luxury goods"

"One is not able to get goods (luxury goods supply channels are inadequate), the two is luxury online shopping is a" false proposition. "

Chen Shousong said.

Most luxury electric providers only stay in sales with the support of capital, relying on the rapidly growing luxury consumption power in China. Is there enough reason for luxury electric providers to share this huge cake?

"Luxury goods providers want to escape from the fierce fighting of the Red Sea, and successfully enter the blue ocean must pass five Customs: procurement of goods, online pactions, packaging and distribution, after-sales service, operation and service optimization."

When it comes to the "Success Road" of luxury electric business, Zhao Shicheng, CEO of Shang pin network, said.

The implication is that the above links should be optimized so as to enter the "blue ocean".

Is this really the case? If the "Vente-Privee" of the industry is the reference sample, the development of many luxury discount providers in the mainland is still at an early stage.

Vente-Privee CEO Gran believes that the key to the success of luxury online shopping is "keeping the high-end image of the brand while digesting inventory."

Gran has been in the fashion retail circle for more than 20 years.

In the 80s of last century, he was just 20 years old, he was the French fashion industry brand purchasing old hand, each year fixed from luxury brands and some sports brands to purchase about 20000000 stock products, by selling price difference to obtain profit.

If we sum up the Vente-Privee model in one sentence, it is "discounted sales of famous brand over season products in a limited time rush."

The reason for the success of the company has also been summed up, that is, it relies mainly on two development foothold: the dual use of the sales platform and the value-added platform of the brand. This "two pack" capability is strong enough that online snapping can also help the brand drive the sales of the physical store, and few brands will refuse.

It has proved that under the guidance of this strategy, more than more than 1200 international fashion and luxury brands have established cooperative relations with them.

In contrast, most of the luxury online shopping in the mainland still stays in the former: sales platform, that is, online sales of products.

"Precisely because Vente-Privee has grasped the characteristics of well-known brands, on the one hand, it is positioned to help businesses quickly digest inventory and turn capital, while taking into account the characteristics of luxury goods, providing a guarantee system for brand value-added communication, and low discount sales have not yet fallen, so that it has been successful."

Chen Liang, a senior Internet personage, said.

In Chen Liang's view, the essence of the success of luxury online shopping is to maintain the relationship with businessmen, ensure the supply of goods, support the supply of goods, and further stabilize stable, high-quality and rapidly growing customer groups.

"Customer groups grow to a certain scale, and the integration ability of the sales platform has been further improved. At this time, its brand value-added platform capabilities continue to consolidate, and the normal functions such as goods procurement, online pactions, packaging and distribution, after-sales service, operation and service optimization can be continuously optimized."

Chen Liang said.

"At present, most of the domestic luxury online shopping providers are far from enough in the latter part of the business."

VC keen luxury electric business

LV, Gucci, Prada, Armani, Fendi...

All kinds of products of these brands began to appear in the luxury area of all kinds of comprehensive websites, making consumers who are keen on online shopping dazzled.

What makes luxury online shopping so popular? Apart from advocating famous brand consumers, there is also a public venture for "Crazy".

Recently, according to the incomplete monitoring of China Electronic Commerce Research Center, nearly 10 Luxury discount B2C in China has been invested in VC, with a total investment exceeding US $500 million.

The latest data of the Qing Branch research center is more intuitive: during the period from January 2011 to November, the e-commerce industry had disclosed 91 investment events, and the total amount of investment disclosed was $3 billion 841 million.

Among them, especially luxury online shopping investment case is the most dazzling.

Since 2010, there have been 23 investment events related to jewellery, accessories, clothing, clothing and other luxury e-business websites. The total amount of investment disclosed in 21 INVESTMENT events amounted to $529 million, with an average investment of $25 million 210 thousand.

In this "investment craze", luxury websites have attracted many investors' attention and won different investments in different rounds and amounts.

For example, in the recently disclosed information, the financing amount of Shang pin and Xiu Xiu net has surged to 50 million US dollars and US $100 million.

Why is luxury online shopping so attractive to venture capitalists? "We believe that China's luxury electric business has received capital attention for three reasons."

Qing related analysts said that luxury goods providers are favored by capital, mainly by virtue of their "consumer goods + luxury consumption + e-commerce" three attributes.

"One is the rapid development of China's consumer goods market; the two is that the number of Chinese middle class and affluent population is expanding, and there is a certain consumption demand for the luxury goods market; the three is e-commerce is one of the fastest growing channels for products and services sales."

The analyst said.

In the future, the luxury website may only survive 1 to 2 operations in the context of the user integration effect without many brand partners. What is the future development of luxury electric business in China? Since the birth of this industry, this problem has been frequently placed on the table.

In fact, since the second half of 2011, luxury websites, once the focus of the market, were slightly "tired".

Previously, the Hohhot net, one of the ten luxury websites in China, was also "black" because of the problem of arrears of wages. Even a huge salary picture appeared on the homepage of the website.

"Luxury websites look beautiful, but actually there are many disadvantages, two of which are fatal flaws."

Chen Shou sent an interview in an interview, said that one is the domestic electricity supplier "can not get goods", that is, luxury goods channels can not get much inventory, "you may have two pieces are brought through the retail mode, but it is impossible to distribute a large number of online retail channels, so it is basically difficult to make big"; on the other hand, Chen Shousong believes that online shopping luxury itself is a "false proposition".

"Who will buy luxuries online? Most people will definitely consider the offline channels when they buy luxury goods."

Chen Shou sent him.

As a matter of fact, the above assertion is the main voice of doubt about luxury online shopping.

On the supply side, LV400 customer service staff also told the media that LV is not directly supplied to any e-commerce website in the country. Although there are online shopping in the US and Japan, it is only sold on the LV official website.

"LV's global management policy is not authorized, no agent, no partners, all sales channels are carried out through direct stores, so if customers want to buy LV products, please go straight to the store.

Moreover, LV counters refuse to provide products such as inspection, after sales and other related services for non formal channels.

The staff had made it clear.

Coincidentally, there is a similar statement in Gucci that China does not authorize any website to sell its products, while Armani staff also told reporters that Armani headquarters currently has only EmporioArmani official website in China's only authorized online shopping channel, and has never authorized any other websites.

In addition to the problem of luxury goods, according to the latest report of the Qing Research Center, besides the homogenization of products, the existence of legal risks in operation and the consumption of fake and shoddy products, the Chinese luxury market itself has become a predicament that the luxury electric business can not get over.

"From the perspective of luxury consumption in China, the trend of luxury consumption abroad is hard to conceal.

Because there is a significant gap in the prices of luxury goods both at home and abroad, mainland consumers are buying more than mainland China in Hongkong, the United States and France.

The report pointed out that after the rebate in Islands, Hainan, the Chinese government will further consider adjusting the luxury tariff to attract mainland consumers to consume luxury goods in the mainland, but it is difficult to achieve obvious results at a time.

Relevant analysts of Ching Ke said that with the rapid development of China's economy and the continuous improvement of residents' consumption ability, the luxury market will have the potential effect of increasing the growth potential.

But in the short term, luxury electric providers still need to explore different development paths with the physical stores, study the characteristics of the audience, and seek a blank area between "elite consumption" and "mass consumption".

In the face of luxury B2C industry's "ice and fire double days", Tong Shihao, who has invested in e-commerce and other business enterprises, also recognizes Chen Shou delivery's viewpoint.

He said that the tide of the tide, the core competitiveness of luxury websites will accept the test of life and death, the future luxury website may only survive 1 to 2.

In Tong Shihao's opinion, the core competitiveness of luxury websites is only two points, one is the supply of goods, and the other is the stable customer base of the website.

At present, according to the data of Analysys International, there are 17 mainstream luxury websites in China, of which only 5 are over one million members.

Even people in the industry say that even now, there is a "virtual high" situation in the existing luxury website user data, because many people just registered, but never really shopping.

According to China Internet Information Center's data, as of the end of June 2011, the size of China's online shopping users was 173 million, but only 1% of luxury online shoppers.