MUJI Good Pformation, Is New Spring Coming?

In 2018, MUJI products, which had more than 200 stores in China, were frequent.

First, the number of stores has been repeatedly reduced, the highest.

Up to 25%.

It is to open up online and offline scenes to access Alipay and WeChat.

These moves mean that Muji has launched a major reform and has begun to pform the new retail business in a comprehensive way.

MUJI winter

Since its entry into China in 2008, Muji has begun to expand. As of 2017, more than 200 entities have been established, and two global flagship stores have been opened in Shanghai and Chengdu.

However, with the development of commodity economy, Muji is facing pformation.

Internal causes:

First, the price of Muji has been criticized.

Since entering China, Muji has been given the label of "high quality".

The price of daily necessities sold in the shop is not low. A set of cotton bedspreads is priced at 500 yuan, while a mug sells at a price of 80 yuan.

Of course, such a price seems to be good for some consumers. After all, this group of consumers think MUJI products are "redesigned" for their lives, and the products they buy are not just a mug or bedspread, but also "quality" and "life."

However, the sale of Muji, which has always been famous for its high quality and low cost performance, is cheap before entering China.

Yes, in 1980, Muji was released in Japan as a slogan of "cheap reason" and developed by supplying Japanese consumers with cheap products.

It is such a brand that is more popular in Japan. After entering China, it began to sell "faith".

Small to dozens of hundreds of boxes, up to one thousand stools, these products are priced beyond our daily necessities of value recognition.

In particular, compared with the price in Japan, Muji has become more expensive in China.

The price difference between the two can not help people to question the Muji. The most criticized is the simple and crude "Japanese yen price divided by ten yuan".

Second, competitors are constantly appearing. Muji is now "Besieged everywhere".

With the development of commodity economy, a "mixed buying" trend has sprang up in China. The "grocery store" mode is rising, and all kinds of similar shops are coming.

Among them, NetEase strict selection, millet products, famous products and other platforms are considered to be the strong enemy of Muji.

The NetEase strictly declared that when it was on the line, it claimed that its products came from the factories for the manufacture of MUJI products, so it could be comparable to Muji in quality, but only half of the price.

Millet is a product of millet is the second entity shop, named "life with products".

Like the "faith" sold in Muji in China, millet has the idea of "quality life", and its shop decoration style is similar to Muji, which is mainly based on Minimalism, and the product price is more "close to the people".

Whether the LOGO or decorating style is based on Japanese keynote, although the product quality is not high, but because of low price and variety, it has developed rapidly in a short time.

The emerging imitators, with their unique advantages, have attracted the attention of a large number of consumers, shunting the audience of MUJI products, and the market development space of Muji has been seriously squeezed.

With the continuous emergence and development of these imitators, MUJI products are facing more and more competitive pressures.

External causes: since the "new retail" was put forward, it has swept the whole market.

In the economic circle, online and offline integration has become a trend of the times, and most of the players have been pformed into new retail businesses.

This is mainly determined by the advanced technology brought by the new retail business, which can solve the pain problems in the traditional retail industry, such as complicated registration procedures, trouble paying, and difficult access to relevant consumer data. These solutions can bring consumers better consumption experience and attract more consumers.

Under such circumstances, Muji can only be forced into the ranks of pformation, otherwise it will weaken competitiveness, be overtaken or even abandoned by the times.

Worse and worse, the road to pformation is difficult to reach.

With the improvement of living standards, the commodity economy has been greatly developed. In order to get rid of the difficult situation of Muji and go along with the development trend of the times, it has embarked on the road of pformation. However, the new retail road does not seem to be so easy to imagine.

First, new retail

The big head has been carved up by the giants. It is still at an unknown stage whether the Muji can be established in the new retail market.

In the past new retail wars, the market has basically been attracted by the Internet giants such as Alibaba and Tencent. Apart from some niche areas or small players active in smaller markets, most small players have been included in the two major players.

For Muji, a late entry, it is not difficult to occupy a place in the new retail market.

Second, Muji has not yet kept pace with the development of new retail, and has not completely pformed itself.

The reason why Muji has not yet been completely pformed is that the Muji has not yet touched the core of new retail, and the application of new retail is superficial.

It is undeniable that the upgrading of the payment system after Muji pformation of new retail has simplified the process of payment and membership registration to a certain extent, which has improved work efficiency and brought better user experience to consumers.

However, Muji has not really integrated online and offline, and the enterprise has not been data oriented. There are still deficiencies in the research and application of big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies.

Thirdly, Muji has begun to depreciate after the pformation of new retail business, but there are many problems.

Problem one: there are frequent scandals behind the price cuts.

Since the implementation of the strategy of price reduction, the problems of product label confusion, poor quality and no maintenance have been constantly exposed.

Prior to that, Muji was shown on the national enterprise credit information publicity system, and there was no production date label on the six corners of the shop, such as colored pen, stationery and water-based pen.

In addition, the national enterprise credit information system data show that in 2107, the store under the flag of no prints was punished 4 times because of the quality of the product.

Question two: conflict with its own position.

Since Muji has entered China, the positioning of consumers is related to "advanced", which has an inseparable connection with its high price.

Now, Muji has cut off this connection by hand. With the development of time, the possibility of Muji's "advanced aura" dissipation has increased, especially the emergence of scandal has accelerated the dissipation time of aura.

Repeated price cuts did not bring very good results to MUJI products. In 2017, the same store sales of MUJI products in the overseas market increased by 4%, while the same store sales in China increased by only 1.8%.

If winter comes, can Muji spring be far behind?

In the face of such embarrassing situation, how to develop MUJI products in the pformation of new retail business? The answer is to follow the trend of the times, keep pace with the development of new retail, and do well in the pformation of new retail.

Plan.

First of all, in brand positioning, new retail should be an upgrade to the concept of brand.

One of the advantages of Muji is "storytelling". Since its appearance, it has been advocating its own ideas, both from the product and the packaging, emphasizing the simplicity and nature, hoping to make consumers feel a simple and natural way of life.

The reason why early MUJI products can make consumers pay for their lives is related to the concept of life at that time. Its simple and natural way of life coincides with the consumer's concept of life at that time.

Based on this advantage, MUJI products should spend more time and energy on how to upgrade their ideas in the future, such as using big data, cloud computing and other technologies to find out the modern people's outlook on life, combine the brand idea with the modern era, and change or upgrade the product positioning.

With the continuous development of the times, people's consumption needs and lifestyles have gradually changed. If the concept of Muji has not been adjusted to meet the needs of the masses, it will inevitably be left behind by the times.

Secondly, in the application of technology, the new retail technology will be applied to production and operation.

MUJI has always been focused on offline operation, and offline stores have developed better.

On the basis of consolidating this advantage, how to make up the short board has become one of the key points of pformation.

How can technology such as mobile applications and big data come into being? How can cloud computing and AI be applied to production and sales? How can logistics and warehousing be developed? These problems will inevitably be encountered in the process of online and offline integration, and how to solve them is the top priority for the development of Muji products in the future.

Finally, compared with other brands, Muji has great advantages in scenes, and how to highlight advantages, upgrade advantages and build up its own advantages barrier is the focus of Muji development in the future.

Different from the single scenes in the past, people's demand for scene became more and more high in the new retail era.

Building more scenes and improving consumer experience can help Muji achieve new retail pformation and attract more consumers.

On the whole, the booming commodity economy has made Muji in a difficult position. In order to get rid of the deep mire, the strategy of pforming the new retail business is the right decision, which is a good opportunity to catch up with the times.

However, Muji has many shortcomings in the process of new retail pformation. Without correct strategy as a guide, Muji will not be easy to achieve pformation.

If we can achieve real pformation in the future, we will have the possibility of getting out of the predicament. Otherwise, if we can not succeed in pformation, Muji will get deeper and deeper in the mire.