The origin and definition of "vertical"
With the gradual formation of the e-commerce domination structure of large platforms, entrepreneurs in the e-commerce industry often choose to start from vertical fields and gradually fall into the quagmire of price wars.
In the field of vertical e-commerce, there is a misunderstanding that is easy to fall into, thinking that by displaying a category of products phone number list together, it is "vertical".
In addition to commodities, verticalization is also required in terms of professions, services, and meeting consumer needs. As online consumption continues to shift to mobile phones and is gradually integrated with social platforms, users' demand for phone number list "personalization" is growing. Coupled with the application of big data at all levels of e-commerce, it ensures service specialization and differentiation. It has become the moat and fortress of many vertical e-commerce.
2. Market analysis
Vertical e-commerce cannot outperform comprehensive e-commerce platforms in terms of price and channels. Platform e-commerce has a large volume, wide channels, and has more advantages in bargaining, or users do not know their shopping needs, so they can use big data analysis. , Humanized content to attract them, provide them with the best shopping solution, create shopping demand,
(Schematic diagram of the development process of e-commerce)
1. Purchase frequency and conversions
PGC (Professional Generated Content) professional production (video website), expert production (microblogging), used to generally refer to personalization, diversification of perspectives, democratization of communication, virtualization of social relations, relative to some product categories, user life cycle Very short, that is, mainly one-time customers, which means that the marketing cost of vertical B2C is very high, because every time it is to develop new users, and comprehensive B2C development reaches a certain stage, it focuses on the marketing of old customers, and it is easier to quantify with low investment ;
From the perspective of product durability, mobile phones, digital products, furniture, etc. are durable products, and users purchase less frequently. For vertical e-commerce products with low purchase frequency, users are generally new users. If you want to win users from your competitors, you have to keep promoting and increasing marketing efforts. At the same time, such products are generally purchased rationally in large amounts, and users tend to compare prices. Due to the scale limitation of the supply chain, vertical e-commerce companies are difficult to have the price competitiveness brought by the low-cost advantages of comprehensive e-commerce, such as (Shangpin Home Delivery\ Sophia) Whole house customization brand.
(Schematic diagram of business system architecture)
2. Vertical platform investment promotion
It is much more difficult to attract investment on a vertical e-commerce platform than a comprehensive e-commerce business. Because of the limited flow of people, it is difficult for you to bring considerable benefits to others from the beginning. Generally, it relies on a massive user channel.
The emergence of vertical e-commerce may be based on the background of traditional retail. It is believed that based on the existing procurement, warehousing and industry experience, retail channels can be smoothly extended to online; professional operation will have better service quality and operational efficiency , and bring consumers more complete categories and lower prices to find a specific user group;
3. Data-driven, branding, globalization
Data-driven is one of the most important characteristics of vertical e-commerce in the future. It will help vertical e-commerce truly complete in-depth contact with users and enhance user stickiness. ROI: (visitor volume X conversion rate X customer unit price = sales); conversion Rate is an extremely important part, and the intervention of data can have a great positive impact on it. For example, by analyzing Bounce Rate and Exit Rate, merchants can understand why users jump out and leave quickly. Combined with other indicators, merchants can improve user participation by optimizing website structure and content, and finally affect the conversion rate;