Will Internet celebrities become the standard configuration for future retail?

　　People who pay attention to the retail industry will find a very interesting phenomenon. On the one hand, unmanned retail is popular, and unmanned shelves, facial recognition, self-service settlement and other crazy efforts are put into user convenience. On the other hand, Internet celebrity e-commerce is popular, giving products emotional value and personalized communication with users has become the magic weapon for Internet celebrities to achieve the miracle of selling goods. Both directions seem to be completely different, but they are the inevitable result of the transformation of consumption model from survival to enjoyment and development under consumption upgrades.

　　1. Prerequisites for the emergence of Internet celebrities

　　There is no doubt that as online traffic dividends reach their peak and traffic prices continue to rise, Internet celebrities with outstanding traffic capture capabilities and fan aggregation capabilities are becoming the focus of attention of all merchants.

　　point. Why has a new phenomenon like internet celebrities become an important node in the retail end?

　　1. Overproduction

　　With the intensification of globalization, the speed of resource flow and technological exchanges in the whole world has accelerated. In recent years, commodity production capacity has increased rapidly. As the world's factory, China's commodity production capacity is even more unique. There is a rumor that even if China no longer produces clothes, hoarding clothes in various factories in China can still be worn by Chinese people for 20 years. It may be a bit exaggerated, but the current situation of overproduction in Chinese factories can be seen as normal.

　　Whether you go to a local shopping mall or open Taobao’s search interface, the wide range of products meets consumer needs while also having to admit that there are indeed too many products now, so many that consumers don’t know what to buy, and so that merchants are in a fierce competition where both sides suffer.

　　2. Excess information

　　With the advent of the mobile Internet era, information and information has shown an explosive growth, especially the popularization of smartphones, which has caused users to be submerged in the endless torrent of information. Users are no longer happy with the richness of information, but are running around in the face of continuous pop-up windows and the rapid refreshing information flow. Excess information itself puts huge pressure on users.

　　In the huge torrent of information, merchants' marketing information is even more embarrassing. Consumers don't even have time to read interesting articles and news information. Where can I get the time in the United States to see the marketing information pushed by merchants to themselves? Even if consumers really want to buy a certain product, thousands of product information will make people dispel their thoughts. The current situation is that consumers' time is squeezed and diverted by a large amount of information, and it is difficult to find the products they need.

　　The consequences of overproduction and overinformation are that merchants and consumers cannot find each other, merchants cannot sell, and consumers cannot buy them. Consumption upgrades exacerbate this situation.

　　3. Consumption upgrade

　　China's consumption upgrade probably occurs when per capita GDP reaches US$7,000 to US$8,000. According to data from the China Bureau of Statistics, China's per capita GDP in 2015 was 52,000 yuan, or approximately US$8,016. In other words, consumption upgrades have probably begun to appear since the previous year.

　　Consumption upgrades mean that consumers not only have higher requirements for product quality, but also hope that the products can be more emotional and personalized. Now it's no longer just satisfying

　　At this retail juncture, Internet celebrities seized the historical opportunity and achieved a sales miracle of catching up with first-tier stars in their ability to sell goods and exceeding 100 million in a single store.

　　2. Definition of Internet celebrities: Internet shopping guide

　　On Double 11, 2015, Zhang Dayi's store became the only C store among Internet celebrity stores that squeezed into the women's clothing rankings on the entire platform.

　　On Double 11, 2016, the first time an internet celebrity store reached 100 million yuan in a big promotion, they were Zhang Dayi, ANNA IT IS AMAZING (hereinafter referred to as ASM), and Madam Qian’s Sydney Li.

　　At the Tmall Double 11 internal review meeting speech, Alibaba CEO Zhang Yong affirmed the value of internet celebrities for the first time, and the Alibaba Group began to vigorously promote Taobao celebrities and other opinion leaders.

　　Faced with the dilemma of merchants and consumers not finding each other, Internet celebrities gather consumers with the same preferences and the same values ​​into a highly sticky community through their unique personal charm.

　　In this community, Internet celebrities help consumers block out the annoying torrent of information, take the initiative to take on the work of screening and recommendation of information, and help consumers find the products they like with their professional abilities and aesthetic taste.

　　The functions of Internet celebrities are broken down into nothing more than store managers and salesmen, and what they do seems to be just guiding customers and recommending good products to them, but the good thing about Internet celebrities is that they organically combine these standardized work. What consumers hate the most now is standardization.

　　Since the communities formed by internet celebrities and their fans often have the characteristics of high stickiness, high activity, homogeneity of preferences, and consistency of the three views, internet celebrities not only work with fans to determine the product, but also give the product additional emotional value in interaction. These emotional values ​​are given together with fans under the leadership of Internet celebrities, so fans have a high sense of identity and participation in the product. Because they come from a community, these products even come with social attributes and become props for fans to reflect their social tags.

　　To put it bluntly, Internet celebrities are just shopping guides, but because of the boundlessness and rapid gathering ability of the Internet, Internet celebrities have gained a miraculous ability to sell goods. In the future, as consumers gradually mature the new thing about Internet celebrities, Internet celebrities will become the standard configuration under the retail chain.

　　3. The role played by Internet celebrities in retail

　　If you want to carefully analyze the role played by internet celebrities in retail, internet celebrities roughly assume four functions.

　　Emotional identity:

　　More and more Internet celebrities represent a way of life and an emotional sustenance. The purchase of fans itself is a tribute to this lifestyle. Every internet celebrity has his own clear image positioning, and it is because of a clear and distinct image that is more likely to arouse emotional resonance among fans.

　　Scene identification:

　　Unlike Taobao model pictures or offline store clothing displays, when Zhang Dayi and others put on their clothes and displayed them in various lifelike scenes, they actually represent the dream of every ordinary girl. When they wear beautiful clothes to show their fans, it is more like fans wearing them themselves. Internet celebrities are beautiful but not very beautiful, because only such girls are more likely to become a good carrier of fans' pursuit of beauty.

　　Self-identity:

　　Unlike traditional brands that come from big brand designers, Internet celebrities ’ products often involve a considerable degree of participation from fans. From the use of materials and colors to the use of a button or a piece of lace, it is often determined by Internet celebrities and fans. Behind every piece of clothing is the pursuit of beauty created by internet celebrities and fans. In this way, buying this dress will satisfy the fans' sense of self-identity.

　　Resource integration:

　　The development of Internet celebrity e-commerce will not only be a competition of Internet celebrity’s personal fans, but also a competition of fast and flexible supply chains at the back end. Everyone is rational animal. Fans may buy one or two products from Internet celebrities because of their touch, but they cannot endure the poor product quality, slow delivery speed, and almost no after-sales service. After Internet celebrities rely on their personal charm to capture fan traffic, they must also be able to integrate resources from all parties to provide fans with high-quality consumption experience, and accumulate fan traffic.

　　The essence of retail is ultimately the management of goods, goods and supply chains. Marketing is only part of retail, and Internet celebrities will make changes to retail, but will not cause disruptive changes.

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