This article was shared by Zhou Zhefeng, member of Laogao Crown Club No. 001. This article shares his Taobao experience and shares his views on newspaper activities, marketing, team management, distribution and other aspects, which is very worth a look.
First of all, I am very grateful for this opportunity to let me stand here and share my experience with you.
From physical to e-commerce
Let’s talk about the past first. I made it from entities. I started my business in 2005. The first time I started my business was a relative of mine who told me, "You go and do that." There was no job at that time, so I did it." No one came to take care of me, and no one told me what to do? I went to the Internet cafe for a day, took a pen, a piece of paper, and searched on Baidu. After searching, I got all the manufacturers and phone numbers I found. I was younger at the time and didn’t dare to call that manufacturer because I didn’t know what to say. After making a call, I thought the voice on the phone was very gentle and more realistic. I made an appointment and went there. In Huzhou, Zhejiang, I walked in, and there was a sheep next to me. I found the boss in the factory and the communication was quite smooth. I have asked him how to do it. This is my first experience in starting a business. I invested a lot in the early stage of my first business, but I made a profit after three months.
06 I chose to change careers and become a physical entity, and it was also very complicated at this time. The first product I made was an agent. After about half a year of operation, the manufacturer stopped shipping. At this time, I felt like I was finished. The goods I sent were given to me by the manufacturer. At that time, I told myself, what if they didn’t give them to me? Make your own brand. At that time, I had no choice but to go out every day, which was very painful. But there is a reward. After a year of hard work, almost all maternal and child stores in Shanghai will receive my products. In 2006, we went out to negotiate business with people, and there were almost no obstacles. There were no fees. Everyone tell me that if you want to be the big ones, you have to do the small ones. If you don’t have money, I have the goods.
In 2007, I felt that the difficulty was a little bit greater, because it was the peak of fertility and maternal and child products were very profitable. Many people later found that the costs gradually increased, but it does not mean that the business will be easier. Many bosses are very anxious after turning their cash into goods. They have to make a low price. Once the low price is added, two things will happen. First, the channel costs increase, and second, the profits are suppressed. What are my advantages? I have many channels and my products are very influential throughout Shanghai.
I feel like I can still be a gangster in 2007, but in 2008, the pressure was quite high. I'm a little helpless and the profit is basically not too much. The most terrifying thing is that when some large companies opened, the entrance fee of 20,000 yuan was deducted for no reason and the schedule was postponed. All reasons that I think are not reasons can become reasons to reject me. At this time, I felt that doing business had lost its meaning. So at the end of 2008, I decided to transform and do e-commerce. This is my general experience.
During the years I worked in Taobao
I officially opened Taobao at the end of 2008. When I was doing Shendou, I actually wanted to do e-commerce. Taobao was just a point. I spent tens of thousands of yuan to build an official website. Later I found that it was very difficult because I didn’t know what e-commerce was. But then I stayed up until the middle of the night to study every day. I kept searching for web pages and opened a Taobao store. There was no direct train before, and nothing was available. I was excited to see others selling dozens or hundreds of them. I was very impressed. In 2009, I received my first order from Taobao and was very excited because this was my first order in e-commerce. Then I immediately called the client to thank her. It has become much easier since 10 years. I feel that the whole Taobao has been developing rapidly in a year. I feel that my store is a legendary existence in the entire maternal and infant sector. In the past, I worked as a physical entity and had my dealers all over the country. They had never done Taobao and were asking me for experience. In 2009, my store was crowned. From 2009 to 2010, under such a rapid development, I actually think about it carefully, but I don’t think I did anything from 2009 to 2010. I just helped the products I sold to attract traffic at low prices on Taobao, which played a role in sorting traffic by price, and later it was gradually changed.
By 2011, I thought life was the best for the first two months. I think the monthly growth of the first two months exceeded 15%. The one that was crazy in 2011 was Double Twelve. I was the main venue, and I had two judges there. At that time, Juhuasuan also had two judges. That night, I ranked third in the top five product sales of Juhuasuan five minutes before the opening. I was very excited at that time, and I couldn't describe it. I was inexplicably excited on the way to the company that day. At that time, sales increased, and I felt that money was not money anymore. I was very happy at that time. The sales of Double 12 increased, and the entire team was very happy.
In 2012, there was a problem. In 2011, we did a good job. I went to Taobao. The mother and baby boss told me that after the New Year, you can take your entire team to our company and let us talk together, and I said yes. When we were planning for 2012, we were blindly optimistic because I felt that we had a certain influence within the entire internal situation, and no one could break the record I set at that time. However, in 2012, Juhuasuan began to adjust internally. Such an adjustment disrupted our plan. I believe that many people here have such an experience, at least half of them were caught off guard, and they did not start to make efforts until the second half of the year. Later, Juhuasuan had a stall fee, and the event was reported to your store’s comprehensive rating. Now many people don’t know much about the store. In 2012, what I did was just sloppy. My Double Eleven is the main venue, which is some of my achievements in the past few years of e-commerce.
If you want to make a comeback, you have to go to Taobao
I have a lot to say if I share. I also often share my experience on Taobao. When I was doing e-commerce in the past, Duoduoyun was famous for me. He is now a well-known Taobao maternal and child store. In 2009, it was a star-winning star. At that time, I thought that I had been in business for so many years and could not beat anyone who did Taobao, which had a huge blow to me. But at the same time, I felt the booming development of e-commerce and also gave me a hope. At the same time, due to the rapid growth of sales in the past few years, the entire team, management, and operations have improved all the way, which is actually an illusion.
Another one is the growth of Taobao brand. I made tens of millions of dollars today, and if I feel satisfied tomorrow, I will let others do it. I feel that everything is good. So I have now summarized a sentence: If the loser wants to make a comeback, he must go to Taobao. In the past few years, you couldn't find a place like this, whether it was the stock market or the house. But to be honest, the first two years we did have great risks. Now, 2013 is the most painful year I think. At the beginning of the year, my store was adjusted for no reason. In the past, electronic equipment was in my own hands, but now it is a well-known one for you to determine the sales structure of your entire store. The best category I used to do is not now. These activities can never be done anymore. The category that helped me qualitatively have a very large category. Although I have risen very quickly, I am not ranked in the top ten, so my activities cannot be carried out well and I am not used to it. The most terrifying thing is that I didn’t report to the 618 event. Many bosses of the event asked me, why didn’t you report to me, I couldn’t explain it to him, but later I told the truth. Of course, there are many businesses who tell me that it is right that you don’t report.
In the past, I had a certain degree of freedom at Juhuasuan. In the past, I had the sales volume of every event that I could be established as a benchmark. However, this year I have never even screened the first round of events. He told me that my brand had no influence. I told him about my previous situation and used the data to tell him, "You said I have no influence, so who has influence?" I think if you want to build a brand, then Juhuasuan is not the best way out, but you must do it." And do you all here know the ratings of their stores? What you can see on this platform is that Taobao has a rating on all Tmall customers, and this rating is based on sales. The gold coins have also been changed. The gold coins must be collected, and they are not distributed casually. It will be distributed according to the store's level, but I was not shortlisted. Our store has a special department that is responsible for me and is the counterpart. If you don’t know anything on Taobao, you can tell him and he can help me coordinate. It costs 115,000 yuan a month. I want to know who is willing to pay for this money except for some of the big brands now? But from this point of view, I feel that the overall cost has been increasing. In everyone's impression, gold coins and Juhuasuan are both the same entrance to currency, but now the threshold is higher, I think it is a good thing and a bad thing for everyone.
Promotion. Everyone knows that it is incomparable to the past. Someone asked me before how he viewed roi? I said I invested 10,000 yuan this month, and I see how much this item has been sold. This is how I calculated it. I did not calculate based on the roi on the spot. I think the environment has changed, so we should change it too. But I want to do direct trains or Juhuasuan. If your product’s gross profit is not deep enough, don’t do it because it is not suitable.
The entry threshold of the mall has been adjusted. I think it is a good thing for you to do now, and it will be very painful if you don’t enter. Nowadays, many people are talking about traffic. Taobao has 30 million people browsing every day, each browsing 10 pages, and then divided by 6 million stores, which is equivalent to only 50 people per store. According to a 5% conversion rate, you only have 2.5 people per store per day. If you follow this dead formula, you will lose money. Taobao was at a high risk in the past few years, and many people came out to break through. But now many people can't make it. If you don't think of a solution, your life will be very sad. The increase in the number of shopping crowds has slowed down significantly. The era of land grabbing has passed. The southeast wind has turned into northwest wind, and it is impossible for the pig to fly into the sky again.
Puzzled. I believe this confusion will exist for many people. When the sales are good, you call for a brand, but when the sales are bad, you require sales. What should I do?
future. That is, who dies first and who lives first? Until now, I think there is no supply chain advantage and I will definitely die. When I went to Hangzhou for a meeting on Double 12, he said it clearly that the most important thing in e-commerce is supply. Some people cannot supply it and are still playing with low prices. In this way, it will definitely not be far from death.
Why the team has no execution
The team has no execution ability, which is something that many people are talking about. But I don’t know how everyone understands execution? Enterprises have no long-term goals. Many companies have big physical stores. They have a big problem. After a period of time, they have caught up with the reform and opening up.
And a considerable number of bosses don’t know how to go in the future. They heard that the scenery in Tibet is very good, so they took their team to Tibet. The next day they heard that the scenery in Qinghai is very good, so they would not go to Tibet. Talking back and forth will kill people. This sentence is for the boss to show. Don't mess around. Avoid severe turmoil in personnel. For an enterprise, we should try our best to avoid personnel turmoil. Personnel turmoil is the most harmful to the stability of the enterprise. It also affects your company's profit the most.
There is also a little bit like following the crowd. You must not do whatever others say. You must have your own opinions and ideas and move on according to your will.
Another point is that the average customer price is low, and everyone is saying that it is generated by the customer. But do you know where to find such customers? Among some new customers, which ones you can become your capture?
Another point is that you don’t participate in the Crown Club and don’t follow Lao Gao’s WeChat. I followed his WeChat for a while, and I found that I did have many good insights. I think following for a while will be of great help to everyone.
Who can live? Have clear corporate goals. As a boss, you have to be clear about what you will lead your team to do in the next three or five years. What will your brand look like next, so you know how you will go in the next few years. A team with strong execution ability, you need to know whether there are three people in your team who are willing to die for you. For example, the People's Liberation Army must walk in the same way, and the pace of hundreds of people must be consistent. When I talk about this, you must walk in the same way, so that you can complete it with the fastest and least time. If you say yours and I say mine, there will be many mistakes.
The leaders also say that you must have strong infectiousness, and when you communicate with your team, you must be very powerful to infect and help them. This is very important. Learning to seek benefits from the supply chain and management is that many sellers are unwilling to pay attention to. If you try to find a little rebate from the previous house, it will bring you a lot of rewards. It will be more prosperous for a management team. I don’t know if you have ever calculated it. Every time you submit financial statements, we have to calculate our income. We all calculate it very clearly, so that I can know which activities I can do, which activities I cannot do, and also the preparation to move forward.
I met a finance department who made children's clothing. I asked him how he is doing now. He said that our flagship store has made more than 100 million yuan this year. I said, are your entity still doing it? He said, still doing it. There are now 200 franchise stores nationwide. I heard it at that time and thought it was really good, which means he would be at ease. I often look at Taobao and find that there are many things I can't search for, and they say it's normal. He said that I have a product that often sells over 10,000 yuan a month, but it cannot be seen online. Sometimes Taobao deliberately blocks you.
Thank you for your attention and support to Laogao E-commerce Club . Please indicate the source of the reprinting website www.shxuanming.net
Click to register to apply to join the well-known e-commerce network - Laogao E-commerce Club. Any merchants from all over the country, Tmall merchants, Taobao Crown Store, Jinguan Store, and other e-commerce platform merchants can apply to join!
EN
CN
