Editor's Note/ As more and more traditional enterprises go online, the increasingly diversified and professional e-commerce derivative service providers are gradually moving to the forefront.
Many signs indicate that the e-commerce service industry is entering its golden age of development. According to the "2011 China E-commerce Service Industry Report" released by Alibaba Research Center: it is expected that by 2015, China's e-commerce service industry revenue will exceed the trillion-yuan scale, and at that time, China will have the world's largest and most advanced e-commerce service industry.
"I just heard a case, Häagen-Dazs Taobao flagship store opened for promotion operation outsourcing, invested 5 million yuan in Taobao advertising, only generated 600,000 yuan in sales, then handed over to a TP (e-commerce service provider) for operation, after improving user experience, invested 600,000 yuan on Taobao, and generated 3 million yuan in sales. International big brands are no exception, if they are not familiar with Taobao, do not outsource, their sales may also be poor."
This is an online comment about the "online" launch of well-known brands. In fact, many traditional brands indeed have the perception that the threshold for online channels is very low and online sales are relatively easy. This was particularly evident in 2009, when many companies rushed into Taobao, spending millions of yuan on advertising, but the results were not satisfactory. Some e-commerce companies that have been operating online stores on the Taobao platform for several years began to transform into online store operation outsourcers, and e-commerce outsourcing gradually gained momentum.
Traditional enterprises struggle with self-managed e-commerce
Outsourcing companies have established platform systems, logistics configurations, and corresponding personnel teams, forming a complete e-commerce operation system, which can greatly reduce the online construction costs of such enterprises, and also enable them to quickly enter operational status, leveraging the advantages of dual-channel operations online and offline.
With the arrival of the era of nationwide online shopping, after the trial period in 2009, from domestic enterprises like Belle, Galanz, and Suning, to international large enterprises like Procter & Gamble and Walmart, the low threshold and natural channel advantages of platforms have prompted many traditional enterprises to either secretly desire or ambitiously aim for a significant victory in the vast potential of e-commerce.
In fact, under the drive of various subjective and objective factors, having no e-commerce is no longer an option for global enterprises. Taking the relatively developed U.S. e-commerce market as an example, more than half of the top ten online retailers are B2C websites operated by traditional enterprises. These industry giants quickly occupy the high ground with their brand and various resource advantages, and their impressive achievements also confirm the promising prospects of traditional enterprises going online.
Compared with the mature European and American markets, China's current top 10 e-commerce companies are almost all pure e-commerce enterprises. However, industry insiders still generally believe: either go online, or be overtaken by others, making e-commerce a standard configuration for enterprises has become a prevailing trend. Analysys Mason (Weibo) believes that although the industry needs further development and maturity, the future layout of China's e-commerce is very likely to be reshaped by new forces - traditional enterprises.
However, despite the beautiful vision, the effects of traditional enterprises entering the e-commerce field are mixed. Channel conflicts, lack of operational experience, and the scarcity of e-commerce talents, etc., are typical dilemmas faced by various traditional enterprises lacking an internet gene. In fact, even well-known international or domestic enterprises that have tried to operate e-commerce themselves not only find it difficult to achieve quick success but may also get hurt, and quite a few have already failed.
"A traditional enterprise wants to conduct B2C business, probably without tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan in capital scale, it would be hard to succeed." A senior person in the e-commerce industry said that whether it is a traditional brand owner, distributor, or retailer, building one's own e-commerce involves a complicated and extensive range of operational links, which means investment and operational failure risks for enterprises unfamiliar with the network.
On the other hand: the rise of traditional enterprise e-commerce and its "cultural incompatibility" precisely provide excellent development opportunities for e-commerce service industries. Wang Ningyuan, IT industry researcher at China Investment Consulting Corporation, said that outsourcing companies have established platform systems, logistics configurations, and corresponding personnel teams, forming a complete e-commerce operation system, which can greatly reduce the online construction costs of such enterprises, and also enable them to quickly enter operational status, leveraging the advantages of dual-channel operations online and offline.
"In fact, it's not that enterprises can't solve these problems, the key lies in the support of funds, allocation of manpower, etc." Ding Jiaqi, e-commerce analyst at Analysys Mason, said that considering their own development and return on investment, traditional enterprises need to entrust some highly specialized requirements and self-built aspects, such as Weibo marketing, to outsourcing companies.
The so-called desire to drink milk does not necessarily require raising a cow, including brand enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises facing high cost challenges. Liu Lei, founder of Xingchangxinda, an e-commerce service outsourcing company with over a decade of industry experience, believes that the state of traditional enterprises being constrained when going online is like a bottle of beer, where the powerful energy needed is hindered by the narrow bottleneck and cap. And one solution is "outsourcing is the way forward."
A billion-dollar pie awaits sharing
The demand for mid-to-high-end traditional brands with certain market foundations and customer loyalty to enter e-commerce will further expand the market space for e-commerce service outsourcing companies.
Compared to e-commerce companies currently facing the "winter" test, e-commerce service providers are quietly waiting for the arrival of the industry spring. The research report released by ChinaVenture shows that there have been 11 disclosed financing cases of e-commerce service companies since last year, involving细分 fields such as software, logistics, marketing, search, community networks, etc., and investments in the entire e-commerce industry have extended to various links in the industrial chain.
What nurtures third-party e-commerce service providers are the numerous business entities conducting e-commerce. One major source of customers comes from sellers on various e-commerce trading platforms. Take Taobao as an example, the 2.6 million sellers generate a series of demands during transactions, while more and more professional service providers are continuously joining the corresponding service ecosystem. Data shows that as of September last year, the number of service providers connected to the Taobao Open Platform reached 42,609, more than 11 times that of the same period the previous year, and continues to grow at a daily rate of 200. This is also the purpose of Taobao launching TP.
In addition to the large number of e-commerce sellers, large B2C e-commerce websites like Tmall also need related e-commerce services. It is understood that currently, Tmall has about 50,000 merchants and 70,000 brands, but only about 100 e-commerce service providers, clearly showing the large supply-demand gap.
With the acceleration of the implementation of open strategies by large e-commerce platforms, it also provides a foothold for e-commerce service providers. It is understood that currently, e-commerce service providers such as XiLang, Shopex, and E-store Treasure have all established cooperative relationships with e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and Paipai.com. Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier, the demand of traditional enterprises—especially mid-to-high-end traditional brands with certain market foundations and customer loyalty—to enter e-commerce will further expand the market space for e-commerce outsourcing providers.
On December 1, 2011, the much-anticipated "12th Five-Year Plan for E-commerce Development" was officially released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It clearly proposed that by 2015, China's e-commerce transaction volume will exceed 18 trillion yuan. In the context of explosive growth in B2C, some industry insiders believe that in the next two to three years, the e-commerce service industry has a market space of hundreds of billions of yuan.
Regardless of whether this prediction is accurate, it is clear that outsourcing is undoubtedly a shortcut for traditional enterprises to enter the e-commerce field. It is understood that currently, the B2C business of domestic enterprises such as Midea, Anta, and HTC has all been managed and operated by e-commerce outsourcing service enterprises.
"The main source of income for outsourcing companies comes from charging service fees to brand owners and taking commissions from transaction amounts, their advantage lies in focus, low cost, and low risk." Chen Shousong, analyst at Analysys, said that from the perspective of supply and demand relationship, although the number of e-commerce service providers is growing rapidly, their service capabilities are still unable to meet the increasing demand of traditional enterprises to go online. Share to: Related reports: Traditional manufacturers going online give birth to professional online store managers实体 retailers face three difficulties when going online: what to sell, who buys, how to deliver Retail enterprises are encouraged to "go online" and open stores Weibo recommendation | Sina Technology Official Weibo