Once Bianjue, who once talked about the industry as a model, has finally exposed his weakness and dilemma. According to the 2008 financial report of its parent company, Cuifeng Group, as of January 31, 2009, B&Q had a loss of more than RMB 500 million in China.
Traditional building materials channels are difficult
B&Q decided to close 22 of China’s current 63 stores, and 17 of the remaining 41 stores will further reduce the area. Prior to this, B & Q had also been ambitious to open 100 stores in 2009, but by the financial crisis, all this has now become a bubble.
Once the traditional stores are under pressure and dilemma, the most direct way is to pass them on to suppliers, especially small and medium-sized suppliers that lack bargaining power. When the famous economist Lang Xianping dissects the nature of the retail industry, he reveals the tactics that Gome and other hypermarkets transfer financial and operating pressures to the supplier's financial industry.
This kind of phenomenon is no less than that in the home building materials industry. Yadier and Hongnai flooring have all filed lawsuits against B&Q. Yadir reflected that B&Q's rebirth was more than 35%. Han Li's home delivery stated in the indictment that B&Q's arrears exceeded 10 million yuan, and the company could not continue. According to lawyer Ma Yide of Beijing Zhongzhao Law Firm, who participated in the dispute over B&R's disputes, there are nearly 300 small and medium-sized suppliers who have complained to the China Building Decoration Association for the same reasons.
It is not just B&R who is suffering from difficulties, and the traditional channels for building material sales are all difficult. OKM has switched off two stores in Beijing. Home Depot's poor management and declining performance have caused China's president Chen Yaodong to resign. The Red Star McGraw and the House of Home suddenly announced the establishment of a strategic partnership after repeated price cuts and promotions. It was speculated by industry insiders that one of the goals of the family is to better meet the requirements of suppliers. Relieving rent pressure.
Traditional store combined with online sales is the best way out
Combining traditional storefronts with online marketing is the best way out. This is a growing awareness among building material suppliers. Now, not only is the old-fashioned real estate website organized by SouFun, Focus, etc., organized and collected, but the eye-catching is that professional building materials marketing websites have risen at a high speed, and they are targeting more accurate and professional people. Ways are more diverse. The Home Business Network's business alliance has just unveiled at the beginning of 2009. In March, the Home Fair held six events to shake the industry, fully demonstrating the power of the new online marketing model.
The driving force of direct promotion of building materials network marketing is the awakening of building material suppliers. They have already felt the limitations and shortcomings of traditional channels, and they have begun to vigorously expand their network channels in an attempt to combine the two to achieve complementary advantages. If it is said that the number of sales through the Internet is somewhat fashionable, then more and more building material companies now feel that this is the only way out.
Network marketing happens to complement the advantages of traditional channels. The advantage of traditional channels is that the buying experience is real and the owner can see the real thing. However, there are many deficiencies. The first is that the cost of operating a traditional store is too high. To maintain a traditional 50-square-meter store in a supermarket like Hongxing or even a one-year shop, the rent will not be less than 200,000 yuan. Then add up the other costs, 30-40. Million of operating costs are very conservative. Many businessmen deeply said with deep feeling: "Every day one blinks, the first thing to think about is how to sell today's rent for water, electricity, and staff salaries. Every day is stress."
Internet marketing costs are low, there is no rent, no utilities, no staff salary, no management fees. The fact that due to the particularity of building materials, the limited space available in traditional storefronts is always limited in the number of products that can be displayed, and the network can display products without limit, and can display many products that cannot be displayed in traditional stores, or are difficult to display. The content of the important promotion function. For example, you can display your own quality services through pictures or videos, including virtual decoration through advanced IT technologies.
The traditional store's radiation capabilities are always limited. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 200 large and small building materials cities in the city of Beijing, and each building materials city has about 200-700 stores. Due to the high cost of purchase, the owner will not go to every building materials city, and will not visit every storefront in the building materials city.
However, on the Internet, due to the low purchase cost and the lack of transportation time and transportation costs, the owner will not spend a lot of time walking around the store. Opening a business’s online store will only take a few seconds, so owners will have more. More time to focus on all aspects of products and brands. Compared to traditional storefronts, on the professional industry website, the probability that building materials products are noticed by the owners has increased by tens or even hundreds of times. This is no wonder why well-made professional building materials marketing websites have access to tens of thousands of people every day.
As owners increasingly rely on the Internet, they are accustomed to selecting products on the Internet from Monday to Friday. After observing the quality and reputation of each product, and determining the purchase intention, they will go to the experience shop to find out more about the real thing on Saturday and Sunday. . Therefore, it is very important to grasp the owner’s heart from the determination of the purchase intention. The promotion of the owners’ desire to go into the store creates a desire to purchase. Many professional websites have made very useful explorations. For example, the homebroadnet points system uses home appliances as its entrance, and the more the consumer, the more the design principles that are used to earn more effort. Greatly promoted the owner's joint purchase and the benefit of multiple consumer experience alliances, greatly increased the transaction volume of the cooperative merchants, and became a major marketing initiative in the industry.
Nowadays, for the home improvement building materials industry, online marketing is not a question of whether to do it, but how to do it. The entire industry needs more professionalism and good network performance. In particular, it knows how to combine traditional websites to open sales. And promote the situation. This trend will speed up the process in the cold winter of financial crisis. The deep integration of traditional channels and network channels is already an irreversible trend.