Tmall, which joined the April battlefield midway, was truly caught off guard.
Not all electrical appliance brands are willing to join the price war, but most brands acquiesce and weigh in. Although prices will be affected, the surge in sales and platform subsidies are not necessarily a bad thing. It is quite painful and happy.
On the one hand, the traffic of the platform next door has increased significantly, and on the other hand, suppliers have reduced their own supplies. Problems have arisen on both ends of supply and demand, which has greatly reduced the momentum of the Tmall Electronics Festival, which is trying to gain a foothold.
As a member of the incident, Suning had both a sense of participation and an experience of insufficient participation.
As recently as April 12th, Suning's high-level meeting also talked about learning from Alibaba's Tmall. They are also chasing in this field, and the electrical appliances section launched on the 10th is well-organized and full of impact.
Then……
In just one week, the situation has completely changed.
On the 20th, Zhang Jindong held another meeting and couldn't help but feel deeply emotional.
"Look at these Internet people, they are just different!"
"With deep skills and many tricks, it seems like it can set off a wave on the Internet in no time!"
"We have to study hard, and I also have to learn from Mr. Fang and Mr. Ma."
"I really want to make progress, and Suning has to make progress too."
Zhang Jindong witnessed the changes, combined with Suning's own situation this time, and deeply felt the gap. Suning, the number one offline home appliance chain, should also be considered a giant, right?
But giants and giants seem to be different.
"Tmall seems to have been confused this time. I heard that many products are out of stock. Its own warehousing is not enough. Many of them rely on direct shipments from manufacturers. As a result, many manufacturers have been dragged to Tmall."
Over there." Vice President Kong Guangjun said, "Yigou plus Yixin have an effect of 1+1 greater than 2."
"You can't blame Tmall too much for this. Alibaba also lacks experience in the field of communication traffic. Even the previous Penguin was beaten. It was a crime without war." Regional manager Tan Shaodan said with a smile, "In the final analysis
, Yi Xin’s gameplay is unconventional and unconventional, and the effect is excellent.”
Zhang Jindong thought about the changes in the past week and sighed: "No wonder this Yi Xin can be from the generation of 'Yi'."
When he said this, he suddenly thought of an additional thing: "That PPS was renamed to Yike Video, and now it has become 'Easy' again. Doesn't it also symbolize its high positioning in the Yike Department?"
Vice President Kong Guangjun said what he heard: "I heard that Mr. Fang doesn't pay much attention to this area. It's more Qi He who is doing it."
"Qi He is also a talented person, and Liu Qiangdong is also very good in the domestic market." Zhang Jindong shook his head, thinking about the business section of Yike Department, feeling envious.
After a moment, he asked knowingly: "Did you all read the interview with Mr. Su from E-commerce?"
The atmosphere in the conference room was a little stagnant, of course.
Seeing everyone nodding, Zhang Jindong continued: "Looking at it now, she really let Tesco take advantage of us. This is also one of the major problems that Suning needs to solve. In other words, it is the most important issue before us.
The problem to be solved is how to switch to online, and how to unify offline and offline prices."
"If we don't solve this problem, Suning will not be fully competitive now that e-commerce is booming."
Zhang Jindong's voice became serious.
However, how to solve this problem seems to be a bit difficult.
Offline costs are naturally there, so we can’t close most of the stores immediately, right?
Kong Guangjun has been communicated with in advance, and he will give suggestions that are in line with the above: "Mr. Zhang, no matter what, there is one thing that needs to be paid attention to. You can't delay. The reaction of these Internet people is too fast. On the contrary, our reaction is
It seems very slow.”
He said seriously: "We are already quick in making decisions in the home appliance chain business, but compared with them, we are indeed inferior."
Zhang Jindong asked: "Mr. Kong, what do you mean?"
"I would say, at the very least, there will be a batch of the same price this April. Anyway, there are only 10 days left." Kong Guangjun said, "Whether it is to support online business or to promote the pace of transformation, we
You have to put up the flag this month.”
Mu Yubing, another regional manager, heard this and said sincerely: "If we do this, we will be really at a loss! Tmall is going to spend 5 billion this month. This, this..."
Tmall President Zhang Yong threatened to invest 5 billion, and was praised by the industry for his courage.
This is a huge investment.
How to make it easy to measure?
To put it simply, Suning’s net profit last year was 1.9 billion yuan.
Transformation requires money.
"Our funds are running pretty well." Kong Guangjun elaborated on his strategic thinking. "The money Tmall spends includes warehousing. Even if it is a huge sum of money, it is the idea of earning it back later. If you don't invest money today, you will think about it tomorrow."
There is no place for investment, just like Penguin, if it can spend 5 billion to engage in this e-commerce competition, Ma Huateng will definitely spend a lot of money."
Not everyone can spend it as they want, because they don’t have the foundation.
Kong Guangjun sighed: "I think we are standing at this threshold now. Do we want to move forward? If we want to move forward, we have to spend money. If we don't move forward, Tmall and Tmall will become bigger and bigger, just like
It was Su Wei who said that sooner or later our Suning offline stores will become their product display cabinets."
Transformation costs money, and failure to transform means slow death.
Mu Yubing, who had all the stores under his command, still felt it was inappropriate when he heard this, and started arguing with Kong Guangjun about Suning's situation.
However, except for Mu Yubing, everyone else in the conference room had complicated expressions and rarely participated, because everyone knew that Kong Guangjun was Mr. Zhang's direct descendant.
"Last month, I was interviewed by the media. At that time, I said that the development of e-commerce is too fast. It is not that we want to attack Tesco. It is the expansion of Tesco that forces us to survive and have to join Yike."
Zhang Jindong spoke up. He mentioned his response to Ali's "just do Yike" in the middle of last month, and then continued: "To be honest, I was relatively relaxed when I said this."
"Who are we? We are number one."
"Including when I met Mr. Fang at the end of last month, I told him the same thing, hey, we have come all the way, everyone is number one, who is afraid of whom?"
Zhang Jindong spoke from his heart.
He lit a cigarette and took two puffs before saying: "But this time it really scared me. If I do another interview, I have to use another word to describe our current situation at Suning."
"Life or death."
"Yixin is right there. It is a communication software that has been accepted by most people. But before that, our thoughts on it, including Alibaba or Penguin, I believe our thoughts on it are nothing more than what E-commerce has to offer."
Just advertising, that’s all.”
"Now that Tesco and Yixin are doing this, with this method and this kind of thinking, if we do it a few more times, will Suning still have a chance to catch up with the last train of e-commerce?"
"Life and death are at stake, we have to change!"
Zhang Jindong emphasized this point.
If there hadn't been a slash like Yi Xin's, he felt that the reform could still be advanced slowly, but this slash made onlookers see a dazzling cold light.
E-commerce is developing too fast, the Internet is developing too fast, and the mobile Internet is developing too fast!
If you want to reform, you should start early.
The dissatisfaction of the old brothers is certainly embarrassing, but the prospect of the entire company is the most important.
Zhang Jindong’s attitude is very firm, and his prestige within Suning goes without saying. What’s more, the current competition between Tmall and Tmall is indeed quite eye-opening.
"The company plans to make an additional issuance in the stock market, and the money raised will be used specifically to solve online and offline problems." Seeing that there was no objection, Zhang Jindong continued, "I firmly believe that the future is online and offline.
This is a path suitable for Suning's development, and we must get through the pain period with confidence!"
Transformation, additional issuance, labor pains!
Zhang Jindong's determination was the core factor driving Suning's decision-making.
On April 21st, Suning eagerly issued a price adjustment notice internally, and on the 22nd, the notice was announced to the public.
——Offline Suning Appliance and online Suning Cloud Shopping Mall have the same price!
——Buying Suning products online can also get offline services!
——Suning will maintain sufficient competitiveness in product prices!
This time, Suning did not use the term "lowest price on the entire network" externally, but used it a little more euphemistically.
Mainly because Tmall and Tesco are really crazy.
Tesco is now focusing on the products promoted by Tmall. Tmall is not willing to show weakness when it comes to this, since it has the budget on hand anyway.
Many media have even discovered the details.
“Some of Tesco’s original products had a ‘price protection’ mark, but now they have quietly removed it.”
"As a consumer, I asked the customer service of Tmall. The customer service said that the price war with Tmall is very hot now. Everyone adjusts the price very quickly. It is impossible to determine whether it is the lowest price in the near future, so it was cancelled."
"Now there is no minimum, only lower."
"According to observations, taking a fixed-frequency 'Yuefeng' KFR-23GW produced by Gree as an example, its price in offline stores is 2,860 yuan, and in specialty stores it is 2,810 yuan. Yesterday, it appeared on Tmall for 2,649 yuan
The price is as low as 2,619 yuan on Tesco.”
"Some people even reported that if Yixin can invite new registered users to buy it, the air conditioner can be purchased for 2,500 yuan, saving a full 360 yuan."
"Consumers have indeed received benefits, but can this business situation last long?"
The report from Southern Weekend attracted a lot of ridicule.
"I wish this kind of price war would happen more often. I would place an order quickly while there is a discount, as the weather is getting hotter soon!"
"Stop talking nonsense, just tell me whether you can take advantage of it or not!"
"I'm not inviting my friends to chop me, I'm inviting my friends to get a bargain!"
Price is always a sensitive factor for products facing the market. No matter what the method is, truly profit-making can lead the trend.
The examples cited in media reports are not uncommon, but due to supply volume, similar product promotions cannot be fixed, and the frequency of occurrence is different between the two companies.
Consumers tend to ignore media reports, but this has attracted Fang Zhuo's attention. This can be regarded as a reaction of public opinion.
He has talked internally that price wars, especially large-scale price wars on platforms, cannot be endless and will definitely encounter interference. The voices of suppliers and media reports may be a signal.
Of course, the more direct thing is the call from above.
With the unification of Suning's offline and online prices, the heated price war finally came to an end on other platforms.
On April 23, Vipshop announced that it would conduct a major promotion on apparel products.
Just one day later, Wang Hanhua, the president of Amazon China, also accepted an interview with the media and said that Amazon will start a week-long all-category promotion starting today.
This was an action he finally applied for from the US headquarters.
Amazon China is usually very hard-working, and its performance since April has been even worse. No matter what, even if it invests less money, it still has to make a splash.
Then, then, at 8 o'clock in the evening on April 24, only 5 hours after Wang Hanhua was interviewed, he received a call from the National Development and Reform Commission, asking for an interview related to the price war.
Wang Hanhua was stunned.
"No, no, I haven't started yet. What am I doing with this interview? The interview is with Tmall and Tmall!"
The other end of the phone confirmed after a few seconds: "Hasn't Amazon already launched a promotion page? This needs to be explained here."
Wang Hanhua was dumbfounded: "I just got it today!"
"Then you just said you haven't started yet, Mr. Wang, no matter how much Amazon has done, your cognition must be correct." The leader of the development reform said seriously.
Wang Hanhua: "..."
After he hung up the phone, he notified the vice president of the situation and requested that the promotion page be taken down.
"Ah? What do we...what do we mean? It has no impact at all!" the vice president yelled.
Wang Hanhua sighed: "Whatever you want, you are not a human being inside and outside. I have worked so hard to apply for 500 million, which is only one-tenth of Tmall. I can't do it anymore. I really can't do this job anymore."
As an example named by Su Wei in the interview, Wang Hanhua even cited the report from the beginning of the month when applying, but it only had a budget of 500 million.
As a result, even if it’s 500 million, it’s still a late draw.
How can this be fun... Even Suning is one shot faster than Amazon!
Someone who had a similar feeling to Wang Hanhua was Vipshop, which was one day early... As soon as it came to an end, the price war seemed to be over.
Have you participated? It seems that you have participated, but it seems to have no effect.
Shen Ya from Vipshop was helpless, but he still comforted himself when communicating with his colleagues.
"It's okay, it's okay. Suning has been calling since last month, and it's only now that offline and online are unified, and the result is just like this. Thinking about it, I can still bear it."
"Think of it this way, we experienced a price war between giants, but we didn't really burn money, and we didn't seem to lose anything. I guess Mr. Zhang from Suning is probably not in a good mood right now."
Tesco has captured a large amount of traffic, and Tmall has officially competed. Amazon and Vipshop seem to be inactive. Even Suning, which started the price war and just promoted reforms... seems a little dazed. ()
This chapter has been completed!