"Competition in retail, no matter how the form changes, must ultimately be the competition of commodity supply chain and service capacity, otherwise all development will be castles in the air." Previously, when talking about the competition and development of the retail industry,SUNINGZhang Jindong, chairman of the holding group, pointed out. It is worth noting that SUNING, who is in his thirties, also opened the next decade of scene retailing with service as the core.
At the previous launch meeting, Gu Wei, vice president of SUNING Group, announced that SUNING defined the next decade as a "decade of scene retail service", comprehensively upgraded from "retailer" to "retail service provider" and focused on good service. As the core competitive business of the platform, SUNING 3C business has also ushered in a new round of service upgrading this year.
The value of focusing on good service was established 30 years ago.
For the traditional 3C consumer electronics retailer, its essence is only selling goods, and the problem is only based on the commodity level. However, in the era of online and offline retail, the selling points and prices of goods have become very transparent, requiring the platform to focus on goods and users and provide differentiated services at the front and back end. As Chen Yuan, general manager of the after-sales service center of SUNING Consumer Electronics Group, said, only goods + services can provide users with new value. To paraphrase Lao Luo, it is to buy a machine to make a friend, and the service with temperature is the biggest difference that consumers feel.
As we all know, affected by the epidemic this year, health codes are required to take buses and subways and to enter public places such as shopping malls and restaurants. However, for some elderly people, smartphones just make phone calls and send messages, and how to obtain health codes and use them has become a difficult problem, and some elderly people's travel is also restricted.
"it was seeing some pain points during the epidemic that prompted us to pay more attention to the service experience of groups such as the elderly and the deaf-mute," Zhang Wuyang, vice president of SUNING Consumer Electronics Group Communications Company, told TechWeb. "the essence of serving consumers is not only to provide more discounts on prices, but also to achieve the ultimate in the detailed use of goods and later maintenance."
In SUNING Life Square in Xinjiekou, Nanjing, Aunt Zhang, who has retired for three years, told TechWeb that she lived nearby and that her children had developed abroad, and that she did not come back this time. Sometimes, she would come here and ask the shop assistant for functions that she could not use on her mobile phone. "they all have a good service attitude, and we locals agree with SUNING on this point."
Zhang Wuyang pointed out that Chairman Zhang Jindong has stressed before that service is SUNING's only product, serving users well and solving the needs of consumers is the top priority of our work. To this end, in recent years, SUNING has continuously improved the services on 3C electronics and other goods, and introduced trade-in and home recycling products, so as to reduce the obstacles for users in purchasing goods.
It is worth noting that SUNING's service values were established as early as 30 years ago. According to Zhang Wuyang, SUNING first worked in air conditioning. At that time, an air conditioner was equivalent to the price of a flat, so service was the most important. In addition, he also said that unlike the outsourced services of his competitors, SUNING has always insisted on serving himself in order to improve efficiency and narrow the gap with consumers.
From short-term price war to long-term value war, retail service is redefined.
In 10 years, the mobile phone market has completed the upgrade from functional phones to smartphones. At the same time, mobile phones are no longer just a communication tool, carrying a variety of travel, financial and social elements. Today, with the rapid development of science and technology, the past service model has been unable to meet the needs of consumers. For the platform, the mode and logic of the service should also be upgraded according to the changes of users' needs.
Chen Yuan told TechWeb that the current service no longer only refers to after-sales service, but also an indispensable part of the current service, such as pre-purchase consultation, consideration of consumers' purchasing power, logistics and distribution speed and one-to-one guidance.
In the past, almost everyone thought that the experience of goods depended entirely on the manufacturer's production. However, in the new retail environment, the platform has begun to assume the important task of services, not only to provide services around goods, but also to provide multiple solutions centered on users, thinking of some possible problems before users, instead of thinking about solutions when they encounter problems.
It is understood that in the 3C category of mobile computers, in order to enable users to understand the products more clearly and get started quickly, SUNING uses more new media technologies to provide services for users, such as remote upgrades, online 1V1 guidance and live video teaching, especially for the elderly.
Chen Yuan said that SUNING, as an authorized dealer of iPhone, has obtained the double certification of both online and offline distributors. In addition to providing official services, he also provides additional services such as trade-in, original factory maintenance and worry-free use. Among them, in the after-sales maintenance link, SUNING provides free pick-up and delivery service, the whole video for users to check, but also for users to estimate the entire maintenance time. In addition, for new iPhone users, SUNING also provides 30-minute one-to-one service, distance learning, to help users unlock all the functions of iPhone, some even old iPhone users do not know.
In terms of mobile phone recycling, SUNING launched one-stop renewal, credit renewal and 0 yuan for 5G services. According to TechWeb, SUNING previously invested in the city gang second-hand mobile phone recycling platform, the recovered brand covers most of the current mobile phone products, and has been comparing with competitors in terms of price, striving to maximize the interests of consumers while providing one-stop service to consumers.
When recycling and replacing, SUNING will also subsidize price increase coupons to users. According to the actual experience of TechWeb, a good-looking iPhone is recovered and a price increase coupon of 60 yuan is obtained, while a maximum subsidy coupon of 400 yuan is obtained. During the period of August 18 this year, SUNING also provided a maximum of 1000 minus 1000 new machine coupons, and for SUNING Super members, they can also enjoy an exclusive subsidy of 10% more for selling old phones.
In addition, with the continuous improvement and upgrading of SUNING's supply chain and home service, SUNING has now been able to achieve an one-stop trade-in, which is simply the synchronization of machine purchase and recycling. Users only need to pay the price difference and wait at home to recycle their old machines. In addition, you can also enjoy the same subsidy policy to support the installment of the price difference. SUNING revealed that the service has covered 88 cities across the country.
In Chen Yuan's view, what SUNING sells now is no longer a single commodity, but services that revolve around the entire life cycle of users and products. Only when users' needs can be thought of in advance from the front end and back end, can better services be provided. And these services will also be transformed into higher user stickiness, and through word-of-mouth spread, attract more users to shop on SUNING.
In the short term, without looking at the return of the user experience, there is only the bottom line and no upper limit.
For a single commodity, the difference in quality on each major platform is getting smaller and smaller, and the supply is relatively sufficient. In order to obtain traffic and customers, the most simple and effective way is to fight a price war. The tens of billions of subsidies in the past two years are enough to see the fierce competition. For SUNING, while investing in subsidies, he is also upgrading the service, obtaining it with subsidies to customers and improving the stickiness of users with services. Chen Yuan pointed out that SUNING's service is no longer limited to a single product, but the whole upstream and downstream front and rear linkage, to provide good service for users throughout the life cycle of the product.
According to the official data released by SUNING 3C, the corresponding service has been provided to more than 6 million people by July 2020, and the response time of the service has been doubled. Among them, the penetration rate of trade-in reached 25%, coupled with interest-free installments for consumers to save 2 billion yuan; SUNING quick repair penetration reached 10%, various affordable maintenance and subsidies for consumers to save 20 million yuan a year.
At the same time, in the 818th Shopping Festival, SUNING also launched a limited edition of 49 yuan for battery and other services, opened fire at 10:00 every day, and ran out of 2000 orders in one minute.
According to Chen Yuan, thanks to SUNING's offline advantage, any visible product can actually come to the store to experience. If you want to buy a washing machine, consumers can also wash their dirty clothes on the spot to feel the effect. She says the goods are cold, but the service is warm, which is the biggest difference consumers can feel.
One shop, one person and one APP constitute the service position of SUNING 3C. To be sure, service is a long-term process, and it is difficult to see obvious returns in a short period of time. In this regard, Chen Yuan said, "SUNING's investment in the service is huge, and there is only the bottom line and no upper limit for the user experience. at this stage, what SUNING needs to do is to do the service well, no matter how much money he spends."