With the development of e-commerce and the change of people’s consumption concept, many emerging e-commerce models have gradually formed in China, and O2O e-commerce model, as one of them, has the characteristics of taking into account the advantages of online shopping and traditional consumer market, which plays a crucial role in the development of e-commerce and also points out a new direction for the future development of furniture enterprises.
O2O is the abbreviation of online to offline, is a kind of online, offline interaction business model, refers to the enterprise will commodity information and service information through the network platform to show consumers, attract consumers to actively search for information online, willing to go offline physical store experience and feel the product, and finally complete the online payment of a new type of e-commerce model. Since the O2O e-commerce model was proposed, the advantages of its online shopping and offline experience model have gradually emerged, bringing a great impact on traditional business and triggering a new business model revolution.
Furniture products have high prices, long life cycle, high transportation costs, is a typical consumer durables, the traditional e-commerce model is not applicable to the development of furniture enterprises, the main obstacles are as follows.
Consumers often do not choose to buy online because they are not willing to bear the high logistics costs or worry about the furniture in the process of transport will be subject to loss. And if consumers are not satisfied with the furniture goods, often due to the failure to find professional logistics and delivery and give up the return, so that the business “return package” commitment is a formality.
Consumers in the purchase of furniture need to combine housing structure, housing area and interior decoration and other factors to determine the style and style of furniture, and only in front of the physical to feel the level of furniture materials and craftsmanship, and online purchase of furniture standardization is high, the consumer’s sense of immersion is not strong.
Many furniture companies can not provide installation services, while consumers due to lack of expertise and improper operation, thus damaging the quality and service life of furniture. At the same time, it is difficult for network sellers to provide after-sales service and other additional services, making consumers believe that there is no protection when buying online.
consumers will be more cautious in choosing to buy online, will be worried about the risk of distortion of pictures and text and do not fully believe in the network introduction, few consumers purely in the online see the introduction to buy furniture directly.
At present, China’s furniture enterprises on the O2O model has launched a certain amount of exploration, the most typical is the implementation of the Merrell “dual platform O2O” business model, indicating that the development of furniture enterprises O2O e-commerce model is feasible, for the following reasons.
First, in recent years, China’s furniture enterprises are in the key period of growth mode transformation and industrial structure transformation, enterprises want to achieve transformation, expand market share, you need to change the traditional marketing model, and actively carry out network marketing.
Second, with the continuous development of e-commerce, network platforms and payment technologies are relatively mature, and network users continue to grow, greatly pulling the user’s online payment behavior. In addition, major banks have gradually launched activities such as online banking and quick payment to support and promote online payment activities, and bring them closer to consumers by innovating payment technologies and innovative service models.
Thirdly, the offline experience of O2O e-commerce model can help consumers eliminate their worries and let them understand and feel the products through the experience in physical stores, so that they can make purchase decisions.
Based on the analysis of the impediments to the development of traditional e-commerce model and the feasibility of developing O2O e-commerce model for furniture enterprises, the marketing strategies of furniture enterprises are proposed.
Furniture enterprises should master a large amount of customer data, constantly update customer information through information collection and timely discovery of potential customers, and conduct in-depth data mining and analysis. At the same time, according to the different needs of customers for group management, appropriate push to meet the needs of consumers furniture commodity information, and the introduction of consumer coupons, points and full reduction activities to attract consumers to buy. Furniture companies also need to segment the market, fully exploit the personalized needs of consumers, personalized recommendations for customer buying preferences, the implementation of specific content of targeted marketing.
O2O e-commerce model is closer to the consumer’s demand for shopping experience. Furniture companies in the design of the experience store, not only to display furniture goods, but also products, the environment and consumer needs should be combined to enhance the sense of immersion of consumers, reflect the corporate culture when displaying products, so that consumers accept and identify with the corporate culture. In the experience store can use high technology to assist marketing, provide free wifi and location-based services (LBS) to facilitate customers to obtain, query and share information about furniture products, but also to enhance interaction with consumers, encourage their suggestions and timely improvements.
Consumers’ demand for furniture products is reflected in both the product itself and the service. To improve its service level, companies should be in close contact with consumers during the furniture purchase process. Furniture companies should improve the level of pre-sales services online, through simulation software to show the effect of furniture or design furniture supporting effects to increase customer experience of furniture goods, and ask designers to provide design and consulting services for consumers. At the same time, enterprises should hire professional installers in the furniture for free installation at home, to provide after-sales service to eliminate consumer concerns about online purchases without protection.
Furniture companies should make full use of the advantages of wide coverage and low cost of network publicity, in the network platform using a variety of ways (such as web advertising, search engine promotion and self-media promotion, etc.) to promote the brand publicity. According to the consumption characteristics and folk customs of different regions to push the brand’s points of interest and personality, to guide consumers to generate brand identity and offline experience. In physical stores, website LOGO, website address and advertising campaigns are placed in prominent positions to retain customers by providing quality services, thus enhancing the attention of the company. At the same time, word-of-mouth marketing should be used to strengthen the brand image and shape brand awareness and reputation.
Furniture is durable consumer goods, its own characteristics, consumer psychological characteristics and logistics and distribution and other limitations are limiting the development of furniture companies’ online marketing, the O2O e-commerce model of furniture companies to explore the marketing strategy for the development of furniture companies to provide new ideas.