Text/Hong Xiaochun
With the development of Internet technology, e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Tmall, JD.com, and Pinduoduo have changed the consumption methods and consumption habits of most people. Online shopping has the advantages of simplicity, directness, speed, and convenience. Especially after experiencing the "ravages" of the COVID-19 epidemic, more people are not interested in purchasing goods in offline stores, including large items. Choose to buy online.
The author has a similar typical example: A while ago, my family planned to buy a battery car for daily transportation, and my mother actually watched the store’s live broadcast on Taobao. In this regard, the author expressed his personal opinion: "For large items that require installation before use, it is more reliable to buy them in offline stores. Although the price may be higher than on Taobao, the good thing is that the quality and after-sales service are good. Guaranteed." After hearing the suggestion, the mother remained unmoved and said, "Now online merchants have guaranteed the logistics and warranty of their products. During the live broadcast, they also promised to extend the warranty period for free and give away various accessories. Wait, it’s no worse than offline stores.”
The two generations have different opinions on online shopping, which makes people think of the live streaming and various online exhibitions that were popular in the construction and ceramics industry in the first half of the year. The epidemic has pushed back the upgrading of tools and the maturity of channels. Does this mean that e-commerce companies finally have the opportunity to pry open the iron walls of the construction and ceramics industry after many years? Through communication and understanding with consumers and merchants, the author found that all parties have not changed much about the concept of "building ceramics e-commerce". So where does the problem occur?
1
Consumers are greedy for petty advantages and suffer losses at the same time
In Zhihu and forums, from time to time you can see users asking "Can ceramic tiles be purchased online?" "Is it reliable to buy ceramic tiles online?""Is a cheap product a defective product?" and other questions. Although most of the answers are "it's best to buy ceramic tiles in offline stores", there are still some consumers who are eager to try it.
Mr. Li from Qingyuan is one of them. At the beginning of this year, Mr. Li purchased an 800×800mm glazed tile from a certain ceramic tile store. When I purchased it, it was stated that it was 29.9 yuan a piece with free shipping. When the logistics arrived, I was told that I needed to pick up the goods at a logistics point an hour's drive from the city center. Door-to-door delivery requires an additional delivery fee of 200 yuan, and going upstairs requires an additional 5 yuan/piece upstairs fee (elevator room). After negotiating with the store to no avail, Mr. Li chose to refund the money, and posted the chat history with the customer service in the comment area, complaining about the experience of purchasing ceramic tiles online (it is said that he frequently received requests from the store to delete comments afterwards) harassing phone calls).
Not only the online store where Mr. Li purchased the ceramic tiles, but the author also saw similar negative reviews in the comment section of many ceramic tile stores on Taobao, such as the logistics is too slow and the cost of door-to-door delivery is high (the total shipping cost is close to prices in offline brand stores), poor after-sales service (it was promised that damaged goods would be repaired, but the goods were found to be incorrect when received), etc. A piece of 800 glazed tiles only costs more than ten or twenty yuan. Anyone with a little sense can predict that this will happen. After all, there will be no service without profit.
2
It is not the price that determines consumption, but the sense of recognition
If it is just a few cases of being cheated by trying to get low prices, then what is the reason that makes most other consumers distrust buying bricks online? To explain it in terms of consumer psychology, it means a lack of recognition. As we all know, the sales of semi-finished products such as ceramic tiles are relatively cumbersome, and the application requires room measurement, design, etc. If you cannot see the actual product and application design renderings, it is indeed difficult for people to have a sense of recognition.
It is understood that the damage rate of ceramic tiles during transportation and the flatness after paving are usually used by consumers as indicators to judge product quality. Compared with customer service on e-commerce platforms who only reply "Sorry, dear", offline stores have their own set of after-sales service processes, and arrange people who can effectively solve problems at any time to follow up on delivery and communicate with the paving master. Communication, so problems with damage and flatness are rarely raised to customer complaints.
Buyers and sellers belong to a social contract relationship. The key to reaching a transaction is often trust and recognition. BrandThe same is true for the meaning of existence. Therefore, most consumers will care about and search whether a certain brand is one of the "top ten ceramic tile brands".
3
Can online stores only be used as vases for ceramic tile brands?
Most people who engage in decoration or building materials will not recommend that owners buy ceramic tiles online, and they will not invest too much energy in online sales channels. Taking Taobao and Tmall as examples, we can easily find that the prices of ceramic tile products with the highest sales volume are relatively low, and there are few familiar brands. This shows that even small-scale enterprises do not really regard online stores as a tool to drive sales.
Although most brands do not rely on online stores to sell goods, they still establish their own official flagship stores on major e-commerce platforms. When the author asked some brand leaders about their views on e-commerce, most of them said that “very few transactions are made online, and even if they are, they are directed to the local area. Dealer’s offline stores”. As for the drainage effect, probably only dealers can have a real experience.
Regarding the topic of the brand’s official online flagship store, the author heard different opinions during a conversation with a dealer. Mr. Lin, a dealer of a certain brand, told the author that traffic is not their expectation for manufacturers to enter the e-commerce platform, but they hope that manufacturers can protect the terminal price system through the official online flagship store. He revealed, "Those 'pheasant stores' with low prices, shoddy goods, and direct sales from brand manufacturers can be said to have a very big impact on our offline retail." In fact, as Mr. Lin said, most After the brand opened its official online flagship store, the first action was to fight against counterfeiting. Using its identity as the “original owner”, the platform helped eliminate other copycat stores that broke the rules.
A netizen who claims to be the person in charge of a wholesale ceramic tile manufacturer in Foshan also shared his experience. Let’s call him Mr. A for now. According to Mr. A’s description, as a company that mainly focuses on wholesale and has few dealers, retail orders account for nearly 40% of its performance. So Mr. A spent 1,000 yuan to open an online store on Taobao in 2016. However, Mr. A soon discovered that the way of operating an online store is different from that of an offline store. It requires improving rankings, good reviews, etc. Mr. A said, “ I have made a few orders when opening an online store, but I usually ask them to directly add WeChat and provide brick selection through real-life photos and videos, which is more intuitive than online stores. Moreover, customers usually enter the store page because of a certain product, but it also needs to be matched with other matching tiles. The products on it are not updated in time or the categories are incomplete. It is better to show customers the products by adding a WeChat credit video. Now with live streaming and Douyin, I think maybe we can really change the sales method and truly realize B2C. "Although Mr. A doesn't have many expectations for online stores, he has great hopes for the new model of online sales.
As the saying goes, as long as your thinking does not slip, there are always more methods than difficulties. Since it is not impossible to sell ceramic tiles online, is it possible that the model of the existing platform is not in line with the category of ceramic tiles? What do you think about this? Please leave your opinions in the comment area!
Author: Hong Xiaochun
