LED lighting in Tmall: "difficulties" are still not far away
Ten years ago, LED lighting products began to be sold on e-commerce platforms, but the sales performance at that time was not ideal; 10 years later, LED lighting products have made breakthroughs in e-commerce sales performance, but difficulties and bottlenecks are still accompanying them and have not gone away.
Take Tmall Mall as an example. Faced with the irresistible temptation of e-commerce, brands such as Opple Lighting, NVC Lighting, Huayi Lighting, Qilang Lighting, and Aoduo have opened official flagship stores in Tmall Mall. Enter "LED lighting" in the "Tmall Home Decor" search on Tmall Mall, and a total of 3,217 stores and 223,111 related products were found. Most of them are brand-operated stores. Brands include NVC, Opple, Philips, Huayi, Aldo, etc. The products include ceiling lamps, living room lamps, chandeliers, wall lamps, etc.
Whether it is a brand "big name" or an emerging brand, in recent years, an increasing number of LED lighting brands have entered the e-commerce field, and the market potential they have released and the speed of development they have shown are also unexpected. Data from the Tmall platform shows that in recent years, the overall upward trend in sales of lamps and lighting accessories has been very clear, and the development results are gratifying.
For this reason, the discussion about "who is the future between LED lighting enterprise physical stores and e-commerce?" has begun to spread, and this discussion is based on the rapid development of e-commerce, bottlenecks that have not been broken through, and some future possibilities. Investigating the reason, we need to know that due to the special attributes of lighting products, experience, after-sales, distribution and many other links, it is difficult to provide a simple e-commerce sales model.
Market research shows that: 1. Many LED lighting manufacturers believe that mid-to-high-end lighting products must go through physical stores to give customers an intuitive experience. At the same time, the distribution, installation and after-sales service of lighting products are very important; if they only focus on online promotion without the support of physical stores, companies need to bear great risks; 2. Some relatively expensive LED lighting products are niche products in the market, but online sales pay attention to price transparency, so sometimes prices It is difficult to evaluate the price, service or risk; 3. Some e-commerce platforms may charge commissions on commodity transactions, which directly affects the profit margin of the company; 4. Although the initial investment cost of LED lighting companies entering the e-commerce platform is low, the hidden costs of later promotion and marketing are very high, and the profit cycle cannot be determined.
Based on this, many people in the industry believe that LED lighting companies use e-commerce as a auxiliary channel, which is conducive to the company's pursuit of differentiated development. However, if e-commerce is really used as the main channel, it will be equivalent to giving up the "main battlefield" in the lighting field.
LED lighting e-commerce VS physical stores: each has its own bottlenecks to be overcome
Let’s look at it from a discussion perspective: What are the current bottlenecks in the development of lighting companies’ e-commerce and physical stores that need to be broken through? How to achieve better integration and development...
LED lighting manufacturers talk about "e-commerce development"
●The biggest obstacle to the development of e-commerce is the lack of branding operations;
● Professional talents engaged in e-commerce are too scarce;
● The production standards of lighting products on e-commerce platforms are not uniform;
● E-commerce after-sales service requires non-professional logistics, transportation and installation, which is easy to cause damage,
and consumer disputes;
●Lighting brand e-commerce must have strong product R&D and manufacturing capabilities;
●The development of lighting e-commerce needs to enhance product experience;
●It is difficult for a single product or a single series of products to have a future in e-commerce.
●The main problem of physical stores is that operating costs continue to rise;
●Excessive employee wages and employee training costs have led to a decline in profits;
●The category and quantity of products displayed in physical stores are limited;
●The sales and promotion expenses of physical stores are increasingly rising;
●The market coverage and service scope of physical stores are limited by geography;
●Comprehensive brand lighting products are more suitable for sale in physical stores;
●The future direction of physical stores is to "take the road of brand development and refined services."
LED lighting’s future forecast is still optimistic
Judging from online data, lighting e-commerce is growing significantly, mainly because offline lighting companies are actively promoting the "electric shock" process; in the long run, the status of lighting e-commerce will become more and more important, and its transaction scale will also become larger and larger.
Industry insiders pointed out that with the advent of the Internet era, the development of e-commerce has changed the business model of many lighting companies. However, due to the characteristics of lighting products, it cannot be separated from channel outlets and physical store displays. The above data vaguely shows that the current development situation of lighting e-commerce is not so "beautiful", but lighting manufacturers have shown certain expectations and confidence in the future of lighting e-commerce.
Pure online sales cannot capture the hearts of consumers. The most important thing for the sales of lighting products is "implementation", and the core strength of implementation is physical stores; at this level, the sales of lighting products, whether online or offline, cannot be separated from physical stores.
LED lighting is blurry: how to combine online and offline?
In the Internet era, different companies hold different attitudes towards e-commerce. A senior industry insider said that the trend of e-commerce is irreversible. If LED lighting brands want to face competition from traditional channels, they must have to climb mountains and ridges with little chance of winning. However, e-commerce channels mean opportunities and differentiation. From the initial fear of being "electrically injured" to the significant increase in sales brought about by e-commerce, the willingness of LED lighting companies to go e-commerce has significantly increased.
The rise of the "O2O" concept has provided traditional lighting companies with an excellent opportunity to counterattack, further improving the connection between online and offline. We see that the core of the "O2O" model is to bring online consumers to real stores - order or pay for offline goods and services online, and then enjoy services offline. By providing product information, services, etc., companies push information about offline stores to Internet users, thereby converting them into offline customers. Innovative companies should have both physical sales points and online sales and service platforms, making it easier to provide offline consumption experiences and gain a more convenient advantage than purely online companies.
Before the emergence of the "O2O" model, traditional e-commerce relied on the Internet from product purchase to use. It has been criticized by users for lack of consumer experience. The "O2O" model combines the two major functions of "online consumption" and "offline services" to form a complete consumption experience link.
For brand LED lighting companies, this model can be described as "killing two birds with one stone". It can fully integrate the brand's online promotion capabilities and the dealer's channel service experience capabilities. For dealers in the terminal market, whether they like it or not, they are actually experiencing an invisible "channel integration war." The "O2O" model of brand lighting companies requires dealers to provide strong offline support and experience services. The "sales and delivery capabilities" that have been repeatedly emphasized in the past will be replaced by "customer service capabilities" and "customer experience." More small and medium-sized enterprises and dealers are facing transformation pressure.
ANNA