After the development and evolution in recent years, the field of maternal and infant e-commerce has basically formed two major models: one is the comprehensive platform represented by Tmall, JD.com, Amazon, etc.; the other is represented by BabyTree, Mi Mother and baby vertical e-commerce represented by Yabaobao, Beibei.com, etc. includes three forms: community type, overseas shopping type and o2O type.
Judging from the current development status, the market competitiveness of maternal and infant vertical e-commerce is far behind that of large platform e-commerce. Data from Analysys Think Tank shows that in the third quarter of 2014, the top three market share of maternal and infant e-commerce in my country were all large platform e-commerce companies, namely Tmall (55.5%), JD.com (17.4%) and Dangdang ( 4.6%). However, the overall market share of maternal and infant vertical e-commerce is only 11.3%.
Obviously, this distribution is extremely unreasonable. The reason is mainly because comprehensive e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.com have high popularity and have established a high degree of trust with consumers. At the same time, consumers also have shopping experiences on these large platforms, are more sticky, and are more willing to choose them. Finally, these large platforms also have a relatively rich product range and can provide consumers with more diversified choices.
Maternal and infant e-commerce is a new blue ocean after fresh food e-commerce and has huge development potential. Therefore, maternal and infant vertical e-commerce also has huge room for development. The current key issue is how to build its own brand advantage and popularity in the competition with comprehensive e-commerce giants such as Tmall and JD.com, so as to seize more traffic and cultivate its own fan users.
◆Pure vertical cross-border maternal and infant e-commerce
Compared with comprehensive e-commerce platforms, vertical maternal and infant e-commerce has more precise differentiated positioning and unique brands Added value can also effectively solve consumers’ needs and pain points with a more focused and professional attitude. Therefore, vertical maternal and infant e-commerce can attract and stick consumers from the following three directions.
(1) Accurate differentiated positioning, highlighting platform advantages
In the era of mobile Internet, people are more pursuing personalized, long-tail, and customized consumer experiences. Therefore, vertical maternal and infant e-commerce companies need to segment consumers’ demand pain points and carry out more precise differentiated positioning for specific needs to highlight their platform advantages and cultivate their own brand fans.
For example, in response to the preference of domestic consumers for imported products, Miyabaobao will focus its development on imported maternal and infant products, so that consumers with relevant needs will first think of this e-commerce brand. . For another example, Beibei.com’s advantage is non-standard products, which can provide consumers who pursue personalized products with a richer variety, higher quality, and more professional non-standard products.
Obviously, this strategy of refining demand pain points and accurately positioning its own advantages conforms to the consumption characteristics of the mobile era, can effectively cultivate its own fan users, create unique brand value, and use fans to Word-of-mouth communication in the community realizes the rapid spread of brand influence.
(2) Create high-quality services with unique value and enhance product competitiveness
In the era of mobile Internet, quality is no longer an issue, and competition among homogeneous products is more reflected in Price and service. For vertical maternal and infant e-commerce, the price is obviously not comparable to that of large and powerful e-commerce platforms, so they can only start with services to improve the competitiveness of their own products.
To put it simply, it is to adapt to the humanistic characteristics of the mobile Internet era, focus on consumers’ product experience and personalized demand pain points, create unique high-quality services, and create products for consumers besides products. More value experience, so as to build its own product advantages and attract more consumers with the help of differentiated, customized and humanized services.
(3) Multi-channel marketing and promotion to enhance brand awareness
In the era of mobile Internet, attention has become the main resource for merchants to compete for. Vertical maternal and infant e-commerce companies need to use various channels to strive to increase brand awareness, let more consumers pay attention to and understand themselves, and achieve the spread of brand influence.
In terms of online marketing, we must not only use the diversified communication media in the mobile era to disseminate advertising information on multiple screens; we must also use unique platform and product advantages to cultivate our own fans and users, thereby leveraging The word-of-mouth spread of the fan community can help shape and spread the brand image; in addition, we can also actively organize various online activities related to maternal and infant knowledge to create impactful and attractive “news topics”, thereby leveraging the power of the Internet Viral communication characteristics enable brand snowball spread.
In addition to online marketing, vertical maternal and infant e-commerce companies must also pay attention to offline promotion. For example, go to hospitals, maternal and infant health care centers, maternal and infant training institutions and other places where target consumer groups gather to promote the brand, so that more consumers know and understand themselves, thereby channeling offline traffic into online.
◆The O2O model of vertical cross-border maternal and infant e-commerce
In fact, in addition to pure online malls, vertical maternal and infant e-commerce also has an o2O model, which is the traditional physical maternal and infant e-commerce. Baby brands have transformed into e-commerce operations, such as Qinqinbaby, Leyou, Redbaby, Mother and Baby Home and other brands. These maternal and infant physical brands have innate offline advantages and have a certain degree of popularity among target consumer groups.
At the same time, many non-standard products in the maternal and infant market, such as intimate clothing, infant strollers, toys, etc., have strong product experience attributes. When consumers purchase these products, they are more inclined to experience them offline rather than just viewing picture information online.
Therefore, for the e-commerce operation of offline maternal and infant brands, the key is to effectively integrate various online and offline resources, open up all online and offline channels of the maternal and infant market, and build an O2O ecological closed loop , realize the online import of offline traffic and the offline experience of online users, thereby effectively solving the problems of user stickiness and traffic conversion.
On the one hand, effectively maintain long-term offline customers, establish strong relationships with them, and transform them into loyal fans of the brand, thereby providing a solid user base for online community marketing; on the other hand, On the other hand, it is necessary to encourage online users to go to physical stores for offline experience through various methods, thereby highlighting its own differentiated advantages and creating unique brand value and competitive advantages.
Generally speaking, maternal and infant e-commerce, like fresh food e-commerce, has become a new battlefield in the current e-commerce field. In the market competition with e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and JD.com, the key to the development of maternal and infant vertical e-commerce is to achieve precise positioning and highlight its unique value advantages. That is, with the help of differentiated platform and product strategies, precise brand building and communication, customized, personalized and professional high-quality services, we can cultivate our own fan community, thereby effectively attracting and sticking to more target consumer groups. .