It is easy to make sales even with small profits and high sales! What are the characteristics of home appliance EC

--Please tell us the characteristics of home appliance EC.

　In the articles on the theme of attracting customers in this series, I mentioned that the method of attracting customers differs depending on whether the product handled is a "model product" or a "non-model product". Home appliance EC can be said to be the royal road EC that handles "model number products". Fundamentally, a company's capital strength determines whether it wins or loses. The profit margin is quite low because it is a price competition with low profit and high sales.

　E-commerce that appeals with brand power, such as consumer electronics D2C, is also appearing, but it is inevitable to be compared with other companies' products in terms of specifications. A few years ago, "home bakery" became a hot topic, but in no time, similar products appeared from various brands. Even if you develop your own products, one of the characteristics of home appliance EC is that the life of each product tends to be short. This is often seen as a negative, but when a new product with even better specifications is released, it is possible to sell the old model in a campaign, so it can be said that it is easier to control inventory.

　I said that capital strength is the key, but in reality there are home appliance EC sites of various sizes. Although it started on a small scale, since it is a long-established store, it has a good purchasing route and has the technology to repair and sell second-hand products, which is a strong point. One of our strategies is to enhance after-sales service and avoid price competition.

　Even if the store is not well known, it can be said that EC is a genre that new store managers can learn a lot from, as it is possible to make steady sales depending on the ingenuity of the sales method. Because the marketing of the product has been completed by the manufacturer, users are often already aware of the product. The EC side that sells does not need to create a product page and provide a detailed explanation, the demand and supply of the product are clear, and the line "This product will only move at this price" is clearly decided. .

　Even if you open a new store, the products you handle will be the same, so it will probably start by imitating what the existing e-commerce has done. I think home appliance EC is suitable for people who like to analyze numbers in detail and research competitors. Home appliance EC may be interesting for people who are good at market-in, bringing 200 to 300 rather than making 1 from scratch.

--Should home appliance ECs open stores in malls?

　It is normal to open stores in multiple malls such as Rakuten Ichiba, Amazon, and Yahoo! Shopping. I usually tell seminars that there is not much cross-use between malls, but in fact, it is rare, and with the exception of home electronics EC, there is cross-use of malls. This is because they tend to run out of stock and users find the cheapest place to go. In home appliance EC, it is important to set up a mall strategy.

　Only companies with whom we do business can open stores, but there are also malls for major electronics retailers. Even mobile carrier-operated malls and medium-sized malls can be searched for the lowest prices. If you have the physical strength to expand your horizons, it is also effective to open stores outside of the three major malls.

　As a strategy for EC operation, it is necessary to have a cross-sectional view of all malls. The larger the home appliance EC, the more subtly the price of the same product is registered depending on the mall. This is because the impact of sales commissions and campaigns at malls is very large in low-margin home appliance EC. It adjusts the price by what percentage unit and controls the profit. When I find a store that makes this kind of subtle price adjustment, it makes me happy and thinks, "Hey, you're doing it right here." Isn't price control for selling and securing profits the real pleasure of retail?

　I would like to see both the use of tools such as competitive price surveys and dynamic pricing and the store manager's understanding of the characteristics and campaigns of each mall and making adjustments based on their own eyes. The larger the home appliance EC, the larger the number of products and the longer the sale. Since it is not possible to cover all products with human power alone, effective use of tools is essential.

　In-house e-commerce is important because there are many users who search for the cheapest place and arrive from Google search. There are also places where only their own EC has a slightly better price. The use of “Kakaku.com”, which is the source of the inflow of our own EC, will be disgusting. Home electronics EC can be said to be a genre where you search, research, compare, and purchase.