Financial Crisis and Home Website “Online Supermarket” Facing Reshuffle

In the past 2-3 years, with the rapid expansion of the home industry market and the explosive growth of Chinese Internet users, thousands of small and large home-based websites have rapidly emerged across the country, with the help of VCs and e-commerce as the core model. One type of website, including Home Easy Station, Habitat, Jiabao.com, Wuyou.com, and I love my family, was once very eye-catching.

However, as the financial crisis swept the world in the second half of 2008, China’s home furnishing market has undergone severe adjustments. Many home e-commerce websites rely solely on upstream venture capital to save money and rely on the early prosperity of the market. The once-home-improved home station was faced with the dilemma of bankruptcy due to arrears of huge amounts of money from suppliers and consumers.

In this regard, the industry believes that the reshuffle of China's domestic industry has begun to spread from the entity to the Internet, and all the reshuffle, home-based sites, including home e-commerce sites will also be "the leftovers are king."

"Online supermarket" declared bankrupt

Once fascinating, the home easy station that has been hailed as "online supermarket" is faced with a collapse. Relying on the combination of home building materials and e-commerce, Home Ease Station has also been listed in the “Top Ten Most Valuable Investment Companies in the Chinese Market in 2006” list. However, two years later, under the baptism of the financial crisis, the home easy station is faced with the predicament of survival.

Recently, according to a media report, since the second half of this year, with the financial crisis sweeping across the globe, the wind-breaker has broken, combined with the slump in the home building materials market, directly leading to home easy station business difficulties, directly owed tens of households consumers 1 million yuan , owed suppliers millions of dollars in payment.

With the rapid development of China's real estate home, and the rapid growth of online consumer groups, home-based websites have shown great market development space. From 2006 to early 2008, thousands of home-based websites have mushroomed. At the same time, with the increasingly prominent status of online marketing in the home industry, this “new economy + traditional industry” combination home e-commerce model is favored by many venture capital companies. Easy home station, home treasure network, worry-free network, I love my family is the product of this background.

It is understood that e-commerce in the home industry is only a matter of recent years, so the vast majority of home e-commerce site operators are at the trial and exploration stage. Due to the inexperience and immature mode, coupled with the impact of the financial crisis on the home building materials industry, some “poor physical” websites started closing in the second half of 2008.

With regard to the bankruptcy of the “e-market supermarket” e-commerce model, the industry believes that with the rapid expansion of the home industry market in China, websites with online shopping as a core product have great development opportunities, but so far commercial The maturity of the model is still very rare, and most home-based e-commerce websites have inherent defects in their unclear positioning and low competitiveness.

Home E-Commerce "Achilles Heel"

It is understood that there are generally three types of home electronics business on the market, also known as the online shopping model. The first is the "Bai An Habitat Mode" such as Home Easing Station; the second is the worry-free online booth system + entity agency business model; the third is the "Lei Feng-style" online shopping model, which is convened by the home network portal. Network procurement and single product group purchase.

For e-commerce websites such as Home Ease Station’s “On-line B&Q model,” the business model is similar to the physical building supermarket.

On the one hand, with the support of Fengjin Investment Fund, the brand and influence of the website are quickly increased to attract a large number of potential consumers. On the one hand, a sales rebate agreement is signed with the furniture and building materials supplier to earn a middle interest spread.

For the second type of "home-based business model + online business model," the home e-commerce model, first of all through the website to bring traffic to the business, after the transaction to generate a part of the profit rebate; Second, for some market-selling brands and products to take Regional agency system, master the pricing power, and obtain high profits.

For the above two kinds of e-commerce models, the industry is not optimistic about it, and its consistent view is that there is a model of the lack of core competitiveness of the "Akethiozine". According to Zhu Jiang, vice president of Orient Homeland, home-based websites, especially home e-commerce, “will not be able to rely on venture capital for a long time. Because the website participates in market transactions and gains profits directly, the two types of website brands lack credibility and the service system is not perfect. The congenital deficiency of consumer trust is not high.

For the current home network portals popular collection and just emerging brand buying, because of its use of the portal's appeal and media supervision, as a free intermediary for users and businesses, it is known as "Lei Feng style" online shopping model. Judging from the current level of participation of merchants and market consumers, this model shows the momentum of latecomers to the top, but whether this model can be said to have no defects, the industry believes that the market still needs to be tested.

Home website "Winner is king"

The global financial crisis has caused the first time in several decades that the Chinese home furnishing industry with rapid development has faced profound adjustments. It has also brought about a reshuffle in the market after the proliferation of home-like websites in recent years. A senior person in the IT industry stated that the home furnishing category The website will also shuffle with the home industry's reshuffle. The future will also be a "winner is king" situation.

As a victim, Yu Haitao, the general manager of Aopu Electronics, who has worked closely with “Home Ease Station,” stated that the marketing value of the online platform is increasing, but it is also not allowed to co-operate with a home-based site that is not reliable and is too risky. Big! In the future, Aopu Electric will tend to work closely with a comprehensive home portal.

Athens Lighting has just recently enjoyed the victory of a brand purchase. Its general manager Yang Yixin believes that home websites should provide an independent third-party interactive platform for businesses and consumers, and they should not interfere in the business process of both parties. In China, businesses deal directly with consumers, so that transactions between supply and demand are not affected because of special circumstances of third parties.

It is understood that as the impact of the financial crisis continues, the "butterfly effect" of home-based websites has become more and more obvious, and many websites such as Home Ease Station are facing operational difficulties and are about to collapse. Some professional portal websites that experienced the Internet reshuffle in 2001 remained strong.

Experts pointed out that both merchants and consumers should choose portal websites that have strong brand influence and strong credibility. For merchants, it is a trustworthy online marketing platform. For users, it is a reliable massive information database. Most websites can experience the test of market and time.