Product operation and management under e-commerce thinking
Introduction: Shakespeare has a famous saying: There are a thousand Hamlets in the hearts of a thousand people. In the Internet user experience of thousands of people, , every operation can be a skillful performer. The following is the product operation and management based on e-commerce thinking that I bring to you. I hope it will be helpful to you.
I was fortunate to join JD.com in 2015 to do something. I was even more fortunate to have worked in consumer IT companies and the B2B industry. I had served as the head of the brand and marketing department, and also as the head of the brand and marketing department. Served as product leader. Therefore, when I joined JD.com to work in operations, my understanding of users and products became richer and more comprehensive, and I felt closer to users. This was all due to previous accumulation, and of course I also gained more learning and experience. This year, I have been very busy at work, but I also habitually find time to think about and write something.
Preface: All roads must be taken
2015 seems to be a very touching year. For me personally, I joined JD.com on January 15th and became a member of a team that has been in business for more than ten years. I want to do a valuable and dreamy career and work with the team to create a trillion-dollar national economy. Enterprise! In this year, every day is like a running rabbit, rushing forward without stopping, and busyness has become the main theme of every day!
For e-commerce and the Internet, the environment is more complicated, and platform e-commerce Alibaba's growth is slowing down, while mobile e-commerce is accelerating its verticalization, scenario-based and socialization. For example, Miya's platform GMV has reached 2.5 billion in 2 years, with a valuation of more than 8 billion. At the same time, the competition among giants has become more fierce, with mergers and acquisitions happening in various directions, such as the merger of Meituan and Dazhong, the merger of Ctrip, eLong, and Qunar, the merger of 58 and Qianji, the merger of Didi and Didi, etc.?
Market The environment is really changing rapidly, just like the joke of the "Red Lord" at the Internet Conference. As soon as I open my eyes, times have changed! This year, I feel the same for this sentence, and I have a deeper understanding of the so-called "Internet speed". Although JD.com, as the flagship in the e-commerce field, has long had no shortage of traffic and has a clear strategy, when the two giants meet, the brave will win. When friends and competitors are constantly innovating and iterating, as a 3C operation, it must be the first to make forward-looking breakthroughs. The position cannot be lost! When Didi CEO Cheng Wei talked about starting a business at the beginning of the year, what he said: When you work hard to the point of nowhere, God will open a window for you? I think the most important meaning in this sentence is Yes: The road is all made by walking! This is also a vivid lesson I learned in the entrepreneurial team of JD.com. The professional quality that operations should have without a sense of security should learn to walk and walk out of the business itself. What’s the way?!
In the year since I joined JD.com, I have leapt into an Internet e-commerce with user-centered, advocating craftsmanship, agile iteration, ultimate user experience, interconnection of everything, and platform ecology as its core strategies. It is a personal practice of the past user-centered professional demands on the C side, and it is also lucky! It can also be said that we must do a good job in product operation, brand public relations awareness, marketing awareness, product awareness, project management awareness, software and hardware products Integrated operations thinking, sales management thinking, etc. are still indispensable thinking systems.
Operating in JD.com allows every employee to learn and deeply absorb the risk control ability that has become a professional habit. This ability is reflected in the risk safety of billions of cash flows and billions of users. The security of experience, the security of DT-level system architecture, the security of billion-level customer demand protection, the security of billion-level supply chain management capabilities, the security of billion-level order operation performance?
E-commerce, returning to the essence of retail
There is a saying in the art of war: Those who do not plan for the world will not be able to plan for the moment; those who do not plan for the overall situation will not be able to plan for a domain! To do a business and operate a product well, first of all, you must understand its core What is logic and what is its essence.
In Shangyanshang, in "Creating JD.com", the first masterpiece that tells the complete development history and strategy of JD.com, Mr. Liu personally wrote the preface at the beginning, concisely expounding the essence of e-commerce. : Return to the essence of retail!
Retail, from the beginning of humankind, has become human instinct and one of the core needs for survival. As the era and scale of product transactions change, this oldest need has also continued to evolve. But no matter the Age of Discovery, the Age of Industrialization, or today’s Internet+ era, the essential logic of transactions between people will never change. Even the current B2C, B2B, C2C and other models still satisfy every individual. material needs. As shown in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory below, any level is inseparable from “product transactions, meeting needs”, from low to high, especially physical needs such as health, physical goods, rest, and life. There is no traceability to the source. How much changes.
The book "Creating JD.com" also mentioned that through online channels, JD.com can save consumers a lot of shopping costs. Therefore, the origin of JD.com is nothing more than the use of the Internet, guided by new consumer demands, to continuously make breakthrough business model innovations, thereby reconstructing the supply chain system, achieving the purpose of reducing costs, improving efficiency, and ultimately creating new products for consumers. value. This still follows the essence of the retail industry: retail to meet consumer needs. The development and growth of JD.com has never left this essence, and the future must also revolve around this essence.
1. The e-commerce attributes of Internet + retail: connection
Starting from the business end, the purpose is still to meet consumer needs, and it is still retail! But? Internet + retail? However, it has unique attributes and characteristics that are different from traditional retail. The rapid extension of the operation chain in e-commerce has greatly improved the efficiency of commodity flow and also brought unprecedented user experience value: connection.
As an operator, I continue to serve and meet the needs of C-end users through my daily work. Through continuous practice, we realize the connection & connection between products and users, and realize service and The connections and connections between needs.
To use an appropriate metaphor: Operations do not produce products, operations are just carriers of demand!
Regardless of traditional offline operations or Internet operations, they must be based on data! However, through Internet big data mining and analysis, we are better able to think about what users think and worry about their needs. We can even estimate the user's demand cycle through the intelligent judgment of the system, such as: when the food you have purchased is about to be used. When finished, the system automatically promotes the replenishment of goods in advance, warehouses in advance, and reminds users in advance whether to purchase! Let users always have a loyal contact in their lives. This kind of connection is available anytime and anywhere!
In JD.com’s famous inverted pyramid model▼: consumers always rank first. The “business-oriented” operating model in the model directly promotes the substantial optimization of costs, efficiency, product quality, user experience, etc.
Going a step further, the "business-oriented" operating model also helps each "category operation management" to be more extreme and refined. For example: JD.com’s continuously innovative smart logistics can estimate where each warehouse is built through system intelligent traceability and big data calculations, which can effectively reduce the number of goods handling and directly save a lot of costs for the supply chain. In category operations On the other hand, we often take advantage of this advantage. For example, during holiday promotions such as the Spring Festival, we highlight and emphasize the value of JD Logistics, which greatly improves user expectations, reduces user fears, and improves ROI. And these are the bits and pieces of my daily operational work.
2. Operation methodology: How do I operate in JD.com?
In 2015, I was responsible for the department’s 3C business with the largest business volume and the most categories, mainly including dostyle network business and dostyle imaging business. , dostyle headphone business and other peripherals, mobile phone accessories business, totaling 3 main business lines and 11 level 3 categories.
This year, I started from single product operation? Multi-SKU operation? Single category operation? Multi-category operation? Business line integrated operation? Business line branding, user operation, continuous practice, and the performance also went from 0 to 100%+ in the category. Growth, as well as more valuable and effective cooperation and case sharing; now look back to think, review, and summarize this year’s operational work.
How to do operations?
Mainly divided into two parts, one: my operation management system, which is operational thinking, ideas, logic, and direction, and the second: My market operation methodology includes business/category strategic operation ideas and refined operations.
At work, what I think about every day is: how to make good B2C connections, how to implement the three major steps, how to implement the four operational systems, and ultimately achieve good work quality and efficiency. In my specific work, I also need to have a thorough understanding of the category market environment every day, strategize refined category operations, and think about how to decide the direction of operations in multiple categories, etc.
My operation management system (334)
1. Three logics of operation management
As mentioned earlier, operations connect users through daily work, then During the process, I need to consider and solve three problems every day:
a) B-side operation
What value can I produce for users? What kind of demand satisfaction can I create? ?How can we produce content that is more in line with users’ inner needs? How can we guide users to have a clearer understanding of needs?
At work, we continue to iterate products and brainstorm to be more in line with socialization Disseminate valuable content and continuously innovate page design? For example: our first tripod on the market. Regarding the content planning and design of the product details page, I constantly improved the design draft of the product details page. The copy was revised 15 times, and the picture shooting took 5 hours. In order to optimize the number of GIF images on the product details page, I searched across departments. R&D colleagues conducted data comparisons to check whether it affected the user page opening speed. Then, the information I provided to the design was compared with the product pages of nearly 20 key products with leading sales before final confirmation. The effect of the product after it was launched was very good. The first 150 reviews were 100% positive. The page conversion rate was the highest among all dostyle imaging products. As a new product, it only took 20 days to reach No. 4 in the entire category.
b) C-side users
Who are the users? Who are our users, and what are the user portraits? Age, gender, region, social status, wealth, hobbies? More accurate `User data means clearer user needs. Through this, operations can push back the iteration and innovation of products. That is, whoever controls users has the ability to control traffic, master business models, and coerce users to control the princes. My department leaders often ask us: Do we know our users?
In my daily morning routine, one of the most important items is to understand the orders of the day; another example is the price of network products. For sensitive categories, for new products, I will make different prices and promotion methods every three days. On different platforms and different time intervals, I will constantly deduce the price sensitivity of users and test the highest ROI, etc.? Continuous refined operations, all It’s about getting to know our users. Are there many very effective means?
c) B2C connection
That means communicating and connecting with users. The satisfaction of needs from the B end to the C end also lies in the dissemination and flow of value. , flows from me to users, so through which channels can I contact them? How can I reach my precise users more effectively?
In 2015, the leader proposed the "going out" work strategy, emphasizing that we We must strengthen cooperation and communication with various business departments and obtain more and wider effective channels to go global. In fact, it is also to make our value appear in front of more, broader and more accurate users. Let users see that there are channels to convey the value of my products, which is the first step to obtain conversion.
In the first half of the year, through a series of arduous communications, my brother's department and I obtained cooperation. In the end, the very effective full-free promotion drove the performance of online products to increase by 200%. The PV of the SKU business details page drove both PC and mobile terminals, resulting in substantial growth. , rapidly increased from 2K to an average of 10,000-20,000 per day;
It is said that in the mobile Internet era, fragmentation has reduced the community effect of users, so we continue to build channels so that our information flow can Complete the transfer and flow of value within effective expectations, and finally reach the user.
Three latitudes, just like driving a carriage, one is indispensable!
2. Three modules of operation management
a) Content operation: premium content + UGC dual driver
The content operation of e-commerce is destined to be a dual-core and dual-drive content operation model with B-side as the leading + C-side user UGC content. The content of the page is not innovative enough, reliable enough, innovative enough, and down-to-earth enough, and users will not even read it. If user reviews are all negative, no users will be willing to buy or pay, let alone recommend the product to their circle of friends.
In the business details page of each SKU on the B-side, extreme innovation and polishing of details have become the work of every operator and me, such as the following 3 products▼, the first tripod is for better display For different real-life effects, we decided to use GIF pictures, but the loading speed of GIF is slower. In view of the two factors of GIF effect and loading speed, our photographer team spent an afternoon taking hundreds of pictures and selecting them one by one; the second product, The designer spent 3 days on this picture, and iterated the light version several times, just to pursue a better visual effect; for the third product, in order to present the most realistic product picture to users, the header picture was made No less than 20 surveys were conducted and as many as 3 re-shoots were conducted; in the C-side UGC content, users’ true evaluations are crucial and determine the choices of more new users. At the same time, it guides users to make more authentic reviews and product comparisons, providing the most authentic reference for more new users to make choices.
At the same time, during the content editing process of the business details page, a series of contents such as large picture display, real-life picture shooting, GIF dynamic effects, videos, KOL user endorsements, etc. have become part of the routine operations. In addition, it is more important to process high-quality content generated by users through editing, integration, optimization, etc., and disseminate it through various means such as media and user reviews. This often complements product content innovation. The content operations of platforms in the industry such as Baidu Encyclopedia, Zhihu, and Mafengwo are consistent.
b) Market operation: Sometimes, channels are king
In the era of mobile Internet, there are more and more fragmented channels, so to make a good B2C connection, you need to build a good one on the one hand. More accurate and broader effective channels can increase PV and allow users to purchase; on the other hand, we must also use Marketing as a means to build more communication channels to reach users, expose, market, and improve ROI. In 2015, through cross-department communication, we gradually gained effective support from other colleagues in sales channels, such as free promotions, gifts, etc., which ultimately brought high-quality PV and exposure to headphones, network, imaging products, etc.; in addition to Sales channels have also achieved cooperation with various marketing channels. Regardless of weekdays, holidays, and major sales seasons, the category special events I am responsible for have launched wireless + mobile resources one after another. The expansion of resources is the same whether on Tmall, JD.com or other platforms!
c) User operations: attracting new customers, promoting activation, and retaining
In the operation of key new products, Combine KOL users and use their reviews to drive the conversion of new users; or in some product operations, rely on price means to carry out large promotions to quickly drive the conversion and purchase of new users. For example, during a period in 2015, I had a big promotion at the lowest price in history. I sold 888 yuan on that day, which was a very high historical record. Except for some old users, most of them were new users. The conversion rate was extremely high. If according to The fission efficiency of the Internet is calculated, that is, each user has at least 6 friends/colleagues. Then the new users brought by this event will be as high as sales volume and conversion rate of 6. It is also the highest retail sales record for the headphone category in the past three years.
3. Four systems for operation and execution: targeted, with different priorities
There are many outstanding companies in various industries, such as Xiaomi, Apple, Canon, beats, DJI, Wahaha, Wal-Mart, their success is all due to user recognition, but in the process of connecting users, the market methods used by each enterprise are in full bloom, each with its own merits. For example, when mentioning Xiaomi, users often think of brand marketing capabilities; when mentioning Apple, Canon, beats, and DJI, users often think of top-notch products, quality that exceeds expectations, and excellent product innovation capabilities; when mentioning Wahaha, the industry thinks of What is unparalleled is that it has the largest, most complete and most efficient offline channels in China. Any new product launched in Wahaha can be seen in all towns and villages in China within a week, including Tibet and Xinjiang; When it comes to Wal-Mart, what the industry thinks of is its global low-cost supply chain procurement capabilities, rapid supply chain feedback capabilities, huge channel capabilities? etc.
In the book "Creating JD.com" Here, Mr. Liu mentioned that the person he admires most is Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. He once compared JD.com to Wal-Mart. Why? Because the business of JD.com and Wal-Mart are both “retail” in nature. Therefore, the e-commerce model is consistent with that of these enterprises, which require excellent brand & marketing capabilities, high-quality products, strong channel support, and fast and low-cost supply chain procurement capabilities.
Compared with these friends and competitors, Xiaomi has a brand and marketing that has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Walmart’s strength lies in its global procurement supply chain system and channel system. Wahaha lies in the speed of iteration of new product development and channels. So, as the person in charge of category operations, what I have to consider is how can we achieve such excellence?
The dostyle brand is not like Xiaomi or Wal-Mart. We lack a strong procurement supply chain. System, to establish a strong supply chain system in a short period of time requires various investments, which should be unrealistic; unlike Wahaha, we have an efficient product iteration rate, which is beyond our ability at present?
What about channels? Although we also have not completed large and efficient channels to support our product marketing? But we can definitely use this as a breakthrough.
If the product is the heart, then the channel is the blood vessel. If we can continuously deliver fresh blood, then there is a chance for this business. And this point is also an important task that has been promoting construction throughout this year, and it is precisely through this breakthrough that the performance has been greatly improved and other points have been fully blossomed.
Through extensive channel construction, on the one hand, we can effectively reduce our exposure costs; on the other hand, we can very efficiently push our brands and products to the eyes of users, allowing them to see, become familiar with, and purchase them. .
With channels and sales, the supply chain will gradually strengthen its negotiating advantages and reduce costs. Through these, we continue to inject a shot of boost into the product department to promote the efficiency of their product R&D iterations, thereby further promoting the expansion of market share and forming market scale advantages and effects. This is a benign business closed loop.
So how to build good channels? I always adhere to the following three principles:
Any channel has risks. Eggs cannot be put in the same basket. Multi-channel construction shares risks.
So how can we build a good channel? First of all, I think, what is a channel? People are channels, platforms are channels, web pages are channels, and banners are channels? Many things can be channels, then, With so many channels, how to combine them effectively? Invest limited energy into core resources, the 28 principle. According to the channels required for each category, I allocated them according to 4321 in the way of Tian Ji horse racing. 40% of the channels are mainly maintained as platinum channels and invested in key products and high unit value products; 30% of the channels are positioned as gold channels and invested in Special session to carry out large-scale traffic drainage; 20% is positioned as a silver channel and invested in second-tier products other than key products, and the remaining 10% is used randomly.
Third, good steel is used on the cutting edge. If the PV is too scattered, it is often difficult to increase the scale quickly. Therefore, new products and key products should be given special treatment and all resources should be invested in tough battles. Scale up quickly.
My operation methodology
1. Strategic ideas: business line, category operation
IT and 3C products are categories with a very high degree of standardization. For categories The demand for personalized consumption experience is not as strong as fresh food, food, etc.; different categories have different timings and progress in e-commerce, while standardized categories such as 3C and other products have taken the lead in realizing e-commerce due to their product characteristics. User cultivation, overall analysis and observation, 3C and other standardized categories have evolved from various innovative marketing methods in the initial state to the current conventional price competition, and then to the stage of product-driven marketing and marketing-driven products.
So the business strategy of the 3C team is relatively clear, and it is more targeted because of the standards.
Take routers as an example. It is one of the most standard product lines in 3C. Its user training and market size have been relatively stable, and competition is extremely fierce. There are not only industry giants such as TP, but also Xiaomi and 360. In terms of price, dark horses like Jirou and Jirou almost always market with 0 gross profit or even negative gross profit.
In such a Red Sea market, how can I make a breakthrough? What kind of business can be sound, healthy, and sustainable?
a) Red Sea market Breakthrough strategy for single products
The "Purple Cow Theory" advocated by Cheetah CEO Fu Sheng states that in the market, only outstanding products or services that can be unique and different can attract attention. At the marketing level, this means that the value of "a purple cow" is sometimes better than the value of "a group of white cows". Products must be differentiated to attract users, and marketing must be differentiated to impress users.
Through market research and analysis, I found that in the router market, the competition for home routers is extremely fierce, and apart from the appearance, the home routers I am responsible for have no other differentiated features that can be regarded as "Purple Cow". So I chose to avoid this field and chose the mini router + power cat field where my products have more "Ziniu" characteristics. In these two markets, my router and power cat have the characteristics of low price, unique appearance, beautiful workmanship, There are a series of differentiating characteristics such as good quality, weak user demand for the brand, etc. Therefore, in these two markets, one SKU was selected in each, and all the artillery fire was focused on one point to make a single product breakthrough. Within 2 months Quickly improve the ranking from the bottom to the top 3 rows of subdivided categories in a short period of time, focusing on creating hot products, improving users' brand perception through hot products, reducing user acceptance costs, promoting conversion rates, and driving the conversion of similar products and new products. ;
A single spark can start a prairie fire. If a single product breaks through in a Red Sea market, the effect is often very obvious. Domestic 360, Xiaomi, Cheetah Mobile, and WeChat are all classic cases; during the operation process, single products The choice of products is crucial, not only affecting the direction of the entire business, but also affecting users' perception of the brand, and more importantly, more and more extensive internal and external cooperation methods.
Secondly, the war of e-commerce is also a war of traffic at a certain level. Breakthroughs are made through single products to create hot products. This is also the second principle of single product breakthrough strategy: hot products-traffic products. If you have traffic products, you can continuously contribute PV to the main force. At this time, you don’t need too much promotion, and stable traffic can bring them better performance. At the same time, it also brings a lot of PV contribution to other products through SKU association. Mi Ya mentioned above is to continuously strengthen the hot products, and ultimately drive the development of the entire platform.
b) Scale effect in subdivisions
The routers I am responsible for mainly involve three subdivisions (home wireless routing, mini routing, power modem), and I continue to polish the products respectively. Ranking, sales volume, product layout, and several single products such as wireless routers, mini routers, and power modems are promoted to the front row. In this way, through association, the scale effect and brand awareness of the dostyle brand in the router market can be further strengthened; there are By achieving scale effects in subdivided areas, we can continuously promote brand transplantation in other areas and categories.
Another example is the dostyle imaging business I am responsible for. At the beginning, it only had camera cleaning, camera bags and other categories. After significantly improving the ranking of each category, the new tripod product I launched in the fourth quarter quickly gained popularity. Traffic has increased, and when these categories have stabilized, users have begun to identify with the dostyle brand. When I launch the UV mirror, I don’t need large-scale promotion. The basic work can ensure that its ranking will rise rapidly. The UV mirror will not be launched until it is launched. In 2 months, the ranking has been improved to the highest 2nd row in each category.
c) Celebrity effect
Purposefully and strategically cooperate with well-known brands and celebrity products in the industry (except for gifts), one is to drive sales, and the other is to interact with the stars. Shaking hands and shoulder to shoulder will subtly influence users' cognition, making it easier to accept, identify and purchase the dostyle brand; if you work side by side with experts, then dostyle is also a master
d) Ideas on the advantages of high-margin products
One of the operations tasks is to ensure that the gross profit of the performance reaches the standard. This is a hard target. In this regard, one of the most obvious and effective strategies is to use high-margin products to increase overall gross profit. There have been a large number of cases of this in this year’s work;
2. Tactical thinking: refined operation
What is refined operation? In fact, it is just one sentence: pay attention to every detail in execution Pay close attention to the details, and make careful calculations of every resource, and be clear in your mind! Make strategic plans to win thousands of miles!
a) Refinement of work: See all directions, listen to all directions, and understand market changes and rhythms
To do an operation well, I would like to say that you should first do a basic skill, which is to grasp the changes in the market environment and the quality and efficiency of your own operations anytime and anywhere, analyze and manage at any time, and iterate and update at any time. professional habits.
When I arrive at the company every morning, the first thing I do is five statistical analysis tasks. The basis of operations is data mining and analysis, and it is also a fundamental reference:
Statistics, sales statistics, ranking statistics Product statistics, promotion statistics position
b) Tactical refinement
Principle 28: 80% of resources are invested in 20% of products
Water flow rule:? Water? After a large amount of PV is introduced, how to apply it effectively? Assuming that the price is 100 on the special event banner/product page, then when the user enters the special event/product page, the tendency is to have a psychological expectation of around 100 yuan, and only Low will not be high. ① If the price of other products is lower, the effect is OK; ② If the price of other products is higher, if you want to better improve the conversion of high unit value products, product planning needs to be from top to bottom, from top to bottom. Gradually and moderately increase the price range from left to right, so as to maximize the conversion rate more effectively. The premise of the above logic is that products are all user needs and are relevant;
High frequency drives low frequency: breakthroughs in products with high frequency demand can often directly drive the sales of other low-frequency products, Didi This is true for ride-hailing, driving services, etc. In the e-commerce market, this method is also applicable.
Low-price traffic diversion strategy: Low-price traffic diversion, as the name suggests, is to introduce a large amount of traffic through low-priced products. However, among the same type of products, if there are products with high unit value and obvious differentiation, low-price traffic diversion tests are often It is an effective operational method.
The effectiveness of the price gap: If LV does not reduce the price, it will be sold out by users as soon as the price is reduced. Even new brands and products will have explosive effects within reasonable expectations.
Principle 1212 of price sorting for special design: that is, in special design, the optimal SKU display is a staggered sorting of high and low prices. In a row, it can be high price | low price | high price | low price or vice versa. You can come here.
The principle of crossing up and down in the ordering of special design products: In special design, from top to bottom, planning must also be carried out in such a staggered manner; and because of human visual fatigue, proper planning should be done during planning There are 3-5 module areas, and different areas have different contents.
Principles of dynamic line design for special event design: The visual center of the human eye is limited. The fovea is the only place with resolution ability, and the area is very small, so users can only generate one image at a time when browsing the page. Visual focus, the visual browsing route formed by visual focus is also the visual movement line of the page. For the design and planning of the operation page, users need to be guided.
The road is long and long. I will explore it from top to bottom. There are still many highlights in the operation work that deserve our careful consideration. There are still many ideas that we need to explore together on the road of connecting users. , we do it and cherish it? In fact, operations can promote product iteration, research and development, and updates. ;