Research on the Present Situation and Development Prospect of Shopless Sales Industry in China

Abstract: "Store-free sales" is one of the important forms of modern marketing, which is very different from all kinds of store sales in terms of operation process and management methods. "Store-free sales" has great advantages in expanding the market, facilitating purchases, improving distribution efficiency and saving flow costs, and has become one of the main ways of distribution and market circulation for enterprises in various countries. This paper focuses on the development of this new marketing method in China, and makes an in-depth discussion around three forms of no-store sales: TV shopping, mail order and online store. The market status, market characteristics, development constraints, countermeasures and norms of store-free sales are described in detail, and the development prospect and trend of this industry are predicted.

[Keywords:] No store sales; Retail industry; TV shopping; Mail order; internet store

Store-free sales, as a sales format corresponding to traditional store sales, has a good development prospect and far-reaching economic significance today with the rapid development of information technology. In June 2004, 5438+ 10, the Classification Standard of Retail Format listed five forms of store-free sales as retail formats for the first time. The way of no-store sales has been officially recognized by the retail industry in China, which has also set off a climax of the development of no-store sales. "Store-free sales" is one of the important forms of modern marketing, but it is quite different from various types of store sales in operation process and management mode. In view of the low proportion of retail market in the store-free sales industry, this paper studies the present situation, management and restrictive factors of the store-free sales industry in China, and puts forward the development direction and management strategy of the store-free sales industry in combination with the reality, which has certain practical significance for promoting the development and management of the store-free sales industry in China.

First, the status quo of the store-free sales industry

(1) Store sales are not defined. In a broad sense, retail without stores, also known as "wholesale and retail behavior without fixed location", is a concept opposite to store sales, that is, the retail format in which goods are delivered directly to consumers by manufacturers or merchants without going through store sales. It developed in Europe, America, Japan and other advanced developed countries in the 1960s and 1970s, and was introduced to China in the mid-1990s.

On June, 2004, 65438+ 10/day, the new national standard "Classification of Retail Format" was officially implemented, which was approved and issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the National Standardization Committee. The new standard expanded the original nine retail formats in China to 1 7. Among the eight new formats, there are five retail formats without stores, including TV shopping, mail order, online shopping, automatic kiosks and telephone shopping. At this point, the formal implementation of the national standard of "Classification of Retail Business Forms" officially recognized the store-free sales model of China's retail industry. After warehouse-type shopping malls, large-scale comprehensive supermarkets and convenience stores have become the hot spots of retail development, the store-free sales mode is likely to become the new focus of the domestic retail market.

(B) The basic form of store-free sales in China. According to the latest national retail format classification, China's store-free sales can be divided into five basic forms, as shown in the following table:

Generally speaking, the development of the east and the west is unbalanced, and the development of the west is slow due to the restrictions of consumption level and other conditions. In the no-store sales mode, the rapid growth of "online shop" reflects the attractive prospect of no-store sales mode. According to 18 Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, as of July 2006, the number of online shoppers in China has reached 30 million, and14 netizens have had shopping experience. Therefore, this paper will focus on the research and analysis of "online store" in the store-free sales.

Second, the online store market analysis

(A) the basic situation of online shopping in China

1. The online shopping army reached 30 million people. Among all Internet users, 65,438+0/4 netizens often shop online. Compared with the same period last year, the number of netizens who often shop has increased by 50%.

2. Online habitual consumers (or online shopping regulars) account for nearly half of shopping netizens. If people who shop more than four times in half a year are defined as habitual online consumers (frequent online shoppers), the proportion is 47.6%.

3. The online shopping market is huge

(1) The huge number of shopping netizens and the accumulated shopping amount of shoppers for half a year mean that the accumulated shopping amount of online shoppers for half a year reaches 10 billion yuan;

(2) Similarly, the number of shopping netizens and the proportion of their purchases of mobile phones mean that more than 3 million mobile phones were purchased through the Internet within half a year;

(3) More than 65,438+05% of online shoppers have bought clothes and household items, which indicates that the B2C market in China has developed from books, video products and computer digital products into a diversified consumer market.

4. Nearly half of the reasons why netizens shop online are to "buy goods that are not available locally", which puts forward new requirements for businesses providing online shopping services: it is very important to carry out nationwide online commodity sales services and establish a nationwide commodity distribution system.

5. When netizens shop online, the proportion of online payment increases to nearly half, which may be related to the rapid development of C2C shopping market.

(B) problems and solutions in online stores

1. Information asymmetry leads to credibility problems. An important reason for the problem of credibility is information asymmetry, which has two meanings: on the one hand, merchants do not publish false goods and sales information, that is, the credibility of merchants; On the other hand, online shoppers will not cancel orders for no reason, that is, the loyalty of buyers. In this regard, I think the first thing should be industry self-discipline; Secondly, the combination of various businesses to form industry associations will play a positive role in promoting the development of online shopping.

As for the buyer's loyalty, at present, merchants' solutions generally avoid the loss caused by bad orders by paying in advance or paying in advance. However, this method is generally at the expense of reducing the success rate of transactions.

2. Trading means restrict development. According to the survey results of the 18th Statistical Report on Internet Development in China, remittance is still the main way for users to pay for goods online.

This is because the profit problem between merchants and banks has not been fundamentally solved, so cash flow is still one of the problems existing in online shopping. Once this problem is fundamentally solved, the transaction volume and volume of online shopping will increase substantially, thus promoting the large-scale development of online shopping.

3. The search function solves the information flow problem. For online stores, more problems focus on the supply of goods, and shortage is often the main problem raised by buyers at present. This requires online merchants to analyze the buyer's demand information according to the customer's search for goods. At present, some domestic businesses have been able to know the inquiry quantity of each commodity, the goods that the buyer has inquired but not in the store and other information through the search function of online stores. The staff of the online shopping website will purchase and replenish goods according to this information. In this way, the information of both the supply and demand sides is smooth, and the success rate of the transaction is greatly improved.

4. Form regional development to solve logistics problems. At present, many online stores are concentrated in large and medium-sized cities with relatively developed economies, mainly considering the distribution problem. Although the problem of commodity distribution in China has improved, it is mainly concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, and some small cities still adopt relatively backward modes of transportation. In order to solve this problem, online shopping should develop towards localization and regionalization. For example, some online stores solve the distribution problem by cooperating with local traditional shoppers or opening their own convenience stores to realize complementary advantages.

5. Guide people to accept online shopping and cultivate people's online shopping habits. After all, online shopping is a new thing. For people who are used to traditional shopping, it takes a long time to accept this method, and it also needs the publicity and guidance of the media to cultivate people's online shopping habits. At present, the most loyal users of many shopping websites are netizens with online shopping habits. They not only bring transaction volume to the shopping website itself, but also transform many traditional shopping methods in life into online shopping methods.

6. Lower the threshold of online stores and let more traditional enterprises carry out online shopping services. For online shopping in China, to really grow, traditional enterprises must enter the ranks of e-commerce. But first of all, we should create a network environment, lower the threshold for merchants to enter the network, let more enterprises know the convenience and benefits brought by online stores, and let more enterprises enter online stores, thus providing more online shopping places, making online goods more abundant and users have more choices.

7. Online shopping lacks corresponding policies, regulations and industry norms. At present, there are no policies and regulations for online shopping in China, such as tax issues, online shopping industry rules and norms. In this case, many online business activities should follow the traditional business policy, which hinders the development of different modes of online shopping to some extent. Therefore, online shopping calls for the introduction of relevant policies and regulations to ensure its healthy development.

Thirdly, the development prospect of China's store-free sales industry is studied.

Entrusted by the relevant departments of the Ministry of Commerce, the research group "Research on Consumer's Buying Style in China" conducted a household survey on 3 100 samples from seven cities in six regions of China, namely, northeast, north, east, south, northwest and southwest. The results show that 43% of urban residents in China have used the no-store sales method at least once. Not only consumers who have used the store-free sales method are optimistic about its future development prospects, but even among those who have never been exposed to this sales method, more than 60% people said that they might use this shopping method in the future. From this, we can see the huge market potential of this store-free sales method in China:

1. The consumption level of residents is constantly improving. In 2007, the GDP is expected to increase by about 8%. Undoubtedly, the consumption level of China residents is constantly improving, which has laid a material foundation for the development of store-free sales in this city. More and more residents will form a new concept of consumer culture, pursue the convenience of shopping, and meet the best needs with the minimum time value. The form of no-store sales will be more and more welcomed and used by residents.

2. The more mature the market conditions are. Now China has gradually formed a considerable number of shopping groups suitable for store-free sales. With the improvement of social and economic development and community informatization, the coverage rate of home computers in the city reached 66.3%, and the number of internet users reached 8.03 million. With the development of time, people's informatization level is higher, which will certainly create broad network conditions for store-free sales.

3. Policy norms are improving day by day. At present, the Ministry of Commerce has promulgated a new version of the national standard of Retail Business Classification, which has been approved by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the National Standardization Committee and has been formally implemented. Among the eight new retail formats in the new standard, there are five retail formats without stores, which indicates that retail without stores has been officially recognized by the retail industry in China.

4. The social credit environment has gradually returned. In recent years, China has vigorously strengthened the construction of social credit system, actively promoted the construction of social credit system, and promoted the continuous improvement of social credit system. With the improvement of the system, more and more enterprises have tasted the taste of honesty as gold, and honesty will become a city card handed over by China to the world.

5. The total scale grew rapidly. Since the reform and opening up, the earliest store-free sale in China market is mail order. After 1990s, various forms of store-free sales appeared in China. Due to the popularity of telephone, telephone shopping has developed rapidly. In recent years, with the continuous popularization of electronic information technology, various forms of store-free sales have emerged in large numbers, and the "multi-network merger" marketing of telephone network, TV network, Internet and postal network has been implemented.

6. The main investors are foreign capital and Sino-foreign joint ventures. As an advanced marketing method of modern commerce, store-free sales have the characteristics of new business philosophy, large investment and high technology content. Therefore, it is difficult for ordinary small and medium-sized enterprises to set foot alone, and most of the investors are large foreign companies.

7. Online shopping has become the main form of store-free sales. Online shopping in store-free sales has developed rapidly in recent years. In recent years, online shopping has reached more than 90%, and personal e-commerce has become an important way of online market. According to Shao Yibo, chairman of Yi Bei, nearly 300,000 people shop online in Yi Bei every day, and 35,000 items are sold, with a monthly transaction volume of 250 million yuan.

8. Commercial commodities cover a wide range of social life. Five years ago, the goods sold without stores were mainly concentrated in heavy and difficult-to-carry goods such as rice and drinks, goods with uniform brand specifications, small department stores with high frequency of use, computers, mobile phones and other fashionable goods with no shelf life at that time. Nowadays, most commodities in daily life can be purchased by TV, computer, telephone and mail order. It's just that different forms of store-free sales have different products.

9. The operation mode has formed a relatively complete technical support system. Compared with traditional business, store-free sales is the product of making full use of advanced scientific and technological modernization such as digital technology, communication technology, video technology and logistics technology. Some developed areas in China, such as Shanghai, have gradually acquired five technical support systems. Computer Internet communication technical support system; Logistics distribution support system; Monetary payment system; Commodity design and procurement support system; After-sales service support system.

To sum up, store-free sales is an important sales model that can reflect the development trend and trend of the times, an inevitable product of the development of commercial economy to a certain stage, and an inevitable trend to meet the needs of modern consumption patterns and technological progress. Because the store-free sales model is in its infancy in China, there are many problems. But in general, with the rise and development of "no-store sales" mode, it has great advantages in expanding the market, facilitating purchase, improving distribution efficiency and saving traffic costs. , as well as the diversification of marketing methods and the availability of various environmental factors, will surely become a new marketing weapon in the 2 1 century. Although there are still some restrictive factors in its rapid development in China, as long as these unfavorable factors are managed purposefully and consciously, the new marketing method of "no store sales" will eventually be accepted by people.

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