Home e-commerce problem: How to solve the "last mile"?

With the rapid development of home e-commerce , the last mile of home service distribution, installation and maintenance of the same city is undoubtedly a major problem. However, there is a demand that will lead to the corresponding market, and the home after-sales market will emerge.

The “last mile” of home e-commerce has become a problem, catalyzing the after-sales service market

At present, the household categories mainly include furniture, lamps, sanitary ware, doors and windows, flooring and other commodities. The definitions on the market are different, and generally include furniture, building materials and Home Decoration. According to the statistics of the China Electronic Commerce Research Institute, the sales of household e-commerce in 2014 broke the 100 billion mark for the first time, but only accounted for about 6% of the entire home market, and the offline channels still occupy an absolute proportion. Undoubtedly, this is a hindrance to the e-commerce after-sales. It must be said that the increasing standard and maturity of Internet home services will add to the development of the e-commerce market. At that time, the e-commerce channel will not be so difficult. The thing is gone.

Home e-commerce after-sales: logistics, installation is indispensable

For consumers, online shopping services have become the main factor in determining purchases, so after-sales service is more critical for e-commerce. As the saying goes, home building materials "three points by product, seven points by service", the delivery of "last mile" or even "the last stair or screw" is the most painful demand for online shopping home products . Take the hottest category of online shopping and the outbreak of the 3C market, it is inseparable from the support of the express delivery industry, and consumers are very satisfied with the timeliness of after-sales delivery services. If there is no matching home delivery, installation and return service, the psychological threshold for online shopping of large items of household goods is too high for consumers.

For consumers, online shopping of home goods can not be "send back" will not buy, let users go to the logistics point to pick up the goods and move the building, it is better to go to the physical store to buy. If the consumer buys the home goods payment from the online mall, the e-commerce seller can provide all the services, the delivery to the home, the transportation to the building, the installation and maintenance, and the packaging and returning goods do not have to worry about, the e-commerce will greatly increase the transaction rate. Since the home category is a high-price unit, the demand for real estate in China is undoubtedly a huge market. From this, it can be boldly speculated that the home category will become the third most popular category of online shopping platforms after apparel and 3C. Since home goods require after-sales installation services, the importance of the market demand for the last mile can be imagined.

After all, the after-sales service of home e-commerce is divided into two phases: logistics services and “last mile” and “delivery and return” services. The two are indispensable, mutual influence, and mutual restraint. This is the key point that every home service practitioner needs to clearly understand. Service is to better consume the experience, but also to drive the home online sales market.

Early home e-commerce logistics: coverage area is not strong, delivery is difficult to be on time

Early home e-commerce companies have had the painful experience of delivering goods to customers, sending them to logistics points, and being abandoned. Compared with the amount of factories to traditional stores, the sales of e-commerce at that time were only sporadic, and most of the logistics did not pay much attention to the goods of e-commerce. Moreover, the logistics delivery cycle is generally long, from one week to more than two weeks, and then spend a few days on the road, the customer needs to wait too long, the consumer experience is very bad. The reason is that logistics will wait for the truck to be full before it will start, especially in remote areas. It is good to be willing to ship the goods, and the overlord clause that does not compensate for the damage of the goods still exists in some logistics enterprises.

At the time, there was almost no comprehensive logistics in the coverage area. Except for the large logistics companies such as Debon and Aneng, the rest were basically trunk logistics covering some areas. Therefore, small and medium-sized e-commerce companies need to spend more time and cost to solve the cost cost when choosing a relatively cheap logistics delivery. Once the logistics service can't keep up with the cost and the cost is high, consumer satisfaction can't be good. Most of them have to be swallowed up because of the pressure of complicated return process and cost of returning goods. This aspect has greatly restricted the development of e-commerce for home e-commerce. Only when it is upgraded to free delivery to the customer's home and installed, can it be significantly improved in the e-commerce sales volume.

Early home installation: less master, no service

As for the last mile to find the master, the e-commerce can only solve the problem of lack of resources through the 58 and the market, or even the QQ group communication master contact list. Because there is no real-name certification popularization, it is also an off-site transaction, goods and expenses are not available. To any guarantee. In the case of non-integrity behaviors such as contact with the masters after picking up the goods, sitting on the ground, etc. Due to the market environment at the time, the whole process lasted for one to two years. In the circumstances at the time, it can be said that almost everyone in the e-commerce business has at least a dozen masters to receive the QQ group for the after-sales.

As the market support is getting more and more perfect, the QQ group is almost ruined. Not only the e-commerce is not looking for a master in the group, but the masters also have a more efficient way to take orders, and the order service is more standard and professional through online trading. From the earliest signs in the home store to wait for the QQ group and 58 advertising information orders, and then to the current APP order mode, the masters can finally show their comprehensive service strength through the Internet.

Free delivery service upgrade: Tmall home improvement 8 logistics companies, relay 100 city "furniture five packs"

On December 22, 2012, the furniture industry base in Foshan, Shunde, a company called Hezhong Yangshuo, began to try to provide so-called "after-sales one-stop" service for Tmall e-commerce. It is a logistics enterprise that acts as an intermediary between e-commerce companies and logistics companies. Its main business is to undertake the goods of e-commerce, and then subcontract it to various logistics companies and send them to all parts of the country. Due to the model problem, on December 18, 2013, Guangdong Shunde Hezhong Yangshuo was declared closed due to the capital chain break.

On March 13, 2014, Tmall announced 100 cities “free delivery and on-site installation” and announced 8 cooperative service providers: Rishun, Yifan, Dongpu, Guozhen, Jujiatong, Beiye and Hezhong Yangshuo. (Beijing). These eight logistics service providers have developed on the Taobao Tmall platform and have close contact with Tmall. This service provider cooperation is mainly for cities with a relatively large range of e-commerce sales, rather than really solving all problems.

The service upgrade of free home delivery is one of the most critical key nodes of home e-commerce. After the service upgrade, the sales volume has improved significantly, from the initial tens of billions to the hundred billion. Consumers' spending habits for online shopping of household goods have gradually formed, especially in the first, second and third tier cities. Although it only supports 100 cities “free delivery, on-site installation”, it is enough to verify the market demand for furniture sub-sectors for after-sales service. Although Tmall has no way to cover the whole country, at least some cities have service providers that can provide services. However, at this time, there has been a third-party professional home service platform that has begun to emerge.

The embarrassing situation of home logistics: forced to start doing "five packs"

Since 2015, as the market demand for home delivery services has continued to increase, most of the master resources have been tapped. Beginning in the second half of the year, a small part of the home logistics began to upgrade the service, trying to go from the home "three guarantees" to "five packs" (home "five packs" that is package logistics, package delivery, package upstairs, package installation, package return.) Then most of the logistics also slowly joined the camp. The reason for logistics is to adapt to the needs of the e-commerce market; the second is to improve its own development competitiveness. This is especially true for dedicated logistics. The most realistic problem is that if any logistics does not do the home "five packs", it will lose the original customer orders. Therefore, logistics began to search for local master resources, and want to discuss cooperation, because the operating costs of the master will only make them unable to make ends meet, so the self-built master team is almost impossible. Moreover, as the cost of services rises, for e-commerce companies with fierce price competition, profit margins continue to drop, leading to both logistics and e-commerce.

In fact, the home "five packs" can be divided into two aspects: logistics transport and disassembly technology, the two are two professional areas. At present, some logistics service providers in the home service industry are beginning to provide delivery services to e-commerce. In fact, they are looking for local co-workers to replace services instead of providing services themselves. Because the cost of self-built teams is too high, especially the home improvement service providers supported by Tmall, it is to do passive service so-called service upgrades in order to more meet the needs of merchants. They have not yet had time to come up with a response to the competition of the logistics peers, but also bear a new mission. In other words, they did not learn from mature logistics companies in solving the idea of ​​sending home, which led to their own "hands-on". In the industry, the star brand headed by Debon is choosing to connect with vertical shipping companies, and easily respond to the needs of the market.

Secondly, there is no professional standard measurement in the choice of the master, and the quality of service cannot be guaranteed. If there is a master with a cooperative record, the quality of service can be guaranteed, but it is easy to have problems when the resources of the masters conflict, or when there is a service demand in the new area. Therefore, such a model is difficult to ensure the stability of service quality, can only solve immediate problems, and does not think about the problem from the perspective of long-term development.

Finally, because the logistics and delivery masters are cooperative, it is difficult for e-commerce to obtain compensation from logistics companies once an abnormal situation occurs in the distribution and installation. In dealing with the communication of problems, it is not possible to directly find the direct problem person, and it takes a long time to conduct the tripartite negotiation process, and the processing efficiency is very slow. A logistics enterprise that does not solve the logistics problem is to enhance the service capability on the surface, instead of truly solving the real needs of the e-commerce enterprise.

Logistics must be professional: improving timeliness and reducing the rate of damage is the key

At present, many logistics companies are not focused on this profession, eager to increase the service chain, and create a so-called home "five packs" delivery. However, the problem of the timeliness of delivery of goods and the rate of damage of goods that should be urgently solved has not been solved more professionally. The measures taken by logistics companies are actually lifting their own feet. Logistics companies want to seize the market, the most urgent thing to do is to continuously improve the efficiency of distribution and reduce costs, reduce the packet loss rate and breakage rate, so that logistics can be as fast and good as express delivery. The cargo damage compensation mechanism of logistics needs to be more and more perfect, reducing the cost of e-commerce transportation.

Secondly, it is to increase the number of coverage points and storage capacity, and then reduce the logistics cost of e-commerce. Logistics informatization is also an urgent need to upgrade. At present, except for large logistics companies, it is impossible to check the progress information of goods. The flexible use of warehousing and transportation can greatly reduce the cost of e-commerce operations. Let every electric trader can afford the resources of the warehouse, which is the goal of logistics.

Unlimited potential in the home market: the Internet vertical home service platform came into being

Since 2013, as the vertical service areas of various industries have proposed solutions through the Internet, startup companies in the home service industry have mushroomed. After three years of development in the Internet home service industry, different service models have coexisted according to various needs in the market. For small and medium-sized e-commerce, to solve the problem of service aging and service guarantee, the cost can be reduced. For large and medium-sized e-commerce, cost is not the most critical requirement, and the service efficiency of a large number of concurrent orders is particularly critical.

In the past three years, most of the models of the home service platform are the general package mode, that is, the traditional intermediary mode has been moved to the online, through the website or APP, the intermediary company's dispatch customer service and the order master online docking . So far, there has not been a direct home service platform, which has been integrated into the way to integrate the resources of the home master, and it is difficult to cover the entire area. There is no doubt that the general package model is not the most cost-effective way, both in terms of communication costs and service costs. Its biggest advantage is that the e-commerce company does not need to dock the master, it can be said that the e-commerce company's outsourcing customer service team.

The traditional general contracting mode, although under the banner of "Internet vertical service", but the essence is still in the era of customer service dispatch, just to transfer the traditional offline order to the online order, so this kind of The mode can not meet the service demand of large and medium-sized e-commerce in terms of service efficiency. Only the real system pushes the order, completely out of the mode of “artificial” factor intervention, can achieve a qualitative leap in service efficiency, which is innovative. Crowdsourcing mode. The biggest advantage of the crowdsourcing model is that it is open. E-commerce and masters directly connect to the platform through the platform, which maximizes the symmetry and directness of information, and reduces the communication costs and benefits of both parties.

The potential of the future home market is unlimited, and both logistics and home services have an important mission. From the individual needs of the goods to the cost performance, to the fast and good logistics, and then to the important "last mile", the three complement each other. Any problem in the part will affect the development of the whole industry, and the courage to innovate will bring the opportunity and development of the industry. Throughout the diverse forms of services in the home service industry, we can cope with the service needs of the future trillion-dollar home market, and the open crowdsourcing model can stand the test of the market.

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