Opportunities and challenges of liquor industry under "Internet plus"

      During the National Two Sessions this year, Premier Li Keqiang put forward the "Internet plus" action plan in the government work report. This plan provides new options for all walks of life to achieve innovation and transformation by relying on new generation Internet technologies such as mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data, and article source Huaxia Wine News Internet of Things.
For the deeply adjusted Chinese liquor industry, the "Internet plus" action plan undoubtedly points out the direction for future development. However, what is "Internet plus" and what challenges does the Internet bring to the traditional wine industry? What kind of opportunities are there? How should the liquor industry seize the opportunity to implement "Internet plus"? Industry companies have shown confusion.
On April 29, at the Council (Enlarged) Meeting of Baijiu Branch, Market Professional Committee and Famous Liquor Collection Committee of China Wine Association and the "Internet plus Opportunities and Challenges" Summit Forum, Ren Xingzhou, Director of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, Wu Kun, Senior Expert of Ali Research Institute, Vice President of the Research Institute of China International E-commerce Center Zhang Jianjun, secretary-general of the Electronic Trade Industry Technology Innovation Alliance, answered questions for the wine industry "Internet plus" from different perspectives.
Wine industry outlet of "Internet plus"
For new things, the first thing to solve is the question of what it is. As for "Internet plus", Ren Xingzhou, director of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that the so-called "Internet plus" refers to the new normal of the integrated development of the Internet and traditional industries, that is, to give full play to the optimization and integration role of the Internet in the allocation of production factors, and integrate the new generation of information technology with modern manufacturing and production services. Internet plus will bring great changes to any of our traditional industries, enhance new economic development momentum, and promote the efficiency and upgrading of the national economy.
In combination with the recent book "Internet plus from IT to DT" launched by Ali Research Institute, Wu Kun, a senior expert of Ali Research Institute, explained that "Internet plus" is the core of the Internet, which lies in "connection", and links. Whoever makes good links can become a powerful platform. 2014 is the 20th anniversary of China's involvement in the Internet. China has created three very powerful enterprises Tencent, Ali, Baidu, Baidu Wenku, Baidu Encyclopedia, and Baidu Maps to solve the problem of human information, that is, "people+information". In contrast, Alibaba is about "people+products", while Tencent is about "people+people".
Therefore, "Internet plus" should be more understood as "Internet based", not simply "+", because if it is a simple "+", you may understand that it is more a physical reaction, and we think that a more profound point should be a chemical reaction. From this point of view, the essence and core of "Internet plus" is the online and data oriented traditional industries. Traditional taxi hailing is a highly random process, but the introduction of Fast Taxi and Didi Taxi has made taxis and vehicles online and data-driven, improving operational efficiency and consumer experience.
For enterprises, the most direct advantage of "Internet plus" is that it accelerates their "network access" and enables them to realize market development and sales promotion by virtue of the power of the Internet.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics in 2014, the total retail sales of Chinese consumers were 262394 billion yuan, a nominal increase of 12% compared to the previous year (with an actual increase of 10.9% after deducting price factors). In the same year, China's online retail sales reached 2789.8 billion yuan, an increase of 49.7% compared to the previous year. In Ren Xingzhou's view, on the one hand, the total retail sales of consumer goods based on physical sales statistics are showing an upward trend; On the other hand, online retail is growing rapidly. "The online shopping environment in our country is constantly maturing, and the penetration rate is constantly increasing."
Compared with household appliances, 3C and other industries, the integration of alcohol industry and the Internet needs to be improved.
It is understood that in 2014, the national sales of alcohol e-commerce only accounted for 1.04% of the sales of alcohol products, with significant growth rates in comprehensive e-commerce, vertical alcohol e-commerce, and other alcohol sales. From the alcohol e-commerce in the past few years to O2O in the past two years, it can be said that the Internet has brought the development of the alcohol industry again and again. This year's "Internet plus" will undoubtedly open the next round of development of the wine industry.
"Internet plus" brings transformation challenges
In the face of emerging things, the traditional thinking of traditional industries is often a barrier for transformation and breakthrough. In Ren Xingzhou's view, "Internet plus" has challenged the wine industry in many aspects.
One is to challenge and change the traditional thinking dominated by production enterprises. At least in our liquor industry, overall, it was still producer oriented in the past, especially in the golden decade of rapid growth in our liquor industry in the past few years, where producer orientation was very obvious. Use the Internet and big data to study the needs and changes of consumers, especially the needs and preferences of the new generation of consumers, so as to adjust the development scale, product direction and innovation content of enterprises.
The second is that the Internet challenges the traditional marketing concepts and methods of the wine industry, which provides a realistic possibility for the wine industry to segment the market. Alcohol companies need to use big data to accurately target customers, provide precise services, and achieve close interaction with customers through excellent services, providing possibilities for continuous improvement of product quality.
Third, the Internet challenges the traditional liquor channels and distribution channels, requiring the restructuring of products and distribution channels. The Internet has promoted the integration of business flow, logistics, information flow and capital flow through e-commerce. Greatly compressing intermediate links, reducing costs, and improving circulation efficiency will inevitably impact and reconstruct traditional distribution channels, organizations, and links, and innovate new channels and methods.
The fourth challenge is to challenge the traditional brand communication channels and methods in the liquor industry. For a long time, the advertising of alcoholic products has always been at the forefront of various media advertisements, and many of the leading positions are still occupied by liquor companies. In the future, in the era of Internet, especially mobile Internet, precision communication will become an important communication tool, and WeChat marketing and other methods may have an impact on people's purchase decisions.
Under the tide of the Internet, in addition to the challenge of "Internet access", the wine industry is also restricted by many bottlenecks in the pace of transformation.
Ren Xingzhou believed that liquor enterprises should first have the thinking and awareness of the Internet, and choose e-commerce strategies and "Internet access" programs according to local conditions. Secondly, it is important to balance the relationship with traditional distribution methods.
"In the context of the rise of e-commerce, how to solve the inherent interest relationship between enterprises and traditional distributors is the pain of transformation." Ren Xingzhou said that liquor companies should pay attention to the impact of e-commerce on the price system and stabilize the product price system. Third, to adapt to the construction of e-commerce service system, taking a computer to access the Internet is not "Internet plus", and liquor enterprises need to build an overall system around e-commerce and Internet development. Fourth, the industry currently lacks Internet and e-commerce talents and the accumulation of relevant knowledge, as well as e-commerce brand building.
Therefore, enterprise networking is based on adapting to local conditions and taking advantage of the situation. "We should not only actively embrace the Internet, but also avoid blindness."
Wu Kun put forward alternative suggestions for the transformation of liquor industry under the "Internet plus". One is to focus on community economy and fan economy, designing a sense of participation from multiple aspects such as design, production, and circulation. The second is to attach importance to e-commerce channels, save marketing costs, and explore new potential user needs. The third is to attach importance to big data feedback, research targeted services, flexible production, and serve diverse market tastes. The fourth is to attach importance to crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, and open up social forces to participate in all aspects of the industry. "What I expect more is a product like Daughter Red, which can be used for customization and crowdfunding. If such a product is combined with Internet thinking, it will enhance consumers' sense of participation."
"Internet plus" opens a new era
Even in the face of many transformation challenges, the tide of "Internet plus" has arrived. No matter how big transformation challenges the traditional wine industry still faces, Internet has become the only way for the future development of wine enterprises.
In Ren Xingzhou's view, the traditional Baijiu has industry standards such as strength and flavor type, and has non-standard characteristics such as personalization and taste. The industry is large in scale, diversified in categories, and low in industry concentration. Although there are leading enterprises such as Moutai and Wuliangye in the industry, the overall situation is "scattered, small and low". Liquor products are more suitable for e-commerce and the use of the Internet.
With the launching of the "Internet plus" action plan, the Internet will further subvert the organizational form, business rules, industrial chain and competitive pattern of the traditional wine industry, and extend many new business models and sales models. Zhang Jianjun believes that the Internet is transforming the traditional wine industry.
Under the new normal of economy, the Internet has promoted the reform of circulation mission, circulation operation and circulation organization.
In terms of the circulation mission, the Internet has improved the operation efficiency of the circulation industry, improved the level of operation and management, and realized the reconstruction of the circulation organization. Under the influence of the Internet, liquor circulation is divided into traditional and network types. The Internet has brought new changes to the traditional liquor sales channels, realized the integration and interaction of online and offline, and derived new business models.
In the Internet environment, especially in the era of personalized consumption, consumer centered and consumer led consumption behavior is the direction of future development. For example, the consumption form of customizing a bottle of wine online was impossible without the Internet environment.
Compared with the PC end, the development of mobile Internet has released more opportunities for the development of liquor industry in terms of time and space. With the help of mobile internet technology, liquor companies can greatly expand their sales space and support uninterrupted sales for 7X24 hours. In addition, based on mobile Internet, liquor enterprises can also explore various forms of marketing model innovation such as crowdfunding and customization. In Wu Kun's view, one of the directions is the C2B market, that is, relying on the accumulation of big data on the Internet, liquor enterprises can have a clearer and more accurate grasp of consumers' needs, so that they can take consumers as the core to carry out reverse customization, which also meets the requirements of the Industry 4.0 era. Previously, the production model was dominated by producers, that is, consumers can only buy what they produce. The future will be consumer driven, consumer led, and based on the diverse and personalized needs of consumers, enterprises will engage in flexible customized production. "Internet plus will reconstruct the competition pattern of liquor and open a new era for the development of liquor industry."