Watsons Store Operation Analysis

You may want to open WeChat and take a look to see if you have encountered similar situations:

The snack shop community at the entrance of the community pushes out a discount promotion for signature snacks every day. The beauty brand service account starts sending you introductions to discount activities during holidays. The circle of friends is also occupied by a large amount of new product pre-sales and discount activity information, which is overwhelming.

Have you been visiting snack bars more frequently? Do you just can’t help but buy beauty products when you see discounts on them? When you see the pre-sale of new products, do you want to be the first to try them?

These seemingly ordinary scenarios are actually typical examples of private domain operations. As we enter the era of inventory, the customer acquisition costs of various brands have risen sharply. In addition, due to the impact of the epidemic, the economy is becoming increasingly sluggish. Introducing user traffic into the WeChat private domain ecosystem built by themselves can reduce subsequent customer acquisition costs and increase repeat purchases.

From my recent experience of continuous shopping in Watsons store, I truly realized the power of private domain operations. I originally wanted to spend 10 yuan in the store, but ended up spending more than 200 yuan. This is not the end. Later, I took the initiative to place an order on the Watsons mini program and became a loyal fan of Watsons.

So, how does Watsons make me place an order willingly? This article will combine my consumption experience to systematically discuss with you how Watsons’ WeChat private domain operations are carried out. I hope to help you popularize the private domain operations such as attracting new customers, promoting activation, conversion and other traffic growth methods, and establish a preliminary understanding. For product managers, knowing more about operations will also help improve their understanding of business and traffic, which is conducive to long-term development.

1. What is private domain operation?

First of all, what is private domain? For brands, private domain can be understood as merchants’ own traffic channels that directly reach users. Then, private domain operation refers to a series of activities to attract new users, activate users, retain users, and convert users within private domain channels.

Unlike public domain traffic, which belongs to the platform and relies on the platform for distribution, traffic in the private domain belongs to the merchant itself.

Taking WeChat as an example, user traffic within the brand's corporate WeChat, service accounts, mini-programs, WeChat groups, Moments, official accounts, video accounts and other channels is private domain traffic, while WeChat user traffic that is not within the above channels but has the opportunity to reach the brand through channels such as search, nearby, and advertising recommendations is public domain traffic.

For example, for a convenience store at the entrance of a residential community, the flow of people who occasionally pass by the entrance every day belongs to the public domain. Whether they enter the store is largely affected by the degree of publicity, and it is difficult to retain them after they come. People living in nearby communities belong to the private domain. They are a fixed flow of people, and whether they enter the store depends largely on their relationship with the store manager.

If you open a store in a public domain such as Taobao, you need to pay advertising fees to obtain traffic, and you need to pay high platform commissions to complete transactions. You don’t have the user information in your hands, and you need to keep spending money to reach the same users, so the cost of acquiring customers is extremely high.

In contrast, the benefits of private domains are as follows:

1. Can repeatedly reach the same group of users for free, reducing customer acquisition costs
2. Facilitates subsequent activation and retention of users, and increases repurchase by single users
3. It is convenient to build brand personality and maintain relationships with users

In general, it can make brand information exposure more frequent and more timely, thereby arousing potential consumer demand and enhancing memory points. For example, when you are thinking about what to eat online, you see the discount information posted by Haidilao in your circle of friends.

So how do we create private domain? The entire private domain operation chain can be divided into:

• Attract new users and divert traffic to private domains
• Refined operation of communities/activities/users to improve stickiness
• Promote conversion and increase transaction volume

2. Private Domain Traffic Diversion

1. Traffic diversion method: establish contact points and open up private domain internal traffic

Specifically, traffic diversion refers to gradually importing the platform's public domain traffic and the store's individual customer traffic into the private domain traffic pool, which includes the establishment of traffic diversion contact points and the opening up of traffic between private domain channels such as "corporate WeChat + official account + mini program + community + live broadcast".

Let’s first look at the contact points. Watsons’ main contact points are offline stores. It will place "Exclusive Beauty Consultant" welfare posters with the shopping guide corporate WeChat QR code at the store entrance and checkout counter, and list the exclusive services provided.

At the same time, the process of guiding customers to WeChat and registering as members will be merged together through store guides . Even if you do not register as a member, after using WeChat Pay to purchase goods in the store, the shopping guide’s business card will be directly displayed on the payment page.

Take my experience as an example. I just wanted to buy a pack of paper at that time, and the shopping guide told me that there was a limited-time discount, so I was immediately tempted. Then she guided me at the time of checkout and said that I could get more discounts by registering as a member. Maybe out of the mentality of "getting an inch", I wanted more discounts on the basis of the discounts I had already received, so I was converted again. The process of registering as a member itself requires a series of steps such as adding a service account, following a public account, searching for mini-programs, etc. Although it is a bit cumbersome, it is in the checkout process itself, and I can still wait for this time.

In the process of connecting internal traffic in the private domain, mini programs, official accounts, and video accounts play the role of a facade , connecting the public and private domains. For example, after users enter the official account page through a WeChat search, they can learn about the products and services provided by the brand through information such as the welcome message, the bottom tab bar, and historical articles. Communities, service accounts, and Moments are more private and exclusive user operation channels.

[Watsons Service Assistant] (service account) will mainly direct traffic to corporate WeChat through "Get 3 free shipping coupons" and to fan communities through "Get cosmetics for 0 yuan".

On the mall page of the Watsons Mini Program, there will be guidance on adding store guides, which will be matched based on geographic location. Use of coupons pushed by the guide to make purchases in the Mini Program will be counted in the sales performance of the store or guide.

In addition, Watsons will also use WeChat's social links to conduct fission and attract new customers, and the invited users will be divided into membership levels (including non-members, green cards, and black cards), with different levels having different reward amounts.

2. Key points for attracting traffic: Provide core value points based on scenario-based thinking

Regardless of the method of attracting traffic, the key point is to provide users with core value points , that is, why they should come to your private domain. It can be a lottery, points rebate, or coupons, which are short-term interest points, or it can be long-term value, such as free home delivery. As mentioned in Fogg's behavioral model, triggering a behavior requires sufficiently high motivation and strong enough ability.

In the shopping scenario I mentioned above, I will interpret the changes in various factors in the conversion process based on the Fogg behavior model: B = becoming a member of the private domain, and m = motivation. After I learn that I can enjoy a series of benefits, my motivation will be greatly improved; and a = ability. With the help of the clerk, the difficulty of registration is also greatly reduced. So under this reminder, it is easy to become a member of the private domain.

In addition, scenario-based thinking is also very important. Different people focus on different things in different scenarios.

For example, when guiding users to register as members, store consultants do not need to explain the project benefits to every customer. They only need to introduce them selectively according to different customers. When guiding customers in the store, they should focus on introducing the store's free skin testing benefit.

To give a negative example, the common offline scene of distributing flyers is actually a way to attract traffic.

Once, when I arrived at the entrance of a shopping mall, there were about 3 to 4 people gathered together handing out flyers for a gym. When I walked to another door, I found another 3 to 4 people. The people were arranged so densely that it seemed a bit oppressive. They were also quite "unreasonable". They came up to me and asked directly: Beauty, do you want to know about swimming and fitness?

I hesitated for a while, thinking: I didn't want to know. The other party continued: There is a discount, come with me to experience it. I said: I don't have time now, I will contact you later (I thought there was a QR code or something on the poster).

After a closer look, I found that the flyer given to me was poorly made, without focus, and I had no idea what kind of fitness it focused on. I glanced at it and found there was no WeChat QR code.

This actually does not cut into the scene nor provide a clear interest point . At this time, I was walking on the way to the mall. Generally speaking, I was not just strolling around, but had my own things to do. If I stopped them directly, this process would be interrupted. If I stopped them forcefully, I would feel unhappy and could not control myself. In addition, there is no attraction, which is why I should stop and look at you.

3. Private Domain Traffic Promotion

Private domain operation is not as simple as adding WeChat and joining a group. Subsequent user operation is also a very critical part.

1. Five aspects: content, activities, interaction, community, and membership

There are many ways to maintain users in the WeChat ecosystem, mainly in five aspects: content, activities, interaction, community, and membership . Of course, they are also interrelated with each other.

1) Content

For private domains, content includes content published on official accounts or Moments, and of course, it also includes the design of micro copy in some mini-programs.

Watsons has three main public channels, namely [Watsons Service Assistant] (service account), [Watsons Welfare Club] (service account) and [Watsons Official Recommendation Account] (subscription account).

Among them, [Watsons Service Assistant] and [Watsons Welfare Club] provide more product discount information, pay more attention to member services, and mainly promote conversions through preferential activities and super-value member benefits, while [Watsons Official Planter] focuses on content marketing and brand planting.

Taking [Watsons Official Seeding] and Qu Xiaoxi’s circle of friends as examples, the content planning can be mainly divided into three aspects:

User-relevant means that the content that users care about reflects care, and the products that users need are recommended, making users feel that the brand understands them. [Watsons Official Promoter] There is a lot of content in this area, and they often launch nursing-related and interactive content with prizes.

IP is related , presenting the lifestyle, opinions, attitudes and daily dynamics of the brand personality to gain trust. Presentation and expression is a way to increase familiarity.

Product related , present product stories and user experience to make users more familiar with the product, or push promotion information to promote conversion. Qu Xiaoxi posts product introductions and product recommendations on her WeChat Moments every day.

The copywriting in Watsons mini program is also quite thoughtful. In recent months, the epidemic has resurfaced, and users are concerned about how to protect themselves.

Different texts will be displayed at different times, which is interesting and thoughtful.

2 ) Activities

Generally, the purposes of activities can be divided into two categories: the first is to increase user stickiness; the second is to increase sales.

The first type of activities includes check-in, voting, lucky draws, user co-creation, etc. Watsons has recently often used free brand offers as an attraction to guide users to follow, like and comment on video accounts, in order to increase the number of followers and activity in the video account field in the WeChat ecosystem.

However, Watsons ' activities are more of the latter, often using higher promotional efforts to attract users and highlighting the benefits of members to achieve the goals of purchase conversion and membership conversion.

3) Interaction

WeChat interactions mainly include private messaging with service accounts and responding to comments in Moments.

For example, the Watsons store shopping guide service account will regularly send some promotional information through offline store managers.

After adding Watsons' IP personal service account, it took the initiative to greet users when they first joined the private traffic pool, and clearly explained the short-term benefits (new products, discounts) and long-term value (beauty sharing, trial activities) given to users. This is the best time for companies to strengthen the primacy effect, and they must seize it.

At the same time, on the user’s birthday, major holidays and seasonal changes , you can proactively send blessings and care through WeChat chat; at important after-sales service nodes , such as delivery, receipt, maintenance, reservation reminders, etc., you can proactively care for and remind users at important service nodes. When users can unlock more privileges and services due to accumulated consumption, you can also proactively tell users and invite them to experience it.

You can also proactively provide some benefits to users in the private domain . For example, there is a trial product module in the Watsons mini program, which regularly provides a batch of opportunities to try new products. Participants are selected through registration or lottery. If selected, they will receive the trial products for free and are required to write a trial report.

4) Community

It includes three aspects: content, activities and interaction, and is mainly used to publish activities and brand information. Of course, it is also divided into long-term communication groups and short-term flash groups.

Long-term communication groups usually have a community calendar to inform users of activities or exclusive benefits that will be held during specific time periods. Holding it regularly can help cultivate users’ habits, give them expectations , and give them the feeling that they will get it if they wait for it, and will miss it if they miss it, which can form a memory point.

5) Membership

Needless to say, membership is a very common way of user operation.

For users, this is a way to pay and enjoy excess value after recognizing the brand's products or services; for brands, this can increase user activity and stickiness, stratify users, and increase repurchases from old users.

Mini programs in WeChat also make it convenient for brands to build their own membership systems and connect online and offline. Traditional store memberships usually require membership cards, which must be swiped every time a customer visits, or the customer provides their mobile phone number, which can usually only be used in offline stores.

First of all, we need to consider the threshold for obtaining paid membership . If the threshold is too high, it will have a strong screening effect and easily screen out users who are very loyal to the brand. But at the same time, it will not be able to attract ordinary users and will discourage a large number of users. This will have a negative impact on improving member conversion rates and further increasing repurchase rates. If the threshold is too low, the input-output ratio for the brand will be relatively low and not cost-effective.

A store like Jiumu Miscellaneous Store will amortize the discounts over each quarter . On the one hand, it ensures the high value that users can directly perceive at the time. If you recharge 88, you can get 88 back, which is almost like getting it for free? Don’t miss out on this opportunity. The word “100% refund ” will smooth out the user’s sense of loss of money and increase their willingness to pay. On the one hand, it can increase the probability of users making multiple purchases.

Watsons also has a similar strategy. The preferential services in its membership benefits are of sufficient value but limited. You will be given 200 points after the application, but the points can only be used next time. In order to encourage you to use the points next time and make further purchases, this will increase repeat purchases.

So how do we guide users to become members?

From the case of shopping at Watsons, I summarized two points: First, it is necessary to identify high-frequency consumer goods/user pain points, give limited-time discounts to stimulate users' desire to buy and guide members at this point ; second, it is necessary to focus on the benefits that are most suitable for the current scenario.

When I was shopping in the store, since I already knew what I wanted to buy, I went straight to the shelf where the goods were as soon as I entered the store. Before I reached the checkout counter, I was stopped by the store attendant. She first looked at the small set of toilet paper in my hand, and then asked me: I use this thing frequently, we can buy three and get one free, do you want to buy more? I thought, since I use it quite often, I might as well buy more. Besides, there is a discount and I can save some money at the same time .

While scanning the product QR code, she casually asked whether one wanted to apply for membership, and introduced that by becoming a member one could accumulate shopping points, receive free skin testing in the store, and receive gifts. Since the membership price is quite cheap, and I often buy skin care products and daily necessities on a daily basis, why not get one? Seeing that she had obtained my consent, she took my mobile phone and quickly helped me to become a member, and also asked me to add the store manager's WeChat service account. So I was converted into a member.

After becoming a member, we generally combine sign-in, task system, points growth system and other measures to increase the user's usage time on WeChat mini-programs and other places, cultivate the user's habit of fixed-point visits, and increase sunk costs.

In addition, both ordinary users and member users can accumulate rewards by signing in daily and recording steps, and the rewards can be used for lucky draws.

4. Private Domain Traffic Conversion

Transactions within the private traffic pool are mainly achieved through two channels: one is operational transactions, and the other is live broadcast transactions.

Here we mainly talk about operational transactions. Common ways to promote conversions include limited-time discounts, regular discounts, and scene triggers (big promotions, approaching holidays), etc.

Watsons’ main method is to distribute coupons and promotions, and will "bombard" relevant information through multiple touchpoints. The picture below shows the coupon center of the mini program, the daily discounts in the mini program, the promotional content push of the main official account, and the community push.

For consumers who enter [Watsons Service Assistant] for the first time, Watsons will also use methods such as group buying and instant discounts to stimulate consumers to place orders at low prices. After users participate in group buying, they can not only buy popular products at low prices, but also receive points as rewards, which can be said to be one link after another.

In addition, Watsons membership benefits are also a way to promote repeat purchases and improve conversions for new members . These benefits are often related to brand services and purchase benefits .

For example, Watsons' green card membership benefits include 6 major items:

1) Points redemption and member prices: both can stimulate repeat purchases.

2) Regret medicine, appointment service and trial bottles: These are all value-added services provided around the core positioning (beauty and personal care). Among them, skin testing fits the current trend of increasingly professional skin care for women. It is also a touchpoint for promoting products. Generally, people may only realize it after testing their skin and finding it is very dry or has other problems. Skin testers are more professional. For ordinary consumers, the technology is naturally professional and trustworthy.

3) Returnable products can also reduce the psychological sense of loss when purchasing and reduce decision-making costs. After all, I can return the product after I buy it, so I won’t lose anything.

That is to say, after a user becomes a member, it is very easy for him to complete his first order as a member. In addition, after registering as a member, you will immediately receive 3 free shipping coupons to promote online conversions within WeChat.

After I completed the membership application at the store, the shopping guide immediately took me to a skin tester to test my skin. The result showed that my skin quality was good, but it was very dry. The waiter took the opportunity to say, "Take a look at our moisturizing masks. There is a promotion recently. Buy three and get two free. The price will return to its original price after a while. After I became a member, I could directly use the coupon I just received." I thought that a box of facial masks doesn’t have much quantity and will be used up quickly, so I might as well buy more. If I buy it later, I will miss the discount and it won’t be cost-effective, so I bought it.

In the long run, Watsons' membership system is closely integrated with daily promotional activities and benefits. When you first register as a Watsons member, you will be given a series of coupon packages, which are very attractive. In subsequent promotional activities, members can also enjoy lower prices and stronger discounts. No wonder, Watsons’ more than 65 million members contribute 80% of Watsons’ private domain revenue.

5. Final Thoughts

In general, Watsons' private domain construction idea is: offline stores direct traffic to official accounts, official accounts guide conversion to members, and direct traffic to mini programs, communities, and corporate WeChat (including offline store shopping guides and brand IP accounts). Corporate WeChat, communities, and mini programs direct traffic to each other and to communities. All online private domain traffic can also be directed to the nearest store through store services (such as free trials and self-pickup). When users place an order online, the goods will be dispatched from the nearest store and delivered to their homes within 1 hour, thus realizing an online and offline closed loop.

Among them, the official account, as the starting point for traffic distribution, is mainly responsible for event release, content marketing, user interaction and membership services, and distributes traffic to corporate WeChat and mini programs; corporate WeChat and communities directly connect with users, which can further allow users to reach mini programs and Moments, and enhance the effectiveness of events and content marketing; mini programs are mainly responsible for ordinary user operations, membership operations and conversions.

In addition, we can see that Watsons focuses on member conversion . When directing traffic to the private domain, it uses member benefits as an attraction point to complete private domain diversion and member diversion in one step. Subsequent operations, whether in content or activity operations, are all centered around conversion purposes, and highlight the benefits of members in conversion.

Finally, private domain traffic has been a hot area in recent years. This article is a summary of Watsons’ private domain operations inspired by its offline shopping experience. It breaks down the private domain operation process into three processes: traffic diversion, activation (including content, activities, interaction, community, membership) and conversion , and introduces the common practices and cases of these processes respectively. I hope this will help everyone establish a preliminary understanding of private domain operations.