Xiaomi Youpin product analysis!

Against the backdrop of industrial Internet, there are many e-commerce tracks, and tracks such as live streaming e-commerce, quality e-commerce, and social e-commerce have all been subdivided. With the popularization of smart phones and the Internet, the e-commerce market has also been pulled to the national market.

With the improvement of material living standards, more and more consumers are beginning to pursue more products that are good-looking, high-quality and cost-effective, and the track of quality e-commerce has officially begun.
Today we will analyze the quality e-commerce track. Xiaomi Youpin has been online since April 2017. Its performance increased 2.6 times in 2018. Xiaomi's revenue in 2019 reached 205.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27%; about 1/4 of the revenue came from Xiaomi loT and Xiaomi Youpin.

At the same time, at the end of 2019, Xiaomi Youpin entered the top 10 e-commerce list for the first time. In the context of such fierce competition, how did Xiaomi Youpin suddenly overcome numerous obstacles and leap into the top e-commerce industry in a short period of time? What is the current status of the quality e-commerce industry? Is there still a prospect?

Next, we will take Xiaomi Youpin as the entry point to give you an in-depth understanding of the operating logic of this company and the entire quality e-commerce industry. This article will analyze from the following aspects:

1. Industry Analysis
2. Competitive product analysis
3. User Value Analysis
4. Business value analysis
5. Product Iteration Analysis
6. Product structure analysis
7. Operational Analysis
8. Summarize

1. Industry Analysis

Through the joint efforts of the people across the country, my country's economic size has ranked first in the world many times. At the same time, enterprises have also completed Internet upgrades, and traditional e-commerce has developed very maturely in China. Citizens are no longer satisfied with Taobao's comprehensive e-commerce and have begun to have new demands. White-collar workers working in first- and second-tier cities are more pursuing high-quality, high-value-for-money quality products. This is the quality e-commerce industry we are going to analyze.

Comprehensive e-commerce has begun to step down from the "pedestal", and the quality e-commerce industry has carved out a track. In fact, in the context of new-era consumption, competition has become increasingly fierce, and the e-commerce industry has continuously segmented its tracks. The current mainstream tracks include sinking e-commerce, quality e-commerce, social e-commerce, etc.

So what is the quality e-commerce we want to analyze? Influenced by economic, cultural and other factors, residents' material desires have increased, and they pay more attention to product quality and cost-effectiveness. By strengthening the platform's dominance in product selection, reducing intermediate links, etc., the quality of products across the entire site is improved, providing consumers with cost-effective products. So, let’s analyze how quality e-commerce has become the favorite of white-collar workers in first- and second-tier cities, and how Xiaomi Youpin has grown into a leading e-commerce company?

1. Politics

In March 1999, B2C websites such as 8848 were officially launched, and online shopping entered the practical application stage.

The State Council's "2015 Government Work Report" clearly proposed: formulate and implement the "Internet Plus" action plan. "Internet Plus" is to deeply integrate the innovative achievements of the Internet with various economic and social fields. E-commerce is a new business model that applies the Internet to the field of commercial trade and logistics. Clarify the construction tasks of the e-commerce industry, create an e-commerce investment environment, cultivate the e-commerce industry chain, develop commercial circulation e-commerce, develop industry e-commerce platforms, and build e-commerce industrial parks.

The development of quality e-commerce has been included in the scope of policy encouragement. The State Council issued the "Approval on the Establishment of 'China Brand Day'", and established May 10th of each year as "China Brand Day".

2. Economy

In 2020, the total size of my country's working-age population aged 16-59 will be 880 million. Data from the seventh national census showed that the urbanization rate of my country's permanent population reached 63.89% in 2020, and my country's GDP was 91.9 trillion yuan in 2018. In 2020, the per capita disposable income of residents was 32,189 yuan, the per capita disposable income of residents in the high-income group was 80,294 yuan, and the per capita disposable income of residents in the low-income group was 7,869 yuan.

In 2021, we have achieved complete poverty alleviation. The country advocates that the rich should lead the poor. On February 28, the National Bureau of Statistics website released the Statistical Communiqué on my country's National Economic and Social Development in 2020.

The communiqué shows that the Engel coefficient of residents nationwide was 30.2% in 2020, including 29.2% in urban areas and 32.7% in rural areas. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations stipulates that a population with a GDP between 30% and 40% is considered relatively wealthy. As national income increases and the Engel coefficient decreases, citizens will have higher consumption capacity.

Screenshot from National Statistics Network

3. Society and culture

Data from the seventh national census showed that in 2020, the illiteracy rate of my country's population aged 15 and above was 2.67%. The number of people with a college education (college and above) per 100,000 people increased from 8,930 to 15,467, and the number of people with a high school education increased from 14,032 to 15,088. This shows that the educational level of our population has continued to improve over the past decade.

Nowadays, people's wallets are richer and they have higher demands on spiritual needs and quality of life, so a petty-bourgeois lifestyle has emerged. People like to consume more and pay more attention to appearance and quality when shopping.

With the popularization of the Internet, more people choose to shop online and choose some higher-quality e-commerce platforms. As a leading platform for quality e-commerce, Xiaomi Youpin’s three highs concept of high appearance, high quality and high cost performance just meets the needs of contemporary consumers.

4. Technology

In the context of the Internet, enterprises have upgraded their B2C e-commerce model. With the increase in shopping platforms, shopping tools such as tablets, mobile phones, and computers have also entered thousands of households. With the popularization of the Internet, people can shop at home without leaving their homes. The precise push of big data increases the purchase rate. Enterprises have transformed into online B2C models to reduce operating costs and labor costs. Goods are delivered to your door, and if there are any problems, you can make an appointment for return service at home. Online shopping is no longer costly.

The delivery speeds of one-day and next-day express delivery meet the shopping needs of consumers. This is the new e-commerce speed!

It is precisely because of the above-mentioned reasons that the e-commerce industry has developed into a glorious era and occupied half of the market economy!

2. Competitive Product Analysis

1. Tier Analysis

Faced with this quality e-commerce track that has not yet been saturated, a large number of participants have emerged, trying to become the leader of this track. There are quality e-commerce platforms that focus on both quality and appearance, such as: Xiaomi Youpin, NetEase Yanxuan, Suning.com, Zhenkuaile, Tmall, Vipshop and other platforms.

• First tier: Xiaomi Youpin, NetEase Yanxuan
• The second tier: Tmall, Vipshop
• The third place: Suning.com, Real Joy

Since Xiaomi Youpin and NetEase Yanxuan are direct competitors and have similar user scales, we will analyze the differences between the two platforms and their respective advantages and disadvantages from the perspective of growth path and business model.

1) Xiaomi Youpin

Growth experience:

In October 2014, Xiaomi Smart Home was launched.

In October 2014, Mi Home Mall was launched and integrated into Xiaomi Smart Home.

On March 29, 2016, Lei Jun announced a new Xiaomi brand - MIJIA at the Xiaomi Ecosystem 2016 Spring Communication Conference. Xiaomi Smart Home was renamed Mijia, which is the abbreviation of Xiaomi Smart Home.

By the end of 2016, Mijia’s daily active users reached 5 million.

On April 6, 2017, Mijia Youpin was officially launched. In August of the same year, Mijia Youpin’s official Weibo account officially announced that “Mijia Youpin” was renamed “Youpin”.

In May 2018, "Youpin" was officially changed to "Xiaomi Youpin".

On November 6, 2018, JD.com and Xiaomi Youpin, a boutique lifestyle e-commerce platform under Xiaomi, signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Beijing to carry out in-depth cooperation in multiple aspects including the entry of selected products, incubation of third-party brands, reverse customization of goods, and logistics.

Business model:

Sales method: online platform sales + offline physical experience.

Source of goods: Xiaomi’s own products + Xiaomi ecological chain enterprise products + third-party brand products.

Product categories: mobile phones and digital products, Xiaomi TVs, audio and video entertainment, large appliances, kitchen and bathroom appliances, household appliances, personal care appliances, smart home, food and beverages, furniture and home decoration, computers and office, travel and vehicle products, clothing accessories, watches and jewelry, sports and outdoor activities, medical care, daily necessities, beauty and personal care, shoes and luggage, mother and baby products, home textiles and kitchenware, pet life, cool life, Youpin overseas shopping, and daily elements.

Number of products: 2000+ (data from 2018).

Warehousing: self-built warehouse + third-party warehousing.

Logistics: JD Logistics + Merchant Self-delivery + Xiaomi Logistics: Youpin Delivery.

After-sales service: seven-day unconditional return and exchange, invoice issuance, product snapshot.

Business expansion: Xiaomi Youpin has established multiple brand experience stores offline to enrich user consumption scenarios.

2) NetEase Yanxuan

Growth experience:

On April 11, 2016, NetEase Yanxuan was officially launched. The newly launched NetEase Yanxuan has limited product categories and only dozens of SKUs. But in the second half of the year, Yanxuan gained 30 million users and an average monthly turnover of 60 million in just over half a year.

In 2017, it grew rapidly and developed 10 major categories and more than 10,000 products. NetEase Yanxuan’s performance has been soaring since its launch in April 2016, with online transactions increasing eightfold in 2017.

But according to the latest data, in 2018, NetEase's annual operating income was 67.156 billion yuan, of which the operating income of e-commerce business was 19.3 billion yuan (including NetEase Yanxuan and NetEase Kaola).

The operating revenues of NetEase's e-commerce business from 2015 to 2018 were RMB 1.2 billion, RMB 4.5 billion, RMB 11.7 billion and RMB 19.3 billion, respectively, accounting for 5.1%, 11.9%, 21.6% and 28.8% of the total revenue, respectively.

Business model:

Sales method: online platform sales + offline store experience.

Source of goods: Platform self-operated.

Product categories: recommended for you, home life, clothing, shoes and bags, food and beverages, personal care and cleaning, mother and baby, sports and travel, digital appliances, global selection, entertainment features, original design, men's wear area, women's wear area, bedding and furniture, kitchen and dining area.

Number of products: 9,000+ (2018 data).

Warehousing: Self-built warehouse.

Logistics: JD Logistics + SF Express.

After-sales: return refund/exchange/refund only/repair/price protection/invoice service.

Business expansion: NetEase Yanxuan will expand into first- and second-tier cities in 2019 and is currently approaching cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu. In the future, it will also open two types of offline stores: flagship stores and community stores. At the same time, NetEase Yanxuan has also tried to cooperate with multiple business formats, such as Atour Hotels, Watsons, and HOME B&B.

2. Summary

Let’s talk about the similarities first: NetEase Yanxuan and Xiaomi Youpin are both positioned as quality products that enhance the sense of happiness and refinement. The two platforms are mainly self-operated. While operating online platforms, both have also opened offline stores to serve customers and increase customer purchase rates. They have also established their own storage warehouses to ensure delivery speed.

The differences between the two platforms:

1) Different platform positioning: Through the product categories, we can clearly conclude that Xiaomi Youpin's platform positioning is aimed at the sophisticated people in first- and second-tier cities. It mainly promotes high-tech items with a higher average price per person, which is more in line with the two labels of boutique and technology; NetEase Yanxuan's platform positioning is aimed at the marketing scenario of family life quality. Life must have quality, but the average price per person is lower, and it belongs to the comprehensive e-commerce of quality.

2) Different sources of goods: NetEase Yanxuan is a completely self-operated product, and the quality can be controlled from the source; Xiaomi Youpin is Xiaomi + Xiaomi ecological chain + third-party brands, and it is unable to do quality control on third-party brands, so the quality of NetEase Yanxuan is more guaranteed.

3) Different strategies: Xiaomi Youpin focuses on online sales, and the offline experience stores are opened to better serve online products; NetEase Yanxuan's strategic focus is on the two-way development of online and offline. In the future, it will open many formats of stores: flagship stores, community stores, "hotel" stores, homestay stores, "Watsons" stores, etc. NetEase Yanxuan's two paths are two-way services and common development.

3. User Value Analysis

Xiaomi Youpin has three main participants in the quality e-commerce market: platform, consumers, and merchants. The business logic diagram of Xiaomi Youpin is as follows:

If Xiaomi Youpin wants to grow rapidly and become a leading e-commerce company in the quality e-commerce field, it must meet the needs of consumers and the demands of merchants, while balancing the relationship between the three. Let us now discuss the needs of consumers and merchants respectively, and how the platform meets the needs of both.

1. Consumers

As actual consumers in the quality e-commerce industry, the social labels of this group of consumers are: white-collar workers in first- and second-tier cities, sophistication, keeping up with the new generation of high-value electronic products, those born after 1985s, 1990s, 1995s and a small number of those born after 2000s. According to a survey, 80% of Xiaomi Youpin's consumers are male.

This group of consumers has considerable income, and young men are naturally more fond of technological gadgets such as electronic products. In addition, they are influenced by their colleagues and friends. At the same time, they are facing the double pressure of work and life. Driven by various reasons, they will be more willing to choose electronic products that they are interested in to improve their sense of happiness.

However, the existing e-commerce market is almost entirely targeted at the female market or the comprehensive family market. There is no market targeting the male market that pursues technological gadgets, nor is there any product experience or explanation from a male perspective. This type of rational customer always values ​​cost-effectiveness while pursuing quality. The only way to attract them is to offer similar products at a more affordable price. Usually, they can only satisfy their shopping needs in the following ways:

1) Choose to shop on traditional e-commerce platforms

Usually consumers can only shop on comprehensive e-commerce platforms, but the product classification of comprehensive e-commerce platforms is not enough to support consumer demand. There are problems such as product classification being too general, not detailed enough, and not objective enough, which cannot arouse the purchasing desire of such consumers.

Consumers want to buy products, but there is no corresponding professional platform; online shopping logistics is too slow (comprehensive e-commerce platforms have complex categories and are mainly small businesses. They do not have the ability to establish storage warehouses in various places, and logistics are slow). This type of consumer pays more attention to immediate effects and is eager to experience the product as soon as possible.

2) Choose the official website for electronic products shopping

Even when shopping online, the customer service staff are often off duty and unable to answer your questions. The online shopping experience is not strong and there is no professional user product explanation. The official website only shows the advantages of the product but not the disadvantages.

3) Choose to shop at electronic product stores

Many consumers do not have the right time to buy offline, and their purchase rate is restricted by time and place. The biggest disadvantages of shopping in stores are the single brand/product and high prices of goods. In addition, it is impossible to compare similar competing products, and consumers are easily trapped by fixed brands. Consumers are unable to compare multiple brands, multiple price points, multiple performances, multiple appearances and other dimensions.

2. Merchants

Xiaomi Youpin merchants are divided into three types:

1) Third-party brands enter the market. Most of these brands are well-known brands and do not need too much marketing. They only need to rely on highly vertical platforms to sell products. These merchants focus on maximizing profits.

2) Xiaomi's self-operated products. As a representative brand of light technology and a leading domestic brand, Xiaomi is naturally well-known and does not need brand marketing. What Xiaomi Youpin needs to do is to combine light technology life, refinement and high cost performance, and continue to convey its own brand concept to consumers.

3) Merchants in Xiaomi’s ecological chain are Xiaomi’s suppliers and are considered strategic partners. Xiaomi will even participate in brand positioning, etc. Merchants in the ecological chain all comply with Xiaomi’s philosophy and quality control. The size of the enterprises is medium, but their products are relatively single. The following figure shows the scale of Xiaomi's ecological chain merchants:

Screenshot from Zhihu

For businesses, enterprise upgrading is imminent, but the cost of transforming into an Internet company is too high and they dare not take the risk easily. Producing too many goods will cause a backlog and losses, producing too few will cause a worry that there won’t be enough goods to sell, having good products but having no good channels to sell them, these are the difficulties faced by merchants. Merchants have tried the following methods to save themselves. Let’s take a look at what methods the merchants have tried!

1) Enterprise transformation to the Internet

Many companies choose to upgrade themselves and build Internet platforms for marketing, but it is difficult for traditional companies to upgrade themselves. First, companies lack modern management talent and are unable to effectively utilize existing resources for enterprise integration management. Second, the cost of self-upgrading is high, and official websites, official WeChat accounts, official blogs, SEO optimization, and operations all require additional costs.

2) Large enterprises open more stores

Many companies choose to open a wide range of brand stores for sales, which is not a wise decision.

First, in the post-epidemic era, for safety reasons, consumers prefer online shopping and have developed online shopping habits; second, offline stores no longer have advertising attributes, and everyone recognizes brands under online marketing more; third, store operations require high costs, including rent, shopping guides, water and electricity bills, etc.; fourth, store operating data is easy to falsify, and it is impossible to analyze the current situation through sales data and formulate a strategic plan for the next quarter, so it is relatively closed.

3) Enterprises settle in comprehensive e-commerce platforms

It is a relatively good sales method for enterprises to settle in comprehensive e-commerce platforms, but it also has relative disadvantages. The comprehensive e-commerce product classification range is relatively large, and brands are easily hidden in the classification, resulting in insufficient exposure, which will greatly reduce customer purchase rates.

Traditional e-commerce platforms have high operating costs, and there are many fees for opening a store, such as deposits, through-train, buying exposure, and fake orders. Comprehensive e-commerce platforms do not have the shopping atmosphere for high-quality technological products. If consumers place an order without making a good strategy, the order can easily be attracted by products from other categories.

4) Enterprises choose live e-commerce

During the epidemic, because consumers were trapped at home and unable to consume, but had shopping needs to be met, the live streaming e-commerce sales model with a strong sense of atmosphere became successfully popular and successfully revived many companies that were on the verge of bankruptcy.

However, live streaming e-commerce also has its own drawbacks. For example, it is easy for live streaming e-commerce to only recognize anchors. When a brand fixes a few anchors, the anchors will form their own fans. Once the anchors leave, fan (i.e. consumer transfer) events will occur. The account cannot broadcast live all day, and the products are relatively fixed single products, so live streaming is prone to consumer boredom. A small number of consumers do not like live streaming and prefer more professional and authoritative text and graphics. The timing of consumers and live streaming is prone to failure to match.

5) Enterprises choose advertising marketing

Many brands choose advertising marketing, popular TV series placement and other methods. Many companies have proven through practice that these methods are very effective. This method can increase brand awareness and, to a certain extent, increase sales data.

But now the way of Internet marketing has changed. Television is no longer the best marketing platform. The ratio between input and output is relatively weak. For enterprises, they spend high advertising fees but their expected income is reduced. At this time, advertising marketing no longer has an advantage. For micro-enterprises in Xiaomi's ecosystem, it is even more undesirable if marketing expenses cannot cover advertising marketing.

3. Platform

From the above analysis, we can find that for the quality e-commerce track, Xiaomi Youpin needs to solve the following consumer pain points:

• The product classification is not sufficient to support consumer demand. There are problems such as the categories are too general, not refined enough, the products are single, and not objective enough.
• The online shopping experience is not strong, and there is no professional user product explanation;
• The biggest drawbacks of shopping in stores are the single brand/product and high prices, and it is impossible to compare similar competing products;
• There is no professional Internet platform to sell goods;
• Insufficient brand exposure;
• Fans can easily identify the anchor;
• Brand marketing costs are high.

For a good platform, it must be able to accurately solve the pain points of consumers and merchants, and at the same time be profitable to operate its own platform and serve users on both sides. Xiaomi Youpin has successfully done this. So how did it firmly grasp this part of the male market and successfully connect with merchants?

1) The platform provides consumers with a highly cost-effective shopping platform

The platform provides consumers with an online multi-competitive product shopping platform where they can make comprehensive comparisons on a professional platform and buy their favorite products with less money, satisfying the needs of consumers for affordable shopping without leaving home.

2) The platform provides consumers with a consumer environment for high-tech products

Xiaomi Youpin's field is very vertical, it represents personal sophistication in quality e-commerce. When the entire shopping platform becomes a platform for elite men to buy high-quality technology products, the characteristics of these men will also be revealed. Men are more rational in shopping, they pay more attention to product functionality, and they consider product cost-effectiveness more. At this time, experienced and rational product analysis becomes particularly important. In this atmosphere, the probability of a deal is higher!

3) The platform controls product quality for consumers

Xiaomi Youpin takes the route of quality e-commerce, so the review rules for merchants to enter the platform are very strict. Because most of the products are electronic, most of the third-party brands that have settled in are world-renowned brands, and product quality problems are not likely to occur. Xiaomi and its ecological chain products also have the "Xiaomi standard" for quality control, and the platform will regularly spot check products, so consumers don’t have to worry about buying counterfeit goods or other quality problems.

4) The platform provides merchants with a sales platform

The platform provides merchants with a sales platform. For merchants, the more vertical the sales platform, the higher the transaction rate. The more vertical the platform, the higher the customer accuracy rate, the less competition, and the higher the purchase rate for merchants, which naturally reduces brand marketing costs.

5) Xiaomi Youpin - a functional solution to the problem of fans identifying anchors

There is a very important function on the main page of Xiaomi Youpin - Taste. This is a feature supported and cultivated by Xiaomi Youpin's host reviewers. It is not targeted at any brand and only provides professional product analysis and review. For Xiaomi Youpin's consumer audience, they are more rational and better at weighing the value of products. Therefore, there is a greater need for such a group of hosts with male thinking to provide data and product experience for their reference. These professional and unbiased reviews can greatly increase the platform's sales rate.

6) Youpin Delivery - Solved the problem of slow logistics

In order to allow consumers to get the goods as quickly as possible, Xiaomi Youpin not only cooperated with JD Logistics to establish a warehouse and distribution center in North China to meet consumers' needs for next-day delivery; Xiaomi also built its own logistics system - Youpin Distribution, established a cargo storage warehouse, and supported cross-merchant joint delivery, allowing consumers to shop without worries and get goods delivered the next day.

4. Conclusion

To sum up, Xiaomi Youpin has built a shopping platform that is full of professionalism, masculine thinking, and a sense of technological goodness. It has accurately grasped this type of high-quality customers and solved the pain points of merchants and consumers. Through the platform itself, it has successfully connected merchants and consumers. Xiaomi Youpin has become the "middleman" between them, playing a role of transmission and feedback.

Merchants make money, consumers successfully buy their favorite products, and the platform also profits. It is a win-win situation for all three parties, so Xiaomi Youpin has become a leader in quality e-commerce!

4. Commercial Value Analysis

Xiaomi Youpin’s current core business is to target high-tech products that are popular among male white-collar workers in first- and second-tier cities, and to provide product categories that can improve their sense of happiness and quality.

The most important criterion for judging whether an e-commerce platform is developing healthily is GMV, which is determined by the number of users * conversion rate * average order value. Any increase in any of these three indexes will have a positive impact on our GMV. So next we need to follow this logic to analyze the commercial value of Xiaomi Youpin.

1. Increase the number of platform users

If a product wants to increase the number of platform users, there are usually only two ways: free and paid. Let's take a look at the channels Xiaomi Youpin uses to attract new users and increase the number of platform users.

1) Free Model

1. "Xiaomi Youpin Promoter" platform. Becoming a VIP member of Xiaomi Youpin Promoter will allow you to enjoy many member benefits such as saving money on self-purchase and making money by sharing. You can also join the member-only community to share experiences and exchange ideas.
2. Xiaomi Youpin has launched the WeChat sharing function. Backed by the social product WeChat with hundreds of millions of users, products can be shared on WeChat. After the products are shared on WeChat, they will automatically switch to the mini program. When the friends who are shared view them, Xiaomi needs to obtain their personal information. After completing the process, it can automatically attract new users and use new user benefits and subsidies to entice users to place their first order.
3. Use Xiaomi's own traffic and ecosystem-related businesses to attract traffic, for example: Xiaomi Youpin will be automatically installed when buying a Xiaomi phone or tablet; provide benefits to customers and employees in Xiaomi Youpin, etc.;
4. Xiaomi Youpin's own word-of-mouth spread. When users have a good shopping experience on this platform, they will recommend it to their relatives and friends.
5. Xiaomi Youpin will regularly launch high-tech products for crowdfunding, which will attract many users who are willing to "take a gamble" to join.

2) Payment model

a. Charity activities

When the epidemic broke out, Lei Jun and Xiaomi Group extended a helping hand at the first opportunity. Information shows that from January 23 to 24, Xiaomi Youpin assisted the Xiaomi Charity Foundation in an emergency inventory, mobilized scarce materials on the front line at the first opportunity, and the first batch of relief supplies arrived safely in Wuhan on the first day of the Lunar New Year. It is understood that this is one of the earliest donations received by Wuhan from an Internet celebrity. According to statistics: Xiaomi Youpin has donated a total of 12,969 daily necessities to Wuhan.

On November 4, Xiaomi Youpin launched the "Green Protection Plan" in collaboration with the largest domestic environmental protection charity organization, the All-China Environmental Protection Federation, and its cultural charity platform, Environment China. The plan aims to bring together technology and the environment to truly protect the green mountains and rivers of the motherland through the power of sustainable development technology, and jointly contribute to the construction of ecological civilization in a beautiful China.

b. Blogger promotion

Xiaomi Youpin is promoted through bloggers on various platforms. These bloggers will share the popular products of the Xiaomi Youpin platform through evaluation, product analysis, etc., to attract fans to buy. When the customer completes the purchase process, the step of attracting new customers to the platform is completed. Here are some examples:

• Douyin bloggers: Yanzu Gaigoji (429,000), Zhou Zhou (981,000), Ma Baoer (545,000), Qiong Jingzhi (323,000)
• Weibo: Casual Digital Talk (35.1w), Elodie Wants to Gain Weight (54.4w), I’m Skinny (42w)

…

c. Platform Advertising

• The homepage of the Mijia Youpin APP appears on LED screens at airport exits across the country for more than ten hours around the clock, deepening the public's impression of Xiaomi Youpin and increasing the number of downloads of Xiaomi Youpin.
• When searching for Taobao in the AppStore, Xiaomi Youpin ads pop up, increasing product downloads.

d. Variety show sponsorship

• Xiaomi’s advertisement in Taiwan, “Mi Family Daily Life”, is an excellent creative work (Xiaomi Youpin is also a Xiaomi series);
• Became the exclusive title sponsor of Yu Quan's 20th anniversary concert.

e. Invite new members with gifts

You can get a red packet of 100 yuan by inviting friends, and you can get up to 168 yuan by inviting friends to place orders. By inviting new users, we can give benefits to old users and let old users attract new users with the rewards.

f. Strategic cooperation

On the evening of June 5, Xiaomi Youpin teamed up with famous actor Wang Zijian to launch the 618 Super Live Show with the theme of "Novel and Cool, Worth Buying".

Xiaomi Youpin’s Thanksgiving Season “Technology Goodies” special live broadcast has started on the App and Video Account! As the product recommendation officer of this event, Zhang Jike not only recommended many good products to the audience, but also performed a wonderful "juggling show" during the live broadcast, demonstrating his solid basic skills as a national table tennis player.

Held the first partner conference, "In the future, Xiaomi Youpin will empower partners in all aspects such as brand and traffic, merchant operation, and supply chain finance, and jointly create the goal of "hundred-billion-level new business".

On March 29, Xiaomi Youpin's first partner conference was officially opened in Nanjing. In his speech at the opening ceremony, Wang Guoping, deputy district mayor of Jianye District People's Government of Nanjing, said that Xiaomi is an excellent Internet company with a long-standing relationship with Nanjing, and Youpin's establishment has further strengthened the cooperation between the two sides. As Xiaomi's East China headquarters, the future Nanjing company will be committed to new technologies, new business breakthroughs and the development of smart hardware IoT.

2. Improve conversion rate

After we attract users to download products through various means, we then need to guide them to complete registration and generate purchasing behavior. Users will then establish an initial connection with the platform. Only after turning users into paying users of the platform will they be valuable to the platform! Next, let’s take a look at how Xiaomi Youpin improves conversion rates?

1) Register to get coupons

After downloading, Xiaomi Youpin will remind users to register immediately. After registration, ten large new user coupons will be given to attract users to place orders. The coupons need to be used within a certain period of time, otherwise they will expire and cannot be used.

1) Activity partition

The homepage of Xiaomi Youpin also has Xiaomi crowdfunding, Youpin flash sales and other low-priced products to attract users to place orders. The homepage product list also includes Moutai liquor. Taking advantage of the current situation that Moutai is difficult to buy and Moutai needs to be purchased at a high price, the company has specially launched Moutai liquor and beverages that can be snapped up at a low price. The Moutai category alone has attracted many investors and new users to register and place orders, making a significant contribution to the platform activity of Xiaomi Youpin.

3) Activity entrance

When users log in to the homepage with an unclear goal, there are activity banners, discount guides, discount activities, and holiday activities to increase the shopping atmosphere, push various cheap and affordable goods to you, and attract users to place orders. When users are still worried about the product quality and price of new users, function-taste and user purchase reviews are provided to dispel user doubts and increase user order rates.

4) Get coupons for exclusive prices

Xiaomi Youpin stimulates users' shopping desire through limited-time coupons, prompting them to place orders as soon as possible. This can increase the order rate because they are sure that the products are marked with prices. Once they receive the coupons, they will think that they can save money when shopping. At this moment, marketing psychology is used to increase the purchase rate.

5) Search

In order to shorten the shopping process for users with precise needs, reduce the chance of regret and increase the order rate, Xiaomi Youpin provides a search portal to allow users to directly enter the distribution page of ideal products and competing products, giving users more choices, so as to firmly grasp the users and encourage them to place orders. In order to improve the conversion rate, the platform also increases the hot list display on the search page to increase the chance of ordering.

6) Product list page

When we enter a shopping platform, if we have a precise target, we will of course actively search for the target product, and then enter the analysis-add to cart process. However, when we do not have a precise target, what attracts us in the product list of Xiaomi Youpin platform is: appearance, black technology, price, sales volume and the demand created by the merchants.

In fact, from the above picture we can find that when consumers do not have clear shopping needs, with the help of big data, some products that consumers are more interested in will be pushed. The first thing we can see is the product picture. When the product picture is attractive enough, consumers will stop for a second look, and this time it is the price.

The prices in the above picture are designed to be red in order to stimulate consumers' desire to buy.

The third thing to look at is the product copy. Accurate and interesting copy can largely determine whether consumers stay or leave. In fact, pictures and copy are the needs created by merchants for consumers. These are all means to attract consumers to click on the details page. Therefore, we can conclude that appearance, price, and demand created by merchants are the main determining factors, which is the first step for the platform to improve conversion rate.

7) Buy-and-get-one-free promotion

In order to improve user conversion rates, many platforms will adopt buy-big-get-small-free activities, usually bundling some slow-selling products with popular products for sale together. However, this kind of activity is not limited to physical products. The buy-one-get-one-free activity shown in the picture above is to buy a physical product and give away Xiaomi's virtual product, that is, membership.

8) In stock/out of stock

Although the product is available most of the time, the platform uses eye-catching red to mark the availability of the product, creating scarcity to stimulate consumers' shopping psychology, help consumers shorten the shopping process, and increase the platform's conversion rate.

9) Product details page

Through the product details page, we can find that the platform has put a lot of thought into boosting conversion rates and has worked hard on shopping guidance. It stimulates consumers' shopping desire and encourages them to place orders through various promotional activities, sharing functions, and creating a sense of scarcity of products.

10) WeChat sharing function

From the product page in the picture above, we can see that Xiaomi Youpin has designed a WeChat sharing function. When shared to the WeChat interface, it will be automatically converted into a mini-program, and WeChat friends can directly open it to browse and purchase. This is to use the social function of WeChat to help Xiaomi Youpin achieve two goals: one is to attract new customers for free; the other is to increase conversion rate.

Because products shared by consumers with their friends usually lead to discussions, recommendations, etc., it can help the platform acquire new potential users, and the conversion success rate of these users is usually very high.

11) Shopping cart

Xiaomi Youpin will particularly highlight its price advantage in the shopping cart. Generally speaking, if a product has been added to the shopping cart, it means that the consumer is very satisfied with all aspects of the product and has corresponding needs. The only factor that can determine whether the consumer places an order is the price. Therefore, in the shopping cart interface, price-related items will be marked in red to attract consumers' attention. In order to increase the average order value, the platform will use big data to "recommend" products of interest to you and increase your order rate.

12) Evaluation page

When consumers browse products, they usually have questions and worry about the quality of the products, whether there is a color difference from the picture, and whether the materials are the same. Merchants cannot answer these questions to consumers, and consumers will not believe the beautiful descriptions of merchants. Only the opinions of former users who are also consumers, whose interests are consistent with those of consumers and who have no conflicts of interest with the merchants, are convincing.

Therefore, Xiaomi Youpin has made displays for non-purchasing consumers based on pictures, time classification, material classification, etc., allowing people with the same interests to share product information to a certain extent. This can encourage consumers to place orders and improve the platform's conversion rate.

Xiaomi Youpin attracts users to place orders through various high-value limited-time coupons, homepage discount recommendations, big data product recommendations, etc., and uses real user product reviews to dispel user doubts, successfully retaining users and turning them into valuable users of the platform.

3) Increase the average order value

In the e-commerce industry, we usually divide users into two types: one is a user with clear goals and the other is a user with unclear goals. The behavioral paths of the two users are different, but they end up with the same destination. Generally speaking, except for the user with unclear goals and one more search behavior, as long as we lock in users with unclear goals, we can lock in the user's shopping path.

Users with clear targets: search for products - enter product details page - add to shopping cart - pay orders - customer service after-sales service.

Users with unclear goals: browse the product list - enter the product details page - view reviews - add to the shopping cart - browse the product - enter the product details page - view reviews - add to the shopping cart... - pay orders - customer service after-sales service.

Through the comparison above, you can clearly see that the behavioral path of users with clear goals is included in users with unclear goals, so next we will analyze what methods the platform uses to increase customer unit price by using unclear goals?

1) Full-salary activities

The coupon shown in the picture above can be reduced by 40 yuan immediately after spending 499 yuan. It is also a means for the platform to increase the average customer price. When the consumer's original intention is just to buy a headset worth 254 yuan, he saw a coupon with a discount and just needed a charger, the consumer was easily impulsive at this moment. He bought these two products for a discount, and at the same time saved them 40 yuan. The consumer was still very satisfied at this time because they bought the products they needed at a relatively discounted price.

This not only can increase the conversion rate, but also increase the average customer price. Consumers usually make up orders to make up orders for a full reduction.

2) Pay order

In order to increase the conversion rate and unit price, the platform will preset the economic difficulties faced by consumers. It provides Huabei installment purchase methods on the product purchase selection page. Xiaomi even provides its own installment channels to increase the order rate and unit price of consumers.

There are also many payment methods for consumers to choose from in the payment interface. The six payment methods of Alipay, Xiaomi Wallet, WeChat Pay, Cloud Flash Payment, Huabei Installment, and Xiaomi Installment almost cover the mainstream payment methods in the world, giving consumers a very complete consumption channel, and never let consumers give up purchasing due to payment problems.

3) Customer service after-sales service

A perfect after-sales system can improve conversion rate, unit customer price, and even help the platform attract new products for free. Xiaomi Youpin provides after-sales services such as: seven-day unreasonable returns, invoices, product snapshots and other services. These are services that help consumers successfully end the purchase process, which is also another way for the platform to supervise product quality.

Perhaps many consumers cannot use after-sales service, but the more perfect the platform protects consumers' rights and interests, the more consumers' repurchase rate will increase. After all, the cost of increasing the average customer price and repurchase rate is much lower than that of Laxin.

4. Conclusion

According to the above analysis, Xiaomi Youpin has carefully designed the necessary shopping process for consumers such as product list pages, product details pages, shopping carts, payment orders, customer service and after-sales service, to help merchants improve consumers' purchase rate. The main purpose of doing all this is to increase the average customer price and conversion rate.

Xiaomi Youpin designed a series of ways to increase customer unit price, conversion rate and attract new users through the behavioral path of unclear goals. As long as one of the three shows a value-added trend, GMV can grow positively, and Xiaomi Youpin's platform is developing healthily.

5. Product Iteration Analysis

In order to deeply analyze the version iteration rhythm of Xiaomi Youpin and explore the product iteration logic, the author has compiled all the core versions of Xiaomi Youpin from V1.0.8 to V4.24.0 as follows:

According to the curve distribution of the accumulated download volume of Xiaomi Youpin on Kuchuan, it can be seen that since V3.1.0, that is, September 4, 2019, the curvature of user growth has continued to increase, which is a "J-shaped" curve, so Xiaomi Youpin is divided into two stages for analysis:

Image from Cool

1. Phase 1

Before September 2019, V1.0.8 - V2.12.0 versions were the cold start stage of Xiaomi Youpin's mobile products. The main goal of this stage is to attract new products and polish user experience (which is a phased goal).

The main operation is to improve Xiaomi Youpin's expected functions: for example, in order to save user registration costs, the platform has launched a one-click registration and login function for mobile phone numbers; in order to meet consumers' desire to instantly understand logistics situation, the expected delivery time function, the express information page recognizes the courier's phone number and can call directly (here can also improve the conversion rate of platform users, and all the functions we have improved are for improving the order rate and repurchase rate).

In order to increase the number of users on the platform, Xiaomi Youpin has launched a new recruit invitation mechanism. After old users invite new users to download the registration software and activate it, they can receive a coupon gift. There are also sharing products to WeChat friends, and associated with mini-program cards, which can automatically attract new products and increase the conversion rate of the platform; "Hot products are grouped together, 5 people form groups, enjoy ultra-low discounts." As we all know, the biggest advantage of group buying is to attract new products and convert. Every time a group buying is completed, you can attract new products/order five people, successfully increasing the number of users and conversion rate of the platform.

In order to increase the conversion rate, the platform has added new users' exclusive discount "novice red envelopes". When consumers already have shopping needs, they will definitely choose a cheaper and quality-assured platform to purchase. This place can not only attract new products, but also increase the conversion rate; shopping cart optimization recommends algorithms for you. According to consumers' preferences, more products suitable for consumers' prices, categories, and tastes can be pushed to the front to increase the order rate.

Mijia Youpin was officially renamed Xiaomi Youpin, and it has laid out the development of an independent e-commerce platform for boutique life (the name change incident is an important turning point for Xiaomi Youpin to reposition the target population of consumers. By positioning high-precision, high consumption, and high cost-effective people, it is a more vertical boutique e-commerce platform to increase customer unit price and order rate). These are all auxiliary measures to improve consumers' shopping. It is precisely by constantly making presets: the problems and difficulties consumers may encounter when shopping and actively giving solutions that can improve users' order rate!

Because the comprehensive e-commerce platform is almost monopolized by Taobao and Beijing products, the latter is difficult to break through the siege. Xiaomi Youpin officially turns to the boutique e-commerce track. In order to meet the consumer needs of high-quality, high-quality, high cost-effectiveness and simultaneous responses, Xiaomi Youpin launched the functions of Star Products, which are highly discounted in celebrity products, and robot customer service Mitu are newly launched to answer your questions at any time.

Starting from this version of V1.21.0, we can see that the curve is showing an upward trend. Xiaomi Youpin’s download volume is growing. At this stage, Mitu robot is online. The launch of the robot has answered many questions for consumers, improved the order rate, and optimized the shopping process. At this stage, the platform has been continuously adding basic shopping processes, optimizing consumer shopping experience, building a more vertical track, accurately positioning consumer groups, taking boutique e-commerce as the direction of product development, focusing on and polishing products and shopping experiences.

2. Stage 2

From September 4, 2019 to the present, the versions V3.1.0 to V4.24.0 are the rapid growth period of Xiaomi Youpin. Through the curve chart, we can see that the download volume of Xiaomi Youpin has been rising sharply, and increasing the number of platform users and increasing the conversion rate has become the focus of product iteration (phase goals).

In terms of increasing the number of users on the platform, Xiaomi Youpin has joined the acquaintance social networking - WeChat, a national-level application with 100 million traffic. Xiaomi Youpin has released the WeChat one-click login function, which reduces consumers' operating costs, increases consumers' login opportunities, and can effectively improve the platform's daily active users.

In addition, in order to increase the average customer price, Xiaomi Youpin has added high-quality content recommendations to create a sense of shopping atmosphere, attract users with unclear goals, and effectively improve users' order rate. In order to increase the order rate and customer unit price, the platform has also added a variety of payment methods such as cloud flash payment and credit card installment in stages to allow users to shop without worries and give users the opportunity to consume in advance. Password sharing function can also effectively improve the conversion rate, and can also attract new products for the platform and increase the order rate during the sharing process.

If consumers have no consumption demand, the platform creates demand for consumers. The platform presets consumers' mentality of greed for small gains such as discounts and bargaining, and prepares a password sharing function for consumers, which can receive coupons. It can not only increase the user's order rate, but also attract new users for the platform until the consumer reaches the checkout mark. There are multiple methods such as cloud flash payment and credit card installment, so that consumers can not give up shopping for checkout.

Judging from the data, it is meaningful for Xiaomi Youpin to continuously polish products and optimize shopping experience at this stage. Since September 2019, the platform has shown explosive growth. With the dual efforts of the product layer and the operation layer, Xiaomi Youpin has become the leading product of boutique e-commerce.

3. Conclusion

Through the curve chart, we can conclude that Xiaomi Youpin is currently in the growth stage. Xiaomi Youpin has been improving the basic functions of the product in the early stage, and even exploring the development direction. In the stage of version V1.8.0, the platform suddenly moved to the direction of quality e-commerce, and all the new functions are serving this. When the new product is polished, Xiaomi Youpin conducted a small-scale market test, keenly perceived the recognition of consumers and pushed it to the market in one fell swoop. Only then can we see a nearly straight growth curve on the curve chart.

Although the download volume dropped slightly during the growth process (this is a problem with Xiaomi channel), the download volume has increased rapidly through timely adjustments. All the basic functions and experience optimizations done by Xiaomi Youpin before are all for the accumulation of strength at this moment, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent release.

6. Product structure analysis

In the iterative analysis, we analyzed the iteration steps of Xiaomi Youpin's product functions. Next, let's take a look at what users' needs meet and how they are distributed in the entire APP. This part will be analyzed through the product structure. The following figure is the product structure brain diagram of Xiaomi Youpin V4.24.2.5696:

For the sake of analysis, the author re-sorted Xiaomi Youpin's product structure according to users, scenarios, needs and functions to obtain the following table:

Overall analysis

Because Xiaomi Youpin’s target users are consumers, it focuses on meeting the potential needs of consumers. Generally speaking, there are two scenarios when consumers use Xiaomi Youpin:

1. Before consumption, discover your favorite products through the APP, check the quality, add them to the shopping cart, and check out the price after comparing the prices;
2. After consumption, you will consult some operational matters on the APP, such as after-sales service such as return and exchange, reissue, invoices, etc.

Scene 1

What do consumers have before consumption, and what functions does Xiaomi Youpin meet these needs?

Xiaomi Youpin has attracted many users to register through platform advertising and Xiaomi’s own traffic. Users are divided into two types: clear and unclear purposes. For the platform, users have prepared a number of activity entrances, special events, crowdfunding, flash sale activities, etc. on the homepage to attract users’ attention and quickly build a sense of trust between the platform and users with the minimum time and the minimum cost.

The platform has also prepared multiple entrances for users with clear goals, and puts the commonly used functions of users such as food, clothing, housing and transportation, electronic products, pet life, etc. in the most conspicuous position on the homepage. If users want more segmented choices, they can also directly click on the bottom navigation bar - category to find more segmented product categories in the secondary page.

However, as a new user, he is unwilling to take the risk of placing an order when he does not understand or trust the platform enough. Therefore, the platform needs to help consumers build trust, take advantage of the users' desire for discounts, and stimulate their desire when taking coupons, red envelopes and other discounts.

However, users will still hesitate and worry about product quality. User evaluation (videos and pictures of purchased users are the best explanations of product quality, and people are more willing to believe the comments of past people), taste evaluation (purchased consumers dissect the product from an objective and professional perspective, so that the advantages and disadvantages of the product are fully exposed, and consumers believe in this comprehensive information more), and seven-day unreasonable return (breaking the last level on the road to hindering consumers' shopping) can dispel users' final doubts. If the product quality is not good, consumers can return the product unconditionally.

Moreover, the platform has the most comprehensive mainstream payment method to avoid Taobao products being unable to pay with WeChat, or users are unable to place orders if the balance is insufficient. In the end, the person who successfully places the order will become the value user of the platform, and at this time the user will truly become the consumer of the platform.

The functions mentioned just now are common frequency functions that consumers often use, so they are placed in a conspicuous position. This function layout is very reasonable. This series of operations are all for their convenience and prompt them to complete the process of placing an order.

Scene 2

What needs do consumers have after consumption and how do they meet the platform?

After a successful shopping, the most nervous thing for consumers is to be curious about logistics information, whether the product received is different from the product chart, and whether the after-sales service is good. In terms of sales, successfully selling a product is not the end, but the beginning, because the cost of attracting new products is much higher than retention. When the platform establishes trust with users and successfully completes the first order, the consumer's consumption strength is very scary. The key to retaining consumers is service! So here we will focus on simulating consumers' psychological state after shopping, or demand!

The first thing consumers are curious about after shopping is logistics information. Xiaomi Youpin directly launched new functions: pre-sale products increase the estimated delivery time, express delivery information page identifies the courier's phone number and can be called directly. If users are afraid of trouble, they can also contact customer service for consultation and processing; while waiting for express delivery, users will inevitably worry whether the physical objects are the same as the platform's pictures. In order to protect consumers' rights and interests, the platform has directly added product snapshot function, allowing consumers to compare with product pictures one by one with express delivery.

After receiving the product, consumers will have various questions about the product and need to deal with returns and exchanges. Xiaomi Youpin launched a robot to solve doubts online 24 hours a day, teaching you how to install and operate the product step by step. If you are not satisfied with the product or missed out, you can directly apply for return and exchanges/reissance on the platform. When it comes to purchasing and other persons who need to make a claim, the platform can issue personal/enterprise invoices for consumers to report. After completing the receipt service, there is also a full reward for the first order. This coupon is used for users to place orders for a second time to satisfy consumers' mentality of taking advantage of the goods.

From the above analysis, we can find that Xiaomi Youpin has created one-stop shopping service. The platform presets various scenarios that will occur after users enter the platform. It helps users think of solutions in advance, and uses various discounts and complete after-sales services to encourage users to place orders and transform them into consumers. When users place orders, they preset various problems that consumers may encounter, and also provide corresponding solutions to give consumers the best shopping experience.

In fact, Xiaomi Youpin has been providing services from beginning to end. It provides services through functions before consumption and after consumption through after sales. The high-frequency functions designed for two different user scenarios have successfully attracted a large number of loyal fans for Xiaomi Youpin and successfully entered the top e-commerce industry!

7. Operational Path Analysis

The relationship between products and operations is closely related. The product is responsible for the birth of this platform, and operations need to pull the platform to be activated. So how does Xiaomi Youpin's operation operate this product and grow rapidly in a short period of time? The author has discussed the establishment of Xiaomi Youpin and has used the AARRR model to sort out the main operating activities for everyone, as follows:

1. Pull new(A)

In order to attract new products, Xiaomi Youpin mainly uses the following methods:

• Blogger promotion: Promote the platform through blogger evaluation and sharing platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Weibo, etc.;
• Platform advertising: Xiaomi Youpin APP homepage appears in the national basic entrance and exit LED screens; APPSTORE searches for Taobao and pops up Xiaomi Youpin ads;
• Variety show title: Xiaomi’s advertisement in Taiwan “Mi Family Daily”; became the exclusive title agent for the 20th anniversary concert of the Yuquan group;
• Strategic cooperation: Xiaomi Youpin co-actor Wang Zijian launched the 618 super live show; Zhang Jike became the recommendation officer of Xiaomi Youpin's "Technology Goods" during the Gratitude Season; Xiaomi Youpin officially held the first partner conference in Nanjing.

2. Inspire activity (A)

The main targets for stimulating activity are the two indicators of daily active users and monthly active users, such as sending text messages/push messages to users.

After the user downloads and registers the APP, he needs to activate the user to open the APP, thereby improving the daily and monthly active users of the APP. In order to improve the user's activity, Xiaomi Youpin mainly pushes push messages:

• Monthly benefits (full discount coupons for the month)
• Free experience (free product application)
• Xiaomi Youpin Crowdfunding
• Kill instantly

3. Improve retention (R)

The main goal of improving retention is to improve the two indicators of next-day retention and seven-day retention, such as continuous sign-in and other activities.

After promoting user activity, it is also necessary to improve user retention rates in order to continuously create value for the platform. In order to improve user retention rates, Xiaomi Youpin mainly does the following:

• Sign in every day to receive cash red envelopes
• Product Value Center - Trail Blazers can unlock rights and interests by increasing product value (monthly benefits, free shipping for refunds and exchanges, free experience. Exclusive customer service, priority purchase)
• Up membership - membership fee is returned for more than five orders

4. Share Communication (R)

In order to guide users to spread spontaneously, Xiaomi Youpin mainly does the following:

• Xiaomi Youpin Crowdfunding – One-yuan Support Products
• Xiaomi Youpin Promoter - Save money by purchasing by yourself, and make money by sharing
• WeChat sharing function - share with friends
• Xiaomi's own traffic and ecological chain dissemination
• Word of mouth marketing
• Public Welfare Activities - Xiaomi Youpin donates materials to Wuhan, Xiaomi Youpin and the "China Environmental Protection Federation" initiated the "Green Guarding Plan"
• Invite new gifts - get a hundred yuan red envelope

5. Increase income (R)

We have introduced in detail the methods to increase revenue in the business value analysis section, so we will not repeat them here.

6. Conclusion

To sum up, the author systematically analyzed the reasons why Xiaomi Youpin became the leading e-commerce company from seven parts: industry, competitors, user value, commercial value, product iteration, product structure, and operation. We can see that no product is easily popular, and it must be a comprehensive effect of multiple reasons such as repeated polishing + operation policy + opportunity.

8. Future Prospects/Optimization Suggestions

Through the above analysis, we have learned about the reasons for the rise of Xiaomi Youpin. So how should this unicorn develop in the future? Next, the author will use the SWOT model to conduct a system analysis, hoping to draw effective conclusions from it.

1. Advantages

1. The product is well polished to meet the users' expectations;
2. Xiaomi's standards are deeply rooted in people's minds: high appearance, high quality, high cost performance, and good quality control;
3. The only quality e-commerce on the market that makes good technology products;
4. Backed by Xiaomi and its ecological chain, it is large-scale traffic support.

2. Disadvantages

1. Only making branded products, losing the sinking market, and building a platform for quality e-commerce is an inevitable disadvantage unless the team re-incubates a product targeting the sinking market.
2. The product richness is not enough.
3. The model is single and easy to be copied by Huawei. Huawei also has the same ecological industry chain and also takes the route of smart home scenes. Huawei also has better product reputation and stronger financial support. If Xiaomi Youpin is not careful, it will be easy to be copied + overtaken by Huawei!
4. The user experience is poor, the product program is not smooth enough, and it cannot be entered after entering the customer service interface many times. There are also user feedbacks that return and exchange are limited, which is not ideal enough.

3. Opportunity

1. Influenced by the economic and cultural environment, the people currently have the remaining funds on their bodies, and are capable and hope to enjoy a better quality of life;
2. The development of quality e-commerce is included in the scope of policy encouragement;
3. Affected by the epidemic, people have reduced the frequency of going out, and their desire to research and use smart homes and black technology products has increased, and consumers have a higher desire to buy.

4. Threat

1) Xiaomi’s biggest rival may not be NetEase, but the Huawei series. In recent years, Xiaomi has been engaged in ecology, Huawei has also been engaged in ecology, Xiaomi has made technology products, and Huawei also has technology products, with almost the same background and resources. Huawei is easy to copy homework, and Huawei’s products are of better quality, and Xiaomi is more likely to be impacted.

2) Affected by the epidemic, the physical industry is difficult to do, the economic environment is not good, and many small and medium-sized enterprises lay off employees, which may reduce the budget for purchasing black technology products.

Through the above analysis, we can see that if Xiaomi Youpin wants to continue to develop, it needs to increase support for ecological chain scientific research and community e-commerce.

Xiaomi Youpin’s core competitiveness is its own low-price and black technology products. While ensuring low prices, Xiaomi Youpin should continuously improve product quality, develop more black technology products, and continue to maintain the "three high levels". Only by perfecting itself and being a platform that wins the trust of consumers can we win the market. In addition, we also need to continue to strengthen our advantages, continuously output, and provide good consumer services.

Regarding increasing scientific research efforts in ecological chains: First of all, Xiaomi Youpin is a platform that mainly promotes good products with good technology. It is more dependent on the black technology products (with cost-effectiveness). Good technology products are Xiaomi Youpin's competitiveness. Xiaomi and its ecological chain companies behind it need to continue to develop black technology products, increase R&D efforts, turn platform users into loyal users, and increase platform visibility. As long as consumers mention black technology products, they can think of Xiaomi Youpin.

Regarding supporting community e-commerce: Because Xiaomi Youpin mainly promotes good technology products, such products cannot give too many discounts when selling goods on live streaming. The official will control the price and balance the market. However, people who buy such good technology products pay more attention to functionality and have consumption strength. In fact, it is more suitable for professional evaluation and user evaluation for reference, so Xiaomi Youpin's community attributes should be improved. In this regard, you can learn from Xiaohongshu and increase sales through multi-party evaluations and users' spontaneous purchase of shared products.

Author: Wang Zai 3354

Source: Wang Zai 3354