Wanliniu e-commerce product analysis!

E-commerce ERP is a pioneer of domestic SAAS ERP products and is a case that is very worthy of study. The author of this article takes Wanliniu e-commerce as an example and analyzes it from five dimensions: strategy layer, scope layer, structure layer, framework presentation layer, and data layer. I hope it will be helpful to you.

1. Overview

This article will be described from the framework shown in the figure below. This is also my first attempt to completely disassemble an ERP product. At this moment, I don’t know what it will look like, but I hope to gain something from it.

2. Overview of Domestic E-commerce ERP

E-commerce ERP is the forerunner of domestic SAAS ERP products. After more than ten years of fierce competition, it has expanded from the blue ocean to the red ocean, and from the incremental market to today's stock market. Regarding the development of the domestic SAAS industry, e-commerce ERP products are a case that is very worthy of study. Unfortunately, I entered the industry late and cannot make too many descriptions on the development of the industry.

2.1 Product Value

The greatest value of e-commerce ERP is to help e-commerce companies aggregate orders across platforms, manage inventory in a unified manner, and efficiently process orders and deliver goods. For example, users open stores on Taobao, and also have stores on JD.com, as well as a bunch of e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo and Vipshop. At this time, users need to open the backend of each e-commerce platform and constantly switch pages to handle business. The user's own inventory cannot be effectively managed, and when the business volume is large, the delivery efficiency will be very low. In this scenario, e-commerce ERP came into being.

From the perspective of business logic, e-commerce ERP itself does not have the ability to conduct transactions with e-commerce buyers. It needs to rely on a large number of e-commerce platforms to exist. All e-commerce platforms can be regarded as the business front desk of e-commerce ERP. E-commerce ERP is a business backend that aggregates and processes the business data of various e-commerce platforms.

Domestic e-commerce ERP pays more attention to the business itself. Its functions are basically designed around the core business to solve various complex business scenarios and improve the business operation efficiency of e-commerce companies. A good ERP is one that can provide a set of effective solutions for complex business scenarios.

2.2 Industry Characteristics

The domestic e-commerce industry is a very mature and changeable industry. This industry has many fixed routines, and at the same time, this industry will come up with new tricks at any time. As an ISV, practitioners of e-commerce ERP products not only have to solve industry business problems, but also need to frequently deal with small changes in upstream e-commerce platforms every now and then. In short, this is an industry that cannot be stopped. Even for some companies that develop e-commerce ERP products, this is an industry where there is no time to think, and all they have to do is iterate desperately.

2.3 User Features

The overall population working in the domestic e-commerce industry is too smart. Their daily operations in the back-end of e-commerce platforms such as Taobao and JD.com have enabled them to have a very strong ability to learn and understand back-end products. They are the best customer group for the rapid promotion of SAAS products. At the same time, they will exploit loopholes in various business scenarios whenever they have the chance and create various problems for ISVs.

3. Wanliniu ERP Disassembly

This article attempts to describe it from five dimensions: strategy layer, scope layer, structure layer, framework presentation layer, and data layer. In fact, when there are too many competing products in the market, the strategic and scope layers of the companies are often highly similar, and even the framework presentation layer will be a mixture of you and me.

3.1 Strategic Level

I remember that when I took an online course taught by Gao Wei, the former product director of iQiyi, he said that the product strategies of TO B are all written on their own official websites. Disassembling Wanliniu is something I have wanted to do for a long time, so I tried to study Wanliniu’s official website for a few days.

3.1.1 Company Introduction

The concept of light implementation and delivery is probably unique in the industry, and this is also the biggest reason why I chose Wanliniu.

3.1.2 Product Ecosystem

First of all, it should be made clear that the company where Wanliniu works is not just an e-commerce ERP company. E-commerce ERP is only a part of its product ecosystem. Wanliniu is one of only three companies in the industry that has built a product ecosystem around ERP. (The other two are Jushuitan and Wangdiantong)

The future of TO B SAAS will be dominated by a combination of punches. It will be difficult to break through by relying on a single point. An integrated solution is the best solution.

3.1.3 Development Vision

Mission: Promoting enterprise innovation with Internet services

Vision: A trustworthy and respected cloud service provider

Values: Dream, Action, Persistence

3.2 Scope Layer

For us who make products, since we cannot lead or even participate in the strategic level, what we can do is to follow the boss's ideas to plan the products they want, such as the main business line and various branch lines of the product. This is the scope level, and it is something that only product people with sufficient level of ability can do. Product people at this level can plan the direction of the product and core business, and can inject their own soul into the product that is about to take shape. Product people who can dominate the scope layer will have the confidence to say to the outside world that this product is their own work. This should also be a great sense of accomplishment for a product person.

The main business line of Wanliniu e-commerce ERP at the scope level is not much different from that of other home appliance e-commerce ERPs. However, each company basically has its own characteristics in customer portrait, and each ERP will also make some special developments based on its main customer base. Wanliniu is currently in the second tier of the e-commerce ERP category in the Taobao service market. The figure below is the Taobao service market's functional evaluation and customer portrait of Wanliniu ERP. Wanliniu's customer base is mainly in the beauty, cute pet, and home furnishing industries. In my understanding, Wanliniu's business processing tends to be more oriented towards the standard product industry and standard business processes.

3.2.1 Business Architecture Diagram

The above picture is the ERP functional architecture diagram officially provided by Wanliniu. This diagram has involved omni-channel business, not just the e-commerce industry. Based on my personal experience and perception, I have refined and sorted out the following e-commerce ERP-level business architecture:

3.2.2 Main business line

The main business lines of e-commerce ERP can be roughly divided into two parts: e-commerce docking and ERP:

E-commerce connection:

As an e-commerce ERP, the premise is that there must be e-commerce for its existence to be valuable. It needs to connect to a large number of e-commerce platforms in the world, obtain platform stores and products, aggregate platform orders for unified ordering and shipment, change platform order status, and then synchronize platform logistics information. At present, the quantity and quality of connected e-commerce platforms have become the criteria for judging the quality of an e-commerce ERP system. Wanliniu's official website aims to connect with more than 200 domestic and foreign e-commerce platforms. According to my personal experience, the actual number of domestic e-commerce platforms that Wanliniu connects with should be around 120-150, and in actual operation, the number of platforms counted is 145.

ERP:

The ERP level of Wanliniu e-commerce ERP is essentially not much different from ERP in other fields. It is also based on ordering, purchasing, sales and inventory management, but it is relatively complicated at the order level. It is necessary to support various order splitting and combining operations, abnormal order processing strategies, and enrich the express matching and warehouse matching strategies. This is determined by the characteristics of the industry. The daily order volume of e-commerce companies is far beyond that of traditional industries. I have seen an e-commerce company receive 180,000 orders on Double Eleven Day. A traditional industry company may not have so many orders in its life cycle.

3.2.3 Business branch

I don’t know if it’s a problem with the account version I tested, but Wanliniu’s performance in the branch business is very restrained. It only expanded basic financial management, platform reconciliation, distribution, and Qimen warehouse docking around the purchase, sales and inventory business. Of course, it may also be because Wanliniu has a relatively complete product ecosystem and can use other products as support for ERP. For example, users who want to engage in refined warehouse management can just buy a Wanliniu WMS and connect it with Wanliniu ERP. Users who want to engage in marketing can just buy a Wanliniu CRM and connect it with Wanliniu ERP (I don’t know if it is still possible under the increasingly strict information security control of e-commerce platforms).

3.3 Structural Layer

After the scope layer is clarified, the business process of Wanliniu ERP is discussed in detail at the structure layer. Develop the general layout of the product and the connection between functions and pages. This is what the structural layer should do. Lay out clear business lines in each section, and try to make the section layout more reasonable and closer to the user's business process. As a B-side SAAS product, with too many competing products on the market, the strategic layer and scope layer are often highly similar, and the structural layer may be a good point for creating differentiation. A good section layout will make it clear to users at a glance and reduce a lot of implementation pressure. Wanliniu ERP also performs at an excellent level at the structural level. After all, they are the only one that has the slogan of "easy implementation" on its official website.

Since my account is just a trial account, I cannot experience many functions, such as batches, waves, warehouse inventory, and weighing, which is a bit regrettable.

3.3.1 Sales <br />The order process of Wanliniu is not complicated. When small and micro e-commerce companies use Wanliniu, they only need to go through three key nodes: order review, order placement and goods distribution, and delivery. Companies with a slightly larger order volume will need to use order wave-related functions, such as setting wave strategies, classifying orders, generating waves for qualified orders, and picking goods quickly.

The following figure is the order business process given by Wanliniu official:

Of course, the order business logic of Wanliniu ERP is quite simple, but the underlying logic is still relatively complex. For example, it is very difficult to design the data matching and strategy matching logic and even to set it up by the user. After the automatic matching is completed, many users often perform certain manual operations, such as manually splitting and combining orders, multi-condition compound screening and query operations, etc. After the order review is completed, the order distribution page must also support a series of operations performed by users on the express delivery order. Wanliniu ERP supports these scenarios. In fact, this is the case for all mainstream e-commerce ERPs in the industry, but the matching data and strategy designs of each company differ, and the difficulty of operation also varies.

The following figure is my summary of Wanli Niu’s basic order business process:

Basically, at this stage, when e-commerce companies decide to purchase an e-commerce ERP system, the key consideration is the order processing capabilities of the e-commerce ERP system and its ability to solve complex business scenarios. Therefore, the usability of the order process is an important criterion for measuring the quality of an e-commerce ERP system, such as review efficiency, order processing efficiency, whether the order splitting and combining strategies are complete, etc. Wanliniu's order process is simple and clear, and easy to use. As long as you have experience in using e-commerce ERP systems, you should be able to get started quickly with Wanliniu ERP. In my opinion, it meets the usability standards.

Of course, although the process of Wanliniu ERP is simple and clear, the layout of the page is still a bit random. For example, why is the new order not compatible with the order review page, but has to be an independent page, and this page is not obvious. It took me a long time to find the entrance to add a new order when I was testing the process. If you say that Wanliniu ERP uses data support to determine the placement of these pages based on the user's operation frequency, then I am being too nosy, after all, I am not a real e-commerce user.

3.3.2 Procurement

Compared with sales, the procurement process of e-commerce ERP does not seem to be that important. Basically, they are sufficient standards. Wanliniu's procurement process is divided into: procurement proposal-purchase order-purchase order review-purchase receipt, and then supports procurement returns and procurement settlement. The overall framework is not large, and it basically contains common functions of a purchasing, sales and inventory management system. There is nothing special about it, it is just average.

The following figure is the procurement-related business process given by Wanliniu:

3.3.3 After-sales <br />After-sales service of e-commerce is a high-incidence business scenario, which includes a series of scenarios such as return, exchange, repair, reissue and refund. B2B and offline cash register POS are by no means as complicated as after-sales service of e-commerce. The after-sales business process given by Wanliniu official is as follows:

I have gone through Wanliniu's after-sales process several times myself. Except for some minor flaws in the logic and interactive experience of some individual fields, everything else is concise and clear. However, I personally feel that the after-sales form contains much less information than the order field. For example, Wanliniu has separated the after-sales business into 8 independent pages. The after-sales return process requires first generating an after-sales form (including online and offline), then reviewing the after-sales form page, and then specifically processing it on the after-sales form processing page. Finally, the return warehousing form page is used to complete the document. Although the operations are very simple, will so many pages cause some unnecessary troubles to users? This is worth discussing.

The following is my personal summary of the Wanli Niu return process:

3.3.4 Summary of the structural layer <br />I personally feel that the overall performance of Wanliniu ERP at the structural layer is at an upper-middle level in the industry, and there is room for optimization, such as streamlining of section layout, processes and pages. But the merits outweigh the flaws. The overall business process of Wanliniu ERP is very easy to understand, and the difficulty of getting started should be the lowest in the industry. I have summarized that SAAS ERP has three layers of barriers: one is service, the second is industry depth, and the third is ease of use.

3.4 Framework Presentation Layer

I write about the framework layer and presentation layer of the five elements of product experience together, because this has always been my personal weakness. Here I will mainly talk about Wanliniu’s page function presentation and operation experience.

3.4.1 Function presentation <br />The most prominent feature of Wanliniu ERP’s function presentation is that you can roughly guess what the function is used for when you see the page and function button. You don’t need to study it too much, just use it directly. You can even directly associate the associated business process through the presented functions. This is completely consistent with the concept of light implementation and delivery proposed on their official website. The implementation staff estimate that they only need to help users with basic configuration and then teach them to go through the business process once or twice, and they can basically get started. This is also what I appreciate most about Wanliniu ERP, it reduces users’ learning costs and saves manpower for implementation and delivery.

For example, the order splitting strategy shown below is not complicated from the description to the settings.

Let’s look at Wanli Niu’s outbound strategy:

The customized process gives users sufficient autonomy. Except for the two key nodes of order placement and delivery, other processes are decided by the users themselves.

3.4.2 Operation Experience

In fact, Wanliniu ERP as a whole still has the problems that exist in most ERPs on the market: inconsistent interaction styles. However, this problem is not common. It may just be an occasional oversight during one or two demand interaction reviews within Wanliniu, which is harmless.

In terms of operating experience, I feel that Wanliniu ERP is trying its best to make things as easy for users as possible. For example, many fields in the document list support direct editing, and there is no need to open the document details page to operate. The document page fields, query conditions, and operation buttons are streamlined as much as possible, and even the sense of extreme restraint is present for the sake of simplicity. While other e-commerce ERPs are still piling up information and data on the order review page, Wanliniu gives people the feeling that it is doing subtraction. While other companies can have nearly a hundred fields in the order review page list, Wanliniu ERP only has 36 fields.

3.5 Data Layer

As mentioned above, SAAS ERP has three layers of barriers: service, industry depth, and ease of use. In fact, there will be a fourth layer in the future: data depth.

Nowadays, people who work in SAAS often mention the words "retention" or "renewal". Most people may only think that the key factors for user retention are nothing more than an easy-to-use system and adequate service. For ERP products, another key factor is actually data accumulation. Before I started working on product development, I was the operations manager for a SAAS ERP purchased by a company. I operated that ERP for two years. Later, the company decided to switch to another SAAS ERP. I spent three consecutive days exporting the data of the original ERP by time period for backup. Each step had to be carefully confirmed. After the export, the data of the same dimension was summarized into a table again. Once this kind of experience happens, it becomes unforgettable, and the exported data cannot be imported into a new system again. Later, the boss regretted switching the system more than once...

Data depth can be understood at three levels: the saturation of basic data, the guiding value of high-level data, and the depth of data accumulation and sedimentation. The third point is first of all the satisfaction of basic data, and secondly the users’ use of the system for a sufficient period of time, which takes time to settle, so the third point will not be analyzed separately.

3.5.1 Basic Data Saturation (Report)

Let’s first look at the basic data of Wanli Niu ERP:

The statistical dimensions are basically complete except for logistics information statistics, from sales, procurement, inventory to accounts receivable and payable and performance statistics, which are the main data statistics that ERP can provide. It’s just that the definitions of some of the terms in these reports are a bit easy to cause misunderstanding in my opinion. For example, the warehouse outbound statistics table actually counts the number of packages shipped from each warehouse and the logistics cost data, which is harmless. Overall, the basic data statistics of Wanliniu ERP are worth learning for many SAAS ERP players.

3.5.2 High-level data guidance value (BI)

Let’s take a look at the high-level data guidance value of Wanliniu ERP, that is, the BI part. The premise of high-level data is that the basic data is rich enough. Analysis is carried out on the basis of the basic data to extract high-level data charts that have guiding value for the company's own operations. The BI module of Wanliniu ERP is worth my repeated study. This is an area that I have always had ideas about but have never put into action when I was working on ERP. Unfortunately, some functions cannot be operated with the experience account.

Daily dashboard:

Store portrait:

Product image:

Real-time large screen:

For business decision makers, these charts allow them to see trends in various dimensions at a glance. Using data and trends to guide your own operations is the value of high-level data, and it is also the direction I will focus on studying in the future.

IV. Conclusion

To sum up, Wanliniu ERP is the best e-commerce ERP I have come across so far. Although there are some flaws in the details, overall it is the e-commerce ERP with the strongest product power. But it can only be in the second tier in the industry, which is something I cannot explain. It is also what I have been thinking about recently. Is product strength the key factor that determines whether a product can break through? In any case, there are many things worth learning from Wanliniu ERP.

As for the rest, just keep exploring slowly, the road ahead is long and arduous.

Author: Xingfeng

Source: Xingfeng