Analysis report on second-hand e-commerce Duozhaoyu!

With the development of the second-hand e-commerce market, Duozhaoyu , a second-hand book APP, has become a major choice for many users who love reading.

1. Background Tour

1. Product Information

[Duozhuayu] is a brand that mainly provides second-hand recycling services for books and durable consumer goods. Since its launch in May 2017, it has not only sold more than 200,000 books in just a few months, but also sold an average of 2,000 books every day after it was launched in all cities across the country in December of the same year. It has long become a flagship company among young literary and artistic people.

The slogan of [Duozhuayu] is "Real good things are worth buying twice". It adopts the "C2B2C" model, that is, the platform recycles goods from users, and sells them after unified disinfection, refurbishment, packaging, and pricing.

[Duozhuayu] initially focused on the vertical field of second-hand book trading, and later showed a horizontal development trend of second-hand book trading + community operation, as well as refurbished clothing and second-hand electronic products.

2. Inspiration and analysis purpose

Inspiration:

As I have bought books online many times, I discovered the website [Duozhaoyu] through the video recommendation of a B station up master. I had never bought second-hand books at first, but the literary atmosphere and attractive prices of [Duozhaoyu] prompted me to try to buy it once. After the experience, I found a different feeling. The traces of time on the second-hand books exude the mystery of old things, as if it is an encounter with another reader. Not only does it not affect the use, it even seems to have some added value compared to new books. Then we further use Duozhaoyu and explore and think about the second-hand book e-commerce market.

Purpose of analysis:

1. Understand the current situation and development trend of the second-hand book e-commerce market
2. Through in-depth experience, combined with data, thinking, summarizing and analyzing [DuoZhuayu]
3. Make optimization suggestions for some features

2. Product Analysis

1. Market analysis

1.1 Market size

In 2020, the overall second-hand market (excluding cars and houses) reached 1.04 trillion yuan in size, and the potential of e-commerce is higher than that of offline.

Since 2014, my country's second-hand economy has entered a stage of rapid development. According to The Economist, the year-on-year growth rates of my country's idle second-hand market in 2015, 2016 and 2017 were as high as 58.1%, 90.7% and 42.5% respectively. The growth rate began to slow down in 2018 and is currently in a relatively stable growth stage. According to the Economist, the scale of my country's second-hand idle market (excluding cars and houses) reached 1.04 trillion yuan in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 17.8%.

In 2020, the scale of second-hand e-commerce transactions reached 374.55 billion yuan, of which books accounted for 40% of the main purchased products.

1.2 User scale

In 2020, the number of people engaging in second-hand e-commerce transactions in my country reached 182 million.

It is expected to increase to 210 million people in 2021, and is in steady growth. The current market still has a lot of room for growth.

2. Industry Analysis

2.1 Under the dual catalysis of the economy + sharing concept and the impact of the epidemic, the second-hand economy has accelerated its development

The country's GDP growth rate has slowed down, and with the popularity of shared bicycles in the past few years, various shared products have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. The concept of sharing economy has become popular, making people more inclined to sell or transfer unused items at home, and also increasing consumers' acceptance of second-hand goods.

At the same time, affected by the epidemic, consumers' disposable income has declined, consumer confidence has decreased, and they have gradually shifted from "impulsive consumption" to "rational consumption", and cheap second-hand goods have become a considerable choice.

2.2 More and more idle items are generated due to the "impulsive consumption" of Double 11

With the increase in income levels in recent years and the "Double 11" and "Double 12" promotional activities launched by major e-commerce platforms, more and more idle items have been generated due to "impulse consumption". In this context, second-hand transactions have become an important way for consumers to "recover money".

2.3 The reading value of books is conducive to their recycling

Compared with other second-hand goods, books, as a medium for transmitting knowledge, lose their most important reading value for the holder after reading a book. However, for those who have not read the book, the reading value of the book can be fully reproduced again. Therefore, if the quality of the book does not affect the reading, the recycling of books is easier to achieve.

3. User analysis

Geographic distribution: Duozhaoyu users are mainly distributed in Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan and Sichuan, as shown in the figure:

Age and gender distribution: The main age groups of [DuoZhuayu] users are between 20-29 and 30-39 years old, mainly college students, office workers, freelancers, and literary young people; among them, females account for 0.8% and males account for 47.92%. The proportion of females is slightly higher than that of males, which is 4.16% higher, as shown in the figure:

User habits:

4. User Profile

3. Demand Analysis

According to the KANO model, users have three levels of demand for products: basic needs, expected needs, and exciting needs.

1. Basic demand (essential attribute): If this demand is not provided, user satisfaction will be greatly reduced.
2. Expected demand (expected factor): When this demand is provided, user satisfaction will increase, and when this demand is not provided, user satisfaction will decrease.
3. Exciting needs (charming attributes): refers to whether user satisfaction will be affected when this need is not provided. However, if this demand is met, user satisfaction will be greatly improved.

1. Basic requirements (essential attributes)

Buying books: For those who buy second-hand books for the first time, the biggest concern is the issue of trust in the quality of the books. What if the book is very rotten and dirty? What if it's pirated? What if you are carrying the virus during an epidemic? Therefore, Duozhaoyu puts the book circulation process on the purchase interface of each book and displays it to consumers, which can gain consumers' trust to a certain extent. As well as the function of selecting multiple conditions, the comparison between books in good condition and those in bad condition has largely dispelled the concerns of book buyers about the condition of books.

There are two types of people who often buy second-hand books: one is because of the cheap price of second-hand books, and the other is for collection purposes.

Selling books: Book sellers are not as sensitive to prices as book buyers, and their requirements are efficiency and simplicity.

2. Expected demand (expected factor)

• Finding books: When consumers want to buy books but don’t have a clear goal, they hope to find recommendations that impress them through relevant book lists.
• Book ordering: Order in advance when a book is too popular and out of stock
• Locking books: When the books you bought are not enough to get the discount but you are worried that they will be out of stock if you buy them later, you can lock them first and ship them together when you have enough discount.

3. Excitement needs (charm attribute)

• Guest fish editor: After becoming a guest fish editor by recommending books in the book list, you can initiate new book list proposals in the Book List Square.
• Yuyou interactive function: you can send a message to people who bought your book.

4. Functional structure diagram

5. User Usage Driver Analysis

1. Why is it Duozhaoyu instead of Kongfz.com?

From the perspective of the reading value of the book, the reason for choosing Duozhaoyu is that it basically solves the pain points of this type of users, that is, concerns about the quality of the book. Duozhaoyu has multiple quality options in the Add to Cart column. When the words "good condition" and "light stains" and "light wear" are put together, the word "good condition" becomes more specific and credible. The books on Kongwang are all photographed by the sellers. Not only is there no comparison, the authenticity of the photos is also questionable.

From the perspective of the platform model, Kongfuzi.com is C2C, while Duozhaoyu is C2B2C. Duozhaoyu's advantage lies in the quality assurance of books in the B link, the authentication of genuine products, and due to the impact of the epidemic, buyers have pain points about the hygiene of books and whether they are disinfected. These problems that individual sellers on Kongwang cannot solve can be solved on the Duozhaoyu platform.

From the perspective of price advantage, for buyers: Kongwang's pricing mechanism by sellers is more flexible than Duozhaoyu's big data algorithm mechanism. Most of the time, the books on Kongwang are cheaper, which may be the reason why Duozhaoyu makes a profit from the price difference. For sellers: Kongwang requires sellers to take photos and upload them themselves, and wait for buyers to come. When publishing books at low prices, they also have to bear the risks of the transaction and wait for a long time. However, if they sell directly to Duozhaoyu, they will exchange partial losses for a simple and efficient process. In addition, the balance of selling books on Duozhaoyu can be used to buy books on Duozhaoyu at a 12% discount, which makes up for the losses from selling books to a certain extent.

From the perspective of user stickiness, Duozhaoyu's retention rate is higher than Kongwang. Kongwang faces individual sellers, while Duozhaoyu faces a platform. The humanistic community environment created by Duozhaoyu will enhance users' sense of identification with the platform, which is what Kongwang's individual sellers lack.

For the reasons stated above, I think that for users with reading needs, Duozhaoyu is a better choice than Kongfuzi.com in terms of user experience. For users with collection needs, the rich resources accumulated by Kongfuzi.com over the years may better meet their treasure hunting needs.

6. Business Model Analysis

1. Second-hand books + literary community

Starting from the second-hand book business of Duozhaoyu at the beginning, as described in the report in Southern People Weekly, Duozhaoyu looks like an ideal city-state experiment, building a literary community about books around a group of literary young people who love reading and visiting second-hand shops.

The special atmosphere created by this community enhances users' sense of identification with the platform and taps into the emotional and reading value of books as a special cultural commodity. This emotion and sense of identification to a certain extent solves the pain point in second-hand transactions, namely the issue of trust in the product.

Duozhaoyu started out targeting the "literary and artistic" circle, which I think is a very wise choice. Based on my personal understanding of the literary and artistic group, they have little money but a lot of things to do, so they don't spend money easily. However, once their literary and artistic hearts are touched, they will be very willing to spend money and actively share their experiences with people around them to promote the platform.

It is worth noting that the MVP stage of Duozhaoyu's product was just a WeChat group + Excel spreadsheet. This shows that community operation has been Duozhaoyu's goal from the beginning. However, at its spiritual shareholders' meeting held in 2018, the most common suggestion was "don't do social networking." Perhaps it is as Steve Jobs said, "Demand does not come from users. Users don't know what they want, but they need you to tell them what they need."

2. Really good things are worth buying twice

Just as Duozhaoyu’s slogan “Real good things are worth buying twice” reflects the recycling concept of durable consumer goods, Duozhaoyu’s goal has never been limited to the second-hand book market, but the second-hand market for all categories of durable consumer goods that are suitable for recycling.

However, unlike the easily reproducible reading value of books, the use value of general consumer goods will gradually depreciate with the upgrading of products. In addition, without the unique community culture of second-hand books, the trust issue is another major pain point. Duozhaoyu still has a long way to go in its horizontal development.

3. Thoughts on Duozhaoyu community culture

Regarding the pain points in second-hand transactions, I think the biggest problem is the trust in the source of the goods. Based on the second-hand transactions I have come into contact with in my life:

1. Second-hand books are bought and sold to scrap yards or given to other people, mostly for study or reading needs.
2. When moving or cleaning, update daily necessities, sustainable cabinets, quilts and other items, source: acquaintances (social: trust issues)
3. As people grow older, clothes that no longer fit are discarded and given as gifts among relatives. (It’s still a social relationship, trust issue)

The conclusion is that there is a full understanding of the source of the goods and full trust, and this trust comes from the social relationship between the trading objects. In my opinion, the community culture established by Duozhaoyu is a kind of social relationship, but the only bond of this connection is books. When this community culture becomes a well-oriented culture, it can also gain the trust of users in this circle. This is like the content community established by Bilibili based on videos. The final success of the product is created by the platform and users. This is probably the most successful community cultural product. Duozhaoyu’s community culture creation is to promote the common growth of users with cultural identity and the platform.

By analogy, while Duozhaoyu is creating a community culture for second-hand books, can it also create a community culture for electronic products and clothing? However, this is bound to have an impact on the original community culture, and judging from the current development of Duozhaoyu in the field of second-hand books, there is Kongfuzi.com in front and many competitors such as Manyoujing and Yuelin in the back. There is still a lot of room for competition in the market. In my humble opinion, Duozhaoyu should continue to deepen its vertical field and focus on refined services for users. After it has formed a larger scale and has a higher reputation, it can slowly let go and develop horizontally.

7. Function Optimization Suggestions

1. Page location: [My] -> [Bookshelf]

Function introduction: Bookshelves are used to display books. Click on a book to go to the book's details page. You can also add books to your collection and manage bookshelves by scanning the code to delete or sell the displayed books.

Functional purpose analysis: storage and display of personal books. When users want to sell books, they can directly check the books they want to sell, which is more convenient.

Disadvantages: If the purpose is to display personal books, you should not only display the books that the user can sell now.

Optimization suggestion: Books that users have read and books that have been sold should also be displayed. However, in order to make it easier for users to check unsold books when selling books, the bookshelves can be classified, for example, into: books purchased on Duozhaoyu, books sold to Duozhaoyu, my favorite books, and books I want to sell.

2. 【Guest Fish Editor】

Function introduction: Guest fish editor refers to the initiator of a book list. Only after recommending a book in any book list on the homepage can he obtain the permission to propose a new book list. After the new book list proposal submitted by the authorized user is approved, he will become the guest fish editor of that new book list.

Functional purpose analysis: Through the brainstorming of users, more high-quality book lists can be screened out to increase user participation in the platform, increase user stickiness, and create a community atmosphere.

Disadvantages: Lack of sense of accomplishment and motivation for guest editors, lack of community motivation, and lack of content.

Optimization suggestions: Users should be encouraged to become guest fish editors. In terms of motivation, the levels of guest fish editors can be graded, with different rewards and permissions for different levels. The popularity of the book list and the number of recommendations in the book list can be used as the basis. In terms of sense of achievement, the guest fish editor's logo can be placed on the personal homepage, the recommended book list can also be placed on the personal homepage, or different avatar frame logos can be issued.

3. Page location: [Home] -> [Book List]

Function introduction: The book list page is divided into popular book lists and new book lists. After clicking to enter any book list, there will be book list proposals compiled by guest writer Yu and recommended books from other users. You can comment and like the user's recommendations. Click on a book to go to the book's details page. Users can also recommend books themselves.

Functional purpose analysis: Provide users who do not have a clear book-buying goal with a channel to seek recommendations, and also create a community for users to share and exchange books, increase user stickiness, and build a community atmosphere.

Disadvantages: There are only two categories: popular book lists and new book lists. When users want to find a book list they have read, it is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Optimization suggestion: I should add a list of books I have read and a list of books I recommend. The book list may be placed on my personal homepage.

4. User experience and interaction of PC page

Purpose analysis: Duozhaoyu's PC page is completely based on the template of its WeChat mini-program. This may be because Duozhaoyu relied on the WeChat mini-program to rise. In order to guide users to the WeChat mini-program, it also caters to users who are accustomed to using the WeChat mini-program. However, there are big differences between mobile phone operations and PC operations. It is advisable to maintain the page style, but the differences in PC operations should be taken into account.

Shortcoming 1: It is usually easy to return on a mobile phone by clicking the menu button on the phone, but on a PC, a mouse is used and a browser is opened. The browser's page return icon is usually small and far from the center of the page. At this time, you can only click the home page icon on the right border to return to the home page.

Shortcoming 2: The homepage icon on the right border is too far from the center of the page and too small. According to Fitts's Law, the farther and smaller the target is, the longer it will take to click.

Optimization suggestion: In order to maintain the style of the page and facilitate operation at the same time, you can shrink an operation bar containing functions such as returning to the previous level and returning to the home page at the junction of the gray area of ​​the page and the middle operation page. When the user's mouse approaches, it will be enlarged and displayed.

8. Conclusion

my country's second-hand book market is still in a growth stage and there is still room for growth. Duozhaoyu, as a rising star, has already occupied an important position in the market. From this experience and analysis, I think that although Duozhaoyu has some shortcomings, it has a promising future.

The views in the article only represent my personal opinions. This is also the first time I have written a product report. My thinking is not mature enough and my view of the problem is not comprehensive enough. I hope you can correct me and communicate with me if there are any shortcomings. Thank you!

Author: A Jiang

Source: Ajiang