Still promoting hot-selling products? An e-commerce operation plan worth collecting

Do you think I'm bragging?

Let me calm down for a second…I’m really not bragging, this is the latest summary of my 5 years of operating experience!

The value of this operating plan to me is self-evident, and it is based on a "law" and conforms to the thinking method of first principles .

I believe it will be inspiring to you as long as you are willing to read it to the end.

1. The difference between hot items and hot products

The title says that "explosive products" are the future, so what is the difference between explosive models and hot products?

• A hot-selling product refers to a product that has high sales volume on traditional e-commerce platforms.
• A hot-selling product refers to a product that has high sales volume across the entire network, will continue to sell well, and will continue to be sought after by consumers. It can serve as the company's flagship product and the cornerstone of establishing a brand.

It can be said that a hot product must be a hot-selling model, but a hot-selling model is not necessarily a hot product.

2. Operational Thinking

In operations, the first thing to do is never to plan immediately, but to think!

So what are you thinking about? Two points to think about:

First: Final Thoughts

The so-called end-game thinking refers to judging what the final business form of the current product or service will be. Only by looking at today from the future can we know what to do now to be correct .

The end is not the goal, nor is it what you want to plan or envision, but rather what the final development of the project will be like under a certain rule.

Generally speaking, most industries conform to the 80/20 rule . When an industry develops to a mature stage, only the top merchants can survive better, while the merchants in the middle and lower levels have a hard time.

Guazi used cars, I believe those born in the 80s and 90s know it, right? Guazi invested 1 billion RMB in advertising in the first year of its establishment. Many investors thought this idea was too crazy, but Deng Delong and the Guazi used car team were determined to do so.

Deng Delong said: "At that time, Uxin and Renrenche were already the leading used car trading platforms. If Guazi cannot quickly seize the minds of users and catch up first, it will not have any chance. Therefore, when we used 1 billion yuan to buy the top position in the big track worth 50 billion to 100 billion US dollars, 1 billion yuan was not even pocket money."

See it? For an industry that is still worth 50 billion to 100 billion, as long as we can grab the top position in the field, 1 billion yuan in advertising expenses will not even be considered pocket money. What a far-sighted and profound decision!

Second: Current stage

The so-called current stage refers to the stage your product or service is in in the industry, early, middle or late?

At different stages, market opportunities and competition distribution are completely different, and the strategies and resource allocations adopted are also not exactly the same.

Nowadays, most industries in mainstream e-commerce platforms have formed a head effect . Whether you believe it or not, traditional operations have become increasingly difficult. In many cases, it is not because you are not as skilled as others, but because your competitors are too strong...

You are fighting in the traditional e-commerce platform market. Your competitors are better than you in every aspect. Some of them are not afraid of competing on price. How do you compete with others?

Only by operating outside the e-commerce platform may there be a glimmer of hope; perhaps we can see both the trees and the forest .

3. Core Idea

If you have read the previous article, I believe you have roughly understood that this operation plan is derived from the "laws" of the market's business laws .

The so-called business laws refer to the fact that a product must go through the following stages: birth, prosperity, decline, and death . On this basis, market competition will inevitably go through several stages: "supply war, price war, operation war, model war, capital war", etc. There may be some differences, but the overall competition will develop in such a situation.

The core idea of ​​the operation is: find an early product in a category, use absolute price advantages, take advantage of industry dividends and new media dividends, concentrate all resources to push a single product to the market, achieve sales of hundreds of thousands or even millions, thereby breaking through the market threshold and forming a market effect. Then we will develop a series of products, use mainstream e-commerce platforms to take over the traffic for conversion, and do a good job in repeat purchase and fission user operations .

IV. Operational Plan

With the previous basic understanding, the subsequent operation plan will be easier to understand. The plan is divided into four phases, and this time we will focus on sharing the first phase.

I built a system flywheel for the first phase of operation, as shown below:

How do we understand this flywheel? It’s actually very simple. If you have a systematic way of thinking, I believe you will understand it at a glance.

First: Ultimate single product

The ultimate single product is a product that is polished to be high-tech (high value and strong practicality), good-looking, and cost-effective. When compared with similar products, it makes consumers feel like they are screaming and they feel like they are losing out if they don’t buy it.

Simply put, it means giving this product an absolute competitive advantage in early competition.

So how do you find or produce such products? In fact, this is very difficult, but there is a methodology. However, since this is not the focus of this discussion, we will not discuss it in detail.

In fact, the most ideal ultimate product is the product in the early category of the industry , because most products at this time are relatively high-priced. At this time, you can directly break through the bottom price and gain absolute price advantage for a period of time. If your product is high-tech and good-looking, then it will be an ideal and ultimate item.

For example, in the early days of Xiaomi, first of all, smartphones were at the forefront of the trend; secondly, Xiaomi phones with the same configuration were less than half the price of other brands, so most people would go crazy for them.

Second: Social Sharing

Social sharing is an important link that is overlooked by most operators and marketers, but it is so important in the era of mobile smart Internet.

Simply put, it is to design social sharing elements on the product side so that users will want to share as soon as they receive it .

For example, many people want to share or make fun of Durex’s copy after reading it; another example is Jiang Xiaobai back then, which really touched people’s hearts. Even if they don’t drink, they will have the urge to share it after seeing it.

Of course, this is very difficult to achieve, as it involves product positioning, personalized design, social topics, and so on. Of course, there are methodologies for all of these. Here I recommend a book called “Contagious”, which systematically introduces six methods that can greatly increase customers’ desire to share your products.

Third: Precipitation of Enterprise Micro

The so-called sedimentation of enterprise WeChat means adding users who have completed product transactions to enterprise WeChat through a hook , and then operating these users. This is very critical and involves the design and construction of the subsequent business model.

So what is a hook? A hook is something that a customer wants, but the prerequisite is that the customer can only get it by adding the merchant’s WeChat.

For example, when we buy things on Taobao or JD.com and receive the goods, there will be a list of gifts inside. You can choose any gift and the merchant will give it to you for free. But the prerequisite is that you have to add the merchant’s WeChat communication and registration, which means that the customer will be added to the WeChat side unknowingly.

Since physical gifts involve product costs and express delivery fees, the cost is still relatively high, so many businesses have already increased their fans through text messages.

For example, you may receive a text message like this: Hello, Xiao Ming, the product you bought from us is now reduced in price. Please add our customer WeChat: XXX, and we will refund you the difference.

There are many methods and techniques on how to add customers to WeChat efficiently and at low cost. I can write several articles about it separately. I will share them later when I have time.

Fourth: User Operation

User operation is a model that uses tools such as WeChat for Business to manage users in layers through a series of processes and operation methods, from customers to members, and then from members to partners . It is also necessary to continuously guide users to carry out operations such as repeat purchases and fission.

User operation is a long-term, slow and meticulous job. In the early stage, there is only investment but no output for a considerable period of time, which requires the person in charge to have sufficient cognition and psychological preparation. But as time goes on, the effect will become greater and greater.

User operations also have methodologies and SOPs, which require operators to spend time learning and understanding them.

For example, in the previous article I cited the example of "Ji X Hui". Their user operation is done very well, and their user operation methodology is very mature. I am also using their methodology now. Of course, this needs to be adapted to local conditions and adjusted in accordance with the actual situation of the company, and cannot be applied mechanically.

Fifth: Upgraded and related products

After reading this, I believe you have already understood that the ultimate single product is actually a traffic product from a special channel, and its mission is to gain attention and users . The real profits come from upgraded products (higher performance, more beautiful appearance, and greater practicality) and their subsequent peripheral products.

This is particularly evident in the education industry. Whether it is online or offline education, you can see low-priced courses of 9.9 yuan, 19.9 yuan, 39.9 yuan or 99 yuan everywhere. In fact, courses at this price often lose money from the merchant's perspective, and the truly profitable products are the formal courses at the back end.

This idea is also applicable in the e-commerce field, especially in the private domain operation field. The front end uses low prices or even a slight loss to attract traffic, and the back end converts profits.

So how to attract traffic on the front end and how to cultivate and transform on the back end is a scientific system, and it cannot be explained clearly in a few words. I will have the opportunity to share it separately later.

One thing that needs to be emphasized here is that the ultimate items are only priced low in special channels, but they are still priced normally on mainstream e-commerce platforms .

Now let's review this flywheel system. It forms a positive cycle system. As long as the flywheel is running and turning, it will grow bigger like a snowball.

From this point we can see that whether an operating system is well designed depends on whether it can form a closed loop and achieve self-circulation . Just like a flywheel, it takes a lot of effort to get it going at first, but once it gets going, only a little force is needed to make it spin very fast .

Tip: Regarding the design of the flywheel, you can read the book "The Flywheel Effect" by Jim Hollings, but I personally recommend that you learn and practice "system thinking". Only with systematic thinking can you better design your "growth flywheel".

There really is a "God" in this world, and everything is dominated by him. The so-called God is the "operating law" of this world . Among the three elements of heaven, earth and man, man is in the middle. We must act according to the rules in order to get things done better, which is also called "going with the flow."

The same is true for operations. The design of your operating system must conform to the operating laws of this world in order to operate better and more smoothly.

The above is an operating system I designed based on business rules or "laws". It may not necessarily be excellent, but it has already opened up a big gap compared to traditional e-commerce and those who rely on traditional e-commerce platforms for operations. I hope it will be inspiring to you.

Author: Zhi Zhuojian

Source: Zhizhuojian