Where will Internet celebrity stores go after consumers choose rational consumption?

More and more online celebrity stores are breaking records for waiting time. However, Beijing Business Daily reporters found that some online celebrity stores that were popular some time ago have cooled down their waiting time, and more consumers are choosing to consume rationally. Industry experts believe that it is not difficult to create online celebrity brands, as there are special operation and planning teams behind the scenes to help. The difficulty lies in which path these online celebrity stores will choose to develop, whether they really want to build a good brand, or just want to attract big capital to settle in. Operation is more important than management, and competitiveness varies. In the future, some of these online celebrity stores may develop into classic brands, but most of them will fade out of consumers' view in a few months.

The popularity of some online celebrity stores has declined

On September 3, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily visited a Yidiandian milk tea shop located in Jianwai SOHO, Chaoyang District. Unlike the grand opening, the number of people queuing here has been reduced several times, with about 30 people waiting in line to buy. By asking the reporter from Beijing Business Daily, it was learned that the current queuing situation of the store is quite different. On weekdays, due to the large number of white-collar workers nearby, the number of people queuing during meal time or after get off work is actually more than on weekends. Mr. Zhang, a consumer who was queuing, told the reporter from Beijing Business Daily that he had only recently started trying Yidiandian milk tea. When it first opened, the queue time was relatively long, so he decided to wait until there were fewer people buying before trying it. "I originally don't like queuing, and I think those people at the beginning were all agents." Mr. Zhang said.

In addition to a little bit of milk tea, the Beijing Business Daily reporter visited Heytea in Sanlitun again. However, due to its short opening time and high reputation, the queues at Heytea are still the same as when it first opened, and it still takes about 2 hours to wait. In addition to Heytea, there are also Bao Shifu pastries and roasted pig's trotters in Xidan that need to queue up. Perhaps because there are more consumers during the weekend, the number of people queuing for Bao Shifu pastries and roasted pig's trotters has not decreased, and it still remains at around 20-40 people. A customer who was waiting in line to shop at Bao Shifu pastries Sanlitun store told the Beijing Business Daily reporter that she often buys pastries here and is considered a regular customer. Every time you go to Bao Shifu pastries in Xidan, you need to queue up. It may be because it is located in a bustling commercial district, and many consumers come here because of its reputation.

Some industry insiders believe that whether it is Yi Dian Dian milk tea or Heytea, or Bao Shifu cakes, or roasted pig's trotters, these Internet celebrity stores usually use some relatively novel and youthful elements to quickly attract popularity. However, most of these Internet celebrity stores do not have cultural accumulation and depth, so it is difficult to maintain popularity for a long time.

Differentiated competition in the future

Zhu Danpeng, a commentator on the Chinese food industry, said that it is not difficult to become an online celebrity store, but it is difficult to keep it popular. There are technical barriers, brand barriers, scale barriers and other issues, which put higher demands on the boss and the company. However, brands like Bao Shifu Pastry are still different from milk tea shops. From the perspective of time precipitation, Bao Shifu Pastry has been around longer than some newly emerging online celebrity stores and has stronger risk resistance. Most online celebrity stores may only have a few stores in individual regions. If these stores have problems, it is likely to involve a break in the capital chain.

In fact, the time for online celebrity stores to be updated is very short. People who specialize in designing online celebrity stores may create multiple categories and multiple brands to form a certain scale. Zhu Danpeng revealed that online celebrity stores, like celebrities, have a special team behind the scenes to design, plan and operate. Whether they are popular or not depends on luck. If they are popular, they can attract big capital to enter, but the key is still the operational ability. He also said that a large number of similar products will appear in the future, and how to operate them depends on how the promoters behind the scenes plan. Now many people want to make quick money by opening online celebrity stores, and then let big capital acquire them, sell them to the capital party, and then use their own advantages to create other brands to continue to make money.

Industry experts analyzed that the concept of Internet celebrity stores used to be marketing gimmicks + fans + brand + products. Today, as the Internet celebrity bubble continues to dissipate, the above concept has returned to product differentiation. Take Heytea as an example. It has its own product advantages. After the capital entered, Heytea's product advantages were further upgraded, so Heytea further differentiated and formed a unique advantage. From the perspective of precision marketing, Zhu Danpeng predicted that in the future, Internet celebrity stores will be divided into first, second and third levels. The first level is the Internet celebrity store operated by large capital nationwide, which reflects more brand barriers and scale barriers; the second level refers to the Internet celebrity store operated in a regionalized manner, which may only be concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai and other places, and will not expand nationwide; and the third level is a smaller-scale Internet celebrity store, which may not think about continuing to expand, as long as the business status of a few stores is good.

Attracting capital at all costs

There are many factors that determine whether a business model is attractive to consumers, such as the uniqueness of the taste. For example, some snacks inherited from old Beijing are generally able to operate for a long time. In addition, quality management, business technology and store management capabilities are also very important.

In the past two years, the management technology of domestic catering has improved rapidly. Under the premise of eliminating this shortcoming, the innovation ability of Internet celebrity stores has been highlighted. Although innovative things can indeed bring interesting concepts or unique tastes to consumers, it is important whether they can retain consumers after the novelty wears off. Lai Yang, a special expert of the Beijing Business Research Institute and executive vice president of the Beijing Society of Business Economics, believes that the current Internet celebrity store innovation is not strong in breakthroughs and uniqueness, and will soon be imitated or even surpassed. Many catering companies in the world have faced such a problem. When the first generation of products appeared, they were very popular, but in the end, it was the imitating companies that succeeded. Therefore, the company itself must continue to improve and research and develop, and while ensuring its own advantages, make consumers not only identify with the taste, but also have a strong loyalty to the brand and will not easily transfer to other brands.

In fact, there have been many online celebrity stores in history, but now the amplification effect of new media and other forms of communication is relatively strong, and the communication was not as rapid as it is now. Some industry experts also believe that the most important thing for a business to succeed is that the business model has sustainable profitability. If an online celebrity store is very successful and has high consumer recognition, but the ratio of investment cost to income is not positive, and the profit and loss cannot be balanced, it is doomed to fail.

Lai Yang said that there are two types of online celebrity stores, self-operated and franchised, and they each have their own advantages. The advantage of franchising is that the enterprise is asset-light, and once a business model is established, it is open to franchising. For example, Fresh Fruit Time is an enterprise with a relatively stable franchise store model, but franchising has certain requirements for store management. Another type is self-operated stores, which have stronger control but higher costs. Now some companies are not only self-operated but also open stores quickly and on a large scale. These stores want to attract investors and attract capital through rapid expansion.

According to Lai Yang, some online celebrity stores are willing to pay any price just to raise capital after becoming popular, and then go public, and then cash out after going public. Companies based on this idea pay more attention to how to attract capital for online celebrity stores, rather than how to operate them. This will cause the company to lose more money for each store it opens, and it is impossible to sustain. In the future, some of these online celebrity stores will develop into classic brands, but most of them will fade out of consumers' sight after a few months.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.