Xing, CEO of Xinyi Technology, believes that "warehouse" must be added to "people, goods and fields" and driven by logistics, so that new retail can become a stable commercial whole. Different from the logistics in the traditional e-commerce industry in the past, the warehousing and distribution under the new retail contains a deeper revolution in big data and artificial intelligence.
Realize online and offline goods
What is the difference between the warehousing and distribution of new retail and online retail?
I believe that users who shop on e-commerce websites can feel the obvious difference between online and offline stores:
Offline, a store can have a large number of SKUs, which means that it is easier for consumers to find suitable styles (and it is easier for merchants to stock up through big data analysis). After the consumer places an order, the merchant will send it point-to-point by parcel from the central warehouse, and the delivery time will be calculated by day (because the delivery batch is small and the transportation cost is high).
Online, a store can pay attention to fewer SKUs. The offline store is closer to the user, so users can get the goods directly when they go to the store, without waiting for the point-to-point delivery time of the package.
To really get through online and offline, we must first consider a realistic problem-how to realize online and offline goods.
Unlike online stores, which only store information and data, offline stores have limited SKUs, which limits the spread of their SKUs, and it is impossible to realize a dish of goods from SKU to online. Xing pointed out that it is not a problem for a small store to arrange more than 2,000 SKUs, but more SKUs means that the inventory will be very shallow.
What problems will low inventory cause? You can imagine the following two scenarios.
Scene 1. In a big promotion, the online store was ready to drain the offline store, and people flocked to the store, but the explosion store was out of stock. The offline store itself was out of stock before. When online traffic starts to flow offline, can stores meet the demand without better inventory allocation?
Scenario 2: Offline retail outlets gradually form terminal node capabilities, realize online ordering, deliver goods from stores near consumers, or pick them up by stores themselves, so as to improve the receiving speed. But this means that the store should be used as a front warehouse for storing online orders. If the inventory is too shallow, can it meet the demand of online orders?
As can be seen from the above two scenarios, the most basic demand of online and offline linkage for logistics is that replenishment is timely enough to enable stores to exert greater capabilities and meet more needs.
Xing Linlin told Billion Power that in order to solve the problem of shallow inventory, it is necessary to divide large distribution centers in the suburbs of the city and replenish the front warehouses in time through algorithms. Therefore, in the context of new retail, in order to realize online and offline inventory, the whole logistics is realized by the combination of central warehouse, regional warehouse, distribution center and pre-warehouse. But only if the structure and facilities of the warehouse are arranged.
This combination of warehouses may also greatly reduce the logistics cost of online retail. Xing pointed out that in the past, e-commerce distribution mainly adopted the parcel mode, and it was distributed to all parts of the country, which was a high-cost mode. After using the warehouse combination, the goods will be delivered to the warehouse close to the consumer in advance in batches, and the goods can be delivered to the consumer as soon as 1 hour after ordering online. This not only greatly reduces the logistics cost, but also improves the timeliness.
Two basic technologies behind warehouse distribution
The logistics reform based on warehouse seems to be promoting a new business revolution. However, the layout of the warehouse structure and facilities alone is not enough to generate such a large amount of energy, and it is necessary to make the warehouse "smarter".
Different from online data, whether it is warehouse or capacity, there are entities and costs offline. The number of products and SKUs that can be stored in the warehouse is limited, so it is impossible to initiate delivery at any time offline, which is no different from the central warehouse delivery mode in the online retail era.
Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned warehousing and distribution benefit problems, Xing believes that the new retail warehousing and distribution model needs two basic technical supports-big data forecasting and real-time online inventory management.
In terms of big data forecasting, Xinyi Technology has a system as the "brain in the warehouse", which sets algorithms according to the laws of sales, rent, people flow and consumption, and uses algorithms to understand which products are the explosions of stores and figure out how to reduce short-chain transportation, thus improving operational efficiency and internal transportation efficiency.
"By distributing the accumulated data to various offline warehouses, Xinyi Technology can replenish the store according to the purchasing habits of consumers in the store. For example, the residential areas and office areas in this area are far away and there are many cars. Consumers who usually get off work at 5 o'clock arrive at the community at 7 o'clock and then start shopping. Xinyi Technology will start replenishment after 6 o'clock, so that it will be sold out after consuming the inventory and continue to replenish the goods the next day. " Xing Linlin said, for example. He pointed out that this series of predictions requires the accumulation of machine deep learning.
Of course, Xing also pointed out that in the end, scattered data must be opened up as a whole, so as to become a national product in the actual sense. This requires the support of real-time online inventory management technology.
Xing Linlin pointed out that as a logistics provider, whether online or offline, whether To B (for B-end businesses) or To C (for consumers), all channels should be satisfied. "When these channels are opened to achieve nationwide inventory, the data will be online in real time, and Xinyi Technology will know which products have low sales, which will make the factory temporarily not produce too much. Inventory can also be allocated in time. For example, if a product sells well in Wuhan and not well in Changsha, then the inventory in Changsha will be transferred to Wuhan. All this will eventually achieve the effect of reducing inventory. " He said.
The scene first drives the warehouse distribution revolution.
Whether for online retail or offline retail, intelligent warehousing and distribution does bring higher efficiency and save resources through a plate of goods. However, unlike the rapid expansion of online retail platforms, intelligent warehousing and distribution must develop different solutions for different industries.
"For example, clothing and fresh delivery methods are different. In fact, different industry lines, different enterprise scales and different products all have different logistics modes. Some industries are suitable for warehouse distribution lines, some industries are suitable for express delivery lines, some industries are suitable for landing distribution, and some industries are suitable for instant distribution. " Xing said.
In his view, when the market has specific business, it can first drive the logistics system behind it, that is, Party A has Party B first. Driven by the actual business, we can gradually have specific business scenarios, and then logistics enterprises can build their own product line advantages according to the scenarios.
"Of course, in addition to big consumption and cross-border modules, Xinyi Technology is also doing new retail services. However, unlike the warehouse service of FMCG, Xinyi Technology currently provides customized services for new brand retailing according to the product characteristics of each brand. " Xing said.
(Author AKA7MA)