A collection store specializing in socks, underwear, and home clothes has become a dark horse in Tmall’s new retail.
Founded in 2011, Sakaoriya took six years to open more than 600 stores in more than 200 cities across the country. And Tmall New Retail has suddenly raised its performance to a new level. Wang Bo, COO of Sakaoriya, revealed in a Tmall new retail open class last week that during the 618 period this year, the sales of Sakaoriya Tmall smart stores tripled, with the unit price per customer increasing from 184 yuan to 310 yuan, and the number of customers increasing. 168.
Sakaoriya Store
In the past, Sakaoriya relied on its unique Japanese design, "100 cotton" quality, and quick-response supply chain to continuously develop its offline stores. Sakaoriya, which embraces new retail, will usher in a new round of development by integrating online and offline, exploring potential customers, revitalizing member assets, and connecting the last mile between brands and customers.
The surprise of 618
Compared with last year’s 618, in just four days from June 16th to 20th this year, the sales of Sakaoriya’s 116 Tmall smart stores increased by 2 times, the price per customer increased from 184 yuan to 310 yuan, and the number of customers increased by 168.
Wang Bo, COO of Sakaoriya, said, "This proves that we not only effectively harvest offline consumers, but also use online promotion to convert a large part of the customer base."
Sakaoriya House COO Wang Bo
In 2012, when Sakaya opened its first store in a shopping mall in a busy area, it relied on its young and fashionable positioning, outstanding Japanese style, and the rare collection store format at the time. , attracted many customers.
Sakaoriya is expanding at a rate of nearly 100 stores every year and quickly entering major shopping malls in first- and second-tier cities in China. Currently, there are more than 600 Sakaoriya stores, and the ratio of self-operated: joint-operated: franchised is about 1:2:3.
During Tmall 618, Sakaoriya’s online traffic diversion effect was obvious.
Offline has always been Sakaoriya’s main position. For a long time, the main mission of Sakaoriya's Tmall flagship store has been to use "online exclusive offerings" with attractive prices to allow customers to experience products, leave a brand impression, and then guide them to offline stores.
But Sakaoriya also has its own troubles: shopping mall traffic competition is fierce, and not all stores can achieve expected performance. Since last year, Sakaoriya’s offline store opening has gradually slowed down; and, Although the established membership system has accumulated more than 200,000 fans, many of them are zombie fans, and there is no membership marketing at all.
How to usher in greater development? The new retail that integrates online and offline has allowed Sakazumi to find a way to break through.
At the beginning of this year, Sakazhiwu cut off its e-commerce department, and Wang Bo took the lead in establishing a Tmall new retail division covering the backbone of various departments. The COO said that new retail is a new thing for Sakaoriya, and it is inevitable to encounter obstacles when advancing at every level. He will take the lead and use the company's administrative means to ensure the speed of advancement when necessary.
The success of Tmall 618 in the first battle gave Wang Bo a lot of confidence. He said that in the next three years, he will slow down the speed of store openings, fully embrace new retail, and "shift from horizontal expansion to vertical expansion", that is, to increase the performance of single stores. to increase the company's overall turnover.
The founder of Love Touch Socks
Wang Bo joined Sakazori House in 2014. At that time, he had been immersed in the apparel industry for more than 10 years. In his opinion, if a boss is more interested in whether the product can please consumers than in making money, then the brand will definitely succeed.
Zhu Bin, the founder of Sakazori House, is probably such a boss.
Some media once described Zhu Bin as a "big man who loves to touch socks." He also has several famous sayings: "Wearing cotton socks or nylon socks can reflect a person's quality of life. "If you think the socks are not good, you can smell them yourself"
This shows Zhu Bin's obsession with the product. He also personally controls Sakaoriya's product development, design and supply chain. Within the company, the production and design department has a high status, with designers accounting for more than a quarter of the total employees.
Socks are high-frequency, low-priced consumer goods. People tend to ignore the impact of material and design on wearing experience and service life. But holes, smells, staining, and fallen heels are all real embarrassments in life.
Sakaoriya said that many of their efforts are to solve these embarrassments.
Girls who are afraid of the cold in winter and love to wear pantyhose must know this well. Because they are not close-fitting enough, the socks often pile up on the calves, forming ugly wrinkles. What is even more embarrassing is that because they are too thick, they touch the feet. It became difficult to stuff shoes.
In response to this problem, Oriya Saka developed a "little black pants". Through a special process, thick pantyhose containing five layers of fabric are made into a shape that can be pulled according to the shape of the human leg. The gradually stretched "tapered trouser legs" make the feet very light and thin after being delaminated. This product also has three national patents and has quickly become a hot commodity.
Sakaoriya's star product "Little Black Pants"
Quality is the foundation, and design is also indispensable. In order to better meet the needs of the young fashion crowd, Sakaoriya established fashion trend research institutes in Shanghai, New York and Tokyo in the second year after its establishment. It is operated by a team of professional designers to innovate.
“The design team in Japan produces the first draft of all our products, and then domestic designers design the second draft according to the habits and aesthetics of domestic consumers. Therefore, Sakaoriya’s The product is unique,” ??Wang Bo said. At the end of last year, Sakaoriya also cooperated with Disney on research and development design and launched a series of new products.
Products developed and designed by Sakaoriya in cooperation with Disney.
In terms of product development, Sakaoriya has also gone through detours. For example, I initially made a Japanese-style underwired lace bra, but it failed because more and more young women wanted to get rid of restraints. Later, Sakaoriya only made seamless bras without wire rings.
With the rapid iteration of fashion, it is no longer feasible to do product planning and design one year in advance, because the plan cannot keep up with the changes. In March and April of the following year, in the face of new market trends, production could not be completed at all. No time to react.
To this end, Oriya Saka joined hands with Kentaro Nishi, a Japanese product MD (merchandise sales plan) expert who has coached MUJI and ZARA brands, to reorganize the entire product sales plan and promote the flexible supply chain. Establish.
Wang Bo introduced that Sakaoriya will now divide the whole year into six bands for product planning. Only 60 units are planned for one season, and the other 40 units will be updated according to the latest fashion trends of the season, through quick order tracking and return orders. Replenish product richness. "Every month we can ensure that there are 2-3 themes for home clothes and bras, and a product will only be sold for one and a half months to make room for new products."
Getting through the last mile
Regarding new retail, Sakazhiya is “all in” while also maintaining its usual caution. This brand, which is good at offline, said when it turned its attention to online, "We cannot forget offline thinking and methods."
For example, Tmall 618 started preheating for coupon collection online. When Sakaoriya transplanted it to offline stores, it cut the activity into six promotion bands with different themes, clearly defined the promotion time and purpose, and avoided shopping guides being busy. In each band, sales tactics are set for different types of users to improve the success rate of shopping guides.
Wang Bo explained that online marketing emphasizes "planting and pulling out weeds", storing water and then detonating it at a certain point, but offline consumers cannot afford to wait, and neither do stores. Therefore, when online and offline promotions are taking place, it is necessary to increase activities based on offline characteristics to maintain popularity.
For Sakaoriya, new retail first solves the problem of "how to connect the brand to the last mile of customers".
In the past, Sakaoriya almost never seriously considered affiliate marketing. This is because there are too many zombie fans in the membership system, and the customer unit price is low. Regardless of WeChat or SMS, it is tantamount to harassment in communication scenarios and has little effect.
Smart shopping guide solves this problem very well. "80% of Sakaoriya's customers are Tmall users. Consumers will feel that it is normal to receive shopping guide information through mobile shopping." Wang Bo said that smart shopping guides can push items such as "striped short-sleeved home clothes" and "cotton" based on customer characteristics. Specific product information such as "Quality Pajamas" greatly improves the conversion rate.
In just a few months of applying smart shopping guides, Sakaoriya has also explored a new way of playing - converting sales instructions into interactive and interesting "game tasks", organized by shopping guides of different "levels" Receive each one. At the same time, a "game strategy" is set for each level of "game tasks" to guide the shopping guide to better complete the target tasks.
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