72 brick-and-mortar bookstores settled in the US group reporters experienced unsatisfactory sales, shoppers combed their business ideas and found a way out

Take away food at a physical bookstore should be close to 5 kilometers

A few days ago, 72 physical bookstores in Beijing became the first batch of demonstration enterprises to enter the US Mission platform. How are these bookstores going online? What new problems did you encounter?

On the 15th, as a buyer, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily conducted a sales experience with Zhongshuge Rongke Store and Jiantou Bookstore Guomao through the "Meituan" and found that their difficulties are still quite numerous. But these difficulties also caused the bookstore to reorganize its business thinking, change its business strategy, and shift its focus to "community services."

Experience

No book-related information on the takeaway page

At 10 am on March 12, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily, who lives in Haidian District, Beijing, placed an order at Zhongshuge Rongke Store, a Meituan takeaway platform, and purchased a best-selling book, Principles, by Rui Dalio. Thirty minutes later, he received a book from the rider. According to Zhong Shuge, the manager of Beijing Rongke Store, introduced to Aiqun that this is the first business they have received since the opening of "Meituan" on March 10.

On the homepage of the Meituan APP platform, the reporter of Beiqing Daily did not see any column introduction or webpage display on the physical bookstore, nor did it have any book-related links. After the reporter clicked on the "takeaway" item, the page entered still had no information related to books or bookstores.

The reporter from Beiqing Daily clicked on "Meituan Special Delivery" and "Citywide Delivery", and even clicked on the "All Categories" item, but still did not see the information related to the book. Only after entering the keyword "Zhong Shu Ge" in the search bar did the word "Zhong Shu Ge" appear with a yellow "Send to the City" logo.

Cannot find the designated bookstore beyond 10 kilometers

Introduced to Aiqun, readers and customers can only find Zhong Shuge's stores on the Meituan takeaway platform within 10 kilometers of Zhong Shuge. "In the beginning, we talked with the Meituan about the community coverage of 3 to 5 kilometers away from Zhongshuge. Later, we found that readers who were a little further away could not find the Zhongshuge store on Meituan. So we communicated with Meituan and negotiated. Community coverage has increased to 10 kilometers. This will help us reach more readers. "

In addition, the variety of books currently available is very limited and needs to be replenished. "Because the Rongke building where our bookstore is located is still closed, we do not work on weekends, and the stores on the Meituan platform are not open."

As a consumer, the reporter from Beiqing Daily called the US Mission's customer service hotline at 3 pm on March 15th. A male operator introduced: In order to ensure the rider's delivery within 1 hour, the US Mission generally serves short-distance customers. Beyond the 10 km delivery range, the merchants entering the platform need to negotiate with the platform. "You think the bookstore in Haidian District is far away from you, then you just search for the bookstore closest to you in Chaoyang District," said the operator.

No discount on prices and no advantage compared to online stores

Another reporter from Beiqing Daily, who lives near the East Fifth Ring Road, searched the Meituan take-out platform and found the Beijing Investment Bank's Yong'anli store. On the bookstore's website, there are options such as events, war epidemic lists, self-publishing, bureau chiefs take you to read biographies, weekend book lists, theme characters, ingenious recommendations and so on. Except that the book lists listed in the two options of activity and self-publishing are all discounted by 30%, the book lists recommended by the other options are sold at the original price: in the single column of the war epidemic book, the new book "The Flu" published by Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press It is sold at the original price of 98 yuan. At the Jingdong Book Store, the book can be discounted at a minimum of 55% and the price is only 53.7 yuan. The "Ebola Story of Blood Plague" is sold at the original price of 45 yuan. Merchants can get 50% off, or 22.50 yuan.

"Physical bookstores sell books for business. JD.com and Dangdang sell books for traffic. The industry's evaluation of them is to sacrifice the profit of selling books to supplement the traffic, and physical bookstores are not a concept at all. So from this perspective, Physical bookstores are not capable of competing with them. "Lin Kexin, general manager of Jiantou Bookstore Investment Co., Ltd., analyzed.

The Beijing Youth Daily reporter found that the same price difference problem also appeared in the Zhongshuge Bookstore.

Way out

Physical bookstores should be "community services" nearby

In this case, how does the physical bookstore on the Meituan online platform compete with JD.com, Dangdang, etc.?

Xiang Aiqun of Zhongshuge told Beiqing Daily that the team they created with Meituan is a community service project that is different from online bookstores such as JD.com and Dangdang.com, and provides books to residents near the bookstore. Selling takeaway services.

CCB also mentioned "community services". Lin Kexin said that the most important thing is to build a good community service project, that is, to provide more convenient services to readers and customers within 5 kilometers from the bookstore. "For example, as long as the Meituan takeaway book ordered at our Guomao and Yonganli stores, if the offline distance is less than 5 kilometers, it can be delivered within half an hour, and customers only need to pay 5 yuan for postage."

In addition, in Lin Kexin's view, physical bookstores entering the Meituan takeaway platform must have their own thematic advantages. For example, Jiantou Bookstore is a biography-themed bookstore, so after entering the US Mission, they will still insist on the introduction of biographical books, such as biographies, biographies of cities, etc., and connect a theme book list through a character and a city to extend the subject matter of the book It will also adhere to the characteristics of Jiantou Bookstore's "Bookstore University and open a rational intellectual life", mobilize the think tank guests of the bookstore, and launch a theme book list of famous scholars to inspire readers to think.

Text / Reporter Zhang Enjie Full Coordinator / Liu Jianghua