The home industry is now "invisible exit"

The door is wide open, and all kinds of home building materials are dazzling. At first glance, it seems that it is still operating as usual, but it can't find a staff member. The so-called stores, in fact, only one "empty shell".

"Many of these stores have actually been withdrawn from the store, leaving things just to support the facade. Because of the fear of withdrawing too many stores, the store's popularity is damaged, and some malls will even send people to look at them, pretending to be still normal. The way of operation." There are industry insiders in the provincial city industry.

The provincial city property market is slowly picking up, and it is in the home building materials industry downstream of the real estate industry chain, but it has not ushered in spring. As the industry shuffles, a new wave of "invisible exit" is quietly staged.

>>Invisible exit

Compared with closing the door directly or closing it with a fence, this “invisible closing shop” feels better: at least it still looks like it is still operating normally, not so deserted.

On the 18th, a home building material store in Jinan Beiyuan Street, the public Xiao Li plans to buy a batch of solid wood composite flooring for the new home.

After some careful comparison, he finally found a favorite product in a brand floor store. However, after waiting for nearly ten minutes, there was no staff in the store.

"Nobody here? Where did the staff go?" In desperation, Xiao Li had to turn to the merchant next door, but was accidentally told that the store had actually been withdrawn from the mall and the staff had not come for a while. Going to work.

"Don't do it. Business is not good, basically no way to open after the year." The neighbor told Xiao Li. As for why it was clear that the store was still in the store, the merchant also said that it was not clear. "It seems that the mall is not willing to move things away, saying that they want to wait until the new merchants are stationed."

The door is wide open, and there are various home building materials in the store. Some of them even light up. It looks like normal business. But when you look closely, you will find that there is no staff inside, not only that. Because it was left unattended for a long time, the office area looked a bit messy, the ground was scattered with various promotional color pages, and the table was covered with dust. On the 20th, when the reporter visited Beiyuan Street, the most concentrated home store in the provincial capital, he found that there were several similar stores in almost every store.

"Don't wait, there will be no one coming today, or will you come back in a few days?" At another home store in Beiyuan Street, some staff told the customers who were planning to buy a brand of solar water heater. According to him, the manufacturer of the solar water heater has already intended to leave the market. According to the usual practice, the factory staff should come over again and dispose of the samples here. "If you buy it later, the price will definitely be much cheaper, which is very cost-effective."

“Compared with the direct closing of the door or the closure of the enclosure, this 'invisible customs shop' feels better: at least it still looks like it is still operating normally, not so deserted.” Mr. Liu analyzed Say. As the owner of a wooden door production enterprise in the provincial capital, Mr. Liu's store covers all major home stores in the provincial capital, and the business has been good. However, since last year, Mr. Liu has successively closed several stores with poor business conditions. However, although the staff had already evacuated, many things in the store did not move.

“The mall negotiated with me and asked if we could move our things away before the new merchants came in. I promised. Anyway, the money spent on the renovation was spent, it’s already back, and it’s placed there. All of them are samples. If you don’t plan to open a new store, you won’t need it for a while, so let’s put it.” Mr. Liu said.

>>Expansion

On the one hand, real estate regulation has caused market demand to shrink; on the other hand, the home market is highly saturated and has to face fierce competition caused by the vicious expansion of the industry.

"Unprecedented breakdown of the reserve price", "the lowest in the history of the whole 'honest' party", "all samples sold at a bare price"... On the 20th, the reporter interviewed in the provincial city home store, despite the distance protection of "3?15" consumer rights In the past few days, various promotional advertisements in the store are still visible everywhere.

"Although the 3-15 event is over, if you buy it now, you can still enjoy the price of 3?15." Beiyuan Street home store, a brand of furniture staff told a person who is buying a double bed Female customer. The reporter noticed that the cedar double bed with an original price of more than 8,000 yuan can be won after the discount of less than 2,000 yuan.

"If it is a pure solid wood bed, 2000 dollars or even the cost can not be guaranteed. The seller provides such a large discount, in addition to the possibility of a greasy inside, such as not all solid wood, but solid wood skin, only one explanation: manufacturers The operating pressure is very high, and the dealers are in a hurry to deal with a large amount of inventory. "There are some people in the industry who believe that although the provincial property market has shown some signs of recovery since the end of last year, the prospect of the home building materials market is still not optimistic. . "Compared with the property market, the response of the home market is relatively lagging. It takes a long time to wait for the recovery. Together with the introduction of the 'National Five Articles', the property market is more and more regulated. It is expected that many stores will still close down this year because they cannot support it. ."

On the one hand, real estate regulation has caused market demand to shrink; on the other hand, the home market is highly saturated and has to face fierce competition caused by the vicious expansion of the industry. Statistics from the China Furniture Association show that the annual sales of the home building materials industry was about 200 billion yuan last year. At present, the total area of ​​domestic home stores has exceeded 40 million square meters, according to the industry standard of 10,000 square meters annual sales of 100 million yuan. Calculated, 50% of the store area is surplus.

“When the real estate market was good in the past few years, Jinan suddenly emerged a large number of newly built home building materials stores.” Mr. Liu told reporters. According to the information, this “shopping tide” began at the end of 2009. In November 2009, Ouyada Home Beiyuan Store and Daming Home Baihe Store opened at the same time, less than 100 meters apart, and the business area was over 120,000 square meters. In October 2010, Ginza Home Center and Red Star Macalline Expo Home Plaza successively Settled in Beiyuan Street, the latter's operating area is 180,000 square meters, which is known as the largest five-star home store in the province. At the same time, the second store in the East is also selected to open in 2010, as well as Hongxin, Hongteng and so on. In just two years, the Jinan home store has more than 600,000 square meters.

"There are too many stores, too much volume, and the area is obviously excessive. Even if the property market is booming, it may not be able to be digested, let alone now?" Han Qingsheng, secretary general of Shandong Furniture Association, said in an interview with the media. In his view, the situation of the home furnishing industry will not change greatly in the short term. It will be directly affected by various national policies. The home furnishing industry will also face a long adjustment period and pay for the previous irrational expansion. Industry reshuffle integration will also accelerate.

>>E-commerce eclipse

Home building materials are hard demand, and today, when prices soar, ordinary people will choose a cheap and inexpensive shopping method. Although the cake is small, the cutting method is different, and the online shopping channel is divided into a larger piece.

The palatial decor can't hide the popularity of the store. Almost every store has idle paving, and the fence that says “Renovation in progress” can be seen everywhere. Walking inside, often a large floor does not see a few customers, only the staff is sitting bored. The above is the normal state of the provincial city home building materials store.

In addition to the above reasons, the impact of the e-commerce platform is also an important reason for the sharp decline in the popularity of the store: home improvement online shopping has eroded the market share of the offline.

More and more young people are keen to surf the Internet to build home building products, and the provincial capital Xiao Zhang is one of them. She plans to marry at the "Eleventh" this year. Almost all the furniture in the new house comes from online shopping, up to a double bed, sofa (sofa renovation effect), overall wardrobe, cabinet, as small as a faucet, ceiling light, Showers, even hooks for bathrooms, face towel racks, etc., are all made by Xiao Zhang on the Internet.

"I like online shopping, on the one hand, because online shopping prices have more advantages, on the other hand, because there is more room for online selection." Xiao Zhang said.

“Home building materials are a hard demand, and today’s people will choose a cheap and inexpensive way of shopping. It can be said that the cake is small, but the cutting method is different, and the online shopping channel is divided into a larger piece.” Yu Liping, general manager of Jiawang Building Materials Department, believes that the network marketing channel can simplify the distribution process by virtue of its unique price advantage, space advantage and consulting advantages, so that the products of the merchants can get more display space and provide consumers with more comprehensive. The shopping guide service and the possibility of rational shopping.

According to survey data from the China E-Commerce Research Center, e-commerce is becoming an important factor in the diversion of home sales. In 2012, domestic household e-commerce sales amounted to 49 billion yuan, accounting for 4.5% of total e-commerce sales. It is estimated that at least 40% of the retail sales in the industry will be completed online within 5 years.

In fact, the touch screen is becoming the choice of more and more stores: Red Star Macalline plans to use 200 million yuan to restructure the e-commerce platform, and the home is also beginning to lay out e-commerce.

However, can the transformation of e-commerce be able to save the sluggish home industry? The reporters found that due to the particularity of household goods, the network will face many specific problems. The first is the different consumer experience; the second is that the return is very troublesome and costly, especially the logistics costs; the last is the after-sales problem, such as online floor sellers can not provide installation and after-sales service.

"At present, for the home store industry, no business model including e-commerce has been widely recognized in the industry, and the home store business model is still in the exploration stage." Qin Zhanxue, executive vice president and secretary general of China Building Materials Circulation Association, said frankly, In the current situation of widespread domestic home furnishing, when it is difficult, it is a time to test corporate management and endurance. Who is prepared, whoever has a unique approach, who will win in the process of the game.

Source: Qilu Evening News