Perhaps no retail entity practitioner is willing to review the Spring Festival of 2020. A sudden outbreak and a call to “Stay home: help stop coronavirus” have turned the “open door for business” that should belong to the retail industry into a “dark moment”.
In order to appease the dealer’s anxiety in “winter”, various e-cigarette brands have also announced support policies. However, with the improvement of the epidemic prevention and control situation, the start of work and the gradual recovery of social order across the country, new topics have emerged: “What impact will the epidemic bring to the e-cigarette industry?”
1. Is the epidemic really a fatal blow to the e-cigarette industry?
In fact, looking back on the SARS outbreak in 2003, Taobao, JD.com, Ctrip, and Haidilao all resisted the impact and ushered in a special period and the subsequent “retaliatory growth” because of the structural changes in the social business system.
We say the word “crisis” because the other side of “crisis” is often a shuffle: brands with mediocre products and weak anti-risk capabilities are accelerated to be eliminated, and brands with stronger strength and better efficiency can not only stabilize their positions, but also seize the opportunity later and expand their market.
If the melee in the first half of 2019 is to let the outside world see the business opportunities of e-cigarettes, the power outage in the second half of the year will allow practitioners to see the need for supply chain and channel building capabilities. So, the industry seems to be shrouded in shadow now?
In the final analysis, whether e-cigarettes have any prospects and which brand has more potential in the future has always been a matter of wait-and-see topic in minds of most vaping practitioners.
And now the current node is actually the best time to answer these questions and enter the e-cigarette industry.
2. Why it’s the best time to enter the game?
Although the epidemic really hit the development of the physical industry seriously, this time, as a solid backing of the practitioners, the manufacturer undoubtedly gave the partners more confidence in action and care. Many policies have been issued to alleviate the operating pressure for all partners with practical actions, and its subsidies have even reached tens of millions. Let’s take the policies of SNOWPLUS as an example.
1. Incentive to open a store
In order to support new customer cooperation, the brand will upgrade the complete solution. For store support, the brand issued the following policy:
(1) Opening stores outside Hubei Province: Those who open flagship stores and standard stores will be given 15,000 yuan/store worth of product support; those who open mini-shops will be given 6000 yuan/store worth of goods support.
(2) Opening stores in Hubei Province: Those who set up flagship stores and standard stores will be given 45,000 yuan/store worth of product support; those who set up mini and small shops will be given 22500 yuan/store worth of product support.
The incentive policy is valid from February 7 to March 31, 2020; the incentive targets are customers who have signed up to two stores and above during this period, and have paid the cooperation deposit.
At the same time, SNOWPLUS provides location selection services, traffic flow estimation models, and hand-in-hand help our customers improve the health of their businesses and the profitability of their stores.
2. Dynamic sales assistance
Under the premise of lower online channel traffic, the brand launched a series of promotional activities and subsidize related gifts in order to increase customer sales. The brand stipulates that consumers who register as members in the franchise store will be able to enjoy the “buy 3 get 1 free coupon”, plus a 220 yuan classic device (small white box experience package) .
All franchise stores can participate in this event. The specific subsidy details have been distributed to franchisees through colleagues from the brand across the country. In the days when users are inconvenient to go out, consumers are encouraged to “buy more at one time and buy enough goods.” This event started on January 21st and continued until March 31st.
3. “National Partners” plan
Faced with the exhaustion of offline traffic, the brand customized tools to facilitate users to share products in their own social networks. Using QR codes, authorized dealers to lock in customers, turn retail customers into small B users, and assist in sales and dissemination and profit-sharing. Then through the sharing of small B users, the bottom distributor will not be broken, so that the base of the bottom will continue to expand.
The company provides platform support, calculates revenue, locks in customers, flexibly purchases, dispatches one piece, and digests the dealer’s existing inventory. To develop a promotion ambassador, dealers can get promotion allowances, which will be included in the payment after settlement.
4. Sales training
Set up a “business school” and set up online courses for various channel partners (including franchisees/agents/partners, etc.) to provide training on shop selection skills, business skills, and offline partner distribution.
Through the introduction of the monthly “Category Expert Newcomer Camp” series of courses, standard talents with operational characteristics and operational standard output are formed. The mentor team of the business school is composed of managers who have more than 15 years of practical experience on each sales front.
5. Technology empowerment
Through advanced technical means, The brand will dynamically update the store’s business information. In particular, through the membership system, the stores are reversed and distributed. The brand has also established a professional membership system that can automatically recall customers and enhance user stickiness.
In simple terms, the five policies, “shop incentives” and “sales training” are front and back ends. The purpose is to support new franchisees in the short term, lay a larger retail network, and achieve a win-win situation with network effects to improve brand recognition.
It’s a”win-win” move. The essence of “Blitz” is to hold high and fight high. If dealers are to hand over the “backup” to the brand, they must have excellent “equipment” and advanced “tactics”-sufficient financial strength and mature training.
And this mature brand guarantee measure also always confirms the cooperative philosophy of “small investment, low cost and fast return” that the brand has always promised. Let practitioners completely stand on a better brand policy and meet the market node of “revenge” consumption.
3. Big brands will become “survivors” after the epidemic?
This epidemic is not only catastrophic, but also a good time to reshuffle and re-enclose. SNOWPUS, as the head brand of the e-cigarette industry, is competing in the second half of the e-cigarette brand through ecological level competition to experience, expansion efficiency and other dimensions that determine the outcome.
The outside world always regards e-cigarette companies as easy money industry, but in the final analysis, even if it is burning cash, there is a difference. Luckin burned to the Nasdaq, and the market value climbed to 10 billion US dollars; ofo burned himself into the abyss.
Zheng Weiwei revealed that SNOWPUS was chosen because it has the fastest growth rate, whether it is product iteration or store design, which has a stronger impact on the market. With the increase in brand awareness, more and more commercial buildings have invited him to open stores. The classic case of “opening a shop for 50,000 yuan and cover the cost in three months” has become a “myth” among practitioners.
And to investigate the reason behind its success, we have to talk about SNOWPUS’s “National Partnership” program:
Through customized tools, users can easily share SNOWPUS products in their own social networks. Using QR codes, authorized dealers can lock customers, turn retail customers into small B users, and assist sales and distribution and profit-sharing. Then through the sharing of small B users, the bottom distributor will not be broken, so that the base of the bottom will continue to expand.
The company provides platform support, calculates revenue, locks in customers, flexibly purchases, dispatches one piece, and digests the dealer’s existing inventory. To develop a promotion ambassador, dealers can get promotion allowances, which will be included in the payment after settlement.
This means that dealers no longer simply work for the brand, but through this win-win ecology of dealers and users, form a community of interests with the brand and share the dividends brought by the rapid development. And with the scale effect, it brings about brand recognition, supply chain advantages, warehousing logistics diluted costs and other links, which will eventually feed the dealers.
In general, SNOWPUS is an ecological game, which is undoubtedly beneficial to dealers.
4. Summary
Relative to the cold wave of the physical industry caused by the epidemic, the e-cigarette industry is indeed much warmer. With the full help from the brand, the e-cigarette industry is standing at a very delicate point. With the addition of ecological gameplay, practitioners and the founder of the brand are synergistically resisting external difficulties, with a brand-new attitude and vision, striving until the dawn in the industry’s last fight and shuffle.
