From the financial data, it can be seen that the competition in the e-commerce industry has entered the era of stock competition, when the flow of integrated e-commerce platforms such as Ali, Pinduoduo and other integrated e-commerce platforms are becoming more and more centralized, and new e-commerce companies such as Jitterbug and Faster are on the rise, which has caused a further squeeze on the survival environment of vertical e-commerce companies like Vipshop.
It is worth noting that Vipshop also invested money in 2021 to pull in new promotions like Taobao, Pinduoduo and Jingdong. Vipshop has sponsored or implanted a number of smash hit variety shows and TV dramas such as "Sister Riding the Waves" and "Thirty Only", and its marketing expenses have stabilized at more than 1 billion yuan in a single quarter, and in the fourth quarter, the marketing expenses were still 1.1 billion yuan, which is much higher than the marketing expenses of 2020, which were less than 1 billion yuan per quarter.
But the difficulty of pulling new promotional activities has increased, and behind its investment in marketing expenses, indicators such as active users did not grow significantly year-on-year. Vipshop 2021 quarterly active users did not increase significantly, the number of active users in the third quarter of 43.9 million is basically the same as the previous year, the number of active users in the fourth quarter decreased by more than 7% year-on-year to 49.2 million.
At the same time, live e-commerce, content e-commerce grass and other new models of bandwagon, but also on the impact of Vipshop. Especially after the live broadcast appeared in various e-commerce platforms, the head anchor directly connected to the brand and consumers, so that the anchors also have a relatively strong bargaining power on the brand, which has a certain degree of homogenization with Vipshop and the brand to reach a cooperation to reduce the sale price of some of the goods "sale" mode, and compared to the traditional graphic e-commerce, the live broadcast can bring a sense of freshness and more fun to the consumers. The only way to get to the top of the list is to bring a sense of freshness and more fun, which to a certain extent erodes the advantages of the Vipshop.
In this case, Vipshop has positioned itself to tap into the high-value, high-activity member users and seek opportunities in "small and beautiful" vertical e-commerce. Vipshop continues to improve its channel capacity and supply side, for example, in response to the trend of national trend consumption, Vipshop strengthens the operation of national brands; in response to the pursuit of healthy life and technological experience of young users, Vipshop continues to enrich the SKUs of smart home appliances, health care and dietary categories to bring more choices to consumers.
The financial data shows that in 2021, the number of core SVIP active users (i.e., paid members) of Vipshop increased by 50% year-on-year, and its online net transaction value accounted for 36%. the annual contribution of SVIP users to the platform reached about 8 times that of non-SVIPs, and they are characterized by a high rate of repurchase, high purchasing power, and a high rate of retention, etc. The company has also developed a new product line, which includes a new product line, a new product line, a new product line, a new product line, and a new product line. Vipshop said that it will promote the paid membership system to cover more high-value consumers in the future.
In order to attract users to become paid members, in August 2021, Vipshop joined forces with nine platforms, including Tencent Video, QQ Music, Meituan, Dingtong Grocery, Yaduo Group, etc., to launch the Vipshop Super VIP "Buy 1 Get 9" membership month, with membership benefits covering various areas such as audio-visual, food and beverage, and travel. With Jingdong to promote the sense of access to paid membership, using the same path, vigorously promote the conversion of users.
But for the future of Vipshop expectations are still very cautious. Its annual report released in the first quarter of this year's performance guidelines show that in the first quarter of 2021, Vipshop expects revenue of 27 billion to 28.4 billion yuan, down 0% to 5% year-on-year. From this, it can be speculated that its core data, such as the number of users and platform turnover, will probably continue the weak state of the fourth quarter of 2021.
However, compared with other vertical e-commerce players in the giant killing gradually out of the game, has realized more than 30 consecutive quarters of profit Vipshop, it also shows the ability to operate vertical e-commerce. However, in the era of e-commerce stock operation, change has been inevitable for Vipshop, when Ali are going to learn Jingdong's self-supporting model, Vipshop should also try a new sales model, so that their core strengths are more obvious.
Editor: Shi Jian | Audit: Li Zhen | Director: Wan Junwei