Here are ten suggestions for starting a business in the O2O field:

First, be a vertical industry: for ordinary entrepreneurs, try not to stand in the way of giants, choose a vertical industry and make a depth that giants can't reach.

2. Avoid the catering industry: In 2112, the national catering market exceeded 2 trillion, which is the largest in the life service industry. This has undoubtedly led to the fiercest competition in the field of catering O2O. Everyone, including many giants, is mainly focusing on catering, but for entrepreneurial teams with average capital and resources, I suggest avoiding catering O2O as much as possible and choosing small industries.

Third, big industry segmentation: If we really want to consider big industries with fierce competition such as catering, then I think it's best to explore opportunities for segmentation as much as possible, and avoid blindly imitating public comments, coupons, group purchases, Taobao and other modes, trying to tap some niche and personalized needs, or integrating elements such as socialization to make some innovations, such as the home food party mainly providing errands for restaurants that don't deliver takeout, and Feiyan. com making online reservations from the perspective of gifts. If the demand for segmentation is accurate, not only can you not rely on the discount blindly, but even users with premium are willing to pay the bill.

Fourth, small city entrepreneurship: In a short time, or for a long time, the giants basically have no time to take care of some small cities, and they basically concentrate their firepower on first-tier cities such as Beishangguangshen and Shenzhen, so O2O in second-and third-tier cities will have a certain window for entrepreneurs. If we can take advantage of this opportunity to develop, even if the giants reach out to second-and third-tier cities in the future, the local entrepreneurial team will have the strength to compete with them, like many large national group buying websites.

v. integrating idle resources: I'm not sure whether "integrating idle resources" is rigorous. However, the main meaning is that projects like short rent, Easy-to-Use Car and E-Drive have the same starting point-that is, there are basically no offline physical stores for the services they face. This service provider will have a stronger demand for online marketing. In addition, these services do have some idle resources, and most of them are personal resources. This is actually somewhat similar to Taobao's C2C model, except that they are not products but services. Taobao developed Tmall after C2C, largely because these small sellers were better integrated, and it was difficult to incite those big companies at the beginning.

Sixth, the position of light decision-making: O2O has become a hot spot of concern, to a certain extent, thanks to the rapid development of the mobile Internet in recent two years, because O2O is recognized as one of the few major profit models of the mobile Internet. To achieve O2O through the mobile Internet, basically only the "location" road is slightly more reliable, but it is not omnipotent. What services will users choose and buy through their mobile phones? Basically, it will be some light decisions, such as eating, singing, doing spa or manicure, etc., and many times users are outside, and they are eager to find a suitable business, so the requirements for location are naturally harsh. For those big decisions, such as taking wedding photos, looking for decoration and other services, I think few people may make decisions through mobile phones, and the location requirements of users for such services are not high. It is entirely possible for users in Xicheng to choose businesses in Dongcheng to take wedding photos.

VII. Industries with greater pain points: Although there are some pain points in many service industries, some pain points will be slightly smaller, while many industries still have greater pain points. Like the catering industry, on the whole, because of the constraints of platforms such as public comment on merchants, the consumer experience has been improved a lot, and the pain point is relatively small. Which service industries have more pain points? To put it simply, at least those service industries on classified information websites such as 58 Tongcheng are basically painful, because these services, even if there are no comments on untrue transactions, are just a list of miscellaneous and inferior information. For O2O of such services, there is much room for improving the user experience, which means that it is easier to attract users and even change their original habits.

8. Don't fight price wars: Many people are still thinking of group buying when doing O2O. It seems that they only know how to attract users with discounts, and they always let merchants give discounts, discounts and profits. Simply relying on discounts to attract users does not have long-term value for businesses, so group buying can be said to have formed a vicious circle because of ultra-low discounts. Users buy because of ultra-low discounts-businesses have no profits or repeat customers-businesses have no enthusiasm for service-user experience is poor-users stop buying, businesses stop playing, and group buying websites close down. Is there really no other value that can attract users except discounts? This is definitely not the case. In fact, there are many value points to explore, such as the intimate experience; Fast-let users choose and purchase services in the shortest possible time; Socialization; The quality of service is constrained and guaranteed; Transaction security; Enjoy privileges, etc. Of course, the appropriate preferential drive is not completely out of the question, but we should fight for the preferential treatment as little as possible and maintain the reasonable preferential treatment as much as possible without sacrificing the service quality of the merchants.

9. Small but beautiful: Suppose that if the group-buying website always insists on one group or several groups a day instead of a thousand groups a day, and carefully controls the quality of each package while controlling the quantity, it will generally not be sold after selling hundreds of copies, and spend more energy to urge the merchants to do a good job in service and ensure the user's consumption experience, will such a team of more than ten people live a very moist life? It's a pity that many people came with the goal of financing and being acquired, and naturally they can't help the temptation of scale. As for starting an O2O business, I think it is also a good choice. Make it smaller, do it better, gradually form a reputation, and attract users without preferential treatment, so that the profit space is increased and the value to businesses is greater. Finally, you can live well without financing.

11. Who to sell: There are two main directions for O2O to sell. 1. Selling to online companies: This direction can refer to the opportunity to provide third-party services to many e-commerce companies. With more and more O2O projects, the conditions for who to sell in this area have become more and more mature; 2. Selling to the right business: In the future, millions of offline service businesses will come online, and this trend is inevitable. The above cut-in point is mainly a preliminary analysis of how O2O entrepreneurs choose industries and directions. After choosing the entry point, the next most important thing is not to make a website, but to go deep into the offline and deeply understand the industry. Otherwise, no matter how good the entry point is, it may be difficult for you to cut in.

(cross-border e-commerce R&D Hui Xinyun Net Xu Sheng finishing)