One move shows that Ali's new retail layout, with the completion of the 'corner' layout, is likely to jump to 'center' and begin to exploit the usual thick game, whose exploration will become increasingly complex and also Will be full of many risks, but its 'chess' overall looks good.
This move is a huge financing yesterday: the home of one of the country's leading home giants, through the release of 36% of the shares, has won Ali and many enterprises and institutions of capital aid, of which Ali and related parties paid 54 Billion, has actually acquired about 15% stake in the home, has become the latter's second-largest shareholder.
How does this match with the layout logic of Go?
You know, this is not the first time Al Ali has invested huge amounts of capital in the new retail area. In fact, as early as Ma's 'Five New Reforms', it has invested Yintai, Sanjiang, Suning cloud business and many other formats.After 2017 especially since, We see that it is in the hands of Brilliance, the acquisition of high-Xin, etc. These diverse formats, independently developed with Ali, box horse freshman, and unmanned retail, smart stores, brand flash shop many small terminal exploration case, the overall show A diverse service matrix, it should be the richest new retail scene ever seen in the global retail business.
However, if you focus on the concept of spending, in the marriage actually home before a scene, Ali actually infiltrate the limited that is the home industry.
You will say that Ali is not already involved in it? The entire Amoy system, home, building materials not only early become a major category. In 2014, Lynx was the first in the industry to propose 'custom', brought together the brand business design, In September 2017, Home Time's Home Time, a new retail store in Ali's home, also settled in Hangzhou West Lake Intime.
Also, earlier, that is, when Ali invested Haier Nisshin Shun case, I remember Shun Shirun friend said that both will be extended from home appliances to home logistics services.
However, if you look at the industry as a whole, to be honest, although the services provided by the Amoy system platform are tailor-made for a long time, the concepts of category, format and scene have been weaker for a long time. , The service value chain is longer, but as a vertically-deep layout, Ali's volume is not that high.
In fact, there are some invisible barriers to development which are implicit in the 'whole-house customization' scheme of the year, which revealed the deeper barriers in the home industry.
Different from other categories and industries, the domestic industry not only involves people, goods and markets in the traditional retail industry, but also involves personalized creativity and design, complex logistics, on-site decoration and construction, and each Links have a higher degree of professionalism, many projects have a longer service life cycle, many links simply can not standard operation.
There are many players on the market who have the advantage of a single link, but there are a handful of platforms that provide a highly vertical one-stop shop with a fair market reach, so the industry has been highly fragmented over the years.
In the narrowly-defined home concept era, the market structure is such that it is even harder for the market to come to the concept of home furnishing in the big consumer era when it wants to have a highly vertically integrated and strongly-covered character, and the market is really looking forward to more refactoring participate.
Ali originally 'whole house customization' is a good attempt.In essence, it is Ali platform to implement the vertical integration, there is a standard taste, but obviously, this area is not professional, quality, service demand is higher , But also need a high degree of coordination .If only by loose cooperation, it is difficult to reflect the efficiency of the final quality will be affected .So, although I very much agree with Ali vision, but it alone, even if strong, such as Amoy system, it is difficult to really Well done.
However, who dare to ignore the huge business opportunities implied in this field? Yes, it is moving from a narrowly defined home concept to a home concept in a big spending era and has become a scene full of power, cohesiveness and imagination It accommodates almost all consumer-related consumer concepts, except that the market has created a fragmented and frightening pattern under the above circumstances, which is also a cause of industry rift and industry pain.
Who can bridge this gap and eliminate the pain points, who are most likely to take the lead in capturing a huge industry opportunity.
Therefore, judging from this perspective, it is imperative to look at the home where Ali and many other agencies jointly invest, but the problem is also coming:
1, in the past few years, Ali involved in a lot of offline formats, why not get the first home style like home?
What does Ali bring to the home? Since the two sides did not engage in direct investment in New Ali in this area, many companies are afraid to miss it. Yes, in 2017, actually home sales of 60 billion yuan, Looked great, but if you consider the comprehensive indicators, such as coverage and transformation of large consumption, especially where the basic point?
3, why, after this investment case, Ali's new retail layout, may be from 'edge, corner' jump to the 'central'?
As for the first question, I believe that Ali has long had such an awareness. As for why it costs a lot of money nowadays, I think it is related to the path it has chosen and to the characteristics of the home industry. The former is easy to understand and the latter may see at a glance Not out.
Here, I refer to what actually had home before the investor Kevin Hua, partner and chairman of Song forward.
He said that in these areas, money is not the most effective, the investor's understanding of the consumer goods industry, service capabilities, values, operating philosophy, such as the investment target with strong coordination.Moreover, with the 'hunger for money 'TMT different consumer products companies once they have a certain size, built a brand, cash flow will be plenty.
My understanding is that companies like yours actually need funding partners, but they also need strategic investment partners to provide long-term assistance in many aspects such as industry experience and support system.
Indeed, the home is indeed in a much-needed auspicious cycle of aid.As China's largest home chain, in 2017, revenue has reached 6000000000, has opened in the country 223 offline stores.And the company recently proposed new Goal: To build a new retail online-offline business structure by 2022, by which time the number of physical stores will exceed 600 and the GMV will exceed 100 billion. By 2027, efforts will be made to complete the transition from 'big home' to 'big consumer' Upgrade, and go abroad, the number of physical stores more than 1,200, GMV more than 200 billion.
Of course, there are finer parts, such as: home entity section, the estimated sales of 75 billion, a total of 300-320 stores, creating 20 design guest space, three original art space; e-commerce section, the domestic registered users to 30 Million, registered overseas users break 10 million, 500 e-commerce platform contract factories, the establishment of the United States, Europe, two overseas branches; financial sector, the scale of self-employed assets 3 billion, the scale of trust funds 5 billion, management fund subscription scale of 15 billion Yuan; logistics sector, the completion of Beijing-Tianjin-Jiacheng wisdom of the first logistics park construction, the completion of the logistics park 50% of the layout of the land 7500-10000 acres, the completion of Huanggang, Xianning two industrial parks under construction, land acquisition 4000-5000 acres; vertical Forest sector, started 3-5 projects, signed 8-10 projects; large consumer segment, with sales of 400 million yuan to complete 100% growth.
This can make people feel its thirst for money.In fact, the past period, we also see that the home actually continue to implement the regional integration.
However, speaking of investment trends, I am more concerned about its perception of the new retail concept, and in our opinion, for a while, it should be in the face of intensive greetings with Ali.
A detail, but also to understand the unique value of Ali at the moment involved in the investment: In more than 10 investors, only Ali is a direct match of the new retail industry infrastructure leader.Other are well-known investment institutions.While it and associated companies Yunfeng Fund shot together, get about 15% of the shares, the highest proportion.
So, so to speak, Ali is now involved in investing in leading household enterprises, both the evolution of the industry background, but also the investment and financing to a high degree of convergence of business ideas moment, it should be hit it off.
Speaking of Ali's strategic value in the home, the capital is just one side, more because it can provide the following irreplaceable elements:
1, e-commerce platform services: This is Ali's most powerful part, you can direct diversion, output categories, sharing some users, providing accurate marketing, enough to promote the latter part of the target e-commerce business.
2, technology and data services: from the home of the next five years the development goals, without the big data, all kinds of ICT and digital, smart technology, want to support the operation of online and offline, almost impossible. After the conference on the 11th stressed that in the future, technology and data will be the driving force behind the growth of his home.He deliberately emphasized the value of AI.
3, finance, logistics and other services: actually home is also seeking financial expansion of the territory in this area to pay as the core ants gold clothes can bring a lot of support it.In addition, the rookie network can provide integration for its logistics Solution, and in the process of transformation of consumption, the growth of even more categories of home growth.
Of course, there are more. Some are hidden topics, such as Wang Lin-peng did not deny that there is actually an IPO claim, but no point in time, but he also stressed the current round of financing for the potential IPO value.
Some may not say that, at the moment, we think Ali is not only a strong industrial partner, but also a cornerstone investor, bringing in many intangible endorsement values, especially Improve its brand influence and valuation of the past period, Ali investment action has almost become an independent 'Ali stocks' section.
As for the third question, after this investment case, why is Ali's new retail layout likely to jump from 'edge' to 'central'? I think this is related to Ali's overall layout strategy in the new retail area.
To understand that the 'five new' strategy is actually more focused on the power of infrastructure.New retail is not only one of Ali forged infrastructure, as has been cloud + end mode of service, so the new retail is also the most able to mobilize the other Four kinds of infrastructure, so for more than a year, Ali continued to detonate the industry in the new retail area, with its education and incubation market intentions.Moreover, it is also the most likely to form a brand because it directly relates to the lives of countless people Perception.
Here are three layers of structured charm, previously mentioned in the internal address of Happy Kids, Ali has formed a new retail system with Taobao, the rookie, the market, all channels, which includes Lynx and offline integration operations Brand store, Intime new department store;
Ali Su Ning from the city to the rural areas of the digital electric force, box horse and RT-Mart represented, super-comb with the cat fast food army; word of mouth army; village Amoy; wisdom shop .Now, with the home investment case, a A new family economy with more categories and scenes of expansion has joined.
In my opinion, Ali's entire new retail ecosystem, the first floor is multi-format; the second floor is Taobao, Lynx, which belong to two new retail base, but also the core of the core online entrance; the third layer is Ant gold clothing, rookie, Aliyun, they play behind the scenes of the new business infrastructure.
This is a relatively stable structure.With the more formats of grafting and aggregation, they will give Ali's technology, data more reuse space.More frequent use of data and technology, its value will be higher, At the same time its cost will also be continuously diluted.For the past two years, many of Ali cloud service prices continue to decline, which is behind the background of ecological status.
In Go, the corners mean a few identifiable sites, which often represent a solid foundation, but if too cluttered with corners, the field, the immediate interests, the big picture can easily get lost and the big layout lost.
My point is that as of now, the layout of Ali's new retail business, if the format, including the case of home investment, including, there are already eight columns, at least in the field of consumer spending, covering almost the key scenes in the new Retail development has been relatively complete, at the moment, Ali, the new retail layout strategy, should be a multi-format collision, integration moment.
For the collision and integration of formats, it is necessary to break the border, jump out of the corner and reveal the courage of the central layout, which will be a bigger challenge to Ali and will encounter unpredictable obstacles in many vertical areas, Even at risk of failure.However, at the moment, it can not be evaded as a precursor to the strategy of "new retail" and even "five new strategies." If we just stop at capitalizing on grants and collaborations, we will find it hard to integrate, synergize and share Format, as time evolves, Ali's infrastructure is vulnerable to diminishing marginal benefits.
In our opinion, the pressure behind this is not a single factor but an opening up of an organization, the renovation of business ideas, and the improvement of the corporate governance structure.
We have indeed seen that over the past year or so Ali has prepared for this, and many changes in the organizational structure, team and decision-making mechanism seem to give Ali a lot of room for trial and error. There are Ali Group's self-confidence With courage
Of course, as an observer, quark reviews or to make some suggestions:
1, outside the capital, Ali should show more open attitude.
In the future, a major investment project similar to a home should be necessary in the future, but Ali, who jumps to the center of the board, should show more the power outside the capital, especially in infrastructure such as technology, data, finance, logistics and marketing, etc. Otherwise, capital Too often, too much action left the outside world with too much opportunity to explore new retail ventures with capital bundles that easily overlooked Ali's infrastructure.
I personally think that in the past period, the strength and temperament of Ali Capital have not been strengthened, leaving some feelings of discomfort to the industry.
2, format, more rich scene, but also means that Ali's technical innovation will be more pressure.In addition, Ali import side will increase the load.
3, Ali's team, there are still many constraints personnel.
Ali is good at C-side, which has greatly changed people's way of life.But in the B-side mode of production, although Ali has affected the retail, manufacturing, and even reconstruct more segments, but if it comes to the Internet industry It's still a long way to go in this area, its existing talent team and its future challenges.
4, Ali should maintain more awe of the industry.
In this regard, I did feel a lot at the Easy House financing conference, where he once again emphasized the non-reference plan for the new retail business, only to continue to explore and explore. There is Ali's modesty side.
Although the case of a home, though not necessarily the last item Ali grants, but with its landing, we believe that after the exploration and baptism since 2017, Ali's new retail has reached a crucial period in 2018, it Need to let the outside world see more results of many cases, to see the value of openness and empowerment.
In short, even if Ali's new retail exploration is not much success, in the global business community we can not find any more companies than it does to implement it. It is enough to represent the Chinese enterprises in the cycle of reform in the era of globalization courage.