AI Ding: Let Shoe Customization Too Crazy

Founded in June 18, 2012, CEO is an e-commerce company that provides customized services for consumers. The founder of the party is Taiwanese, the creative director of the early years, giving him more ideas on how to play business.

The company, which has only been established for less than a year, has won the angel investment of PEAK CEO Xu Zhihua and the ten million dollar venture capital of China broadband capital.

In his speech at the 2012 Internet Commerce Conference, Ma Yun pointed out that Ali group will enter the manufacturing field from the consumer circulation field to the C2B era from the B2C era to achieve flexible production and meet the personalized needs of consumers. He believes that this is the inevitable trend of society. The favorite of the investors in the capital market seems to confirm the bright future of the C2B model.

However, the realization of C2B, whether it is the support of the supply chain or the consciousness of consumers, has not yet reached a certain scale.

AI Ding customers are more popular with domestic prices. Custom brand At present, its configuration is very textbook: it has a complete supply chain, a quick response ERP system, and an experienced electricity supplier operation team. But whether this mode of operation can be duplicated remains to be tested by the market.

　　 The supply chain is behind the customization.

Customization is often seen as a luxury consumer behavior, because the personal desire to customize or integrate into the purchaser not only increases the cost of production, but also is a major test of the supply chain. It is our traditional impression of customization that the class of consumer products is rather high and ordinary consumers can not afford it. But in recent years, customized products are becoming more and more popular with ordinary consumers. The original scale factories have begun to realize that micro customization can make more consumers willing to pay.

　　 AI Ding Ke It is one of them. When it comes to why shoes are customized, the party is confident.

First of all, he thinks that the shoe customization mode is costly and difficult, and the entry threshold for competitors is high. Thanks to partners' footwear experience, AI Ding has its own exclusive supply chain, and the entire production process is in its own hands. There is no need to worry about a series of problems that ODM generation factories are facing.

Secondly, the party Kai Yuan believes that since footwear It is a relatively difficult category, so once the pattern of love customers is successful, the C2B form of flexible production can be quickly copied to other relatively difficult categories.

The system of the whole industry chain is implemented by AI Ding customers, so that the network backend will be directly linked to the factory.

Dang Qiyuan told the world network merchants that a pair of shoes from consumers to order the factory to start production, probably only three or four hours. So although the company promised to deliver the goods within 7 days, it usually takes only two or three days to deliver the goods. It is a pleasant surprise for them to receive the shoes ahead of time.

In the C2B industry chain, if C has not reached a certain scale, customization will be a severe test for producers. First of all, we must solve the problem of cost control. For AI Ding, the key lies in mastering the supply chain. The customized production line needs more rapid response and more skilled workers, which can directly reduce the reject rate and save costs.

In the procurement of raw materials, AI Ding guest has also been relying on previous accumulation, with long-term cooperation suppliers. With the expansion of the company itself, its purchasing power is also improving.

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The biggest advantage of customization is that it is a zero inventory mode. Inventory problem is one of the most important reasons that restrict the development of many enterprises. It is easy to make investment into inventory by making mistakes in market prediction, and if the network is used as a sewer, inventory will reduce the tone of the brand. It's hard for AI Ding customers to encounter such problems because their shoes are unique, so from this point of view, customization is an efficient mode of production, which is very green.

　　 Growth of customized market channels

At present, the sales channels of the company are mainly its own official website and Tmall flagship store. Tmall has a slight advantage over the sales ratio between them. Dang Qiyuan told the "Internet developers of the world" that now most of the shoes of official website and Tmall are the same, but in the future, they hope to realize the difference between different channels.

The director of channel development of AI Ding Ke believes that at present, customized products are still in the emerging market in China, and consumers are still in the nurturing stage. Stimulating their personalized needs can make the C2B era come true.

Of course, the person in charge also admitted that the understanding of profit is different at different stages. In the market cultivation stage, the price of AI Ding's products is not high, and there is no obvious price difference with the general shoes ratio, so the threshold is not high for consumers.

This is a subversion of the traditional concept of customization. Customization is no longer the privilege of a few but a mass consumer product. Based on the advantage of cost performance, the customized mode of AI Ding guest successfully cut into the footwear custom market and gained the recognition of consumers.

At present, the SKC (monochromatic) of Tmall store is about more than 100, ranging from dozens to five hundred, which still has a strong competitive advantage compared with other traditional brands.

There are two main types of shoes for AI Ding customers, one is semi custom, and some are based on whiteboard foundation shoes. Buyers can customize the parts such as vamp, toe, shoelace and other parts by customizing the page. The other is micro customization, and the customers are provided with finished shoes, and consumers can customize some letters on the heel part according to their own preferences.

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Generally speaking, the proportion of shoes replacement is relatively high, because shoes are a product with higher experience. Therefore, AI Ding guest will also encounter some returns due to size problems. But custom-made shoes are generally unable to be sold two times. For these returned shoes, the customers are generally internally digested or become stock. "But this proportion is relatively small, within our controllable range."

The person in charge told us that the sales volume of the two kinds of customized shoes is almost the same, but the consumers of semi custom shoes obviously have higher individualized demand, and their return rate is also relatively low. "When consumers spend time and cost on a commodity, they pour a certain feeling, and after the product reaches his hand, the meaning is naturally different."

　　 Diversification of marketing methods

Since customization is also a new consumption mode in China, it is natural to add some fashion elements to drive the market faster. The cooperation between AI Ding and independent designers originated here.

Now in the shop of AI Ding Ke, you can see the figure of a small box, knife and other designers. "The way we work with designers is the sales division. For designers, they only need to provide us with original design drawings, and there is no other risk. For us, it is to integrate these designer elements into shoes and complete production and sales.

Designers usually have their own circle, have their fans, and through cooperation with the partners, on the one hand, they widen the category of the designer and help the extension of their brand influence, because the real product can enhance the interaction between designers and fans, on the other hand, it enriches the choice of consumers of AI Ding customers, and helps to shape the brand image.

At present, the designer's platform is still in its initial stage. The party Kai Yuan believes that this form can be further liberalized in the future, and a platform will be built by AI Ding guest to enable more independent designers to display their works on this platform.

In addition to collaborations with designers, Party Kai Yuan also revealed plans to experience shop under the open line. Footwear is a category that focuses on experience very much. The function of "experience" lacking in e-commerce is realized by O2O.

Unlike traditional brands, the order of the first line and the next line is different. The brand of AI Ding guest incubated in the network does not feel that there are two channels of conflict of interest under the online and offline. "The purpose of our experience shop is to enhance brand image, and to enable consumers to have a more intuitive understanding of our products and enhance their sense of trust, because we are very confident in their quality." Dang Qiyuan thinks that this mode of C2B combined with O2O is a complementary mode. At present, AI Ding passenger is communicating with other channels, including Jingdong, fan, Lok bee and so on. If gradually expanding network channels can get the support from offline stores, consumers who are not familiar with custom products will be able to accept the customized concept faster.