Zhang Heng Talks About How Sanfo Outdoor Becomes An Outdoor Retailer.

Sanfo outdoor is ready to list on small and medium sized boards. The outdoor retail chain has 35 stores in more than 10 core cities with an annual revenue of several hundred million yuan.

Zhang Heng founded Sanfo outdoor in 1997. Through the original membership club + online Electronic Commerce The "three in one" business model of offline professional retail stores has become the "Gome" of the outdoor industry, and the impact of online hasn't made Zhang feel anxious. Sanfo outdoor still focuses on down-to-earth development offline stores, and builds competitiveness through professionalism. Zhang Heng believes that as long as things are done well enough to match the characteristics of the industry, they will not be subverted.

　　 Below is Zhang Heng Oral account:

Clubs gather popularity.

When I was graduating in 1996, my classmates and I set up a computer company. The company went bankrupt after a year. I left some of the rest of the company's equipment to two other colleagues, and I went to Tibet and Qinghai for three months on the back of 200 thousand debt. I tried all kinds of transportation methods such as hiking, hitchhiking, train and so on, and I had a deep dialogue with myself. I knew that outdoors was something I liked from my heart. In addition, my English is OK. Many foreign backpackers on the road tell me that the outdoor market is very developed abroad, and there is a large outdoor shop. At that time, there was very little self-help travel in China, but I think the outdoor market could develop in China, so I decided to go back to Beijing to open an outdoor store.

I borrowed thirty thousand yuan from my brother and opened a small shop in the small East Gate of Peking University, with an area of more than 20 square meters. At the beginning, the products were few and the quality was poor. The tent came in from some small factories around Tianjin. In a foreign trade factory in Hebei, they put in a pack of backpacks and went to the factories in the city to make some sleeping bags.

The store was opened in August and September 1997, because the place is a Hutong, and its customers are few. Sometimes there is no business in the shops, and I rent a scooter with my neighbors, and I sell goods to universities, communities and so on. The result is pretty good. When we didn't know much about outdoor industry, it would be good for me to survive. I was thinking about how to promote sales.

Many customers will complain that buying a tent is hard for them to play outdoors. Inspired by this, I have been doing outdoor activities since October. The first activity is to go to the Great Wall at Sima Tai. I send invitations to friends and clients by phone and fax. Some of them can do things, some are not enough because they are not enough, but I insist that people go together and people go away. In this way, the number of people gradually increases, and the popularity of gathering is increasing.

In order to form a regular customer base, we set up a club. Before 1999, we did not have a special person in charge of the club. I explored the road in my spare time and took activities on weekends. In 2005, Sanfo outdoors sent a person to take activities. In 2007, the club became a department. Now we have 6 clubs in the National Branch, and more than 20 employees in Beijing are responsible for the club's work and organizing clubs. Our membership is more than 120 thousand in the whole country. The annual activities include events, training, outdoor activities, long term activities, Sanfo lecture hall, etc.

The club played a very important role in the early stage of Sanfo. If the club gathered popularity, it would be very difficult for us to sustain it. Later, due to the poor reproducible nature of outdoor activities, we invested a lot of resources in every activity. Sanfo was positioned as a professional product provider and promoted by many domestic club websites. With the expansion of the industry, the role of the club is not so great for Sanfo outdoors.

(Greenland outdoor CEO Zhuo Guang also told I black horse), in order to improve his products at the beginning of his business, he would often take part in outdoor activities voluntarily and mingle with outdoor enthusiasts to understand the deep needs of the outdoor market. I dark horse believes that in the early stage of business, whether we can establish a good interaction with users and get feedback from them is the key to the success of our company. )

　 　 Online retailers It's not the core.

Sanfo outdoor opened its website in May 1999. It just started the company's introduction page, and then gradually increased BBS and chat rooms. At that time, people would write articles on BBS when they came back from travel, and they would be very lively. Our BBS has gradually become a word-of-mouth effect in the outdoors, and has helped Sanfo gather a large number of loyal members.

Now the importance of BBS has weakened to Sanfo. On the one hand, some specialized outdoor community websites have come out. They have done well in service and viscosity. Sanfo's website is based on chain retailing. It is the relationship between businessmen and consumers, and the two sides are different in positioning the website itself. On the other hand, the investment in the latter part of the website is reduced, and the function of BBS gradually weakens.

The Sanfo website now prefers a website with the function of electric business. Sanfo accounts for about 7% of the electricity supplier. We also have a franchise store on Jingdong, Tmall and other websites. The scale is small but the development is very steady, and the growth of the electricity supplier is much higher than that of the storefront. There is still much room for future growth.

REI, an outdoor multi brand franchise store in the US, has an annual turnover of about $2 billion, but the electricity supplier accounts for less than 15%. The remaining 80 percent is still being sold in exclusive stores.

REI has more than 40 stores in the United States because the outdoor industry still needs personalized and professional services. Some people buy outdoor products for functions, such as windbreak or cold protection. A large proportion of people buy outdoor products because outdoor sports are closely related to their life and hobbies. This is something that has deep links with their hobbies and emotions. Under such circumstances, he will not buy some outdoor products online.