Micro, small and medium-sized e-commerce has become the main force of innovation and entrepreneurship

Recently, Taobao released the 2023 Taobao Ecological Innovation and Entrepreneurship Observation Report (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), showing that on the e-commerce platform, the entrepreneurship of small and medium-sized enterprises as a whole presents three major trends: personalized new demand, differentiated new supply and content-based new operation, and these enterprises tap the huge potential
of the domestic market by intensively cultivating the consumer segment, innovating goods and services, and enhancing content management capabilities.
A report released by Yiou Think Tank last month also showed that small, medium and micro merchants with annual sales of less than 3 million yuan constitute the main body of the e-commerce industry, accounting for more than 80%.

Personalized needs promote consumer market segmentation

In recent years, consumer groups have continued to segment in dimensions such as age, gender, region, income, and family, and supply must create more value such as function, time, culture and even emotions to meet personalized needs
.
The continuous segmentation of consumer demand has released a small but specialized, specialized and beautiful entrepreneurial space
.
Taobao Tmall has added more than 2,100 leaf categories of physical goods in two years, including more than 150 new leaf categories with an annual transaction volume of more than 100 million yuan
.

According to Du Guochen, deputy director of the E-commerce Research Institute of the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, new services, products and business models continue to emerge, and an important reason is the change
of social structure and the entire consumer group.
For example, the rapid expansion of the middle consumer group has brought diversified demand
.
In the future, as the number of elderly groups grows and the proportion of educated people continues to increase, more new needs
will emerge.

The birth of new demand has provided important support
for stable economic growth and the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
"Behind these new trends and new tracks is insight into new consumers, consumption trends and consumption patterns
.
When this trend and track are further amplified, new business models
can be formed.
Wang Mengmeng, vice chairman of the All-China Youth Federation, said
.

Ma Shuzhong, dean of the China Digital Trade Research Institute of Zhejiang University, suggested that in the era of consumer Internet, small and medium-sized enterprises should take advantage of the east wind of e-commerce platforms and do a good job in product and service innovation around consumer behavior and preferences, which is one of the important development directions in the
future.

Differentiated supply stimulates commodity innovation

The segmentation of the consumer market means that the supply-side production organization has also changed, through innovative goods and services, to meet personalized and quality consumer demand, with new supply to open new markets
.

The report shows that in the face of new needs, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises actively carry out innovation or micro-innovation, including new tastes, styles, styles, functions.
.
.
From coffee powder to coffee liquid, from liquor to low-alcohol wine, the air fryer that has been on fire for several years has also been continuously upgraded, adding the function
of roasting and steaming.

How does an efficient, diversified, and low-cost response on the supply side work? "Long-tail demand is somehow inefficient because it's hard to create economies
of scale.
" Bai Yang, chief analyst of CICC's Internet industry, said that relying on digital technology and algorithms, many niche needs can be brought together to create one local efficient flashpoint
after another.

A strong and well-established supply chain system provides effective productivity
.
"Most micro, small and medium-sized enterprises may have good design capabilities and good demand implementation capabilities, but they lack capabilities in manufacturing, logistics and transportation
.
" Li Jizhen, deputy dean of the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University, said that China's strong industrial chain and supply chain system can provide full-link empowerment for small and medium-sized enterprises to start their own businesses
.

The connection hub between micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, consumers and foundries is the e-commerce platform
.
Huang Wei, head of Taobao merchant growth, said that in 2022, the Taobao platform will promote the transformation of "industry verticalization", that is, from the industry perspective to the industry perspective, formulate vertical differentiated operation strategies according to consumption trends and industry characteristics, support small and medium-sized enterprises to accurately reach target consumer groups, and improve consumer service experience capabilities
.
Home improvement and home appliances will establish a nationwide "one-time door-to-door, free delivery" fulfillment and after-sales service system
for large-scale heavy goods in the next three years.

"The platform can connect the consumer side and the production end to achieve the collaboration between the consumer end and the
industrial side.
" Ma Shuzhong said that the platform feeds back consumer information to the industrial belt and reflects it to the manufacturing end, and promotes intelligent manufacturing based on the demand side of the industrial belt and the manufacturing
side.

Content marketing helps trust consumption

From "going to Taobao" to "shopping on Taobao", e-commerce is constantly upgrading to an immersive experience economy, creating trust consumption
.
In the past year, Taobao added 550,000 live streaming accounts; There are tens of thousands of Taobao stores that have accumulated more than 200,000 followers
.

In recent years, contentization has become a necessary operating capability for small and medium-sized enterprises, professional vertical anchors have emerged, and live streaming e-commerce has become one of the
main entrances for young people to start a business.
On the e-commerce platform, talented people from all walks of life are moving from the background to the front desk through live broadcasts, and emotionally connecting
with fans with distinct personalities, hobbies or professional expertise.
A large number of "personified stores" have emerged on the platform, who are experts, players, buyers, designers, inheritors of intangible heritage, and craftsmen
.
The highly recognizable "personal content + high-quality products" allows merchants to quickly and accurately reach target users and establish a stable relationship of trust
.

"Contentization is an important trend
.
" Ma Shuzhong analyzed that with the high-quality development of China's economy, improving quality and efficiency, e-commerce platforms are also in the process
of rapid transformation from extensive to intensive.
From the emphasis on traditional traffic to the emphasis on grass traffic, more attention is paid to the appeal of
content.

Huang Wei said that e-commerce has moved from transaction to consumption, and the core of this change is to take consumers as the center, comprehensively improve user experience, and comprehensively improve the ability
of merchants to serve users well through live streaming and content.

Behind the new content-based operation, it is not just a simple
way to sell traffic in another form.
In Baiyang's view, content-based operations largely reflect changes
in infrastructure.
"E-commerce platforms should be aware of this deep change and combine this infrastructure change with the platform's capabilities to generate a greater force
.
"

Zhang Jun, dean of the School of Economics at Fudan University, said that the e-commerce platform was only a trading platform in the early days, and the most important mission was to increase traffic
.
When expanded to a certain stage, the platform can reconfigure these flows and guide new tracks
that conform to social development trends by adjusting the traffic.
The true digital economy should create a lot of economic value
through the reallocation of traffic in the cloud.

(Gao Na comprehensive collation)

China Food News(Version 07, December 23, 2022)

(Responsible editor: Gao Na)