An Analysis of the eight dilemmas of County E-commerce

Since 2015, with the introduction of hundreds of national policies and the stimulation of tens of billions of e-commerce special funds from the Ministry of Commerce into rural demonstration counties, county e-commerce in China has been vigorously promoted throughout the country. However, as the core expert of rural e-commerce of the Ministry of Commerce, I have investigated and served in dozens of counties in 34 provinces across the country, but found that most counties have encountered insurmountable difficulties in the development of e-commerce, and summed up all kinds of problems. there are eight common problems, which are summarized as "eight dilemmas of county e-commerce" today!

1. Can't sell it.

There is a bumper harvest of agricultural products every year, and some products cannot be sold and rot in the field every year, which has almost become an inextricable knot. It is often heartbreaking to see such reports in the newspapers. But what on earth caused the establishment of agricultural products to become more and more expensive on the one hand, and the rotten agricultural products of bumper harvests in the countryside on the other? Why don't they do e-commerce to sell these products? In fact, it has been done in many places, but it is basically useless. This is our agricultural products e-commerce of the first major problem "can not be sold"! In most areas, online stores have become dead shops. for e-commerce, the higher the expectation, the greater the disappointment.

Why can't you sell it? Have seen a lot of online stores done in the county, basically opened an online shop, entered a waiting state, looking forward to online buyers like a group of fish have taken the bait one after another. Is there such a good thing? Many people have been deceived by "successful learning of e-commerce" and take it for granted that e-commerce is a panacea. Do not realize that the opening of an online store also needs serious operation, and uninterrupted promotion after a good operation. This process is quite a long process, and it may not be able to achieve obvious results for one or two years. Most people can't stand such a long period. So, this involves another question, whether to open one store or multiple stores? There are different opinions on this issue, but we only need to compare our Party's revolutionary strategy at that time. Was it established in one base area or multiple base areas? A single spark can start a prairie fire. We must not rely solely on a single spark in one place, but to light a fire everywhere to see which cluster can burn down. It is the same truth to engage in e-commerce, multi-platform, looking for opportunities, point-to-point and development! There is another problem. E-commerce only does business on the Internet, right? If you learn more about the development of e-commerce in the past two years, you will find that the combination of online and offline is the general trend. For example, you book a movie ticket online and then go to the cinema to see it. This is a typical combination of online and offline. Therefore, to engage in county e-commerce, but also to open up channels outside the e-commerce platform, mutual combination is the best development.

two。 Can't be shipped out.

If we investigate the problems of e-commerce in agricultural products all over the country, the first one is almost certainly "logistics". High freight, long time, no network in rural areas, this is the current situation of county e-commerce logistics. Therefore, many counties begin to subsidize logistics, hoping that logistics enterprises can spread their outlets to the village, and hope that logistics enterprises can reduce freight. Does that work? It is necessary to consider why logistics enterprises do not go to the countryside and why e-commerce express charges are so high in the county. The Yangtze River Delta is the most developed area of express delivery in China. What is the reason? Not because the road here is good, but because this region is the most active economic zone in China, and the upward and downward packages are the densest in the country. So express companies can make a lot of money in this area, so they can reduce express fees again and again. On the other hand, in the vast rural areas, there are few downlink items and few uplink ones. If the express delivery goes deep into the rural areas, the whole thing will be at a loss. How can the freight be reduced and how can it stay? Therefore, the logistics dilemma in the county can not be solved by subsidies. The logistics problem seems to be the "cause" of the poor development of e-commerce, but in fact it is the "result" of the poor development of e-commerce. Because e-commerce does not sell well, so the logistics facilities are poor, which is a vicious circle.

This only means ordinary logistics, while the logistics of agricultural products is far from the problem of high cost and slow transportation. Take a look at figure 2. The writer Liu Liu bought a few jin of mangosteen on JD.com. When he arrived, he found that there were many rotten ones. He complained that he was not smooth and torn JD.com. So did JD.com really send a few jin of rotten mangosteen to Liu Liu? If you think about it a little bit, you will understand that a platform of such a size as JD.com will not do such a thing as lifting a stone and dropping it on its own feet, so why is mangosteen rotten? This is the big problem of agricultural products e-commerce, especially fresh products e-commerce-- the "chain failure" of cold chain logistics, from warehouse to trunk logistics to end distribution, any link that is not "cold" will lead to the decay of products. So engage in county e-commerce to bypass fresh products and only do processed products that are resistant to preservation? You know, what are the agricultural products that netizens need most? The first is fresh, fresh products are the pearls in the crown of agricultural products!

3. Be unable to supply

After solving the difficult problems of selling goods and transportation, is the county e-commerce open? Next, we will find that the most fundamental problem of agricultural products e-commerce will follow-that is, "lack of supply"! There is a common problem in the vast majority of counties across the country, which is called "what you want and what you want." If you are asked what specialties there are in the county, you can certainly count more than N with your fingers, but once it goes on sale all over the country on the Internet, you will find that none of the products are in supply. the output of most products is only enough to be sold in urban areas of a slightly larger level, which simply cannot meet the needs of the whole country. Once, when I went to a county in northeast China, I was treated to a wild vegetable called "thorn sprouts". I felt very good. I asked how the local output was and whether it was enough to do group buying online. The local leader said that there was no problem at all. How much would it take? I replied that if done well, 20, 000 to 30, 000 units could be sold in a group purchase, and one order might be 3 to 5 jin, so it would be 10 to 150000 jin. After listening to this, the leaders thought that all the local wild vegetables might not be able to reach this amount. This is the most fundamental dilemma of most of our county "specialties"-no industry has been formed, so there is no supply at all!

If there is no supply, there is another situation, just like the "evil" garlic in the agricultural market. Last year you were ruthless, this year you were cheap, and it was repeated year after year! What's the reason? Garlic in Jinxiang, Shandong Province, has formed a large-scale industry, why is there such a problem? In the final analysis, "enterprising" is not enough, and most of the output is still in the hands of retail farmers, while the biggest problem for farmers in every household is the lack of planning in production, and planting plans are decided only on the basis of the simplest market appearance. If the market is hot, it will increase the seed, and when the market is cold, it will reduce production. Such blind behavior will always be a victim and can never be separated from the vicious circle that can not be supplied in a year of rotten land. So this is a deeper reason for the lack of supply-- with industry, the lack of enterprise integration.

4. Low quality price

China's agriculture has a long history, but it is going from bad to worse. now it accounts for less than 10% of the national economy, and agricultural tax is exempted and grain subsidies do not seem to have much effect. Why don't agricultural products make money? Let's take a look at the comparison. Imported cherries often cost 70 or 80 yuan a jin, while domestic cherries often sell for only ten or twenty yuan. Imported kiwi fruits sell for more than ten or twenty yuan each in the supermarket, while domestic kiwifruit can't be sold for a few yuan a jin. Are imported products higher than domestic products? In fact, cherry is the transliteration of English "cherries". Chinese kiwifruit and imported kiwifruit share the same ancestry. Then why is there such a big price gap? Because Chinese people worship foreigners and fawn on foreigners? There may be this reason, but if you make a careful comparison, it is found that there is often a big quality gap between imported agricultural products and domestic products. Imported goods are often bright in color, big in fruit and good in taste, while domestic products are uneven. Is it because of the good variety of imported goods? As a matter of fact, there is no shortage of good varieties and products in China, but why is it generally inferior to imports in the market? This is because of our man-made problems, the quality of agricultural products is not as good as that of other people's imports. Because the vast majority of our domestic agricultural products are planted by farmers, and the biggest problem in farmers' production is that there are no standards. From seeds to fertilizers to the process of planting and breeding, farmers follow their hearts with their own experience. After the harvest of agricultural products, farmers are extremely lack of awareness of sorting, big and small, good and bad, all collected into a lot of baskets, such products can only be priced according to inferior products in the market, the question that farmers do not understand is whether to sort out inferior products and sell them at a high price, or to sell them at a low price without sorting.

No standard, no sorting, is only the most original reason for low quality price. There is a deeper reason is that most county agricultural products do not have a brand, which can only become the main products in the vegetable market, selling "cabbage prices." So there are some places that take great pains to create brands, but why don't they make money, and why is that? Just like Wuchang rice in the past, people all over the country know that Wuchang rice is good, but they are not willing to pay for its high price of more than ten or twenty yuan a catty. Why?. Because people are not sure whether the rice they want to buy is authentic from Wuchang, of course they are not willing to spend a high price. Why are you confused? Because I don't know which factory produces what trademark is authentic Wuchang rice. Therefore, with regional brands, there are commodity brands to undertake. At the same time, with commodity brands may not be able to sell the price, but also need a key guarantee, that is, the "traceability" of agricultural products. Therefore, there are regional brands, commodity brands, and can be traced back to the source, this is a complete agricultural brand.

5. Lack of talents

The first four dilemmas are more industrial problems, and the next four are "human" problems. It was just said that if we do a survey on the e-commerce problems of agricultural products across the country, logistics must be the first, then the second, almost every county will complain, is the "lack of talent." China's current official figure is that there are 800 million farmers, and as many as 200 million of them have gone to work in cities. This leads to the "hollowing out" of talents in rural areas, leaving only the elderly and housewives to do e-commerce. Such a serious shortage of people will lead to no excellent enterprises, no one and no enterprises in the county, and the whole county will become an e-commerce desert and there is no e-commerce atmosphere at all. On the issue of the college entrance examination, China is now showing a seriously unfair situation. In major agricultural provinces such as Shandong and Henan, it is difficult for candidates to enter ordinary universities with more than 600 points, while in the economically developed areas of Beijing and Shanghai, more than 500 points can be admitted to Peking University and Tsinghua University. The space for the rise of talents has been greatly limited in rural areas, and in this case, college students are more eager to jump out of agriculture, so when they graduate, it is time to leave their hometown and enter the city.

How to solve the problem of shortage of talents in rural areas? Do you want to dig up talents in the city? It will soon be found that for recent college graduates, they would rather go to the city to earn two or three thousand than four or five thousand in their hometown. This is very difficult to reverse. College students' yearning for a prosperous world when they graduate cannot be changed by paying more wages. So, to do rural e-commerce, where to find talents? The first goal is not to focus on newly graduated college students, but on returning senior students or migrant workers returning to their hometown. Looking back at their hometown after experiencing a prosperous world, these people not only have vision and experience, but also can do things in a down-to-earth manner. they are really the first batch of talents that can be selected for the development of e-commerce at the county level. In addition to operational talents, where to find entrepreneurial talents? Returning entrepreneurs and original entrepreneurs are all groups that need to be moved by government leaders in good faith. These two groups are the main sources of county e-commerce entrepreneurs.

6. Lack of service

Is there a day when the problem of shortage of talents will be completely solved? The answer is, of course, no. In fact, in coastal cities, there is also an acute shortage of people. As long as the economy is developing, talent is an eternal and insatiable demand. What if there are not enough talents? Let's first take a look at how the developed areas of e-commerce in China are done. In first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, e-commerce has become the first in the world. This is not only due to Taobao, JD.com and other e-commerce platforms, but also to tens of millions of e-commerce enterprises of different species, forming a complete e-commerce ecosystem. The coastal e-commerce is developed, and the ecosphere is developed. From the perspective of enterprise development, the same is true. I have served Procter & Gamble, Panasonic and other international brands, and one thing I have always admired is that there are usually dozens or hundreds of e-commerce service providers used by a foreign company, and so many service providers have joined the e-commerce development of this brand. It will make it perform well in all aspects, so I have been a consultant to Panasonic for three years, and its annual development is almost five times and ten times the super-high-speed climb!

Our county e-commerce is weak, the weak is that the ecosystem has not been built, the reason is the lack of service providers. It is very difficult for a county to produce excellent service providers, because service providers develop by providing e-commerce services to enterprises. there are not many e-commerce enterprises in a county, so how can they grow up? Therefore, the county to do e-commerce, need a large number of excellent service providers, this service provider can not focus on the county, but in the national search, introduction. It can make the county make good use of the excellent domestic service providers and integrate the county into the national e-commerce ecosphere, which is the core solution to the problem of lack of talents in the county.

7. Lack of planning

Since 2015, rural e-commerce across the country has inadvertently stepped into a strange circle, that is, the "industrial products" are developing rapidly, and the "agricultural products" are almost unchanged. What's the reason? Because Taobao, JD.com, SUNING and other platforms have all made great efforts to develop the rural strategy of going to the mountains and going to the countryside. Established e-commerce platforms have launched "Village Amoy", "Jingdong Gang" and "Suning Station", as well as emerging tuhao "street rush", "Le Cun Amoy" and "Amoy material benefits". These enterprises have wantonly surrounded the land and put on a big show of industrial products going to the countryside all over the country. Many counties are unknown, a look at the big platform to find the heart happy blossom, feeling that as long as take a boat on Taobao and other big platforms, e-commerce is not far from the other shore. Many counties go all out to help the platform sell goods, and even set rigid targets. Each village branch has to take the lead in buying 20,000 yuan of goods, turning their own county into an "e-commerce developed county." they do not realize that they have only contributed GMV to the e-commerce platform, and none of the products in their own county have been sold, and ordinary people have spent a lot of savings without earning a penny. Rural e-commerce, which has been in full swing for a long time, is just to make it easier for villagers to buy things online? This is a mistake made in many areas, and of course it is also the fact that many platforms take advantage of county leading cadres who do not understand e-commerce. At the launch meeting of the third batch of "e-commerce into rural demonstration counties" of the Electronic Commerce Department of the Ministry of Commerce, the director publicly criticized many major platforms-"only want to sell goods into rural areas, do not want to help farmers sell goods."

When it comes to this issue, some county leaders may immediately declare that our county has not been fooled. In addition to doing village Amoy, we have also done a "special library." The summary reports on the development of e-commerce in many counties also describe that they have opened a characteristic library. It seems that this is the other side of the development of e-commerce. Going to the characteristic library is tantamount to boarding a spaceship. As everyone knows, after the opening of the characteristic library, it will be lively for only a few days, and then most of the characteristic pavilions will fall into silence, even forever. Because on the platforms of Taobao and JD.com, the "characteristic library" is only an inconspicuous channel, while this channel has a large number of characteristic pavilions waiting for visitors. A channel that does not have many buyers often visit, but there are a large number of counties in the competition, its sales effect can be imagined.

Therefore, many county e-commerce companies are constantly influenced by the platform as mentioned above. Today, the last village Amoy JD.com gang, tomorrow a special museum, east hammer west mallet, simply did not think about what industry to develop in their county, what products to take as the main hit, how to cultivate the main body of business, and how to open up the e-commerce market for agricultural products? These things are the county e-commerce development planning, this plan, it is best to make a three-year plan, to avoid affecting the implementation because of the change of term. Most counties may say that I have plans, but take a look at them and find that these plans are high-sounding red tape, and all the things that e-commerce has to do look gorgeous, but in fact they can't be implemented at all.

8. Lack of political power

The last dilemma of county e-commerce development, I call it "lack of political power", is the lack of government impetus. It seems that many county governments are busy doing e-commerce, but in fact, the county's e-commerce chariots lack almost no government impetus. What's the reason? First, let's take a look at a picture. This is document No. 24 issued by the State Council in 2015, entitled "opinions on speeding up the Development of E-commerce and cultivating New driving Forces in the economy", one of which clearly stipulates that "relevant financial funds shall not be used for the construction of online trading platforms." Many counties did not notice this at first, and later knew it and did not understand why it was not allowed to build an online trading platform. Last year, I talked about this topic in the national agricultural products e-commerce class organized by the Electronic Commerce Department of the Ministry of Commerce. During the recess, the director of a provincial department of commerce came up to me and said to me, "Mr. Xu, you are so right. Our provincial leaders like to be a platform. More than 20 million has been invested, and there is almost no traffic." This is the biggest problem in building an e-commerce platform-due to the national integration of the Internet, the e-commerce platform is not destined to survive too much. There are only a few platforms that netizens can remember, and more can only rely on buying traffic to force people. The cost of e-commerce platform drainage is as high as more than 300 yuan per person! But many counties enjoy it. When I was doing research in one province, one county reported that "We built six national platforms for products with different characteristics last year." I listened to the chills on my back and said to myself that "the greater the ability, the greater the harm."

Therefore, the e-commerce development funds in many counties have been thrown into these pits where no spray can be seen. The misdirected investment of policies and funds is the first manifestation of the lack of political power of county e-commerce. Of course, although these counties spend money indiscriminately, at least they are still doing things, while more counties are shouting loud slogans without landing on the ground. Hold a few meetings, send out a few red-headed documents, and come up with a few gorgeous policies. this is the model for many counties to do e-commerce. This is typical of not attaching importance to e-commerce and really paying attention to it. It is that the director of commerce does not report, and the secretary and county magistrate will call the director to chase the director for report. It is because the director of commerce does not go to the countryside, and the secretary and county magistrate will run more frequently than the director. This is what the real leaders attach importance to. Many counties may complain: although our county magistrate is not at a high level, there are thousands of things in a county that need to be managed, ah, it is true, but a really good leader should be good at identifying development opportunities and be able to seize this opportunity to personally implement it to the end. In today's China, what are the development opportunities in the county? The era of energy has passed, the era of steel has passed, and the era of real estate has also passed. if the county wants to catch up with the city, only to develop e-commerce, this is likely to be the last good opportunity for the development of the county!

There is another manifestation of the lack of political power, that is, they all attach great importance to it, but they go their own way. At the municipal level, there is a contradiction between the Bureau of Commerce and the Bureau of Agriculture, and at the county level, it is divided into many factions. With so many forces fighting, the result will certainly not be good. Therefore, the development of county e-commerce, we need to gather the strength of the government, the first leader of the project, up and down with one mind, twisted into a rope for development, in order to overcome the difficulties and dangers to get the real classics.

Almost every county will have the above eight dilemmas more or less. To sum up these difficulties is not to deal a blow to the confidence of rural e-commerce practitioners, but to identify difficulties and face them correctly. E-commerce is not a smooth road, still less is it that e-commerce will make a fortune as soon as it is promoted in the "successful study of e-commerce". There are 9981 difficulties here, and it takes a long journey of 25000 miles. In the face of difficulties, one step at a time, this is my generation of rural electricity businessmen should have the attitude!