“The essence of the plan is to make something that customers can love.”

Editor’s note: This article comes from WeChat public account “The Law of Explosion” (ID: baokuanfaze), Wen Guanning, editor Xiaojun, reproduced with permission.

The sudden outbreak has knocked offline physical bookstores-

The crisis of the physical bookstore under the epidemic has been so severe that bookstores have been forced to launch “help” operations in an attempt to use external forces to spend the darkest moment of this physical bookstore:

  • On February 21, the independent bookstore Yanji released “a home book” on the public account. In the epidemic, Yanji closed nearly 30 offline stores. Under great operational challenges, Yanji again Opened intra-city distribution and store value-added activities to make up losses;

  • On February 24th, the article “Going Out of the Island to Defend the Bookstore 丨 adhered to the 15-year one-way solicitation for crowdfunding and continued life” broke the circle of friends, and the unidirectional space bookstore, which is about to celebrate its 15th birthday, has February revenue Compared with previous years, it has fallen by 80%, so we have to “crowdfunding and continue life”;

  • On February 25, Pioneer Bookstore also launched a crowdfunding project with a target amount of 117470 yuan, inviting readers to buy two blindly selected books for 98 yuan to help the bookstore.

    According to the WeChat public account of the “Bookstore Line” survey of more than 1,000 physical bookstores, nearly 90% of the bookstores were forced to close down during the epidemic, 91.97% of the bookstores had almost no source of income, and 37.02% of the bookstores had only capital reserves Maintaining it for less than a month, 42.02% of the bookstores lasted less than 3 months. To make matters worse, they also had to bear expenses such as rent, labor, and inventory losses.

    The bookstore is in a hurry under the epidemic situation. Here is a reference answer to the

    During the epidemic, the one-way space in the store was closed in Hangzhou

    But in fact, even before the outbreak, domestic bookstores have been living in the cracks for many years. Especially before 2012, China’s physical bookstores experienced a decade of decline, and the sudden collapse of many well-known chain bookstores, such as photosynthesis, plunged the entire industry into a lowtide.

    Until 2013, the state launched special funds to support 210 physical bookstores with cultural influence across the country, and it was the first shot to defend physical bookstores. However, the physical bookstore that had already reached the ascending path under the support and self-rescue, once again exposed the vulnerability of the entire industry in the face of the sudden epidemic.

    The bookstore is anxious under the epidemic situation, and here is a reference answer to the

    How exactly should physical bookstores be fragile? This year ’s annual tribute ceremony for Chinese bookstores put forward a theme called “Bookstore Redo and High-Quality Development” to discuss how to rebuild bookstores so that today ’s brick-and-mortar bookstores can be more adaptable to overall functions, operating methods, and format integration Changes brought about by current new retail and new consumption.

    In this direction, Tottoya Bookstore, which is known as “one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world” and “one of Japan’s largest chain bookstores”, is a case worthy of reference.

    With 374 bookstores facing closures in Japan every year, in the past ten years, Sugaya Bookstores have become an industry model and global industry with data of 1.6 times the number of stores opened and 1.7 times the growth rate of revenue. Research object of the learner. Today, Takuya Bookstore has more than 1,450 stores worldwide, with sales exceeding 130 billion yen (about 7.9 billion yuan).

    The bookstore is anxious under the epidemic situation. Here is a reference answer to the

    Zou Tian Zongzhao, the founder of Takuya Bookstore

    Why can Takuya Bookstore achieve this kind of revenue growth? What can we learn from them? The founder of Takuya Bookstore and President of Culture Convenience Club Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “CCC”) Masuda Takasho have shown Takuya Bookstore for more than 30 years in “Mystery Takuya” and “Takuya Management Philosophy” The commercial map constructed and the business philosophy summarized can also bring a lot of inspiration to practitioners in China today.

    Zou Tian Zongzhao: The essence of management is toFailure Tolerance

    Practitioners once commented: “Uniqlo has changed the lifestyle of Japanese people, and Takuya Bookstore has changed the lifestyle of Japanese people.”

    The first Tsuriya Bookstore was established in 1983. At the time, Takusho Masuda, 32, borrowed money from relatives and friends and opened a Tsuriya Bookstore in Hirakata, Osaka, his hometown, which rents audiovisual products and sells books.

    Since the rent is expensive, Masuda hopes to reduce the rent pressure by extending the time, so imitating the 7-11 convenience store and setting the business hours from 7 am to 11 pm, it has attracted many students who are studying nearby and White-collar workers after work, even in the middle of the night, the shop was crowded.

    The bookstore is anxious under the epidemic situation, here is a reference answer to the

    The first squatter bookstore in 1983

    But Tsuriya Bookstore has not embarked on a smooth development process. Soon Tsuriya Bookstore ushered in the first major business failure: After Hirakata’s first Tsuriya Bookstore successfully captured a large number of customers, Tian Zongzhao opened a second branch in Xiangliyuan, a city center two stops away, but was tragically wounded by Waterloo and had to hurriedly close the store to liquidate.

    Investigating the reason, Masuda Zongzhao realized that he was trapped in the trap of the success of the first store. At that time, Masuda Zongzhao wanted to directly replicate the business model in the suburbs of Hirakata shop, but the center of the second Xiangliyuan store was far more complete than the area where the old shop was located. Record shops and bookstores were even more numerous. ——This means that even if the business hours are extended, for Sayaya Bookstore, there are competitors everywhere.

    Also, when opening the first store, because of prudence, the team tends to think more seriously about the real needs of the customers and puts them in the position of the customers. However, when the first store is successful, the team can easily unconsciously think that it can directly copy the successful experience of the first store, and ignore whether the needs of the second store customers have changed in different environments.

    The painful experience of the failure of this expansion immediately made Masuda Zongzhao realize that to resist the temptation of success, “like religion, you need to reflect on yourself every day.” To maintain success in expansion, you need time to be careful. Remember the most basic way of hospitality, always starting from the real needs of the customer base.

    CCC was formally established in 1985 in order to systematically manage the various branches of Takuya Bookstore, and the franchising business began to expand the following year.

    CCC is taken from EnglishThe initials of the words “Culture”, “Convenience”, and “Club” in the language mean cultural convenience clubs. After the war, Japan was plentiful, and people were increasingly dissatisfied with the current lifestyle. So Masuda Masuda positioned CCC as a planning company and created a “lifestyle proposal place” in an effort to satisfy the spiritual life of people at the time. This also illustrates the CCC. From the early days of the administration, the Sugaya Bookstore was completely different from the traditional bookstore.

    For example, in 2003, the Internet and big data technologies have not yet become widespread. CCC launched a new service based on T-CARD, relying on the book, record and DVD rental and retail business of the Takuya Bookstore, FamilyMart), BOOK-OFF (Japan’s largest second-hand book chain store) and other companies can form a natural community and community through the member T-point system that can be used at various stores in TSUTAYA, which is virtually CCC and Takuya Bookstore Advertised.

    The bookstore is anxious under the epidemic situation. Here is a reference answer to the

    T-point logo for offline stores in Japan

    After 8 years of precipitation, in 2011, in Daikanyama, Tokyo, a 4000-square-meter square with Daikanyama Takuya Bookstore as the core, a shopping-style, shopping-style restaurant-style commercial facility called Daikanyama T-SITE “It’s open.

    In this expansion, Masuda Shoaki sensitively adjusted the target customers in response to changes in the customer base in society. At that time, Japan’s population aged 65 years and over accounted for a quarter of the total population. Japan’s aging population continued to accelerate. Zonda Sosho wanted to open a squatter bookstore that appealed to the “advanced class.” Preparation:

    • Deeply digging into the theme of health, creating Japan’s most comprehensive medical and food homology book store;

    • Preparation of books on religion, philosophy, biography, travel, housing, cars, etc.

    • Set the opening hours of bookstores and cafes at 7 am to take care of older customers who like to get up early;

    • In order to reduce the loneliness of the elderly, a pet shop with a pet hospital is introduced;

    • Considering elderly people with inconvenience in legs and legsMotovelo, a bicycle specialty store;

    • In order to make elderly women live more beautifully, a beauty salon is opened in the store;

    • It is convenient for rich elderly customers to buy gifts for their children and grandchildren and to introduce foreign environmentally friendly toy specialty stores;

    • A camera store is set up for seniors who like photography;

    • …

      CCC conducted a detailed market survey for the elderly customer group, carefully creating a space that makes every customer feel comfortable, and the quiet and elegant Daiguanshan store has become the most classic of the thousands of physical stores in the Tottoya Bookstore. Masterpiece.

      The bookstore is anxious under the epidemic situation, and here is a reference answer to the

      CCC ’s territory in the “life” area continues to expand:

      • In 2015, the home appliance store was born in the second son of Tamada, Setagaya, Tokyo. For the first time in history, “home appliances” and “bookstores” were combined across borders. When making life proposals, home appliances are making new life proposals as “hardware.”

      • In 2017, CCC acquired the Japanese bookstore chain Tokushima Bookstore again, becoming Japan’s largest chain bookstore operator, taking the lead in the Japanese bookstore industry.

      • In 2018, Sayaya Apartment Hotel was settled in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, truly fulfilling the dreams of some consumers who want to “live in a bookstore”.

        From brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries to shopping malls and home appliances, Squatter is not only building a cultural entity, but also promoting a future lifestyle. Its innovative management has become the cultural industry and even new retail It has become a benchmark for many operators and enterprises.

        What are the success points of Takuya Bookstore?

        Zou Tian Zongzhao mentioned in the book: “The essence of corporate activities is creation, and the essence of planning is to make things that can be loved by customers.”

        Zongtian Zongzhao asked all CCC employees to regard the business map as the foundation, and to make “culture” a “convenience” form a “cultural infrastructure” and always think for customers.

        Thus, the most important part of the success of Takuya Bookstore is the sensible sense of industry.

        For example, Masuda believes that the storefront is the largest advertisement, so Sugaya Bookstore has made a lot of efforts in store design. Daikanyama Sayaya Bookstore was designed by Klein & Dytham Architects (KDa), a Japanese firm founded in 1991. KDa abandoned the traditional Japanese garden and temple elements, and laid a modernist tone for the overall style of the Takuya Bookstore.

        “茑” means creeper in Japanese, so KDa chose to use the Roman letter “TSUTAYA” of Takuya Bookstore as the basic element, and copied the “woven” white facade like a creeper. It is usually spread on the outside wall of the bookstore and cooperates with a large piece of glass to create a transparent landscape, which also makes it a landmark building in the Daiguanshan area.

        The bookstore is anxious under the epidemic situation, here is a reference answer to the

        In addition, different from other “books + coffee shops” mode, Sayaya Bookstore chose “books + coffee shops + department stores + restaurants + leisure places”. The supporting service facilities of the Sugao Bookstore also perfectly explain the meaning of “More than books”: Starbucks, stationery and other peripheral sales areas, restaurants, parent-child activity rooms, mother and baby rooms, beauty salons, parking lots … All supporting facilities have increased Tian Zongzhaodu thought for consumers before they asked for them. The traditional function of the bookstore was enriched, and became a building complex between home, office and commercial space.

        In addition to services, squatters also attach great importance to cultural output in the true sense. The slogan of Takuya Bookstore is “Welcome back to the world of books”. Daikanyama Takuya Bookstore has a total collection of 150,000 books, of which only 12% are the same as other bookstores. The first floor Magazine Street has more than 1,300 Japanese magazines and more than 1,000 A variety of overseas magazines, including many collection-level old books and foreign language original books. This gives Takuya its own unique competitive advantage as a bookstore.

        This is what many brick-and-mortar physical bookstores should pay attention to today: the user ’s demand for bookstores will eventually return to books, and the selection of books will always be what the bookstores must pay attention to, which really determines the corporate brand positioning The foundation of standing.

        The bookstore is anxious under the epidemic situation, and here is a reference answer to the

        Screenshots from the official website of Sugaya Bookstore

        The most successful aspect of Sugaya Bookstore is the offline + online play, allowing big data to make decisions for the company.

        In 2002, CCC began to provide “TSUTAYA DISCAS”, a rental service for online home delivery DVD and CD. The physical store and Internet platform cooperated with TSUTAYA. TSUTAYA’s membership service system expanded rapidly and eventually consisted of 3 parts: T-POINT, T-CARD, T-MONEY.

        CCC used T-CARD to provide users with the basis of user portrait methods, planning system “selection” and “recommendation” basis. The data feedback eventually became the core competitiveness of the squatter bookstore and even the entire CCC. Today, there are more than 940,000 franchise companies in Takuya Bookstores, 70 million T-CARD members, and more than 55 percent of the cardholder population in Japan, making it the largest retail user group in Japan.

        In addition, as mentioned earlier, CCC’s ambitions are not only in bookstores: after the success of the Takuya Bookstore, it has expanded into the field of home appliances and hotels; in order to increase overseas customers, Takuya also helped Airbnb expand the Japanese market, And cooperate with world-renowned sports brand Arthurs. In addition to expanding overseas markets, CCC even plans to enter the real estate industry across borders, help real estate developers design public areas of residential areas, and maximize the core of planning companies.

        China’s Landing in Squatter Bookstore Mode

        Zengtian Zongzhao said, “If you want to buy a book, go to Amazon to buy a book; you need to go to information, you can go to Google to find information; and how to find your lifestyle in the book is the consumer Really need. “

        Similarly, in the Chinese market where the mobile Internet is developed, the impact of e-reading platforms on brick-and-mortar bookstores has never faded: WeChat reading, snail reading and other reading app users have become more widely used, and the number of copyrights has also increased. More and more, the service methods are becoming more and more abundant. WeChat reading data shows that in 2019, the per capita reading time of WeChat readings increased by 14% compared with last year, and the per capita reading time and other data also increased. In addition to e-books, functions such as reading books and comics introduced by major APPs have made online The online reading platform is completely beyond the boundaries of the book reading itself, but has expanded into a richer digital content consumption field.

        The bookstore is in a hurry under the epidemic situation. Here is a reference answer to the

        At the same time, for consumers who love reading, the texture of physical books and the atmosphere of physical bookstores are important, but the price advantage of e-books cannot be ignored. Due to the increase in paper prices, logistics, and book number fees, the price of physical books has increased significantly in recent years. Data show that the average price of new books in 2016 was 65.5 yuan, but the average price of new books published in 2018 has risen to 68.5 yuan. In contrast, the unlimited card benefits of the 30 yuan monthly card, 60 yuan quarter card, and 228 yuan year card launched by e-reading platforms such as WeChat reading can smoothly read the entire book, and the difference in guest price between the two is huge.

        The bookstore is anxious under the epidemic situation, here is a reference answer to the

        WeChat reading unlimited card membership benefits

        Whether it is the limitation of the service boundary or the price disadvantage, it is fully demonstrated that selling books alone cannot create a competitive advantage. The competitive advantage of brick-and-mortar bookstores can only be reflected by the “lifestyle”, and it is precisely because of giving the traditional bookstores a new way of life that Sayaya Bookstore has become a global hit and has become the imitation object of many Chinese online bookstores.

        It can be seen that in the domestic market, physical bookstores adopting this approach are also gradually increasing. In recent years, online celebrity bookstores that have focused on creating an environmental atmosphere have become the “standard” for large shopping and cultural centers after cinemas and supermarkets. The physical bookstore economy has also attracted capital participation.

        Sisyphus is one of them. Sisyphus was born in 1993. Its sub-brands include Sisyph Bookstore, Vector Coffee, Fuji Life Creative, Seventy-two Reading Class Children’s Reading Experience Space, Push Stone Culture and other sub-brands. It currently has 200 in more than 60 cities across the country. Yu Book retail stores and more than 3.5 million active members.

        Similar to CCC’s digital management thinking. In order to improve the efficiency of physical stores through data control, Sisyphus has established its own CNC model, covering all departments such as product department, commodity operation department and channel management department. To determine the purchase and deployment of goods. Perhaps because of the effectiveness of digital management, Sisyphus has far surpassed the industry in terms of turnover. Some media reports show that Sisyph Bookstore & Vector Coffee’s turnover reached 1.2 billion yuan in the first ten months of 2019.

        The bookstore is in a panic situation,Here is a reference answer to the

        Another “Internet Red Bookstore” worthy of attention was established in 2013. The words “Jianji” and “Three” together are the design word for the design. The main focus is on the design of the storefront and service concept. There are 65 stores in more than 10 cities across the country, of which 20 are large stores with an area of ​​5,000 square meters or more. It has a collection of more than 100,000 books.

        Yanji can be regarded as the “capital darling” in the physical bookstore: In 2014, Yanji was once again awarded a multi-million-dollar angel angel financing by Pegasus, and since then it has received Xinghan Capital, JD Finance, Yingyi Capital raised RMB 26 million in Series A financing. In March 2017, Yanji completed another 120 million yuan of round B financing; in December of the following year, Yanji announced that it had completed a round of B + billion yuan financing, led by Hongtai Grand Entertainment Industry Fund.

        At present, according to public reports, Yanji is ranked second in China’s physical bookstores in 2019 with a turnover of 600 million yuan. It is worth noting that Yanji also borrowed from the shop opening model of Sayaya Bookstore and adopted the method of “do not copy”, so that each store has its own tone.

        The bookstore is anxious under the epidemic situation. Here is a reference answer to the

        Compared with Sisyphus and Yanjiwan, the one-way space bookstore that has received much attention due to crowdfunding in this outbreak is slightly inferior in terms of operation.

        Unidirectional Space was established in 2005 and has previously received several million US dollars in Series A financing from Zhixin Capital. Since its establishment, Unidirectional Space has undergone two transformations, from a single bookstore to a cultural space, and then to an online and offline content production organization.

        At present, the business of Unidirectional Space includes three product lines, new media platforms “Wei Zai”, and “Single Series” products (from the “Single” salon brand, “Single reading” publications, “Single chef” catering brands, Radio “is composed of four parts of original design brand) and video product Youngthinkers. But as far as the bookstore business is concerned, the one-way space operation has not been considered a success. The Beijing Aegean Sea Store was closed at the end of last year, and there are currently only 4 offline stores.

        The bookstore is anxious in the epidemic. Here is a reference answer to the

        Together, Sisyphus has seized the brand positioning of the coffee + bookstore, Yanji has a stronger sense of design brand, and one-way space tries to break through through its own cultural brand tone … China’s “Internet Red Bookstore” They learned the decoration of the squatter huts, and they are also trying to add the connotation of the “selling proposal for living” to it.

        But the really critical “from the customer’s point of view” planning thinking of Sayaya Bookstore is still hard to see in physical bookstores in China. In the “Squatter Management Philosophy”, Masuda Zongzhao wrote the requirements for CCC planning:

        First, it has “customer value”, that is, the plan can get customer support; second, it has “profitability” that makes rich people want to buy, that is, “a plan that can sell well”; Third, the implementation of the plan will help employees and related personnel to grow and progress, that is, it will help the company to become the world’s best planning company; fourth, the plan can make society better, that is, it can serve the society make a contribution. CCC can only make plans that meet these four conditions at the same time. In addition to making money is the business of making money, businesses that can please customers but want the company to lose money, and stores that are full of money but need to exhaust employees, these are things we can’t do.

        How to find a reasonable balance between management and cultural value in the environment like Sugaya Bookstore, and to persevere in such a business philosophy, which may also be the physical bookstore “Bookstore Redo” in the future in China The direction you must think about.