The golden age of making money lying down in the car market, property market, and stock market is gone forever. How should the heroes of wealth creation in traditional industries transform?
E-commerce, finance, and Internet celebrities, the Internet tide that was full of awesomeness has receded. Where are the reliable business opportunities for investment in the future?
China's economy has experienced 30 years of rapid development. The two carriages of investment and export can no longer pull the elephant of GDP. The highly expected consumption-driven economy is facing the embarrassment of the rigid aging of the post-50s/60s/70s and the rapid rise of the new generation of the post-80s/90s/00s, as well as the embarrassment that the old bottles of the market cannot hold the consumption upgrade and new consumption trends. How should the heroes of wealth creation in traditional industries transform?
The Internet monster has long been entered into the era of traffic portals and big data by BAT. Now when investors are suddenly enlightened like street aunties, they are faced with all kinds of Internet financial traps, or are frightened by the stock market that cuts leeks again and again. The Internet bubble has receded, but where are the reliable business opportunities that investors have been looking for?
With these questions, you may as well go with the editor to a company that is in the traditional industry but has a slightly unusual structure. Through their story, we hope to bring us a unique new perspective, some thoughts or inspiration for the transformation of traditional industry enterprises.
A seemingly inconspicuous traditional industry
A calm, low-key and capable team
After experiencing the ups and downs, they have been working silently for nearly 20 years
Not only did they not drown, but they also learned to swim
And took up the banner of "sharing economy", "partner crowdfunding" and even "VR technology" and "smart customization"
Constantly breaking the records of the industry and creating one miracle after another...
A traditional industry brand that continues to innovate
In 1997, Luo Qingbo, the founder of Aote Xifulai, came to Shanghai and accidentally entered the dry cleaning industry after his first business failed at the age of 17.
In 2005, Luo Qingbo founded his own laundry chain brand in Shanghai with his many years of experience in laundry business and a keen eye for the market. At that time, the consumption level was not too high, and the laundry industry generally only had a single laundry business. The problem of poor business in the off-season always troubled dry cleaners, but Luo Qingbo ingeniously launched the "off-season shoe washing store in the store" business. This bold attempt not only brought new business opportunities to his laundry, but also made his brand a hit. After that, Luo Qingbo continued to introduce the most advanced international dry cleaning technology and leading equipment from France, the birthplace of dry cleaning. After continuous improvement and attempts, he finally successfully developed luxury leather care technology and patented equipment, and launched the "one-stop clothing, shoes, bags, luxury goods and leather care" business model for the first time, thus opening the road to the vigorous development of the Autexifulai brand franchise chain. In the past 10 years, the Autexifulai chain franchise project has appeared on many television media and magazine media. The enterprising and innovative spirit of Luo Qingbo, the founder of Autexifulai, is also the best interpretation of the brand influence and credibility of Autexifulai.
An Internet platform that is more than just laundry
In recent years, the Internet has brought great impact and profound influence to many traditional industries. As a traditional industry, Otto Xifulai has chosen a rational, pragmatic but unique way to embrace the Internet with a far-sighted vision. It has spent millions to build an online laundry platform "Xiyike", opening a new era of Internet laundry.
Unlike other Internet laundry platforms, the business model of "Xiyike" is not to break away from offline stores, but to rely closely on the offline services of 1,500 stores in more than 500 cities across the country to achieve a perfect combination of online and offline brands, technologies, services, and experiences, and completely solve the pain point of "linking but not locking" in traditional chains. In addition, through online services, it not only improves the experience of consumer customers, but also helps stores quickly "expand customers and lock customers" with the help of online marketing activities to improve performance. In fact, Luo Qingbo's ambition is far more than that. He also wants to use Xiyike to meet consumers' rigid demand for laundry, attract more middle- and high-consumption member customers, and then integrate more high-end service resources to not only create a brand-new "laundry empire", but also aim to create a larger platform of "comprehensive life services" based on the community. It is this kind of Internet forward-looking thinking that is both daring and pragmatic that has been recognized by many investors and investment institutions, and is also an important reason for more franchisees to choose Otxful.
Innovation is our habit, and we will never stop developing
--Dialogue with the founder, deeply deciphering the successful DNA of Otxful
Luo Qingbo, the founder of Otxful, a child who came out of the mountains, started his first business with dreams and failed. He took on the responsibility and expectations of his family and started again, thus creating a top laundry chain brand in the industry and creating a "laundry empire" with 1,500 chain flagship clubs across the country, but this may just be the beginning. . .
[Editor asks] For a traditional and even a bit old industry like dry cleaning, what is your secret to success step by step?
[Luo Qingbo] In my opinion, there is no so-called sunset industry, only old ideas that are self-contained; there is no so-called sunset market, only sunset models that are not enterprising; there is no forever loyal customer, only innovative services that do not forget the original intention. I entered this industry in 1997 and have been working in this industry for 20 years. During this period, I personally experienced and witnessed the three stages of the dry cleaning industry in China: its start, development, and transformation. We call them the "1.0/2.0/3.0 eras" respectively.
We call the 1990s the "1.0 era". At that time, the laundry industry in China had just started, and market demand was initially emerging. Many people could open a shop and make money by spending tens of thousands of yuan to buy a piece of equipment, but the equipment and technology at that time were very backward, and dry cleaning shop owners often needed to explore and slowly accumulate experience. It was a typical "crossing the river by feeling the stones" era. I was just more willing to study and try to be the first to try something new than others, so I moved faster step by step.
In 2005, we entered the "2.0 era". With the improvement of consumption level and the booming market demand, the dry cleaning business became more popular, and the industry entered a period of rapid development. But it also exposed more problems. Many low-end franchise brands pursued the number of franchises blindly, so the headquarters service could not keep up, resulting in each franchise store being "one-man battle"; there were even a few irresponsible brands that sold equipment in the guise of franchising. We always adhere to brand positioning, pursue service quality and high-end quality, and gradually distance ourselves from other brands. After ten years of rebirth, we finally achieved transformation.
After 2015, we call it the "Laundry 3.0" era. This is also a major transformation and upgrading opportunity for the entire laundry industry, and it is also a major watershed for us to completely get rid of the plagiarism and imitation of other competing brands. We took the lead in using Internet technology to build the Xieke platform, successfully realizing the upgrade of consumer experience; in 2016, we integrated the concept of "partnership|crowdfunding" and innovatively proposed the "franchise to partnership" model. The company took out "real money" and brought the headquarters' technical, marketing, service, operation and management and other advantageous resources to deeply share "partnership store opening" with franchisees, completely eliminating the worries of investors, completely subverting the traditional franchise "one-shot equipment trading" chaos, and truly solving the "chain but not lock" dilemma. In addition, we also proposed the "consumption to shareholder" model, so that consumers can not only enjoy the internal shareholder price when washing clothes, but also get shareholder dividends at the end of the year. This move developed thousands of members in the first partnership store opening month, not only recovered all the investment, but the monthly turnover was equivalent to the original annual revenue, once again creating an industry miracle!
[Editor asks] Today, Otto Xifulai has finally transformed into Feitian after ten years of nirvana. What are your prospects for future development?
【Luo Qingbo】I think that in the next ten or even twenty years, the consumer service industry, especially the service market around people's "food, clothing, housing and transportation", will become the largest blue ocean; with the upgrading of lifestyle and consumption concept of the huge number of middle class and the new generation born in the 1980s and 1990s, the development of the laundry industry will surely usher in another spring. Therefore, this year, we upgraded the store model from the original "one-stop care service for luxury clothes, shoes and bags" to "central laundry factory + flagship experience center + community service outlets"; in terms of service content, we expanded the "personalized intelligent customization of clothes, shoes and bags" business with the help of "VR technology", and at the same time, we are preparing for the overall upgrade of the industrial chain of "people|car|home service + health|intelligence|lively lifestyle", targeting the middle and high-end consumer groups, and creating a large platform for "community life services". In 2017, we launched the "100-city central factory + 1,000 flagship experience + 10,000 community outlets" partnership plan, and we also welcome people with lofty ideals and wealth-creating heroes from all over the country to join our big family of Aote Xifulai to share resources, create a career and win the future together.
[Editor's Postscript] Laundry is such an ordinary traditional industry. Through transformation and breakthrough, it constantly refreshes our understanding and experience of laundry; Otto Xifulai is such a low-key flagship brand. Through persistence in innovation, it constantly creates one business legend after another. The secret of Otto Xifulai's success may be the founder's words "Innovation, we never stop!". Finally, the editor sincerely hopes that in the future life scenes, we can see more Otto Xifulai, Otto Xifulai, life is more exciting!