Transformation Story | Internet Revolution of a Laundry
March 21, 2015 22:33:45 Source: the forefront of entrepreneurship Click:

In the eyes of most people, laundry is a particularly traditional industry, which is not only almost unprofitable, but also irrelevant to mobile Internet. But last July, Tencent announced to invest 20 million yuan as an angel round in a laundry company, with a valuation of 200 million yuan. Four months later, the company received another round A investment of 20 million dollars from Jingwei and SIG, with a valuation of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Why does BAT, the hegemon of China's Internet, and smart investors pay so much attention to a laundry company? How did this company turn a laundry into a new mobile Internet upstart? Listen to Zhang Guangrong, the founder of Rongchang e-bag washing, the story that a post-60s generation will share with us: the past and present life of a laundry bag.

| Old photo of Rongchang old store opening |

In Zhang Guangrong's eyes, Rongchang has become a mobile Internet enterprise, holding tight the ticket and taking the lead in boarding the O2O ship. Its transformation process is a standard course for traditional service enterprises to transform to the Internet. This process tells us that, The only way for traditional enterprises to get on board is to hold users' thighs tightly and let them take you up.

The biggest feature of the laundry chain industry is equipment driven rather than customer driven. The most important asset of a laundry is a valuable laundry equipment. However, the profitability of this industry has always been a big problem, because if you do direct chain, you must bear the "heavy assets+high costs+waste of production capacity", and if you do franchise chain, the headquarters lacks the means to control the franchisees, so you can only let it go.

Around 2000, Zhang Rongrong faced difficulties. At that time, the franchise fee of Rongchang had reached millions, but most of it was the money for selling equipment. After the equipment was sold out, Rongchang lacked a set of supporting standards to continuously follow up and control the franchisees, which led to several incidents of franchisees running away. The reputation of Rongchang brand was damaged, but there was nothing to do. Zhang Guangrong often laughed at himself afterwards. At that time, Rongchang was more like a management consulting company selling equipment part-time than a chain enterprise.

Goldman Sachs once came to him to talk about investment and suggested Rongchang to build its own direct store. After much deliberation, Zhang Guangrong cautiously refused, because this model is too heavy. Even if there is investment, Rongchang does not have so much money. He always felt that the ultimate foothold of the service industry should be customers, and all resources should be around customers. The direct stores alone are still driven by equipment, which can solve the symptoms rather than the root causes.

In 2002, Zhang Rongrong went to China Europe Business School for further study with the confusion of the company's operation. After spending a lot of time discussing and pondering, he finally found a path of transformation. Since 2004, Zhang Rongrong has led the company For the first time, the standard system of service quality and user satisfaction evaluation was constructed, and it was realized through the "One Belt and Four" store opening mode and the nationwide universal laundry network card.

"One belt and four" means "four stores collect clothes and one store washes", which means that only 1/5 of the original equipment and store managers are needed, but Rongchang has control over the collection points. At the same time, Rongchang connected the national chain store information system through the promotion and distribution of laundry network cards. After the two measures, Rongchang is still a light company, but its control over the whole chain system has greatly increased.

After completing the first transformation, Zhang Rongrong transformed Rongchang into an enterprise with the most customer driven characteristics in the industry, which is in line with the spirit of Internet user supremacy, which means that they are ready for the transformation to the Internet. What he has to wait for is an opportunity.

Since 2010, the mobile Internet has gradually started to break out in China, and the number of mobile devices, users and applications has increased exponentially. Zhang Guangrong has not hesitated to seize this opportunity.

In Zhang Guangrong's heart, Internet transformation means transforming laundry into an Internet product, reshaping laundry from the operation logic of Internet e-commerce, and bringing users cheaper, more convenient, and more fun services.

Zhang Rongrong's first move was to abandon the existing brand and create a new brand "e-bag washing" that specializes in laundry e-commerce business. At the same time, he also recruited Lu Wenyong, a post-85 CEO from Baidu, to completely let him go of the specific operation of e-bag washing. His only requirement for Lu Wenyong is to use e-bag to wash clothes.

Therefore, in 2013, this laundry product based on Internet logic design appeared in the public view. The user places an order through the WeChat official account or app of Rongchang e-Bag Cleaning, and someone will pick up a piece within 30 minutes. As long as you use the laundry bag provided by e-Bag Cleaning, no matter how many clothes are stuffed inside, whether it is water washing or dry cleaning, the uniform price is 99 yuan/bag, which is a standard O2O mode.

Zhang Guangrong, who has been dealing with customers for many years, knows that, In the logic of the Internet, the understanding of consumer relations is like that 15-year-old boys and girls are addicted to love, The motivation is extremely simple. All I want to do is to let the other party be with me and make the other party happier. I wish I could give all the best things in the world to the other party. Traditional enterprises have a much more complicated understanding of consumer relations, such as 30 year old people looking for marriage partners on blind dates, At the first meeting, I thought about my family's assets, personality, long-term preciseness, but often neglect the present. It is self-evident which is more lovely and popular.

E-bag washing is a standard Internet style in product design.

They found the core needs of users: "My clothes should be clean, so I should wash them", instead of "I should wash clothes, so I should go to a laundry". All elements that are considered to be helpful for "cleaning clothes" will be taken into account, so the following figure is presented:

In order to match the simple and perfect user experience of the front end, e-bag washing has designed a powerful background supporting system:

Users care about the clothes themselves, not who will wash and deliver them, so after the e-bag washing operation, Zhang Rongrong and Lu Wenyong put it It is positioned as an independent platform laundry service. As long as it meets the standards, all links can be crowdsourced to everyone.

Any laundry can join the laundry outsourcing point of e-bag washing; Any individual can join as a pick-up and drop off attendant, requiring only having a smart phone, being able to use Alipay, paying part of the deposit, and participating in unified operation training. This project is called the "Free Person Plan". This is the most representative of e-bag washing Internet spirit - only ask about the value, not the source.

With the team, the product design is finished, and the rest is For the task of marketing and promotion, reputation and fast iteration are the most important. Zhang Rongrong made a request to his team - the more interesting the better, but he had no intention to interfere in the specific play. He fully trusted his post-80s team.

Therefore, Lu Wenyong, as CEO, and his team carefully analyzed the characteristics of e-bag washing and determined the characteristics of angel users:

Living in Beijing

female sex

Middle and high-end income

Frequently use WeChat

Therefore, on November 30, 2013, Rongchang e bag washing made its debut on the Beijing campus of CEIBS, an occasion where angel users gathered.

Yes The first batch of angel users, in addition to the convenience and cheapness of e-bag washing, immediately operated the feature of entertainment and fun. Many games are impressive. One of them is called "King of Bags". E-bag washing is about 99 yuan per bag, so most users try to add more clothes to one bag. The operation team pushed the boat along the current to select the King of Zhou Bag, the King of Moon Bag and the King of New Year Bag, and announced their achievements on the WeChat public platform. The latest record of the Bag King, whose stuffed clothes are priced at 1280 yuan in daily laundry.

In order to make the game more fun, Rongchang also held many offline activities to teach users how to put more clothes in bags. Zhang Guangrong said in an interview Entertainment is one of the most important characteristics of e-bag washing, "It's very interesting to imagine the scene of a family putting on clothes.".

In addition, for almost all the hot topics, e-bag washing is willing to join in the excitement and interact with customers. When the Korean drama "You from the Star" hit the air, every user who placed an order received beer fried chicken washed in Rongchang e bag; The topic of electric vehicle Tesla is hot, and Rongchang organizes users to carry out test drive activities

In the process of playing and operating in this way, e-bag washing gains public praise, achieves the effect of viral transmission, receives user suggestions and conducts product iteration at the same time. In terms of product improvement and service process optimization, e-bag washing has received a great deal of suggestions. In a short period of time, e-bag has iterated to the fifth version, and app has also updated six important versions.

So far, e-Bag Wash, which has completed two rounds of financing, has more than 500000 WeChat and app users, with more than 4000 daily orders. Zhang Rongrong's "mobile Internet enterprise" is worthy of the name.

On the way of traditional enterprise transformation, Zhang Rongrong and his Rongchang have taken a big step ahead. All backward people need to ask your users whether your products and services are cheap, convenient and fun when they are linked online and offline, and whether they are willing to use them. If the answer is no, you should be careful, because he We will soon embark on the ship of mobile Internet, and you will be left on the dock to watch them go away. There will be no meeting again.