In the Internet era, consumption customs are changing all the time. Should we maintain the status quo or screw up our courage and push forward? The traditional retailing enterprises, such as department stores, household appliances, supermarkets etc. are affected by E-commerce, and they are making their own choices. In terms of today’s commercial customs, let us together know about the transformation practices of a 3C digital enterprise.

Zhaojiabang Road, located at Xujiahui, is one of collecting and distributing centers for the most famous mobile and digital products of 3C in Shanghai. Owing to many 3C digital brands, they are in an extremely competitive circumstance. However, Hisap that has been caught up in Suning.com and GOME Electrical Appliances recently has quietly become Brookstone’s flagship store. On the first floor, the shop windows along the street are permeated with western style. Walking into the mall, you will see dancing robots, salespersons with flash cat ears headphone, product consultants playing with customers etc. If the mall doesn’t retain the word “Hisap”, people will think they are in the playground after seeing the series of scenes. Seeking Novelty--Experience--Purchase, what Hisaphopes is that Brookstone can give customers unusual experiences?

Brookstone originated in the United States. It is a professional retailer and characterized by selling novel products. In 2014, Hisap combined with Sailing Capital and GE Capital to purchase Brookstone from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Speaking of the purchase intention, Xin Kexia, president of Hisap and chairman of Brookstone in China, indicated that the main reason was based on the internationalization strategy and the big business ecological layout of Hisap. 

Why does Hisap want to purchase Brookstone? The following reasons can explain it. First, Brookstone has a history of fifty years, and it is a symbol of the global novelties. Second, it possesses the R & D ability of novelty and supply chain. Moreover, the latter is actually the core competitiveness in the future of Chinese business. This is exactly what we lack now. Owing to its long history, it has been extremely mature and stable. Third, Brookstone boasts of rich operation experiences and manages its own operation model. Therefore it does well in model, experience, brand and supply chain as well as products. And the development and future transformation of Hisap need these ecological, core and advanced things to support itself.

After purchasing Brookstone, Hisap didn’t simply imitate the American model of Brookstone. On the contrary, it spared exclusive area to test and upgrade consumption model in Nanjing Headquarters. In terms of recruitment and training of employees, it requires them to skillfully master the performances and features of various products, which made it become the operator of novel products.

On New Year ’s Day in 2016, Brookstone’s first shop in China was opened in Nanjing Aqua City. The 600-square-meter single store has created 9 million turnovers a day. This completely new image and sales data made the American employer feel extremely surprised.

After starting business, the daily customer flow was very stable from Monday to Friday with an average of between 5,500 and 6,500. What’s more, the customer flow was 1.5 times as much as that at normal times. So let’s count it. Such customer flow in the 600-square-meter single store was almost rare in the China business. The second figure was that from opening in January to April, the re-purchase rate has reached 20%.

Brookstone store in Xujiahui, Shanghai was opened on June 9, 2016. Its sales volume was 12 million yuan on the first day, which marked the beginning of the national strategy of Brookstone. However, the difference from the store in Nanjing Aqua City was that the former was transformed completely on the basis of the original store Brookstone.

In the 1,500-square-meter store, novel products were all displayed on the first floor, including many functional blocks, such as healthy life, comfort home, quality wine set, fashionable and cool products, unmanned machines etc. While the former traditional digital 3C and quick repairing services were moved to the second floor. Even the traditional businesses were also separated from GOME and Suning in terms of display and products. 

We call these products “easy surprise”. In the current China business, those popular, standardized and homogeneous things and products boast the same customers. Nevertheless, first, Brookstone occupies essentially the top position; second, its products are based on novelty. Then what is the novelty based on? The reason why we call them “easy surprise” is that this innovation consists in daily life. It doesn’t refer to the black technology and niche products. For our helplessness in life, we take automatic wine decanter as an example. With the increasing high quality of life, before people drink red wine, they would like to decant wine first. Otherwise, the wine will lose its taste. What about decanting wine? If it takes too much time, this will bring inconvenience to people. Moreover, if the guests are coming, we do not know how to determine the number of wines that need to be decanted. While our exclusive patent--wine decanter that once got a big prize can finish decanting wine in less than one minute. This is our helplessness in life.

It is understood that in the Brookstone stores in America, novel products and traditional products account for respectively 70% and 30%. And the novel products have contributed more than 70% to sales and profits. Compared with the joint venture model of the traditional digital 3C stores, all products of Brookstone are adopted  self-supporting model.

The subversion of Hite Brookstone model doesn’t mean changing a certain product or add partial ones but completely transforming the core operation model.

We will focus on the global supply chain in the future. As we all know, China has become a country with much stronger ability in technological innovation, product R&D and production. Furthermore, many supply chains of Brookstone are in China and Southeast Asia. Thus, Brookstone in China and America can develop together the global supply chain. On one hand, this can promote transformation and speed up global integration; on the other hand, this also forms a strong competition with Brookstone in America.

Purchasing Brookstone is just a case that the parent company of Hiteker--SanPower Group lays out the big business consumption ecosphere. Its goal goes well beyond that. Since 2014, the enterprise that started in Nanjing rose suddenly in the capital market. It frequently purchased overseas retail brands. Recently, it has launched a bid for the franchise right of McDonald. By external circumstance, SanPower Group learns the management experience of the international mature enterprises. Facing the constantly changing mobile Internet era, it makes use of  channel superiority to integrate big platforms. In a word, SanPower Group is exploring a development road that is suitable for itself.