New Year’s Resolution: Strengthening E-Commerce Business
Wig Company Rebecca Aims to Generate 20-25% of Total Revenue Online
The biggest wig company in China, Rebecca, recorded 1,050 million yuan profit through the first to third quarters of 2021. This represents 24.39% growth over the same period last year. Its 45 million yuan profit attributable to parent was 366.07% increase over the same period last year. In 2021, online sales accounted for 10% of the total earnings of the company. Rebecca set the goal to increase the ratio to 20-25%.
Wig companies in general have been trying to find ways to increase online sales in the past few years. Since 2017, Rebecca also expanded its online business. In the U.S., Amazon and Ali Express were the platforms largely responsive. About its delayed early response to the e-Commerce business that has moved faster than other business, General Manager Zheng Wenqing of Rebecca expressed the company’s strong will to “improve based on the failure”.
Rebecca’s Amazon Storefront ©Amazon
Rebecca has a dedicated e-Commerce team that runs its digital front. Their top priority is the consumer-centric strategies. They used to do business in a manner to increase distributors’ profit, and now they are dealing directly with the consumers via online channels. Hence, in addition to researching consumer and fashion trend via social media trend analysis and collaboration with influencers, it continues its effort to keep the support and trust of the consumers through limiting price increase to suitable levels despite the soaring raw material cost.
Even for the same hair product, the online and offline markets react differently, so one of Rebecca’s online survival strategies is to have two-track strategies for products based on different standards. The e-Commerce team stated “not limiting ourselves to communicating with the consumers via online platforms and pushing overstocked items, we are focusing on finding out what consumers want and bringing products they demand. Their continuous effort has boosted Rebecca’s sales revenue over 50% in the last couple of years.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic was also a bad news for Rebecca. Although Rebecca brand wigs continued to sell at Amazon, most of them were low priced items. As the federal government’s economic relief programs ends, the disposable income decreased. Also, the logistics cost has soared. Shipping costs has tripled or even more, and the intensifying competition on the e-Commerce platforms raised the advertisement cost. A drop in exchange rate worked against the company.
In the midst of the difficulties, Rebecca will continue to reliably supply products and invest in online marketing with a firm belief that wig demands and the number of online customers will continue to rise. They named the currently under-developed utilization of Twitter and Instagram as a remaining objective. Rebecca stated, in addition to strengthening the e-Commerce business for a higher profit, it wants to increase the value of the company and bring its own brands such as “Rebecca”, “Sleek”, “NOBLE”, “JOEDIR”, “Magic”, and “QVR” closer to the global consumers.
