「Case Content」

SAMLEE

Please call me Yuanyuan

Topic : I just discussed a question with my colleagues yesterday: which is more important, product or operation?
Description : I personally think that although products are king now, it is not enough to operate without strength. At the same time, it still depends on the product type. Some can be 4/6, some can be 3/7, but even if they are all products, the weight will be better. I wonder what you think? Thank you.

"Wonderful Reply"

Bond

This guy is so lazy that he left nothing behind

I can't help but write this when I see this. My company focuses on products, and the operations department only knows basic on-site operations. Our company doesn't know anything about off-site operations. There is no way. The company is small and there are only two or three people. I can't spare the energy to study off-site operations at all, so I can only worship those great gods! I think whether you say product is more important or operation is more important, I think it depends on the product.

There are a lot of popular products, such as mobile phone cases, mobile power banks, etc., and they have already evolved to the extreme in terms of current technology. There is no way to optimize them, or the optimization effect is not great. You must break through the current technical means to optimize them. I think there is no need to ask about this type of product. What matters is operation. And it is still a relatively advanced off-site traffic diversion. Otherwise, how can you compete? A traffic diversion novice like me should stand aside, otherwise I will be swallowed by others without knowing what happened.

Let’s take a niche product as an example. Hubs are considered to have relatively high competition in the niche. My competition here means that several big sellers are also selling them. This thing has relatively large changes, such as adding a network port, three ports, four ports, or even ten ports, long or short cables, etc. The most sold is the 4-port hub, which is undoubtedly a competition of operation, supply chain, and price. Small sellers like us can’t touch it.

Someone will ask, what is the difference between it and a mobile phone case, will it still be unsellable? If people pay attention to this thing, I think they will pay more attention to electronic products. Careful people will find that the sales of Microsoft's new tablet PC, Surface Pro, have exceeded the iPad in the United States. Then there is a business opportunity. If the Hub on the market is connected to Surface Pro, there is obviously a generation gap. As long as this generation gap is solved, I think it will undoubtedly be a small hit. And those big sellers don't even look down on such a niche category. (Of course, someone has already done it, just to give an example)
This is just one example from the perspective of products and users. In fact, there are many more, but since they are related to our own products, I will not list them one by one.

To put it bluntly, this kind of niche product is to pick up some loopholes, exploit small loopholes, and make a little money. I personally think that it is still feasible for small sellers to take this path for the time being. So the answer to me is that the product is king. But it is not the case for big sellers. Everyone will have a different answer to the same question. The best answer is to choose the one that suits you based on your actual situation.

I wish all my colleagues can find a hit product~~hehe.

Li Zhixin

This guy is so lazy that he left nothing behind

Operation = Traffic Product = Conversion Rate
The combination of the two can be converted into an order
Too many good products cannot be sold because there is no traffic. Too many good operations have traffic but no orders because the products are homogeneous and even cannot compete with competitors.
Both are indispensable. Target sales volume: Traffic x conversion rate x average order value = target sales volume. You need this target sales volume. If the conversion rate is very high, it doesn't matter if you have so much traffic. If your product conversion rate is very low, you need this target sales volume. The entire allocation still depends on the target and how the current resources are allocated. More or less is a waste.

Ordinary alleys

Cross-border e-commerce is white and white, with two ears perked up to learn

Money is king, identification completed.

Perry

This guy is so lazy that he left nothing behind

I don't know if you have separated operation and promotion. If the product is strong, the operation will be weakened; conversely, if the product is weak, the operation will be strengthened. In fact, isn't it important to have cross-border talents now? It is not necessary to separate product and operation so clearly. You can combine them into one position or department to allow full internal communication. In this way, when developing products, employees in this position will already be thinking about whether the product is easy to promote, or what elements to develop to facilitate promotion. When starting to operate the product, he will consider the improvement points of the product. When a closed loop is formed and a virtuous cycle is entered...

Bai Xiaosheng

I am Bai Xiaosheng, Bai Xiaosheng is me

I can say a few words: there is no absolute, it depends on the product. Whether a product sells well or not is divided into many parts: development + operation + promotion + operation customer service and after-sales. First of all: product selection is very important. A product that is rotten or declining will not be able to be sold well even with the best operation and promotion team. Secondly, it depends on the competitiveness of the product. If the product is not good, you are the only one selling it in the market, or the technology is limited and the quality is poor, then it can still be sold.

Therefore, it can be seen that product selection requires the most attention. The next operation is to put products on the shelves and control daily inventory, plus some after-sales service returns and exchanges. Operations also require page optimization, image optimization, and keyword optimization. If you optimize well, your sales will increase significantly because of these. This is often overlooked, and you must not let the hot products run out of stock. After the stock is out of stock, your market share may be eroded by your competitors, and then it's over. Finally, everything is ready except for the east wind, and it's the turn of promotion to work. It is very important to help the product attract reverw and increase sales. If the promotion is good, the sales will be doubled. Think about how many months you have been operating. If there is promotion, it will be sold out in one month. Is this important? This promotion mainly involves contacting editors or celebrities on SD websites or youtobe to contact celebrities to help you promote and experience the product.

Then contact customers who have needs to help you test or buy your products at a discount. Many companies have a dedicated promotion team for this kind of promotion, especially for new products. The promotion I have seen is to find celebrities all day long. After finding celebrities to write posts, sales may explode several times. That's all I have to say for now. Everyone, think about whether operation or development is more important.

Xfactor

Post-90s e-commerce rookie

I personally think that specific situations need to be analyzed specifically. People who work on products will feel that operations are not in place, and people who work on operations will feel that products are not in place. Whether products are more important or operations are more important is a very general question, and I feel that it still needs to be discussed from a certain perspective.

I dare to try to analyze from a certain perspective: people in charge of different jobs have different views on the problem, and different companies should also have different approaches.

I agree with a very brilliant comment above, which distinguishes between mass products and niche products, breaking the situation of most one-sided and vague comments. Expanding along this line of thought, it is actually a matter of specific analysis of specific issues. He mentioned the positioning of the product, and believed that we should first look at the product positioning (whether there is still room for research and development to improve the competitiveness of the product), and then look at the operation. In fact, whether operations should also be studied at the same time, such as the operating capital issue mentioned in another comment (operation and promotion costs). Combining these two, we can expand to the company's positioning. Every company should be clear about its own advantages and the allocation of cost weights. If the product technology is good, then develop the product; if the operation is good, then invest in operations. To put it bluntly, if a company or a store feels that it has no advantages in any way, this issue cannot be discussed further.

In summary, there is no absolute choice of product or operation. There is no absolute choice of 37 or 46. Specific analysis depends on the specific situation.

Hank

Make jokes and talk properly

Off topic.
Which is more important, product or operation?
If my wife and mother fell into the water, who should I save?
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Who is cooler, Lao Su or who is more handsome, Xiao Zhi?

I have a disease called "Strange Talk Sequelae". The symptoms are: I think all debate topics in the world are unsolvable, and it is meaningless to be determined.

The egg is! In the process of the confrontation between two arguments, the perspectives and questions of thinking can all make people learn and grow. As long as you are calm. The most important issue between product and operation is this kind of nonsense and unclear issue. The result of the discussion is meaningless, is the process of the discussion meaningful? It depends on fate and mentality. If product and operation discuss this issue from a tit-for-tat position, the dialogue may be like this:

Product person: We have the same product, but others are selling it well, so why can’t you?
Operator: It’s already selling so well, why are you still making it? What’s the point of selling it?

Spread your hands.

In fact, the question of who is more important really needs to be implemented in the specific team, and it should be evaluated based on the industry in which the product is located, the company's current core competitiveness, profit model, and team status. Moreover, in the end, we may only be able to draw such a conclusion: at this point in time, in our team, in the next stage, we should regard product/operation as a more important task.

Let me tell you two scenes.

1. The products of a traditional home furnishing company have been selling well in the traditional foreign trade channels of Europe and the United States. In 2016, a cross-border e-commerce team was established. The sales volume has increased gratifyingly, but it always feels that the operation technology is far behind the e-commerce companies in the market. They think: there are only so many products in our supply chain system, and I have already done it. As a work evaluation of the e-commerce part, operation is of course the most important.

2. A certain e-commerce seller who buys (trades) and sells goods has operated almost all cross-border e-commerce platforms in the past few years. He has been operating the distribution system for many years, and only in 2016 did he slowly settle down his main market and platform. If a product becomes popular, he can sell it on all platforms the next day. However, especially in the past two years, he feels that the product homogeneity is too serious and the profit is too low. Recently, he has re-integrated his accumulated product lines into a brand department, bought product designs from the market, and used the best chips. When drinking pineapple beer at the food stall, everyone sighed that without their own products, e-commerce has little future.

This matter cannot be a matter of indifference or indifference to us. However, when we see this issue, we always have an attitude of watching the fun.

When we see others fighting over who is the boss between product and operation, we might as well think about it. What is the product capability of my company and my team? What is the operation capability? What is the comprehensive capability? Which is the most important next step?

The most important thing is that you have evaluated your own situation and decided which one you think needs more support.

above.

Conner

This guy is so lazy that he left nothing behind

Now we are faced with the question: which is more important, product or operation? From my perspective:
1. A good product will not work without proper operation. It can be sold but it will only be a small fish.
2. If the product is average and there is a suitable operation, then you can make a small amount of money smoothly and without risk;
3. If a product is good and has appropriate operations, will it definitely sell well? Not necessarily. Without a high level of execution, everything is just an idea.
Therefore, I firmly believe that high execution is the prerequisite for everything to be done well. "Good product + appropriate operation + execution = making big money"

Laofengyo

I'm a crazy man! But not old!

Maybe because I am better at product development, I think the product is the most important. Without a good product, you have no promotion target, and no matter how good your operation is, what is the use? In other words, how much can a mediocre product sell? But if I have a good product, it will still sell well even if I don’t need to promote it vigorously.

You can see that there are a lot of products that sell well even though they don't know how to use Amazon. This is because the products are good and naturally popular. Promotion costs money and time, but having a good product saves time, effort and money. If I were to choose, I would work harder and spend more time to choose a good product and make the product quality the best.

To put it bluntly, it is difficult to make money on Amazon without good products, especially this year, the greater the competition, the more obvious the product advantages will be.

MR_9527

Cross-border product development rookie

In combination with the questions raised by the original poster, the three key points of the future trend of cross-border e-commerce are summarized as follows:
First, products are the key to open the global market. Second, marketing is the guarantee to gain a firm foothold in the market. Third, quality is the focus of maintaining brand promotion. For me personally, both products and operations are equally important. There is no distinction between which is more important.