How can e-commerce companies save themselves from plummeting profit margins? 4 steps to find business breakthroughs (with diagnostic methods)

A guide for companies with hundreds of employees to break out: Bosses should stop being firefighters, these four potentials are the key to breaking out

Your companyDeathThe notice may be hidden in the boss's to-do list.

That’s right, I’m talking about those bosses who are busy cleaning up the mess of the customer service team and keeping an eye on the two decimal places of packaging efficiency every day.

You think you are "making an all-out effort", but in fact you are digging your own grave.

I have seen too many bosses with hundreds of employees who were able to make money without doing anything three years ago, but are now stuck in a vicious circle of “the harder they work, the more money they lose” - the problem is that they mistook a microscope for a telescope.

Why do companies with hundreds of employees always get stuck at the micro level?

Imagine that you are driving an off-road vehicle and are lost in the desert. Should you study the wear of the tire tread or climb onto the roof to find an oasis?

Sadly, 90% of bosses choose the former.

They optimize their customer service scripts today and adjust their packing routes tomorrow, paying attention to every detail, only to find that their competitors have already occupied the new continent by helicopter.

Back to the starting point: How did we achieve a scale of hundreds of people?

Ten years ago, you could earn tens of millions a year by renting a small office, not because you packed 5 seconds faster than your peers, but because you hit the mark.E-commercedividend;

Five years ago, the team expanded to a hundred people, not because the customer service response time was shortened to 30 seconds, but because of the traffic dividend from live streaming.

Past success has never been about perfect details, but about choosing the right track.

Theory of Four Forces to Break the Deadlock: Finding the Right Pivot Can Leverage Profits

The first trend: the invisible track in the industry
When the entire clothing industry became a fierce battle, some people turned to large-size Hanfu.

While everyone is engaged in a coffee price war, some brands specialize in the "half-hour delivery to the office" scenario.

Remember, the general trend of the industry is not a multiple-choice question - whether it is making pet supplies in the maternal and infant market or selling DIY tool kits in the building materials market, these blue ocean segments will always exist.

The second force: dimensionality reduction in products
Stop staring at your competitors and making micro-innovations! A maternity and baby brand transformed the crib into a "growth-type furniture" that can be transformed and reorganized as the child ages;

A restaurant chain changed its menu into "emotional healing packages" to solve the anxiety of urban people with food.

The potential energy of a product is never about who has better parameters, but about who can create new demands.

The third force: the dark river surges in traffic
when everyone is thereVibratoWhen investing in Qianchuan, there was a company that specialized in targeting middle-aged and elderly users of video accounts;

ThisXiaoHongShu(小红书)Bloggers’ quotes are rising, and some brands are training KOCs to become community leaders.

The most taboo in traffic strategy is to follow the crowd - recently a high-end housekeeping team relied on customized cleaning services for villa owners combined with vlogs, and their monthly conversion rate soared by 300%.

The fourth trend: time travel of business models
The gameplay from three years ago is like playing Genshin Impact on a Nokia today, which is very backward.

A traditional manufacturing company transformed its production line into a "shared factory" to allow small and medium-sized customers to rent equipment by the hour;

There is also an educational institution that breaks down courses into "knowledge parts" for companies to reassemble.

Remember, business strategies have a shorter shelf life than fresh produce.

How can my friend double his annual income using the Four Forces?

He started out in the home building materials business, but three years ago he discovered that the industry's growth was slowing down, so he turned to the elderly care industry.

It is not simply about selling furniture suitable for the elderly, but about creating a "home-based elderly care solution package" - from anti-slip floors to smart monitoring systems, from weekly door-to-door services to remote management APP for children.

Last year, profits from customized renovations for nursing homes alone exceeded the total of traditional business.

Don't pretend to be diligent at the tactical level, be lazy at the strategic level

Bosses, wake up! Approving 20 expense reports a day won’t save your company, and keeping an eye on employee attendance won’t save your profit margins.

Spend 70% of your energy observing industry changes, 20% on experimenting with new models, and the remaining 10% on handling daily affairs - this is how the boss of a company with hundreds of employees should allocate his time.

Conclusion: Trends are not pursued, but calculated.

In the business jungle, the best ones are never the most ferocious beasts, but the wisest ones who can take advantage of opportunities. When you are struggling in the red ocean, you might as well think about these three questions:

1. Which needs are changing from implicit to explicit?
2. Which technological turning points will reshape the industrial chain?
3. Which policy dividends have not yet been fully realized?

Remember, the moment you find potential energy, all your efforts

There will be a compound interest effect.

Action Guide:

1. Spend two days a month doing “industry scanning” and use data tools to analyze the growth rates of sub-sectors
2. Form a "trend reconnaissance team" to collect cross-industry innovation cases
3. Reserve 30% of your annual budget for experimental projects
4. The boss personally connects with suppliers in three cutting-edge fields

Now put aside those trivial reports and open the industry research website - your real battlefield is in the lens of the telescope, not on the scale lines of the microscope.