On February 28, the APEC Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Information Promotion Center (hereinafter referred to as the "APEC Small and Medium-sized Center") and the China Industrial Cooperation Association jointly released the first quantitative analysis report on the digitalization of the small and micro service industry in China - "Digital Transformation Path of the Small and Micro Service Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the report), the report pointed out that with the support of the trust mechanism of the Internet platform, the small and medium-sized service industry is accelerating the new potential of consumption and helping a number of service industry segments to leverage new markets.
It is reported that the research team of the report investigated the Alipay open platform, as well as more than 10 SaaS (software as a service) service providers on the platform, and dozens of small and medium-sized service businesses distributed in nearly 10 subdivisions such as housekeeping, beauty, fitness, and pets. In order to conduct quantitative analysis, the report combined with the data of 1,000 small and medium-sized service merchants on the Alipay platform, and concluded through calculation and model fitting that through the intervention of the platform's trust mechanism, every 1 credit basis point increase of merchants or consumers can increase the transaction opportunity by 3% to 5%, driving an increase in consumption by 08%。
High costs and uncertain benefits The digital transformation of service enterprises has been hindered.
In recent years, the service industry has become more and more important in the national economy, and the added value of China's service industry will be as high as 63 in 202287 trillion yuan, accounting for 52 percent of GDP8%, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences**, by 2025, China's service consumption will account for more than 50% of household consumption expenditure.
However, the digital transformation of China's service industry is not smooth, and the "Analysis Report on Digital Transformation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (2021)" released by the China Electronics Standardization Institute shows that 79% of small and medium-sized enterprises are still in the initial exploration stage of digital transformation and upgrading.
The report points out that on the whole, the lack of digital awareness and successful practices, the lack of digital skills, and the unclear costs and benefits of digitalization affect the demand for digitalization of small and medium-sized service enterprises, and in terms of digital supply, there is a lack of integrated and comprehensive service tools suitable for small and medium-sized service enterprises.
For small and medium-sized service enterprises, digital transformation requires a lot of investment in the early stage, in addition to increasing investment in network, digital equipment, information systems, etc., it also involves the cost of infrastructure transformation, system construction, talent training and introduction, operation and maintenance, etc., while digital transformation requires enterprises to coordinate resources from all parties and internal and external collaboration to obtain more ideal results.
According to the report, the majority of managers of small and medium-sized service enterprises believe that the cost of digital transformation is high, the benefits are uncertain, and the expected returns are low.
Introduce credit to create a "platform + SaaS model" to lower the consumption threshold and increase consumption willingness.
The interweaving of internal and external factors has led to the widespread phenomenon of "unable to transfer", "dare not transfer" and "will not transfer" in the digital transformation of small and medium-sized service enterprises.
How to break the game? Zhang Huidong, the main author of the report and director of the APEC Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Center, said at the press conference that the digital technology capabilities provided by the Internet platform for the small and medium-sized service industry are being upgraded from tool digitization to credit digitization. As the cornerstone of the digital age and business society, credit can help the small and medium-sized service industry improve customer acquisition capabilities and operating income, help consumers reduce investment and risks, and help boost consumer enthusiasm.
The report points out that in the process of promoting the digitalization of credit in this wave of small and medium-sized service industries, Internet platforms and SaaS (software as a service) service providers have formed a close working relationship, that is, the "platform + SaaS model". Specifically, the platform provides SaaS service providers with key underlying capabilities - credit mechanism and underlying technical infrastructure, helping SaaS service providers accelerate their progress from providing shallow SaaS tools to credit services.
For example, in the service segments such as hairdressing, fitness, and pets, SaaS service providers have dismantled tens of thousands of stored-value cards into new consumption forms such as "stage payment" and "first enjoy later" through the invocation and development of the platform's credit mechanism, which has lowered the consumption threshold and increased the willingness to consume.
Taking the yoga studio investigated by the report team as an example, a well-run yoga venue has a customer conversion rate of 25%-30% under normal circumstances, but after accessing the "stage payment", its transaction rate can reach 69%, and the in-store conversion transaction rate exceeds 80%.
Wu Xinming, founder of Boka, a SaaS service provider in the beauty industry, told the Shell Finance reporter that the hairdressing industry is a typical industry, which has been over-pre-sold and frequently overdrawn and lowered the overall reputation. "In the long run, when an industry that lacks credit gains trust, it brings about qualitative change rather than quantitative change. ”
Zhang Huidong believes that all parties have achieved the prosperity of the platform based on trust, and the platform has also derived a new form of trust economy in the value co-creation, promoted the low-cost and healthy development of the economy and society, and injected new energy into stimulating consumption.
Beijing News Shell Financial Reporter Pan Yichun.
Edited by Yue Caizhou.
Proofread by Lucy.