[Office Partner Information Center] Not long ago, in a report in Forbes magazine, the two major US retail giants Wal-Mart and Amazon are simultaneously seeking to acquire Staples, which is obviously rare for a company, then Staples What kind of company is it?
The king of office supplies
In English, Staples refers to a very inconspicuous office item, a staple, and the Staples company is undoubtedly related to office supplies.
Founded in 1986, Staples is the first company to introduce the concept of office supplies supermarkets, with "office" as the core, integrating all office-related product categories. At the beginning of the business, Tom, the founder, intended to “smash†wholesalers, retailers, agents, etc., directly from the manufacturer, and then through the store retail, catalogue direct mail, contract at very low prices. A variety of sales channels, such as ordering and online sales (e-commerce), are sold to end consumers, making "one-stop" office procurement a reality.
In 2007, Staples' global annual sales totaled 19.4 billion US dollars, ranking 397th in the Fortune Global 500. In 2008, Staples spent $2.6 billion in cash to acquire Corporate Express, another global office supplies company based in the Netherlands, which enabled Staples to achieve sales of around US$26 billion, further establishing its main focus in the global office supplies industry. status.
Category expansion and online transformation
With the growing popularity of paperless office, traditional office supplies suppliers have suffered different degrees of impact. The two factors that have slowed down the slowdown in world economic growth and new digital equipment entering the office sector have led to a 24% drop in US paper use over the past three years. Many other office items related to paper documents, such as folders, binders, paper clips, file cabinets, etc., have suffered a certain degree of chain reaction.
The market's growing demand for office supplies has made Staples need to work hard to get rid of the image of office supplies retailers. At the moment, Staples can only rely on print services and other merchandise to boost growth and offset lower and lower sales by improving the supply chain structure and reducing the cost of retail stores in North America.
In addition, the impact of the Amazon effect on store believers continues to grow. Due to the absolute status of Amazon's online sales, it has a certain price advantage in almost every commodity category, which is a huge obstacle to the retailer specializing in a fixed category. The news that the two major retail giants, OfficeDepot and Office Max, also focused on the merger, also brought a big impact to Staples.
The comprehensive transformation has become a change that Staples has to do. This reminds me of the expansion of the domestic e-commerce platform and the whole category of books. Staples has also begun to promote the omni-channel all-category strategy to cope with the crisis. It has also become the most important move in the Staples transformation.
In June 2013, Staples announced a partnership with Wayfair, the largest online retailer of furniture in the United States, and began offering furniture, accessories and household utensils to Staples' online business. Staples hopes to use the partnership with Wayfair to bring more product choices to customers and quickly expand the product category of the Staples shopping site. Staples also covers the field of education and maternal and child supplies. This rapid expansion has increased the number of products distributed by its online malls by a factor of five.
In July 2013, Staples launched a new all-channel store, which allows users to place orders online and pick up the goods through the electronic retail screen placed in the store. After that, Staples announced the acquisition of Lonesource, an online business supplies retailer in Northern California, and launched a price comparison policy with Amazon, and dismantled the express delivery lockers that Amazon set up in its own store.
In October 2013, Staples announced the acquisition of Runa, a California e-commerce software startup, and plans to use its products to personalize its online store. In February 2014, Staples replaced its LOGO on the official website, removing the “L†representing office supplies in STAPLES, highlighting the ambition to enter the omni-channel full-category retail market.
In March 2014, Staples announced that it will close 225 stores by 2015 to allow its products to be sold through online platforms in the future. In addition, Staples also works with online book rental company BookRenter. Com cooperated to start the textbook leasing business. Staples has also begun selling Apple products and hopes to expand its customer base with Apple's loyal users. In July of the same year, Staples announced the completion of the acquisition of Canadian e-commerce PNI Digital Media, hoping to provide multi-channel solutions in the sale of personalized goods.
Challenge under double pressure
Now Staples is undoubtedly facing double pressure. The slowdown in economic growth is causing Staples' commercial customers to find ways to reduce office expenses. The increasingly powerful mobile phones and mobile terminals pose a huge threat to Staples. At the moment, the iPad has become the company's biggest potential rival, and this tablet may take the electronic office to the extreme.
In addition, the emerging e-commerce platform has also brought a heavy blow to Staples' offline store business. With its own logistics personnel and delivery equipment, door-to-door delivery has always been a major feature of Staples services. However, with the launch of free delivery and real-time pick-up policies on platforms such as Amazon, Staples has had a hard time saying that it has an advantage in purchasing the office supplies market. Earlier, Staples did not give enough attention to Amazon's competition. When other retailers fought against Amazon, Staples still seemed a little indifferent.
Beginning in December 2011, Amazon offers consumers the opportunity to use the mobile app to compare prices and give 5% coupons. This move has caused many retailers to remove Amazon's e-readers, and Staples still retains Kindle products. Staples even participated in an Amazon event to set up pick-up lockers at the Staples store. This is similar to a one-time use of a post office box. Consumers of Amazon.com can pick up their own product packages at their own convenience.
Staples hopes that Amazon customers who come to the store to pick up online orders can also generate consumption in their own stores in order to increase their traffic, but this cooperation has not brought too much practical help to Staples, especially in their own stores. Setting up Amazon Lockers will only help Amazon add convenience.
Internationalization may be the third problem faced by Staples. In order to expand its European market in 2008, Staples acquired the Dutch office supplies company Corporate Express NV, and in 2010 acquired the Finnish office supplies company Oy Lindell Ab.
China may be the most important part of Staples' global development strategy, knowing that China's huge stationery needs contribute more than $600 million in revenue to Staples each year.
In October 2004, Staples came to China, the world's most promising office supplies market, and established the Staples China headquarters in Shanghai. In 2008, Staples announced that it has established a joint venture brand joint store in China with UPS, one of the four major express delivery companies, the Staples UPS Express Express store. Since 2010, Staples has been approaching Qixin Stationery, hoping to provide technical management and become a strategic investor. In 2012, Staples proposed a new cooperation plan to acquire Qixin Stationery at a full price of 3.2 billion US dollars.
However, in February this year, Qixin Toys announced in an announcement that it had business dealings with Staples, but only for the company to sell products to it, and Staples did not belong to the top five customers of the company, and the amount of products sold by the company to it was also Not big, Qixin Toys did not sign a similar strategic cooperation agreement with Staples. This not only means that Staples has the best springboard to enter the Chinese market, but also means that it will have a strong localized opponent.
Amazon and Wal-Mart's Wild Hope
As the two giants in the US retail market, it is currently engaged in a fierce competition. Wal-Mart is trying to run a project that competes with competitors like Amazon and will rebuild its online retail site. Amazon plans to open a physical store to facilitate consumers to pick up their own goods and exchange online orders.
Staples has a unique advantage in the fixed category of office supplies. The offline stores have an omni-channel supply chain and logistics system layout. Staples is also actively deploying in the network channel. Whether it's Amazon or Wal-Mart, they want to connect online and offline better so that they can take advantage of future competition, and Staples will undoubtedly become a key variable.
Source of information: Internet
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