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helijia, an o2o platform that once relied on the capital "tree", is in trouble. on september 10, a beijing business daily reporter found that many helijia employees and consumers on social platforms said that they had not received the platform's share or refund for several months. in response, helijia replied that helijia has re-formulated a repayment plan. as an o2o platform, not only helijia, but also many other platforms such as easy home and panda buzou cake have encountered similar situations under the impact of community group buying prices. in the era of traffic, how to share a piece of the pie with local life merchants is becoming an urgent problem for o2o platforms to solve.

beaver's settlement problem

consumers and sales of helijia, a star startup in the beauty industry, have begun to feel the "abnormality" of this company. on social platforms, many consumers have shared their difficult experiences in refunding. among them, consumer zhang yun (pseudonym) revealed to the beijing business daily reporter that she had an order of more than 4,000 yuan at helijia and wanted to refund it, but she could not get the refund through the platform operation. at the same time, the salesperson who was responsible for connecting with her no longer responded to messages. prior to this, zhang yun's salesperson had revealed to her that he was about to leave.

zhang yun is not the only one who has had difficulty getting a refund from beaver home. another consumer, yang ya (pseudonym), also told the beijing business daily that two months after applying for a refund, the funds for her order had not yet arrived, and her community also stopped operating in early august. when yang ya sought help from the medical beauty institution that issued the order, the institution said that beaver home had been in arrears for more than a year and had not yet settled the funds with her.

at the same time, many craftsmen who have signed contracts with beaver house have revealed on social platforms that beaver house has not received any share of the profits for several months.

at present, beijing business daily reporters have found that beaver home’s online app can still be operated and used normally, and beaver home’s 10,000-store co-branded stored-value cards can also be purchased normally.

on september 10, beaver home responded that it would actively and positively respond to promote the implementation of the solution to the problem. regarding the issue of the share of the arrears of artisans, beaver home said that it has determined the historical account repayment plan before september 1 and the new payment plan after september 1.

however, as of press time, beaver home has not responded to the specific content of the historical account return plan and the new collection plan, as well as the relevant plans for consumer refunds.

it is understood that helijia was founded in 2014 and provides consumers with "pan-beauty" services such as manicure, eyelash extension, beauty, physiotherapy, fitness, body shaping, hairdressing, makeup and styling through the helijia app. its founder meng xing also founded two brands, afu essential oil and diaoye beef brisket.

a divided market

due to the entrepreneurial experience of its founder meng xing, helijia has been favored by capital since its inception. in april 2014, after obtaining angel round financing from idg capital, helijia has gone through four rounds of financing. investors also include cbc broadband capital, qiming venture partners, guangxin capital, maixing investment management, liding investment and other institutions. in august 2020, alibaba group made a strategic investment of hundreds of millions of yuan in helijia and became the largest shareholder of helijia.

but the good times did not last long. with the rise of various community group purchases, helijia's competitive advantage was further weakened. e-commerce platforms such as pinduoduo, xiaohongshu, douyin, and meituan are all investing relevant traffic in local life. with the promotion of various local life experts, taking dianping as an example, the price of manicure in beijing can be as low as double digits after purchasing relevant coupons, and the prices of beauty products such as eyelash extensions and hairdressing are also becoming more affordable.

at the same time, with the construction of the 15-minute convenience life circle, the construction of community convenience stores such as nail salons, barber shops, massage shops, etc. within the 15-minute range of the community has become more and more complete, and consumers have a rich selection of beauty products within a 15-minute walk. with the change in consumption trends, this kind of preferential prices superimposed on community group purchases have become the first choice for consumers to shop.

in the face of increasingly fierce market competition, helijia has to maintain the operation of the platform by increasing the commission rate of craftsmen and reducing service prices to maintain the competitiveness of the platform. according to incomplete statistics, in recent years, helijia's commission rate for craftsmen has increased from the initial 5% per order to 20% or even higher. however, these measures obviously cannot help helijia establish a core competitive advantage, but will instead cause the loss of some craftsmen.

beaver home also tried to launch a "neighborhood store" channel and open physical stores in the community, but the effect was not good. beaver home, which lacked the "physical" gene, could not bear the pressure of the heavy capital model, and the "neighborhood store" channel was soon closed.

need to find core competitiveness

the rise of community group buying has had an impact on multiple o2o platforms, including helijia. local life merchants have attracted a large number of users through low-price strategies, squeezing out the market share of traditional o2o platforms. in this market environment, helijia may face greater competitive pressure and profitability challenges. in addition, the interference of relevant factors such as capital liquidity and operating strategies during the operation of helijia will also have a significant impact on this "explosion" of helijia, said wang peng, an associate researcher at the beijing academy of social sciences.

in fact, with the continuous development of local life, under the impact of various preferential forms such as community group buying, not only helijia, but many o2o platforms are facing the same situation. the o2o platform qingsongdaojia, which once received over 100 million yuan in financing, was overwhelmed by low-price subsidies and its capital chain broke, so it announced the suspension of business. the o2o baking brand "panda buzou cake" also announced the closure of its capital chain due to the difficulty in finding new traffic entrances and defaulting on payments to suppliers.

regarding the future development of this type of o2o platform, bai wenxi, vice chairman of the china enterprise capital alliance, said that in the future, o2o platforms should also optimize fund management, strengthen financial management and fund operation capabilities, and ensure that the platform has sufficient liquidity to cope with daily operations and emergencies. at the same time, actively seek diversified financing channels to reduce dependence on a single source of funds.

the most important thing is to accurately position the market. bai wenxi further emphasized that most of the o2o platforms that are gradually eliminated by the market find it difficult to form differentiated competition with offline stores, and cannot always keep their products at low prices, and their competitive advantages are not obvious. in the future, o2o platforms can only seek sustainable growth by clarifying their differentiated positioning and personalized advantages, accurately positioning target user groups and market demands, and attracting and retaining users by providing standardized and personalized services, and improving user stickiness and loyalty.

wang peng also expressed the same view. in wang peng's view, the only way for o2o platforms to achieve long-term development is to seek their core competitiveness, clarify their own positioning, strengthen service management and training, establish service standards that are higher than the market, and increase user repurchase rates through service added value and experience.

beijing business daily reporter wang siqi