Today’s Houhai in Beijing is still a favorite internet celebrity spot for young people. Compared with the feasting at night, the smell of coffee deep in the alleys, and the good night’s sleep in the old house, they seem to be more “addicted” to it. In their eyes, it is a fashionable place to experience Beijing’s history, with a strong traditional humanistic atmosphere and the whimsical ideas of modern designers. There is a B&B located in Xiaojinsi Hutong. When you push through the door, a glass corridor connects the courtyard, living room and three guest rooms. A tall persimmon tree in the courtyard is full of red fruits. The collision between fashion and tradition has begun to take shape at this moment. Going around the courtyard, three completely different styles of guest rooms - the new Chinese-style "Bamboo Garden", the pastoral-style "Lingxin" and the modern-style "Silk Things" - are displayed in sequence, and the mystery is hidden here.
The stylish storage TV cabinet in "Silk Things", the mushroom dressing table in "Lingxin", and the black walnut furniture in "Bamboo Garden" "expose" JD.com's designer brands. In the guest room, by talking to the JD Dingdong smart speaker, the "commander" of the entire smart system, you can activate smart curtains, lights, humidifiers, air purifiers and other equipment in the room. You can also ask about the weather, order takeout, and obtain information about nearby restaurants. There is also a smart magic mirror in the bathroom that has functions such as smart voice, music video playback, and news broadcast. Not only that, all the soft furnishings here are provided by JD.com’s home life division. At the same time, 3 guest rooms are connected to JD.com’s smart home solutions. If guests like it after experiencing it, they can scan the QR code next to the product to place an order and JD.com will deliver it to their home.
This courtyard is operated by Yinhai, "armed" by JD.com, and can only be booked on Tujia.com. It is a "life aesthetic house" jointly built by JD.com, Tujia and Yinhai. "This is a new attempt by JD.com to carry out cross-border cooperation with Yinhai and Tujia to explore online and offline unbounded marketing models." Tujia Chief Brand Officer Jenny Li said that the "Life Aesthetics House" allows B&Bs to no longer stick to a single living function, but to become a new consumption scenario integrating "travel B&B + life aesthetics e-commerce".
Entering October, it is no longer the peak sales season for Beijing B&Bs. What is the secret to the occupancy rate of "Life Aesthetic House" still exceeding 80% half a month after its opening? "The customer group of 'Life Aesthetic House' has a clear positioning, which is young Internet users. So from site selection, design, decoration, to implanting smart devices and other immersive products, we put the usage habits of young users first and use scenarios + precision marketing to create this Internet celebrity B&B. In the B&B, this kind of 'experience first before buying'" The new consumption style is also very consistent with the consumption habits of this group. "'Life Aesthetic House' is a home we build based on the concept of smart, convenient, and environmentally friendly life. Here, we provide more than just a single product, but also provide solutions for consumers to create a beautiful home. As an exclusive sales platform, Tujia's matching engine is based on big data and combines the static attributes of the house to make accurate recommendations for users."
"Compared with B&Bs in the same location, the nightly price of the 'Life Aesthetic House' is not high, and the prices of the in-house experience products are also moderate, making them affordable for young people. We hope that the guests will feel that the products presented are both beautiful and practical, and they are also affordable." The operators of the Yinhai brand told reporters that the small pieces of art, cups, desk lamps and small intelligent products full of life style have already generated actual purchasing behavior, but for large items such as furniture, residents are still in the experience stage. The operator said frankly that this "Life Aesthetics House" is a pilot and a beginning for the cooperation between the three companies, and the next cooperation project is under preparation. "Especially in the creation of immersive culture, we will deepen the overall development, and we will further optimize the design and soft furnishings."
Jenny Li said that the biggest challenge in the tripartite cooperation is how to quickly replicate and popularize this new type of B&B in the future, develop more types of B&Bs, and on this basis, maximize the novel experience of consumers staying in B&Bs, and reconstruct the quality consumption upgrade in the B&B scene.
Zhao Jing, general manager of the Furniture Department of Jingdong Mall’s Home Living Division, believes that this new closed-loop cross-border business breaks through the marketing limitations of traditional commercial scenarios, allowing consumers to get closer to the lifestyle created by the brand, creating a sense of brand identity in the experience, and thus driving the consumption of goods. This kind of offline scene experience and online shelf extension, from product to user maintenance, truly realizes borderless retail and releases greater commercial value.
It can be seen from the current user reviews of "Life Aesthetic House" that staying in such a homestay can indeed make consumers feel fresh, and they believe that the supplies in the house are of higher quality. With the deepening of the concept of borderless retail, there are many online lifestyle e-commerce platforms that have joined forces with offline B&Bs to create life experience spaces. The first "Strictly Selected HOME@Youjia B&B" also "appeared" in Guangzhou in June. Is this kind of testing a gimmick or is it really a win-win "sweetness"? Can B&Bs really become online celebrities that carry goods offline on e-commerce platforms? In the view of Zhao Huanyan, chief knowledge officer and senior economist of Huamei Consulting Agency, this "travel B&B + lifestyle aesthetics e-commerce" model is also an attempt at a new retail model. It is a cross-border operation of online companies to the offline accommodation industry with traffic advantages. How effective it is depends on many factors and remains to be seen.