System positioning defines the capability scope of SaaS system, defines the goal, scope and core functions of the system, and the cooperation boundary with other systems.

Potential problems with unclear system positioning

1. Customers do not buy

at the market level, it is usually manifested as unclear positioning and lack of clear target customer groups. This vague positioning leads SaaS enterprises to try to serve all types of customers instead of focusing on specific market segments.

As a result, products may not meet the specific needs of any specific customer group, reducing market attraction and competitiveness.

It is difficult for the sales team to effectively convey the core value proposition and unique advantages of the product to potential customers.

This not only affects the sales efficiency, but also may lead to insufficient understanding or misunderstanding of the products by potential customers, thus reducing the transaction rate.

2. No advantage compared with competing products

at the level of competition, products lack uniqueness and are easy to be imitated by competitors. It is difficult for enterprises to establish lasting competition barriers in the market and easily fall into the dilemma of homogeneous competition.

Due to the lack of positioning, it is difficult to accurately evaluate the differences between its own products and competitors, and at the same time it cannot effectively attract the target customer base.

3. The system lacks depth and scalability.

In terms of products, there is a lack of clear product planning, and the scope of system functions may be too broad, resulting in the lack of depth and professionalism of each function. At the same time, the system lacks a clear evolution direction, functions "grow out of order", and scalability is getting worse and worse.

Colleagues, the unreasonable function layout affects the user experience, and it is difficult for users to quickly find the required functions, which is not easy to use.

Method for Determining System positioning

the core goal of system positioning is to stand out in the fierce market competition. This requires comprehensive consideration of target customers, market conditions, competitors, and the advantages of SaaS enterprises themselves.

1. Specify the target customer group

the best way to identify a target customer base is to analyze your past success stories, customer base, and market data. See which customers are most familiar and have brought them actual results.

If you enter the new market, you must first understand the existing competitors, and avoid facing strong and mature competitors. On the contrary, we should look for neglected or less competitive market segments. Continuously verify and improve products in these markets while looking for and accumulating unique advantages.

2. Compare competitors and explore their own advantages

collect information and compare with competitors. Find out the similarities and differences between us and our competitors. Look for our advantages in differences and find improvements in similarities.

It is more important to listen to customers' needs and feedback. By analyzing customers' opinions and experience, we can find our own unique advantages. Customer insights often help us identify opportunities that competitors may ignore, thus providing valuable guidance for product positioning.

3. Focus on the scope of business capabilities

after defining the target customer group and comparing the competitors, we need to determine the key business capabilities based on the business capability map of the target customer group.

We should invest more resources into these key business capabilities, focus on core business, and pursue business and technical depth. For secondary businesses, a minimum investment strategy is adopted.

Example: System positioning for new retail SaaS

in order to effectively manage the team, clarify the division of labor among various departments and optimize the cooperation process, enterprises usually employ professional IT consulting companies. These companies will reorganize their business objectives, organizational structure and operational processes.

By introducing Office Automation (OA), human resource management (HRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other systems, enterprises can transform unreasonable systems and inefficient processes.

The enterprise will set up an information technology department to carry out system transformation, implement new systems, and be responsible for ensuring the stability of systems, servers and networks. The IT systems commonly used by small and medium-sized chain enterprises include:

• • O2O cloud store system: integrates online and offline sales channels, supports multiple consumption scenarios, and realizes omni-channel sales.
• • Self-owned mall system: build and manage enterprise e-commerce platforms to enhance e-commerce competitiveness.
• • POS system: Handle store cashier, settlement and financial management, and realize sales data integration.
• Marketing tool system: manage promotional activities and interactive play methods to improve brand influence and sales performance.
• Customer management system: Manage member information, rights and benefits, realize accurate marketing and improve customer loyalty.
• Basic data management system: integrate core enterprise data to improve data quality and operational efficiency.
• • Commodity Management System: unified management of commodity information, sales and pricing, and optimization of commodity management processes.
• • Warehouse management system: manage goods in and out of the warehouse and inventory to improve storage efficiency.
• Procurement System: Manage Suppliers, procurement plans and execution, and optimize procurement process.
• Distribution System: manage product distribution and logistics to ensure timely and accurate delivery.
• Customer Service System: provides a full range of customer services, including ticket management and intelligent customer service.
• • Central inventory system: unified management of company-wide inventory, providing analysis and early warning, and optimizing inventory strategy.
• • Order Management System: automates the order processing process and standardizes order management.
• Financial Management System: Handle financial accounting, cost control and statement analysis, and standardize financial management.
• Human resources management system: manage recruitment, attendance, performance and training, and optimize human resources management.
• • Data analysis system: collects and processes data, provides analysis and visualization, and supports data-driven decision-making.

With the continuous evolution of the new retail market, SaaS system is showing a booming trend.

In today's era of rapid development and widespread information technology, SaaS system has become an indispensable core component of the new retail industry.

Facing this competitive market environment, new retail system manufacturers must think deeply about how to realize effective differentiated competition strategies in order to stand out in the fierce competition.

Based on the development trend of new retail, compared with traditional retail systems, new retail SaaS systems may have the following opportunities:

1. Omni-channel sales management

the new retail SaaS system provides online and offline omni-channel sales management to achieve unified management of goods, inventory, orders and other resources.

More importantly, enterprises can collect customer data of various sales channels through SaaS system, including online shopping malls, offline stores, social media and various platforms, so as to realize closed-loop collection and analysis of customer consumption data.

2. Accurate marketing of regular customers

the new retail SaaS system uses AI and big data analysis technology to achieve accurate customer marketing.

The system deeply analyzes customers' purchasing behavior, preferences and consumption psychology, and provides customized recommend and discounts for them. Implementing personalized marketing strategies through multiple channels not only improves customer satisfaction, but also enhances customer loyalty.

3. Customized functions

SaaS systems usually adopt modular design. Enterprises can select corresponding functions according to their own needs and support flexible customization. The system can provide customized functions according to the specific requirements of enterprises.

For example, you can customize functions such as store management, commodity management, order management, and member management according to the business model and process of an enterprise to help the enterprise improve its operational efficiency and management level.

For new retail chain enterprises, the business scenario is extremely complex and involves a wide range of IT systems. It is difficult for a single product to cover all business needs of enterprise customers. As shown in the figure, the business capability system of a typical retail enterprise.

Therefore, it is usually necessary to focus on a specific subdivision area and provide targeted solutions for enterprise customers. Based on the opportunities of the new retail SaaS system, the core strategy is as follows:

• In terms of business capabilities related to new trends, the system must be strong enough. For example, omni-channel sales management and customer precision marketing.

• For relatively stable traditional business capabilities, adopt the strategy of developing an entry-level version or connecting with mature systems in the market. Such as supply chain management, human resources management and financial management.

According to the personalized needs of enterprises, modular design and standard opening capability are adopted to realize flexible customized solutions.

Based on the core strategy, we can sort out the core components of the new retail SaaS system:

sales management system for consumers: including O2O cloud store system, self-owned mall system, POS system and order management system.

• Customer precision marketing related systems: including marketing tool system, customer management system and data analysis system.

Necessary supporting systems for core subsystems: including basic data management system, commodity management system and central inventory system.

Other traditional mature IT systems, such as warehouse management system, customer service system, distribution system, procurement system, financial management system and human resource management system, etc, it is more suitable for integration with mature solutions in the market.