How do express delivery companies operate in private domains? A complete analysis of SF Express’s private domain operations

Many businesses are still expanding their private domain construction, and accordingly have higher requirements for logistics service quality. The express delivery industry is highly homogenized. How did SF Express stand out from the crowd, rebuild its private domain, and connect users? This article will dismantle SF Express's private domain operation system. Let's take a look.

Nowadays, many business brands are expanding their private domain construction, and accordingly, they have higher requirements for the service quality of logistics, and the same is true for logistics companies themselves. The current logistics market is highly competitive, and companies are constantly compressing "prices", and the cost of acquiring customers is also increasing. In addition, express delivery services are highly homogenized and the technical threshold is low. If you want to increase your market share, you need to differentiate and connect with users in all directions.

Against this background, SF Express has also established a private domain operation system to bring users closer online, deeply understand their needs, gain their trust, and achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

So, as a well-deserved leading domestic express delivery company, how does SF Express do private domain? Let's analyze it for you.

The contents of this article are as follows:

1. Case Background
2. Traffic channel analysis
3. IP character deconstruction
4. User Operation Analysis
5. Membership system breakdown

01 Case Background

1. Brand Introduction

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Shenzhen, SF Express is a service company that mainly engages in domestic and international express delivery and related businesses.

On December 12, 2016, SF Express obtained approval from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to list on the A-share market. On February 24, 2017, it was officially renamed SF Express.

In 2020, SF Express achieved a revenue share of 17.51% with a market share of 9.8%. As of March 20, 2023, SF Express's market value is 267.6 billion, far ahead of its peers.

2. Market size

From 2016 to 2021, my country's express delivery business volume has grown rapidly, maintaining a growth rate of more than 20%. In 2021, the national express delivery business volume reached 108.3 billion pieces, an increase of 29.9% over 2020. It is expected that the year-on-year growth rate of express delivery business volume in 2023 will increase to 18% to 25.6%, and the overall market express delivery price may remain stable.

3. User portrait

There are two major user roles for SF Express. The first category is C-end mass consumers and express delivery-related staff, and the second category is B-end users, such as individual business owners and large, medium and small enterprises. The core user group of SF Express is mainly male, aged between 24 and 35, mostly middle-class consumers, mainly distributed in new first-tier and second- and third-tier cities, among which Guangdong, Beijing, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai have the largest number of users.

02 Traffic Channel Analysis

1. Private Domain Platform

Official Account: After following the "SF Express" official account, the automatic welcome message will direct users to the mini program and app through the welfare hook of shipping discounts. In addition, there is also a diversion to the private domain community in the menu bar.

Mini Program: SF Express uses "88 yuan shipping gift package" as bait in the mini program to attract users to click to add the company's WeChat ID "Feng Xiaoge" and be invited to join the community through WeChat.

2. Public Domain Platform

Video account: Video account mainly displays brand promotion, event introduction and other content. The homepage has an "Add WeChat" drainage touchpoint, and users can click to add the enterprise WeChat assistant. In addition, the homepage will also set specific tags, and users can click on the tags to watch the corresponding video content according to their interests.

Douyin: SF Express has three main accounts on Douyin, with a total of more than 1 million fans. The video content is mainly brand promotion, and the homepage also has settings to divert traffic to the official website and Douyin fan group.

Weibo: SF has 670,000 followers on Weibo, with 4.2 million likes and comments. The account mainly posts holiday greetings, welfare promotions, and rewarded interactions. A fan group entrance is set up on the homepage, and users can apply to join the community by following the account.

Xiaohongshu: SF Express has more than 1 million notes on Xiaohongshu and 3 main accounts. The official account will divert activities within the notes.

03 Analysis of IP Characters

SF Express's IPs are divided into employee IPs and corporate WeChat IPs. Employee IPs are real-person employee WeChat accounts, which are mainly used to facilitate users to make appointments for pickup and delivery services. The main function of corporate WeChat accounts is to promote the latest event information and answer questions for users. They are all named "Feng Xiaoge". The following is a detailed breakdown:

1. Employee IP

Users can add employee IP through the "Exclusive Courier" in the mini program. The system will recommend the nearest courier. The avatar is always a real person, and the courier's work term, rating, and number of rewards will be displayed.

Users can click "Send Express" to directly apply for delivery services from the courier, or scan the QR code to add the courier's personal WeChat for convenient subsequent communication.

2. Enterprise Micro IP

1) Personality IP creation

• Nickname: Brother Feng
• Avatar: Anime image of a courier delivering a red envelope
• Role: Welfare Officer
• Automatic welcome message: After adding the company’s WeChat account, the company’s WeChat account will automatically send a welcome message. The welcome message uses the “88 yuan group membership package” as bait to guide users to scan the code to join the community.

2) Analysis of content in Moments

• Content frequency: Publish 1-3 Moments of Friends content every day
• Release time: Content will be released around 11:00 am every day
• Moments content: mainly promotes communities and welfare activities. When promoting activities in Moments, a QR code for the activity will also be attached to attract users to scan the code to participate in the activity or join the community.

04 User Operation Analysis

SF operates users through multiple channels, collects user information through social groups, communities, mini programs, etc., generates communication and exchanges, and realizes conversion. The following is a breakdown:

1. Community Operation

1) Community positioning

• Group nickname: SF Express Customer Welfare Group;
• Group positioning: welfare group;
• Community value: promote the latest welfare activities and guide conversion;

2) Community welcome message

When users join the group, an automatic welcome message will be triggered immediately, introducing community benefits and APP benefits, and guiding users to click on the link to download the APP.

3) Community content

SF’s community operations are relatively limited, with more advertising and promotional content, making it difficult to attract active users and convert them. The lack of interactive and refined content is also a common problem in many communities.

2. Community Operation

1) Community Content

Through the menu bar of the official account, users can participate in the "Experience Community". The community has functions such as user feedback, user surveys, Q&A, and SF classroom.

When users raise questions and give feedback in the community, the official will respond and answer them. In this process, the distance between the official and the users is shortened, and the user's needs and problems are quickly understood, providing users with better services and experience.

2) Community Benefits

The community divides users into 7 levels (experience value ranges from 0-100000), namely: newcomer, trainee experience officer, junior experience officer, intermediate experience officer, and chief experience officer. Among them, senior experience officers and above can get generous gifts every quarter, such as senior experience officers have the opportunity to get peripheral gifts worth 199 yuan, senior experience officers have the opportunity to get SF Express peripheral gifts worth 259 yuan, and chief experience officers have the opportunity to get peripheral gifts worth 299 yuan + monthly VIP video cards.

3) Experience value acquisition and redemption

Users can obtain experience points by logging into the community, posting/commenting/sharing topics, participating in surveys, etc. Experience points can be used to upgrade to obtain the rights and rewards of senior experience officers, or to redeem SF membership points.

3. Mini Program Operation

When designing the functions of the mini program, SF Express pays great attention to the details of the usage scenarios and is committed to bringing users a good service experience.

1) Express delivery

SF Express divides express delivery scenarios into ordinary delivery, large-item delivery, intra-city delivery, and fresh food delivery. Different services will be provided according to different delivery methods. For example, fresh food delivery will provide fresh food services and packaging services. Users can choose different delivery methods according to their actual situation.

2) Preferences

The mini program has a "preference setting function" where users can set their preferences for receiving mail, receiving messages, and not disturbing phone calls in advance. For example, the delivery method can be selected as a service point or door-to-door delivery. For door-to-door delivery, users can choose the contact direction and designated location, giving users a better experience.

05 Membership System Analysis

SF Express’ membership system is a user growth system built based on individual users’ consumption behaviors of receiving and sending parcels. It aims to provide users with more convenient, preferential and considerate exclusive services. The following is a detailed analysis.

1. Growing Members

SF Express’s growth membership is divided into 8 levels, which are upgraded by obtaining growth points (spending 1 yuan = 1 growth value): Ordinary (0 growth points), Iron (10 growth points), Bronze (40 growth points), Silver (100 growth points), Gold (300 growth points), Platinum (1200 growth points), Diamond (5000 growth points), and Black Diamond (10000 growth points).

The benefits that members can enjoy include: freight coupons, birthday gifts, life privileges, receiving and redeeming prizes, receiving and sending points, no adjustment fees, dedicated customer service, freshness discounts, etc.

2. Paid members: SVIP membership card

The first month is 0.88 yuan/month, and the subsequent months are 5.8 yuan/month. You can enjoy shipping coupons, double points, exclusive points redemption, gold medal customer service, card opening privileges, etc. The page also has a "savings calculation" function, so users can see the discount more intuitively.

3. Stored-value card: New Express Card

The more you top up, the more you get back. For example, if you top up 500 yuan, you will get 47.5 yuan; if you top up 1,000 yuan, you will get 100 yuan; if you top up 5,000 yuan, you will get 600 yuan.

Activate a recharge card to enjoy a 30 yuan gift package, a 10% discount, and participate in a lucky draw for a chance to win an iPhone, Huawei watch, etc.

4. Points system

Users earn points by completing tasks. The higher the membership level, the more points they can earn from consumption. Points can be used to participate in lucky draws, point flash sales, point treasure hunts, and redeem physical prizes.

summary

Finally, let’s summarize the highlights and shortcomings of SF Express in private domain operations:

1) Perfect community operation: SF Express attaches great importance to private domain communities and has established a relatively perfect community with complete grading and reward mechanisms. It can fully understand the needs of users and provide consumers with a good shopping scene and consumption experience.

2) Complete membership system: SF Express’s membership system includes growth membership + paid membership + points system, with relatively rich rights and interests. The preferential attributes of LiDe also enhance user stickiness, further prompting users to generate more conversions.

3) Lack of operation in the community: The content of SF Express’s community is quite ordinary, mostly advertising promotions, lacking interaction with users, and the sense of value it conveys is not high, resulting in low user stickiness in the community.

Author: Yan Tao San Shou; WeChat public account: Yan Tao San Shou