This article is from WeChat official account:I’m Sun Jiaozhu (ID: winke111) span> , author: Sun Jingxin, from the title figure: vision China
Recently, the community group buying and selling vegetables is at the forefront of public opinion. Since November, Internet giants Didi, Meituan, JD, Pinduoduo, Tencent, and Hema Xiansheng have entered the game. It can be called the six sects besieging Guangmingding, but this This time they besieged the vendors in the vegetable market.
The temptation of massive subsidies and ultra-low prices, a bag of refined salt is 0.1 yuan, a bag of dumplings is more than 2 yuan, the same formula and the same method, this not only reminds people of a thousand regiment battles and taxi battles. At the same time, we are more worried about the fate of market vendors and the harvest after the winner takes all.
Some time ago, Li Guoqing, the founder of Dangdang.com, reposted a picture, which triggered intense discussion among netizens.
“Musk is gradually turning the fantasy of the future world into reality, while domestic Internet giants are busy grabbing the jobs of community vendors.”
In fact, in addition to this kind of support and ridicule, there is also a supportive voice for community group buying. For example, community group buying improves efficiency, benefits consumers, and provides good service. Small vendors who are not enterprising will eventually be eliminated. .
Today is not to discuss right and wrong, but to pay attention to the underlying logic behind hot events. This allows you to train you to have the ability to perceive opportunities, after all, a thorough understanding of things is the biggest difference between people in the future.
In my opinion, community group buying is a new retail model of reverse customization. To understand community group buying, you must understand three knowledge points:
What is new retail?
What is reverse customization?
The nature of the Internet?
If you are starting a business or are about to start a business, these three core knowledge points will be of great help to you.
Knowledge point 1: What is new retail?
New retail is more efficient retail
As for the proponents of the first concept of new retail, the industry has two views. I personally tend to be the first to propose this concept by Lei Jun, but the version proposed by Jack Ma is familiar to the public. Just like Newton and Leibniz, it doesn’t matter who invented calculus first. The important thing is why there is new retail?
(Left: Leibniz Right: Newton)
The main reason for the birth of new retail is the slowdown in online traffic growth. The main reason is that people who can access the Internet are already using the Internet. Although there are still people who are learning to surf the Internet, the speed is relatively slow. , Such as users in tier 7 or 8 cities, and the elderly.
In 2015, the total amount of China’s consumer goods retail industry completed online was about 10%-20%. As of today, in 2020, it is optimistic that online retail sales will not exceed 25%. In other words, the retail industry sold 100 yuan, of which e-commerce accounted for 25 yuan, and offline entities accounted for 75 yuan. Offline is still the king.
In other words, if you want more sales, offline is the battlefield you must choose. This is why you will see Xiaomi, Vipshop, Three Squirrels, etc. in shopping malls today, who started off the Internet but started doing business offline.
To understand new retail, you must first understand retail. Let me give two examples:
1. Supermarket shopping: After entering the supermarket, you see the shelves full of goods, you see the products you need in the shopping cart, and finally you go to the cashier to check out, and you go home with the things you bought.
2. Online shopping: For example, if you want to buy a piece of clothing, open Taobao and search for clothing, a lot of product information appears. You choose one, place an order and add it to the shopping cart, add an address, check out, and express the clothes in a few days Delivered to your home.
Look carefully at these two examples, and you have discovered the common elements. It is recommended that you think about it for 10 seconds before continuing to read.
Okay, reveal the answer.
There are three elements in these two shopping forms: information flow, capital flow, and logistics
This may be more abstract. Let’s think back to the case just now and put ourselves in the shopping scene.
1. Information flow; to determine whether a thing should be bought, there must be information, such as what a product looks like, how much price, the supermarket provides physical information, which can be touched and tried; photos are provided on the Internet , Video, detail page, price, only with information can you decide whether to buy this product;
2. Fund flow: I have seen the information flow, if you want to buy goods, you have to pay. Take the example just now, you need to hand the money to the cashier in the supermarket, and you need to hand the money to WeChat in Taobao ,Alipay.
3. Logistics: After shopping on Taobao, the merchant will deliver your products to the courier, and the courier will deliver the products to your home. The courier assumes the role of logistics. When I see this, some people will ask, I’m shopping in the supermarket and no one delivers the products to my home by express, and there is no logistics. In fact, it is a habit for many years that makes you ignore that it is you who have assumed the role of logistics and that you carry the goods home by yourself.
The underlying logic of retail is the different combinations of information flow, capital flow, and logistics. There are many innovations in retail, such as the two retail forms that are often encountered below.
Example 1: For example, TV shopping, TV station provides information flow, express company provides logistics, cash flow is completed by cash on delivery
Example: 2: Direct selling is also a form of retail, which can be said to be a model of retail innovation that improves information flow, capital flow, and logistics
If you want to do direct sales, the first step is to pay for the purchase, and the goods will be delivered to you by courier. In order to make money, you will sell the products to your friends. You provide an information stream, and the friends will give the money to you. You have completed the flow of funds, and you have delivered the goods to your friends from home to complete the logistics.
A thorough understanding of the integration of the three streams of retail will enable you to fully understand the new retail.
New retail is the combination of the Internet and offline entities to continuously optimize the flow of information, capital, and logistics to make retail more efficient.
Brand experience store: In the future, you can really just not buy it
The brand experience store optimizes the information flow through offline experience, completes the flow of funds through online payment, and optimizes logistics through express delivery or self-pickup. For example, if you see a shirt you like very much on the Internet, but because you are not of standard figure, you are afraid to place an order. At this time, the customer service will remind you that there is one of our experience stores within 500 of your home. You should try it. After I tried it, I found that the shirt was very suitable. I had to pay at the physical store, but the physical store told him that this is only an experience store. You place an order online and will be delivered home by the courier.
Community group buying mobilizes idle resources of convenience stores, making convenience stores a self-pickup point, saving consumers time and optimizing logistics.
Our previous process of selling vegetables was like this: off work-go shopping-go to the market-bargain-take the food home, now use the mobile phone to place an order in advance to buy food-pick up the food-go home Community group buying improves the efficiency of consumers in at least two aspects of shopping and saves time.
At the same time, using the logistics relay of convenience store + consumer, the platform will deliver the food to the convenience store, and the consumer will take the food from the convenience store and take it home. Convenience stores are also happy to allow consumers to pick up food in their own stores. Every time consumers come, they increase their sales opportunities. Community group buying has mobilized idle resources in convenience stores and made it convenient for consumers.
Knowledge point 2: Reverse customization: destocking, reducing loss
The core logic of community group buying is to place an order on the Internet-next day delivery-self mention. Please carefully observe the three words next day delivery. Is it strange? Just now, we just said that new retail is new retail. How can retail, which pay more attention to efficiency, get slower and slower?
In fact, the group buying in this community uses a reverse customization model. Reverse customization is a model that first has users’ needs and then purchases from merchants. The vegetable vendor buys vegetables in advance and waits for you to come to buy them. In the community group purchase, you tell me what you want. I will go to the wholesaler to buy it.
You can open a group buying app now and see that 100% is the next-day delivery. The next-day delivery is a time limit. Although it is not explicitly stated as reverse customization, it is essentially the logic.
The biggest function of reverse customization is to solve inventory and loss. Inventory is the stubborn problem of all the business models that produce first and then sell. It is especially serious in the clothing industry. If you sell a lady’s jacket, then There must be different sizes, S, M, L, XL, XXL, pink, red, green, and purple, so every year when the season is changed is the time for discounts in major stores.
The wear and tear rate of the clothing industry is not high. Clothes from a year or two years ago can still be sold, but the fresh food industry not only has high inventory but also high loss, commonly known as double high. Grocers buy more vegetables and cannot sell them, and those who buy less are not enough to sell. So now most of the food sellers use experience to purchase, but even this cannot avoid the loss of inventory and the inability to sell fruits and vegetables.
Original selling price = cost + profit
But it cannot be avoided due to loss.
Selling price = cost + profit + loss
So every pound of fruit you buy contains wasted money, but sadly, no one made this part of the money. The reverse customization of community group buying can reduce the loss of fresh food to a certain extent and further reduce the price of fresh food.
Knowledge point 3: The nature of the Internet
The essence of the Internet is connection, which is to eliminate information asymmetry
The carriers of community group buying, new retail, and reverse customization are all on the Internet, so it is necessary to talk about the nature of the Internet in the last chapter, so that we can better understand the trend, have a prediction of the future, and do a good job Preparation for change.
In the past, there was a kind of business called middlemen to make the difference. “Li Lei from Guangdong came to the Northeast as a guest. After eating the rice from the Northeast, he found that it was delicious. Li Lei bought the rice back to Guangzhou at a price of 7 yuan per catty. Friends in Guangzhou wanted to buy rice after they tasted it. Ask Li Lei Where did you buy the rice? Li Lei said I can’t tell you. If you want to eat it, you can buy it from me. Friends will give you a cost price of 20 yuan per catty, and Li Lei made a difference of 13 yuan.”
When the Internet appeared, this kind of asymmetric information intermediary business was broken. Consumers only need to search for Northeast rice on Taobao, and they will look at tens of thousands of information, and directly place orders and deliver them to their homes by courier.
Who are the middlemen for fresh produce? Fruits and vegetables are grown by farmers, and the products are sold to general wholesalers. The general wholesalers then sell them to secondary wholesalers and then the secondary wholesalers wholesale to vegetable vendors, who then sell vegetables to us.
Community group buying continues to optimize and improve efficiency through the new retail + reverse customization model. Gradually eliminate information asymmetry, gradually eliminate intermediaries such as vegetable vendors and wholesalers, and eventually directly connect consumers and farmers.
Today we see many people worrying about vegetable vendors. It seems that community group buying is only related to vegetable vendors. If you understand the nature of the Internet, then you should realize that community group buying will definitely continue Attack other industries, such as electrical appliances, medicine, building materials, snacks, and department stores.
The emergence of the Internet has gradually reduced the business of middlemen, until the resistance to the connection with consumers tends to zero. China’s Taobao, JD.com, and America’s Amazon have disrupted one industry after another. If you are still in a business where a middleman makes a difference, then you must pack your bags and prepare to switch careers.
After all, whether you like it or not, the iron hoof of the Internet will step on the body of the slow runner.
Look at the future
Imagine if there is a possibility in the future. When you are thirsty at home, you no longer need to go to the supermarket downstairs to buy water and place an order directly in the APP. After 2 minutes, a drone will take it with you. A bottle of water slowly stops in front of your window.
Then please think about it, who is the middleman eliminated this time?
Summary
The essence of community group buying is the business model of new retail + reverse customization.
Retail is a combination of information flow, capital flow, and logistics.
New retail is to continuously optimize information flow, capital flow, and logistics to make it more efficient.
The essence of the Internet is to eliminate information asymmetry, and all businesses with intermediaries may be disrupted.
This article is from WeChat official account:I’m Sun Jiaodong (ID: winke111) span> , author: Sun Jingxin