The canteen that helped “community group buying” out of the circle will eventually be abandoned?
Author/Meng Huiyuan
Edit/ Li Wenjie
“Neighbors, come down to pick up the goods!”
After being the leader of the community group buying, this sentence became the daily content of Zhang Mingfa’s circle of friends.
In the beginning, Zhang Ming was just the owner of a small living supermarket in a community in a first-tier city in the southwest. When online shopping became the trend and express delivery became the mainstream, Zhang Ming’s commissary began to undertake the business of sending and receiving express delivery. Today, when the community’s demand for fresh produce is increasing, Zhang Ming immediately turned into the group leader of several online community group buying platforms. He called this “advancing with the times.”
Zhang Ming’s transformation is not a special case. If you look closely, you can find that there are many small shop owners like Zhang Ming who own convenience stores and hold multiple jobs… and Zhang Ming. The choice of, just confirms that the commissary, the consumption scene closest to the user, is becoming a key point for the Internet giants to lay out the offline ecology.
At this stage, the cooperation between the major platforms and the commissary is cost-effective, needless to say, but in the long run, whether the commissary can withstand the double test of quality and service by users has to ask a question mark first. .
With multiple jobs, the commissary owner had to make a difficult transition
Two medium-sized supermarkets with an area of more than 200 square meters are open outside the community. Daily discount activities for members, low-priced products after discounts every day, and automatic delivery of a certain amount to the door can be regarded as their masters of attracting customers. Faced with such a strong competitor, the only advantage of Zhang Ming’s commissary may be to be closer to consumers.
“But it’s a few hundred meters between the inside and outside of the community. It only takes a few more minutes to go out of the gate.” Zhang Ming, who has been rooted in the community for many years, understands the careful thinking of his neighbors. Comparing the update speed and other aspects, although the word “supermarket” is attached to the commissary, they cannot provide the same service. In the face of “good quality and low price” community supermarkets, the competitiveness is indeed slightly insufficient.
In fact, such problems are not only plagued by Zhang Ming, but also the current stage of the development of the entire traditional small shop industry.
Under the siege of medium and large supermarkets and chain convenience stores, the traditional small shops at the end of retail, although still one of the important entrances for offline traffic, act as a “last mile” to draw closer to consumers The role of distance and meeting the immediate needs of consumers, but insiders like Zhang Ming who are in the middle of the offline traffic competition storm, they are very clear in their hearts that they only rely on a single retail service function to face the reality that there are many dealers and distributors. With low digitization capabilities and weak anti-risk capabilities, it is really impossible to defend against the former.
At first, Zhang Ming chose to accept the express delivery business and broke the game. In the process of helping the neighbors to send and receive express delivery, Zhang Ming established contact with Yi Yi and formed a WeChat owner service.Wuqun, through years of continuous service and word-of-mouth accumulation, he has become one with his neighbors, and the business has been slowly going on. “Although there is no extra charge for sending and receiving express delivery, they also occupy some store space to deliver express delivery. When I came to get the courier, I would take a look at my merchandise, and I would take it back if there were any shortages. This trick still works.”
But not long after the good days, the Cainiao Station opened a station outside the community, Zhang Ming panicked, “After the express delivery was concentrated to the Cainiao Station, it was obvious that the passenger flow was reduced.” Zhang Ming observed. After a period of time, I discovered that people who need to send express delivery and return and exchange goods are more inclined to choose the rookie post that undertakes the business of many mainstream express companies such as YTO, Shentong, Yunda, etc. “There are not many people who are looking for me to send and receive express That’s why I removed the express parking area in the store.”
However, when the epidemic hit, the rise of the online grocery shopping model provided Zhang Ming with a new idea, “In the beginning, I bought the goods by myself. Through the WeChat group established before, I will broadcast to everyone what I have every day, etc. After they have ordered, I will deliver them to the door.” During the epidemic, many users tried new ways to buy food. Some people are willing to continue this consumption model after resuming work, through Zhang Ming’s WeChat group. Purchase only for daily needs.
Zhang Ming’s circle of friends publishes all group buying information
Ke Zhang Ming still feels that business development in this area is not as simple as paying time and space costs when sending and receiving express delivery. “You have to work hard to find suppliers to purchase goods, bear the transportation loss in the middle, and communicate with everyone at any time to understand the needs. Arrange a good time to deliver the goods to your door. These are all costs, but the profit is not as much as I imagined.”
The strong winds of the community group buying recruitment leader, Zhang Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief, “Orange Heart Selection, Meituan Selection, Prosperity Selection, Shihui Group…Almost all community group buying platforms on the market I can take orders.” Users place orders on the platform. Zhang Ming, who is also the head of several platforms, uses his own store as a base for receiving goods, just like sending and receiving express delivery at the beginning. The only thing that needs to be responsible is from warehousing. The delivered order is forwarded to the user, “If there is any loss, report it to the platform, whether it is compensation or re-delivery will be under the control of the platform.”
And this seemingly relaxed team leader status not only means Zhang Ming’s new job, but also his job for the commissary.New attempts to continue development.
Being a leader has become a new rule of survival?
Chen Ying, the founder of Shihuituan, once calculated an account: the cost of new, marketing, and contract performance will generally account for 20%-40% of sales. This has led to a lot of fresh food e-commerce companies. It’s hard to make money. In community group purchases, the “group leader” simultaneously undertakes the three tasks of new recruiting, marketing and contract fulfillment.
Previously, the commissions given by many community group buying platforms to the “group leader” were about 10% of the sales. In this conversion, the cost that should have accounted for 20%-40% of sales, the platform can reduce it to about 10% by relying on the contacts of the “group leader”.
On this basis, compared with the heads of single-handed mothers, and heads of various service functions such as barber shops, express outlets, massage parlors, etc., the commissary owner has an established customer base and has a social The experience of group management, there is also a fixed sales place, no additional cost of storage of goods is required, also known as being able to understand product information, and can respond accordingly to consumer needs.
So we can see that many community group buying platforms tend to prefer the convenience store owner-type leader when expanding their business. There are many small shop owners such as Zhang Ming who also serve as the leader of several platforms.
Street shop, the owner is also the head of multiple group buying platforms
The community group buying platform woos the owner of the small shop as the leader. The platform attracts users to buy fresh products online with ultra-low discounts and welfare prices. It will not compete with the small shop that sells mostly daily chemical products, and the small shop is based on existing sales conditions. For the advantage, not to bear other costs, after the user places an order to the store, it can not only achieve the purpose of attracting traffic, but also get the corresponding commission. The cooperation between the two parties can be described as the advantages of the cooperation.
Of course, some recent reports have also mentioned that the commissions for group leaders from community group buying platforms have been reduced. For example, the commissions for Orange Heart and Meituan have been reduced to around 7%, while the commission for Duoduomai is around 5% on average. . Therefore, due to the sharp drop in commissions, many group leaders began to refuse to connect to the community group buying platform.
The reason for the sudden drop in commissions is also very simple. On the one hand, the price war between community group buying platforms keeps the price of goods lower. After the profit that can be earned is diluted, the commissions available to the group leader will naturally decrease. ; On the other hand is the community group buying platformAfter extensive subsidies and development, the goal of cultivating users and the market in the early stage has almost been achieved, and the Internet giants behind it have begun to shrink costs and turn their attention to the layout of the grid warehouse.
Affected by this, many people in and outside the industry have publicly expressed their pessimism about the identity of the “leader”. Suddenly, the voices of “the leader became the cannon fodder in the shuffling period”, “escape the platform” and “de-lead the leader” were all raging. Bao’s mother, barber shop owner, massage shop owner and other related practitioners who were taking the role of leader claimed that they did not News of cooperation with the platform has also been repeatedly exposed on the Internet.
However, if the group of commissary owners is singled out from the group leader, the cooperation with the community group buying platform has a deeper meaning.
“Being a team leader is a side job. It can help the store drain and make a little money. If someday the commission is reduced to the point where I can’t afford the time and venue costs, it’s not for me to be the team leader. There is no loss.” A small shop owner told Zinc Scale that the cost of doing community group buying at this stage is not high for him. He joined it to a greater extent to find a new store for his own shop. Way out.
The big background worth noting here is that with the advent of the post-epidemic era, Chinese consumers’ consumption concepts and habits are changing, and new forms of consumption such as the “home economy” have multiplied, causing offline traditional retail stores to encounter An unprecedented crisis opportunity. According to data from July 2020, there are more than 60% more small shops with poor business and declining turnover than the same period last year, of which only about 20% of small shops have experienced growth in turnover.
In this regard, related survey results show that the average number of new products introduced by these 20% of small stores each month is almost twice that of other small stores, more than 40% of small stores do takeaway business, and more than 30% do community group buying , An average of more than 7000 yuan of extra turnover per month.
A sharp weapon in the past, today’s industry development shortcomings
Retail, express delivery, group shopping, takeaway…The commissary that can realize the integration of multiple functions has its own unique advantages because it can capture the attention of major platforms.
These small stores, which are extremely scattered, open for a long time, and close enough to consumers, have been deeply rooted in cities, towns, and rural areas before the emergence of supermarkets, hypermarkets, and modern convenience stores. They were once consumption Consumers’ only choice for shopping venues is also a well-deserved “nerve ending” in the retail industry.
Although with the rise of e-commerce platforms, convenience stores and chain supermarkets have gradually declined, according to the data provided by Kantar Retail, there are still nearly 7 million small stores including mom-and-pop stores in China. They contribute 40% of shipments in the entire retail channel. About 30% of mom-and-pop shops are located in towns and rural areas, and 46% are in third-tier cities and county-level cities.
Canteens take root in any corner of cities, towns, and rural areas
Based on this, previous e-commerce giants, B2B companies, and traditional retail companies such as Alibaba, JD.com, China Merchants Huimin, Zhanghe Tianxia, Wangfujing Department Store, etc. have all been The unparalleled advantages in the “sinking market” have thrown olive branches to it.
This also applies to community group buying platforms that compete for the market. If they compete for the offline market in person, the overall layout of the delivery site will inevitably require a certain amount of time and capital cost. However, if you directly cooperate with the commissary, you can save a certain amount of cost and focus on subsidizing users to cultivate the market, and you can also quickly penetrate any corner of the country to extend your business reach.
“These small stores can reach customers faster, and their development prospects and opportunities are great. If more offline services and experience scenarios are integrated within a radius of 1 kilometer, they may become a consumer service center. Bigger.” A practitioner who has been deeply involved in the B2B industry for many years said in an interview with the media.
One side of the coin is the current situation of win-win cooperation between the community group buying platform and the commissary, while the other side cannot be ignored is whether the commissary can take on the responsibility of the platform to regard it as the final node of the end ecology, especially when users are getting more and more When paying attention to product quality and consumer services.
As mentioned above, under the impact of competitors such as supermarkets and convenience stores, the business environment is not so good. Their own operations and development are full of uncertainty. For the platforms at the bottom end of the ecologically important nodes, when it encounters changes, it will disrupt the offline layout of the platform.
In order to expand more customers, the commissary depends on the flow of people brought by online orders, but this degree of dependence is not stable to the platform. For example, Zhang Ming’s commissary has reached cooperation with multiple community group buying platforms in order to receive more orders, but when it comes to his views on a certain platform, he does not have much loyalty. We can also see from many media reports that there are not a few merchants who refuse to connect to the platform because of lower commissions. Such a cooperative relationship that can be stopped at any time can even be said to be very fragile.
At the same time, the uncontrollable quality and service of the commissary also brought some hidden worries to the community group buying platform. The characteristics of fresh products that are easily corrupted and deteriorated and difficult to store for a long time have caused the loss in the distribution link to remain high for a long time, which once allowed cold chain transportation and construction of front-end warehouses.The high cost of targeted measures has become an unspeakable pain in the fresh food industry.
Once the user fails to retrieve the fresh products ordered to the store in time, whether the simple preservation equipment (refrigerators and freezers) of the commissary can meet the preservation conditions of the fresh products is a question worth pondering. The quality of the goods is affected, and there is no talk of a good consumer experience on the platform.
In other words, after the goods are out of the warehouse, from the commissary to the user’s hands, it is difficult for the platform to accurately control the quality, and because offline services are restricted by the level of the commissary owner (group leader), the platform cannot Effectively restrain the actual words and deeds of the group leader, and then provide users with high-quality consumer services.
Although the commissary can be regarded as an economical choice for online platforms to deploy offline, it is difficult to serve as a partner for further development of platforms in the long run. If you follow the development ideas of express delivery and boldly imagine, fresh express cabinets and self-built platforms on the platform may all be the future development trend of community fresh food.
After all, scattered and disorderly commissaries, it is really difficult to have express cabinets with rapid layout and wireless intelligent management, and it is also difficult to compare the efficiency, controllability and uniform order of the platform’s self-built sites.
“Mastering the management and operation of each link of logistics and distribution is more conducive to the platform’s own management and ensuring the quality of goods and services.” An Internet observer told Zinc Scale that only the establishment of a complete , Advanced distribution system to complete the distribution of each order can effectively improve customer satisfaction and loyalty, and make the platform more competitive in the market.