Some people sell through social software, and some people are ready to stop selling.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Three Words Finance” (ID: Sycaijing), the author of the harvest of DorAemon.
On November 1, the State Administration of Markets and the State Tobacco Monopoly Bureau jointly issued a circular urging the e-commerce platform to immediately close the e-cigarette store and remove the e-cigarette products in time.
After the ban, all major e-commerce platforms have blocked e-cigarette search, which has had a huge impact on the e-cigar industry. After the online ban on sales, e-cigarettes can only be transferred to offline channels to compete with traditional cigarettes.
So, what is the current status of offline e-cigarette sales? Sanyan Finance visited many business districts and convenience stores in Beijing and Shanghai, and the electronic cigarette sales under the line were false.
Beijing area
In the Beijing area survey, Sanyan Finance visited more than ten places where electronic cigarettes may be sold, including convenience stores, supermarkets, tobacco and alcohol stores, and two offline brands of e-cigarette brands.
In addition to the two e-cigarette stores, Sanyan Finance only found one alcohol and tobacco outlet and another beer store selling e-cigarettes. The overall situation is similar to that of the Shanghai area.
Fulu and Yueteng E-cigarette Stores:Hidden on the first floor of the commercial building, adjacent to it
In the first floor of Jianxiang Building in Chaoyang District, Beijing, Fulu Flow and Yuexue E-cigarette Store are adjacent to each other. The two stores are even connected, each with an area of less than 10 square meters. During the unannounced visit, the two shopkeepers were found to be young people in their early 20s. Each store has only one shop owner, one male and one female. I don’t know if it is a family.
The logos of the “Guardian Program, Minors are strictly forbidden” are placed in the conspicuous positions of the two stores. Both store owners indicated that they must present their ID documents when purchasing the products.
The business hours are from 10am to 10pm, and Phlo is from 12 noon to 8pm. In the three-word financial interview, the election was held between 10:40 and 11:20, and no other consumers came to buy.
During the unannounced visit, the gracious shop owner has been checking the goods, like sorting out the shipping list. The owner also said that the Internet channel is now unable to purchase E-cigarettes, if you need to add his WeChat, there is a need to directly express or flash past, but consumers have to post their own postage, Flow’s can also help with delivery .
After adding the owner’s WeChat, Sanyan Finance found that the WeChat circle of friends did not have any e-cigarette related content. Upon inquiry, the owner said that he was afraid of reporting himself, so there was no electronic cigarette related content.
When asked if there are other specialty stores, the two store owners said that they are not very clear. The other party suggested to log in to the official website and the public number to check the offline store. According to the query from Yueyin WeChat public account, there are 30 specialty stores in Beijing, and the number of authorized stores is more. The owner of the store said that authorized stores sell more disposable smoke products.
There are not many stores in Fulu. The owner said that as far as he knows, there is only one store in Jianxiang in Beijing. In the WeChat public number search near the Fulu line store, Sanyan Finance found that the search results are authorized stores more convenience stores, especially the sale of Flow’s disposable small smoke products “small eggs.”
Investigation of offline supermarkets, tobacco and alcohol stores: Someone secretly sells, some people are ready to stop selling
In addition to e-cigarette brand stores and authorized stores, offline supermarkets and alcohol and tobacco specialty stores are another key location for this survey.
Maybe it is because the sample is not enough. Sanyan Finance investigated a total of more than ten offline supermarkets and tobacco and alcohol stores in the vicinity of Haidian. Only two of them were found to sell electronic cigarettes. One of them was secretly sold, and only 4 Zhifu’s small smokeproduct.
In the unannounced offline stores, more than half of them said that there is no electronic cigarette sales, and about half of the stores also said that offline sales of electronic cigarettes are not allowed, most of them are tobacco and alcohol stores.
In the tobacco and alcohol specialty store that secretly sold e-cigarettes, the boss said that he knew the news of the e-cigarettes being sold online. He was also a person who sold the e-cigarettes and took a few e-cigarettes to try and sold them for a month. I can’t sell one in a week. When asked why he secretly sold, he said that the Tobacco Bureau would not allow the sale of the tobacco bureau.
The owner took out four e-cigarette products from the red bag
Another small shop selling e-cigarettes is a beer specialty store, and some e-cigarettes are placed at the front desk of the store.
The owner said that it was someone who started selling and sold e-cigarettes. The time of sale was not long. It was also secretly sold for about half a year. He pointed out that in the summer, many young people buy, but it is currently difficult to sell.
He also knows about the online sales ban, and said that he would stop selling e-cigarette products in November, for fear of being found by the Tobacco Bureau. He did not receive a notice of ban on the government department, and the salesman told him.
Shanghai:The offline sales point coverage is small and difficult to promote
In this offline survey, Sanyan Finance visited the sales outlets of Yueji, Xuejia and Fulu. The three stores are scattered in several large shopping malls in Shanghai, and all brands of electronic cigarettes of all brands are sold. It is worth noting that among the several e-cigarette outlets under investigation, there are verbal promises or warning signs to prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. However, in the actual purchase experience of Sanyan Finance, no e-cigarette salesperson requested to show identification documents.
Snow plus e-cigarette
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Non-independent stores
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10km from the city centre
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No underage warning signs, the guide promises not to sell to underage
The snow and e-cigarette push booth is located in the corner of the mall
The shopping mall where the snow and electronic cigarette shop is located consists of a number of independent buildings, and the snow plus shop is located on the basement level of one of the buildings. There is no obvious marker to guide the outdoor, and it is relatively difficult to find.
The shop sells all kinds of electronic cigarettes of Xuejia, and introduces the products to consumers after the shopping guide. However, according to three financial observations, no one asked or bought in an hour.
In addition, this snow shop has no obvious warning signs prohibiting minors from purchasing e-cigarettes. However, in the interview, the shopping guide verbally stated that it would never sell e-cigarettes to minors. In addition, the shopping guide said that although online sales channels are banned, it does not affect offline sales. There have been no regulatory authorities coming to check recently, and there are relatively more people buying offline.
Yue Engraving
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Non-independent stores
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8km from the city centre
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There are underage warning signs
Sanyan Finance found the Yuexing offline sales point on the 6th floor of Bailian Youcheng Shopping Center in Wujiaochang, Shanghai. However, the point of sale of E-cigarettes here is not a push booth or an independent store, but a third-party cooperative shelf sold in a TinkPad computer store.
Yue carved shelfLocated in a ThinkPad computer store on the 6th floor of the mall
The store mainly sells laptops and related products. The E-cigarette shelf is located at the door of the store. If you don’t look carefully, it is hard to find that it also sells e-cigarettes.
A warning sign on the shelf that prohibits the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors
The warning sign on the e-cigarette shelf is placed in a prominent position to prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors. The shelf has a full range of e-cigarette products.
The purchase of E-cigarettes here is completed by the sales of the Thinkpad store. They told the Sanyan Finance that they are aware of the current online e-cigar ban. The shopping guide said that offline sales have not been affected, and no regulatory authorities have come to check.
FLOW”
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Non-independent stores
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7km from the city centre
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There are underage warning signs
Fu LuZiyan Shop
The Fulu offline sales point is located in Hongji Plaza near Shanghai University in the northwest of Shanghai. It is a non-door-style independent sales booth similar to the snow-sand push booth.
A number of warning signs prohibiting the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors are placed in a prominent position at the point of sale. The store sells various electronic cigarette products of Flow. The store owner said that he is an official offline authorized electronic cigarette shop of Fulu. Because the online electronic cigarette is banned, the purchase of Flow electronic cigarette can only be done offline.
Again, the boss also said that there is no problem in selling electronic cigarettes offline, and there is no supervision by the regulatory authorities in the near future.
24-hour convenience store
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Non-independent stores
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There are minor warning signs
Sanyan Finance surveyed more than ten 24-hour convenience stores and cigarettes and liquor stores in Shanghai. Two disposable e-cigarettes were found in only one of the Rosen convenience stores.
The convenience store clerk told Sanyan Finance that not all Rosen chain convenience stores sell such e-cigarettes. At the same time, from the perspective of overall sales, traditional cigarettes are still the best sellers. For the online e-cigar ban, the clerk expressed his knowledge and said that he could sell e-cigarettes.
Summary
The overall feeling of sales under the electronic cigarette line in Shanghai is “the door can be”. During the investigation, none of the three e-cigarette stores saw consumers to consult and purchase.
In addition, offline electronic cigarette sales points still have problems such as excessive distribution, unprofessional shopping guides, and difficult promotion.
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Distribution is too fragmented
In fact, Sanyan Finance is looking for the process of electronic cigarettes under the Shanghai area. Struggling. The plurality of e-cigarette sales points displayed on the map are mostly changed due to the expiration of the information.
This means that if you can’t buy e-cigarettes online, the offline sales point coverage is low, and if you don’t live nearby, it will take a long time to run.
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The point of sale is hard to find
Even if you find the mall where the point of sale is located, you are still facing the problem of finding a specific store. In the three offline sales outlets of this survey, except for the Fulu sales booth, which is located on the first floor of the shopping mall, the other two locations are more difficult to find.
Snow is located on the basement level of the mall, while Yuet is on the sixth floor of the mall. Neither of them has set up any guide promotion cards outside the mall. To find these two homes, unless they are deliberately looking for, there is a high probability that they will “take a chance.”
In particular, the singularly-sold selling point is difficult to find in the sixth floor of the mall, or it is a promotion point for cooperation with third parties. According to three financial observations, most of the people who went to the store for shopping were customers who consulted computers, and no one viewed e-cigarettes.
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Unprofessional
In this survey, the ThinkPad store has a very unprofessional sales behavior. The main reason is that they are mainly selling computers, so they may not be familiar with the cooperative e-cigarette products.
There is a “forgetting words” behavior when introducing the products of Yueteng, and you need to check the product introduction on the spot. In addition, Sanyan Finance purchased two Yueteng products, and the sales guide did not know how to open the bill. After asking a number of colleagues, the settlement is completed.
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Promotion is difficult
After the e-cigarette was banned, the promotion of e-cigarettes became a more difficult reality. The owner of the Flow Store also admitted that since the ban was issued, it was very troublesome to buy a replacement cartridge. At present, the coverage of electronic cigarettes under the Shanghai line is small and it is difficult to promote.
After Sanyan Finance bought two products at the Fulu store, the store owner strongly recommended adding him WeChat. And said that if you want to buy later, you can contact WeChat and provide mailing service nationwide. If you order more, you can also post. The owner said that it is helpless to do so. After the online ban, he can only expand the customer base through social software.
Write at the end
The impact of the e-cigarette ban on the e-cigarette industry is obvious and quite serious. At present, the sales of electronic cigarettes in the offline areas of Beijing and Shanghai are facing small coverage and difficult promotion. To solve these problems, e-cigarette manufacturers need to increase their offline expansion. This means that more e-cigarette offline stores need to be opened to train more professional sales talents in order to allow more users to have access to the products.
But compared to online channels, offline stores are expensive to install and require high labor costs. This extra expense is undoubtedly a serious challenge for e-cigarette manufacturers.
Overall observation, the sales of electronic cigarettes are not optimistic, and the policy for offline sales needs to be further clarified; plus many recent electronic cigarette companiesIndustry layoffs, the survival of the electronic cigarette industry is worth worrying about.