---
title: "10,000+ SKUs, Covering 4,000+ Outlets: Turning a Traditional Trading Company into a 'One-Stop Supply Platform' for Local Retail Stores!"
description: "In recent years, New Distribution has visited many distributor bosses who report that business is tough and revenue growth without profit growth is the norm. Many distributors are struggling to survive, being eliminated by the market, or acquired by competitors. The main difficulty for distributors today is the increased uncertainty in the downstream retail market. On one hand, the wave of traditional supermarket closures leads to customer loss, and mid-sized stores have weaker risk resistance. On the other hand, snack stores are expanding aggressively with low prices, followed by discount stores, and supermarket renovations require distributors to supply at bare prices. These channel changes have a huge impact on today's distributors."
author: "汪海"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2025-05-08"
categories: "Distribution & Channels, Retail Formats"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/G78bLwzQ1TGhzaIWY1Gzcg"
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attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/10-000-skus-covering-4-000-outlets-turning-a-traditional-trading-company-05098b2d/"
citation: "汪海. “10,000+ SKUs, Covering 4,000+ Outlets: Turning a Traditional Trading Company into a 'One-Stop Supply Platform' for Local Retail Stores!.” New Distribution, 2025-05-08. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/10-000-skus-covering-4-000-outlets-turning-a-traditional-trading-company-05098b2d/"
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---

# 10,000+ SKUs, Covering 4,000+ Outlets: Turning a Traditional Trading Company into a 'One-Stop Supply Platform' for Local Retail Stores!

> In recent years, New Distribution has visited many distributor bosses who report that business is tough and revenue growth without profit growth is the norm. Many distributors are struggling to survive, being eliminated by the market, or acquired by competitors. The main difficulty for distributors today is the increased uncertainty in the downstream retail market. On one hand, the wave of traditional supermarket closures leads to customer loss, and mid-sized stores have weaker risk resistance. On the other hand, snack stores are expanding aggressively with low prices, followed by discount stores, and supermarket renovations require distributors to supply at bare prices. These channel changes have a huge impact on today's distributors.

In recent years, New Distribution has visited many distributor bosses, and the common feedback is that business is hard today, and it's normal to see revenue growth without profit growth. Distributors who can't hold on, are eliminated by the market, or are acquired by competitors are everywhere.
For distributors, today's 'difficulty' mainly lies in the increased uncertainty in the downstream retail market.
On one hand, the wave of traditional supermarket closures leads to customer loss, and mid-sized stores have weaker risk resistance. On the other hand, snack stores are expanding aggressively with low prices, followed by discount stores, and supermarket renovations even require distributors to supply at bare prices.
These channel changes have a huge impact on today's distributor community.
In this market context, we find that in third- and fourth-tier cities, distributors who only operate in a single channel are very easily constrained. In contrast, distributors who operate across all channels locally can still maintain good development.
The protagonist of this New Distribution 100 article is Ms. Duan Xi, General Manager of Yuxi Meihua Trading Co., Ltd. in Yunnan Province.
In a fourth-tier city, with 10,000+ SKUs and covering 4,000+ outlets, how does Meihua achieve omni-channel operations? As a second-generation business owner with over a decade of retail experience, what are Ms. Duan's thoughts on taking over the trading business? Facing market channel changes, does she embrace or resist them?
This article shares her practices and thoughts with you, hoping to inspire you.
**From a Department Store Wholesale Department to a Regional Trading Leader**
Meihua has experienced almost every stage of development and change in the commercial distribution field.
In 1993, during the era of large-scale wholesale, Ms. Duan's mother started a business. At that time, food was relatively sufficient, but daily necessities were scarce. So she established a department store wholesale department in Yuxi, mainly dealing in lipstick, lip balm, home appliances, and other general merchandise.
In 1997, Yuxi Meihua Trading Co., Ltd. was formally established, and its business model transformed from a 'sitting merchant' to a 'traveling merchant,' starting to distribute goods to various counties and districts.
Then in 1999, major brands began to penetrate regional channels, and Meihua started to take on brand distributorships, such as White Cat and Strong Group, which have accompanied Meihua for over 20 years.
From 2003 to 2023, the fastest 20 years of retail channel development in China, various new channels emerged. Thanks to the unique vision of Ms. Duan's mother and Ms. Duan herself, Meihua embraced various channels during these 20 years.
From early supermarkets, CVS, and special channels, to later community group buying and snack stores, Meihua cooperated with them by supplying goods while also opening its own stores.
Ms. Duan, who had just graduated, like most second-generation business owners, didn't want to live under her parents' shadow and wanted to build her own career. After leaving school in 2011, she started her own imported food store business.
However, with the rise of e-commerce and transparent market information, the offline channel prices of imported food stores were heavily influenced by online prices, and the business got worse and worse until she finally closed it.
Later, Ms. Duan went to China Resources Vanguard's Yunnan headquarters as an assistant to the president. It wasn't until 2016, when Meihua Trading won a bid for campus channels, that she returned to Meihua to be responsible for the campus store business.
After several years of operation, Ms. Duan did well in the campus channel, expanding direct-operated stores to over 30, which was her first pot of gold.
In 2020, her mother stepped back, and Ms. Duan took full control of Meihua. With years of retail experience, she quickly upgraded the company from a pure 'brand distributor' to a 'one-stop supply platform.'
**Product Selection Should Not Be Based on Personal Preference**
**It Should Be Driven by Demand**
Channels are the core of a distributor's business today, and matching appropriate products to each channel is key.
Meihua's 10,000+ SKUs can almost meet all the needs of retail stores. **In essence, Meihua is a 'one-stop supply platform' disguised as a traditional trading company.** Therefore, in product management, Ms. Duan has developed her own methodology.
1. Targeted Product Selection
For products that are hot online and offline, Meihua has two different sets of logic.
**Online hot product selection logic: Unlike most distributors who focus on taste and packaging, Meihua's selection logic is based on big data analysis.**
  * What is the market's awareness of this product, and in which channels does it sell well?
  * Is the data provided by the manufacturer authentic?
  * Which channels are suitable for selling it, and how are competitors' sales?
Ms. Duan said, "The product may be good, but if it doesn't match our channels, it's better not to do it."
**Offline product selection logic: Abandon the wait-and-see mindset and seek opportunities on the front lines.**
For some brands that perform well offline, Ms. Duan will proactively contact them using the phone numbers on the packaging.
"Product selection is closely related to the boss's attention. Although it's a stock market now and good products are not scarce, you still need to be proactive to get ahead of others," Ms. Duan shared.
2. Rely on Demand Thinking for Channel-Specific Management
For managing 10,000 SKUs, Meihua has its own unique approach. They use terminal demand for product management, so Meihua's products are not 'sell what you have' but 'sell what is needed.'
In Meihua's warehouse, there are about 4,000 regular SKUs, while 6,000 slower-moving, personalized items are procured on demand, so Meihua has almost no inventory pressure.
Secondly, because Meihua does local omni-channel business, they can source most products. For example, Meihua doesn't do water and beverages, but because they serve special channels, they can source most water and beverage products, forming a virtuous cycle.
3. High Stickiness of Retail Outlets
Over 20-30 years of operation, Meihua has built a good reputation locally, and local stores have a high level of recognition for them. This is also the core reason why Meihua has 6,000+ on-demand procurement items.
Therefore, whenever a new channel enters Yuxi, they need local suppliers, and Meihua naturally becomes their first choice.
**Meihua Trading's Three Moat**
When sales in a single channel decline, it's hard to increase per-store output through vertical cultivation; instead, horizontal channel expansion is more effective. But each channel has different consumer demands, and the corresponding product mix and promotion logic often differ, so different actions are needed for different retail formats.
Regarding how Meihua does local omni-channel operations well, Ms. Duan gave three points.
1. Channel Success: Seize Every Opportunity for Change.
In its development, Meihua has seized almost every node in the evolution of FMCG channels.
In 2003, when the retail market fully opened and hypermarkets emerged, Meihua was the first to seize the supermarket channel, enjoying the golden development period of KA.
Local supermarkets began to spring up like mushrooms after rain, and Meihua was both opening stores and supplying goods to various local supermarkets. The first supermarket over 10,000 square meters in Honghe Prefecture was opened by Meihua.
In 2010, when the CVS channel emerged, Meihua opened a branch in Kunming, specializing in convenience store systems for PetroChina and Sinopec gas stations. From oil drums and rain boots needed at gas stations, Meihua almost sold whatever the stores needed.
In 2015, when the market cracked down on 'relationship households,' Meihua seized the opportunity to win bids and supply special channels.
In 2019, when community group buying emerged, Meihua became the first local trading company to supply community group buying.
In 2022, when the snack store trend began to show, Meihua was also the first supplier to cooperate with local snack chains.
Facing the rise of new trends, Ms. Duan believes: "When a trend comes, cooperate first and optimize later. Better to try and make mistakes than to miss out!"
Meihua's self-operated discount store 'Hai Xuan Le'
2. Deep Cultivation of Channels: Team is the Core.
With over 10,000 SKUs and serving 4,000+ outlets, a stable team is indispensable. In Ms. Duan's view, today's team is an asset of Meihua, not a cost.
Meihua's team is sufficient, with a turnover rate of no more than 3%, and strong work capability. There has been almost no personnel turnover for over a decade. But a stable team has pros and cons: employees have weaker initiative and mostly rely on experience, and many are unwilling to try new things.
Therefore, Ms. Duan abolished seniority-based wages and reformed performance, breaking egalitarianism, and using distribution according to work and more pay for more work as incentives. On one hand, this re-motivates old employees; on the other hand, it improves the retention rate of new employees.
"Our employees are very capable; each one is a 'dragon' when singled out, but how to stimulate their 'fighting spirit' is crucial," Ms. Duan said.
3. The Boss is the Leader of the Business, and Their Thinking Must Keep Up with the Times.
In China, most trading companies are boss-led, so the boss's foresight into the market is very important.
Ms. Duan believes: "Where the boss allocates time, results are achieved. No matter what you do, the boss must make up their mind and lead, to drive the whole company."
Ms. Duan gave a specific example. When Meihua first started using the Zhoupu system, she was the most proficient in the entire company.
Most traditional trading companies find digital transformation hard to accept for experienced old employees. Therefore, Ms. Duan spent a lot of time communicating deeply with employees, and for those who made excuses, found reasons, or were unwilling to use it, she provided one-on-one communication and coaching.
Ms. Duan said: "In internal management, if the boss doesn't spend time implementing reforms, employees won't be willing to invest effort in research. So no matter what you do, you must lead well and play a supervisory role. Tools are important, but the people who use them are the most important."
Final Thoughts
"Previously, I thought Meihua's biggest disadvantage was having too many channels and too many categories, but today, the former disadvantage has turned into our advantage," Ms. Duan shared.
New Distribution has always emphasized in its sharing that **if distributors want to continue to grow their business today, they must keep a close eye on changes in downstream retail channels, actively embrace and try them, and only then can they stay at the table.**
Over the past 20-plus years, China's FMCG industry has undergone earth-shaking changes. In the past, distributors only needed to do vertical development, deepening a certain channel or brand.
Today, we see that the more single-channel and single-brand, the easier it is to be 'choked.' Channels remain the foundation of a distributor's survival, but how to seize channels is the key to survival.
In Meihua, we see the best state of a channel distributor who pays attention to retail. In the future, channels may become even more diverse, but having successful experience in building them will surely give Meihua enough confidence to face industry changes!


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 汪海
- Published: 2025-05-08
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/10-000-skus-covering-4-000-outlets-turning-a-traditional-trading-company-05098b2d/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/G78bLwzQ1TGhzaIWY1Gzcg

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