Community group buying, once hot in the capital market for years, has shifted 'from virtual to real' and entered its second half. Except for Xingsheng Youxuan, other veteran players in community group buying have gradually fallen behind: Tongcheng Life went bankrupt, and Shihuituan retreated nationwide. Among new entrants, Chenxin Youxuan is struggling to transform for self-rescue, and Jingxi Pinpin is downsizing through layoffs. These contractions, transformations, and closures indicate that community group buying has entered the arena of top players. As the entire track focuses on cost reduction and efficiency, the integration and elimination round in the second half will continue. Community group buying is a business that focuses on 'people.' Consumers are more concerned about convenience and affordability, rarely paying attention to whether the track is profitable. The banners change on the city walls; one after another, in just two or three years, consumers have migrated between platforms in round after round. Of course, 'group leaders' are also constantly migrating between platforms. As intermediaries connecting demand and supply, they have experienced the dreamlike moments of surging waves and also seen the fallen leaves after the clouds have risen. Recently, Lianshang.com interviewed an 'old group leader,' and we attempt to use her personal experience to clear the fog shrouding community group buying and show what community group buying really looks like in the eyes of a group leader. Entry and Exit 'More money, less work, close to home'—the simple and crude slogan of community group buying is the direct motivation attracting many retired residents and stay-at-home mothers to become group leaders. In 2018, 'Meijia Youxiang' began entering the Hangzhou market, and it was also one of the earliest community group buying platforms to enter Hangzhou. At that time, Yang Fang, a stay-at-home mother, started her group leader business on the recommendation of a colleague. 'This model suits stay-at-home mothers with children; it requires no investment, just some time to receive and deliver goods. It allows you to take care of your family without delaying childcare, and it also provides income.' Yang Fang believes that community group buying is flexible in time, and early commissions were relatively generous, which is why many people became group leaders. Over the past three or four years, Yang Fang has been a group leader for almost all mainstream community group buying platforms. However, a gust of wind rises, rolling up branches and leaves, and many platforms eventually fade into obscurity. Meijia Youxiang, which started early, has been shut down in the fierce market competition and exited, and Chenxin Youxuan's fate is similar. Duoduo Maicai, which entered later, gave Yang Fang the direct impression of large traffic, rich product variety, and low prices. However, as her children grew up, she had to take care of her family and also work at a training institution, so her part-time time was repeatedly shortened. Being a Duoduo Maicai group leader no longer allowed her much time freedom. 'I stopped being a Duoduo Maicai group leader because the delivery time is in the afternoon, which conflicts with my working hours.' Yang Fang's main free time is in the morning. Considering that Meituan Youxuan delivers in the morning, she put her main leisure time into Meituan Youxuan. Yang Fang has her own views on the role of a group leader. 'As a group leader, service must be in place. If the service is good, neighbors are willing to trust you, and the stickiness will be greater. Of course, there is also my personal idea: do things and help others, build a reputation.' She said. For group leaders, platforms with large traffic generally bring an increase in order volume, thus earning more income. However, Yang Fang does not think so. 'If product prices are low and people buy more, the commission is actually not too high. On some platforms, the vegetables neighbors buy are already rotten when they arrive, and the items are damaged. How can I still recommend them to buy?' In her view, many high-traffic platforms have very low product prices, but the products are not fresh, delivery times are unstable, and the experience is poor. In fact, the problem Yang Fang encountered is a realistic portrayal of the platform price war. The product competition in community group buying has always been dominated by non-standard products, and the gross margin of standard products is relatively low. Vegetables and fruits, for example, are much harder to control in production, storage, transportation, and quality control than ordinary products, and they also require a lot of cost. After the price war between platforms, drawbacks in service, experience, and quality have become more and more apparent. The cost expenditure and control of platforms have also affected group leaders. In the past, when recruiting group leaders, platforms generally provided free guidance on community operations, and through investment promotion meetings, they taught group leaders practical experience and shared industry development trends. In addition, platforms would also train group leaders in operational skills online, and send company personnel or subsidies to help group leaders attract new customers. Speaking of Meijia Youxiang, Yang Fang regrets that besides shutting down, its high-quality services in supporting group leaders, helping them attract new customers, and growing have become a thing of the past. 'In the past, the platform would send company personnel to help group leaders attract new customers, and also provide free materials for new customer activities. Now that no longer exists; we have to promote ourselves completely. The surviving big platforms are all the same, and prices are similar.' Yang Fang said. It is understood that in the era of the old three groups, community group buying platforms had requirements for group leaders' community operation capabilities and spent a lot of cost to cultivate their abilities. But in the current era where everyone can be a group leader, there is no longer much screening, and most group leaders have become 'mechanical' tools for sharing platform information. After round after round of reshuffling, Yang Fang feels that with more pickup points, consumers have more convenient choices, and there are more group leaders, but there are also more troubles. 'Now community platforms are not protected by region; anyone can apply to be a group leader if they want, and few people pay attention to the growth of group leaders. More is also cumbersome; things are not as neat as before, and vegetables and daily necessities are mixed together, which is unpleasant to look at.' 'Hard to Make Up My Mind to Give Up' Group leaders are the intermediaries connecting consumer demand and platform supply. The usual process is: after the platform recruits community group leaders, the group leader builds a group to attract fans and guide users to place orders, then aggregates order demands and purchases from the platform uniformly. The platform receives the order, purchases from upstream, and delivers to the group leader, who finally distributes the products to each user. ▲ Yang Fang's community group buying WeChat group Yang Fang's WeChat group has nearly 400 people, basically community residents, and the group buying scope is mainly her own community. As a group leader, she recommends products in the group every day. Residents receive the group buying information, click the group buying link, and buy directly. After the orders in the group are aggregated, the products are delivered from the place of origin to the front warehouse via land distribution, and then distributed from the warehouse to the community. After the products arrive at the community, Yang Fang, along with retired neighbors who have spare energy, completes the product sorting, distribution, and door-to-door delivery. For residents, door-to-door delivery is convenient and labor-saving. On the one hand, Yang Fang can get commissions, and on the other hand, she can gain a sense of pride, which makes her feel very happy. It is understood that in the community group buying model, group leaders play the roles of service staff and distributors, responsible for both online operations and maintenance, as well as front-end sales and pre-sales. The group leader's income mainly comes from sales commissions and new customer acquisition. Yang Fang's pickup point is on the first floor of the community building's open floor, involving frozen product storage, which requires her to provide insulation boxes to achieve refrigeration. Compared with storefronts, there is not much cost. On ordinary days, her order volume is about 300-400 orders, and after a day's work, her income is over 100 yuan. During the Chinese New Year and severe epidemic periods, when order demand skyrockets, including rewards for new customers and order counts, her income reaches 200-300 yuan. However, on March 31, Yang Fang's income exceeded 280 yuan, and the order volume was also much higher than usual. Compared with the online claim of 'being a Meituan group leader for 7 days and earning 30 yuan,' Yang Fang's income is much better. In terms of commissions, they mainly consist of basic service fees and tiered service fees. Different tiers have different commission ratios. According to her, overall, the current platform's commission has been reduced from 10% to about 8%. 'Commissions also depend on the order type. If there are many promotional orders, the ratio will be lower. New customer acquisition is tiered. For example, if 5 people get a 10 yuan reward, the more people, the higher the tier and the more money. However, the income from new customer acquisition is not very high.' Yang Fang said. Being a group leader is just earning a bit of running errands money; this is the sentiment of most group leaders, and Yang Fang thinks the same. In her view, being a group leader is earning some pocket money through her own labor. She hasn't earned big money, but she has earned popularity and trust, and the close bond with her neighbors. 'If neighbors have children or elderly at home and it's inconvenient to pick up goods, I help deliver to their door. If neighbors are not at home, I also help them pick up their courier packages.' Yang Fang said that in the group, neighbors see each other often, and helping out in time is a small effort. One thing that impressed her was that when a resident injured their leg and needed a wheelchair or crutches, neighbors in the group quickly found the equipment. Speaking of being a group leader, Yang Fang feels most fulfilled. 'Currently, as long as my work conditions allow, I will continue to be a group leader. Although I don't earn much, it's good as long as I can bring convenience and benefits to my neighbors. The bond established with neighbors through the platform makes it hard for me to make up my mind to give up.' Cannot Rely on Subsidies to Survive A common sense is that if a platform's prices are lower than the vegetable market, it must be losing money on subsidies. The continuous reshuffling among community group buying platforms has already shown that the model of burning capital to exchange for scale has been proven a failure. However, relying only on subsidies to survive, without fundamentally reducing costs, is also unsustainable. Without price subsidies, it is difficult to form stable consumer demand, and consumers will eventually flow out to other channels. 'Most people buy on platforms because they value the price; saving money is the most important thing, and expensive items don't sell well.' Yang Fang feels that while community group buying brings convenience and benefits to everyone, it also faces many problems. 'To attract group leaders and customers, prices for the same category vary between platforms, and the price chaos is increasing. If it continues, platforms cannot sustain. Many platforms also have high return rates, making costs hard to guarantee. Platform logistics and distribution are also a big problem, with unstable delivery times.' She said. For community group buying platforms, blindly pursuing scale becomes meaningless. Shifting focus from traffic acquisition to core constructions like warehousing, distribution, and supply chain is key. The most important thing is to find the best path from the supply side to directly reach consumers. In fact, whether for consumers or group leaders, community group buying focuses on 'people.' How group leaders, who are in a state of change, should respond in the future, Yang Fang is also watching. (*Yang Fang in this article is a pseudonym) Source: Lianshang.com Information (ID: lingshouzixun) Are you 'watching' me?