---
title: "Amid Recurring COVID-19, Distributors Need Long-Termism"
description: "This autumn seems short, with winter arriving before travel and health codes could switch. Local distributors' business has slowed during the 'golden September and silver October' due to the pandemic, leading to a lack of confidence in the future among most distributors. The article analyzes the challenges and opportunities for offline FMCG distributors, offering strategies on channel management, efficiency, and cash flow, along with three anti-pandemic suggestions."
author: "水到哥"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2022-11-21"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/amid-recurring-covid-19-distributors-need-long-termism-891b5348/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/amid-recurring-covid-19-distributors-need-long-termism-891b5348.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xhL0OM2CQvSpJyEbyzSbMA"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%96%AB%E6%83%85%E5%8F%8D%E5%A4%8D-%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86%E6%9B%B4%E9%9C%80%E9%95%BF%E6%9C%9F%E4%B8%BB%E4%B9%89-891b5348.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/amid-recurring-covid-19-distributors-need-long-termism-891b5348/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Amid Recurring COVID-19, Distributors Need Long-Termism

> This autumn seems short, with winter arriving before travel and health codes could switch. Local distributors' business has slowed during the 'golden September and silver October' due to the pandemic, leading to a lack of confidence in the future among most distributors. The article analyzes the challenges and opportunities for offline FMCG distributors, offering strategies on channel management, efficiency, and cash flow, along with three anti-pandemic suggestions.

This autumn seems short, so short that winter arrived before the travel code and health code could switch. Local distributors' business seems to have slowed down with this wave of the pandemic during the 'golden September and silver October' when sales should have been booming. As a result, the voices of salesmen, the doubts of stores, and the surrounding environment have become less friendly. Whether for distributors or city managers, it seems that every morning meeting has turned into a session for handling objections, solving problems, and firefighting.

Shui Dao Ge (a pseudonym for the author) has visited many offline distributors. **Amid the recurring pandemic, a lack of confidence in the future has become the core confusion for most distributors.**

**The past three years have been fortunate for offline FMCG.**

From tourism, cinemas, and restaurants to real estate, many industries are experiencing unprecedented challenges and historical turning points. However, FMCG has maintained steady growth every year, driven by the basic needs of every consumer group.

**As one of the most important distribution links, distributors have stable incomes, earning less but able to stop losses in time.**

**The past three years have also been difficult for offline FMCG.**

Since 2012, internal channel impacts have never ceased: from the rise of traditional e-commerce festivals to social e-commerce's precise targeting; from B2B internet tactics sinking into small stores to community group buying going deeper. **The impact on offline distributors from both B and C ends has come in waves, never stopping in recent years.**

**01**
**The ongoing pandemic is accelerating the reshuffling of offline channels.**

Through these phenomena, it's not hard to see that offline channels, with distributors as the main distribution coverage, are undergoing a new round of reshuffling.

From a **market** perspective, on one hand, **channels are becoming more fragmented, and the diversion of customer traffic is inevitable**. This issue is becoming more prominent as the demographic dividend fades.

On the other hand, under uncertainties like the pandemic, **the trend of consumption polarization is prominent**. Even in county and town markets with good foot traffic in hypermarkets, we see more low-price, large-capacity laundry detergent on daily chemical pallets, and the bulk food section is expanding.

These uncertainties make **market competition more unpredictable, with manufacturers shifting from group warfare to deep-penetration guerrilla warfare, with increasingly varied tactics.**

From the **manufacturer** perspective, foreign companies' investments are tightening alongside digital exploration. The previous 'nanny-style' service and rough business model for distributors are now facing increasing compliance challenges.

Domestic brands have also abandoned the old 'human wave' tactics and are trying new approaches (e.g., small and beautiful). These all place new demands on distributors' transformation and operational capabilities.

From the **distributor** perspective, warehouse and logistics costs are rising year by year, hypermarket fee management requires higher financial skills, and the competitiveness of salesmen's wages and aging issues are all becoming obstacles for distributors who once stood at the top of the distribution pyramid.

It seems this cycle is forcing distributors everywhere to self-reform and accelerate the reshuffling.

When the tide goes out, you see who's swimming naked. The pandemic acts as a catalyst, accelerating the efficiency of the offline FMCG reshuffle. **In this spiral upward phase, at the bottleneck, some players will be eliminated, and those who squeeze through will surely taste the benefits.**

**02**
**How should distributors 'fight' in the post-pandemic era?**

**How to walk more steadily under the dual pressure of market and pandemic** is a real issue for distributors, and it's also the topic that Shui Dao Ge found most concerning after visiting many distributors.

First, as a local distributor, **it's important to do well in controllable channels and not blindly expand without preparation**. This also applies to managing a brand portfolio.

In recent years, many cases have taught us that crossing the river by feeling the stones is risky.

Seeing B2B become popular, some self-built B2B platforms; seeing community group buying become popular, they rush in with low prices. Many small distributors, without adequate preparation in people, goods, and places, enter hastily and end up paying for lessons, disrupting their own plans.

Additionally, mismanagement of small teams and time misallocation have partially lost the traditional channel services they were best at.

Most emerging channels, backed by capital, have lower early trial-and-error costs. But the first batch of distributors entering are weak because they are highly replaceable. Only with matching service and capital operation capabilities can they truly 'borrow a boat to go to sea' and achieve rapid breakthroughs.

New attempts are good, but don't lose the watermelon while picking up sesame seeds.

**Most distributors, especially in third- and fourth-tier cities, still rely on traditional businesses like hypermarkets, convenience stores, small and medium supermarkets, and mom-and-pop stores. This is also the unique local advantage that has allowed distributors to compete with big capital over the years.** Don't disrupt your own plans and lose your foundation.

**In today's complex channel environment, distributors should return to their roots, not only doing what they are good at again but also doing it well.** Even in traditional tracks, you can have your own competitiveness!

Second, **return to basic algorithms and improve personnel efficiency.**

When it comes to channels, people are an unavoidable topic.

As frontline salesmen's years of service increase and store iteration speeds up, our execution in stores is increasingly challenged. Shui Dao Ge interviewed several manufacturer managers, and this year's strategic priorities are strikingly similar—**return to basics and improve distribution coverage quality.**

It seems this topic was also the strategic focus of offline FMCG ten years ago.

So, what has changed? The types of stores are similar, but the salesmen executing policies are changing.

Looking at the human variable, one thing remains certain: store service is achieved through diligence! That is, daily follow-up, which hasn't changed in ten years.

Ten years ago, we talked about **visit rate, sell-in/activation rate, and new product distribution rate**. Today, manufacturers are still talking about these.

But can we still manage frontline salesmen to follow up on these simple, boring, but basic tasks that require daily effort?

Clearly, some distributors have passed the era of 'conquering the world'. Do they still have the passion and enthusiasm of the early days, getting up early and staying late, visiting stores by tricycle, and delivering goods regardless of holidays? These are the basics we need to find again.

**There is no shortcut in offline FMCG; perfect execution is always followed up on a daily basis.**

At this time, **basic algorithms become very important: how many stores to visit each day, time spent in each store type, use of core display tools and shelf maintenance, daily visits and conversion rates, and follow-up on output per channel store** etc.

If you look at these in detail, there will be many opportunities for improvement. In this daily follow-up, through trial, error, correction, and review, the efficiency of frontline personnel will naturally improve. This is more down-to-earth than complaining about price chaos and poor market environment.

Third, **guard the lifeline—cash flow**, including precise warehouse inventory management, precise store distribution and inventory management, and faster turnover of receivables and advances.

When some manufacturers' frontline business faces pressure, the two simplest methods are unhealthy wholesale and forcing distributors to stock up.

One method requires money, the other occupies money, but both directly challenge distributors' cash flow, especially at the end of the month when these actions are more harmful.

**Fine management of local business requires distributors to carefully calculate money and related management strategies**, such as inventory management, SKU distribution management, and receivables and advance management. This daily management should not overly rely on manufacturers to solve problems, but rather, in daily follow-up, look carefully, calculate clearly, to operate funds efficiently and improve return on investment.

Finally, Shui Dao Ge gives all offline friends **three 'anti-pandemic' suggestions:**

**1) Face market issues squarely, don't forget your original intention, and if the direction is right, it's okay to walk slowly.**

**2) Offline business is a people business. The harder it gets, the more you need to unify thinking. Small teams should align their tactics as much as possible, focusing their efforts to form a synergy.**

**3) Whether you are a distributor boss or a manufacturer manager, when you can't find answers, go to the market, go deep and wide, and as you walk, some problems will naturally have answers.**

**As the tide recedes and under the pandemic, what distributors need to do is not panic or get confused. Use algorithms to drive people, and then use people to drive business. This order cannot be reversed.**

In gradually refined algorithmic management, accumulate small wins for long-term gains. In the short term, restore execution and win store confidence; in the medium term, train the team through real combat; in the long term, optimize investment so every penny is spent valuably. Adhere to long-termism, and time will become your friend.


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671