During the recent May 20 anniversary, which coincided with Shihui Tuan's third anniversary, the platform launched a massive promotional campaign. New Distribution exclusively learned that Shihui Tuan's overall GMV during the anniversary exceeded 800 million yuan, with fresh produce orders reaching 33 million, and fresh produce sales accounting for 50%. Compared to the same period last year, GMV alone grew by over 400%, showcasing Shihui Tuan's astonishing growth rate. Furthermore, during the event, the total number of merchants on the Shihui Tuan platform increased by 110% year-on-year, with merchants selling over one million yuan surging by 251% compared to last year. The continuous surge in merchant numbers is attributed to the continuous upgrading of Shihui Tuan's supply-side products and the platform's increased support for merchants, indicating that Shihui Tuan's overall merchant scale and merchant health index have reached a new high. Based on this, Shihui Tuan has set its 2021 GMV target at 100 billion yuan. With numerous competitors and fierce battles among giants, it is indeed not easy for Shihui Tuan to achieve such results under intense market competition. As the latest-established head company in community group buying, Shihui Tuan's contemporaries such as Shixianghui and Tongcheng Life have already shown signs of fatigue. From the initial expansion into more than a dozen provinces nationwide to the gradual encroachment of its home base Wuhan by giants, and the successive defeats in various regions, Shixianghui took only a little over a year. Under the same market competition, Tongcheng Life's strategy of alliances and mergers gradually failed; after strategically acquiring Kaola Select in Hunan, it gradually withdrew from the Hunan market, illustrating the intensity of market competition. Shihui Tuan, which has become more courageous with each battle, not only relies on Alibaba's backing and multiple rounds of funding support but also on its continuous efforts to refine its business model, optimize the supply chain, and cultivate the market. From this perspective, Shihui Tuan's achievements today are only natural. -01- Community Group Buying Competition Has Entered the Second Half In the current market landscape, based on the timing of entry, community group buying is divided into two camps: the "New Three Groups" and the "Old Three Groups." The so-called New Three Groups refer to Meituan Select, Duoduo Maicai, and Chengxin Youxuan, which entered community group buying in 2020. They are called the New Three Groups because they originate from internet giants and develop rapidly; the Old Three Groups refer to the top three platforms before that, namely Shihui Tuan, Xing Sheng Youxuan, and Tongcheng Life. From a financing background perspective, whether it is Meituan Select, Duoduo Maicai, Chengxin Youxuan, or Xing Sheng Youxuan and Tongcheng Life, traces of Tencent can be seen more or less, but there is little actual business linkage. In stark contrast, after receiving multiple rounds of financing from Alibaba, Shihui Tuan has also established effective linkages with Alibaba in supply chain, traffic, and operations, gradually building a unique competitive advantage. A typical case is during the 2021 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, where Taobao provided 80 million portions of fresh fruit and vegetable subsidies to users nationwide, and the supplier behind it was Shihui Tuan, quickly making it known to the public. In the current fierce battle for users, this is undoubtedly a more powerful support for Shihui Tuan than real money. Focusing on fresh produce is another important way for Shihui Tuan to build its moat. Currently, while platforms represented by Xing Sheng Youxuan, Meituan Select, and Duoduo Maicai are increasing the proportion of standard products such as food and beverages, daily chemicals, and personal care, Shihui Tuan remains steadfast in making fresh produce its core category, accounting for as high as 50-60%. Although high-frequency, the high loss rate of fresh produce and the high requirements for warehousing, logistics, and distribution have become the main reasons why most fresh produce e-commerce platforms find it difficult to be profitable. Doing difficult but correct things has become Shihui Tuan's persistence. Chen Ying, founder of Shihui Tuan, has repeatedly stated clearly: "Within 3 years, we will build 3 million group buying pickup points with fresh produce fulfillment capabilities nationwide, so that users in most cities and rural areas in China can pick up fresh produce purchased from Shihui Tuan within easy walking distance, and enjoy next-day or even same-day delivery fulfillment experience." This is not only a commitment to consumers in the vast lower-tier markets but also a requirement for its own supply chain, warehousing, and distribution capabilities, which forces Shihui Tuan to take solid steps, continuously strengthen its warehousing and distribution foundation, and strive to do well in market services and consumer experience. -02- Competition Between Platforms Has Entered Overtime Competition among community group buying platforms has entered overtime. At this stage, it is not only about the endurance of each platform but also hard strengths such as supply chain, warehousing, distribution, and services. Compared to traditional e-commerce and front-warehouse fresh produce e-commerce, community group buying ensures consumer experience while effectively balancing logistics and delivery efficiency. It is for this reason that community group buying has been accepted by more and more consumers. Currently, although all platforms adopt the "pre-sale + next-day delivery + self-pickup" model, there are still obvious differences in warehousing and distribution models among different platforms, which directly lead to differences in logistics fulfillment efficiency and consumer experience. Looking at the major head platforms in community group buying, they basically adopt a three-level warehousing and distribution system of "shared warehouse - central warehouse - grid warehouse" , with the specific model as follows: Suppliers transport goods to the shared warehouse in advance, and the platform begins pre-selling the goods. After the pre-sale order cut-off, the sold quantity of goods is sent to the group buying platform's central warehouse. In the central warehouse, the platform sorts according to the order areas of each grid warehouse, uses box trucks to deliver the sorted goods to the grid warehouses, and after all goods arrive at the grid warehouses, they are sorted to each group. The group leader receives the goods and notifies consumers to pick them up. In the early stages of development, the three-level warehousing and distribution model did help platforms ensure order fulfillment and improve consumer experience to a certain extent. However, with the increase in order volume and differences in warehousing and distribution business models among platforms, various problems have emerged in the development process of different platforms. For example, a certain Youxuan platform, due to its lack of supply chain gene accumulation, had to adopt a lighter franchise outsourcing model to layout its nationwide warehousing and distribution system, outsourcing processing warehouses and collaborative warehouses to third-party warehousing and distribution companies. This directly led to a significant reduction in its control over front-end fulfillment links, and it has been repeatedly reported for delayed order delivery, greatly impacting consumer experience. In contrast, Shihui Tuan's unique two-level warehousing and distribution model has shown unique advantages in its development process. Taking the fulfillment during the recent 520 third anniversary celebration as an example, facing the warehousing and distribution pressure of doubled order volume, the on-time outbound rate of its main battlefield Changsha FC (distribution warehouse) still reached 99.7%, and the TC warehouse (terminal warehouse) achieved a delivery rate of 97.86% by 12:00 and 100% by 14:00, effectively ensuring consumer experience during the anniversary. As the saying goes, one does not fight an unprepared battle. Before the promotion began, Shihui Tuan made effective warnings about the increase in order volume and promptly supplemented manpower and transportation capacity. Taking the Changsha market as an example, it invested nearly 3,000 person-times in total, and transportation capacity reached nearly 10,000 vehicle trips. In the actual fulfillment process, Shihui Tuan adopted a strategy of front-loading the overall process. By advancing various processes such as supplier goods arrival, sorting, and logistics distribution, it reserved sufficient working time for back-end staff, thereby maximizing the efficiency of order logistics and distribution. Coupled with Shihui Tuan's advantages in logistics IT system development, from warehouse management system WMS, distribution management system TMS, TC warehouse process-based handheld APP picking, to full tracking of goods handover and routes at the distribution end, it can be said that Shihui Tuan has taken the lead in achieving full-process digitalization and paperless operations, further compressing order distribution costs. It can be seen that compared with platforms adopting a three-level warehousing and distribution system, Shihui Tuan's efficient two-level warehousing and distribution model ensures its rapid implementation and replication nationwide, with greater flexibility. When dealing with sudden increases in order volume, there are fewer internal communication links and stronger controllability , thereby ensuring efficient collaboration in goods warehousing, sorting, logistics, and distribution. This has also become the premise and foundation for Shihui Tuan's rapid order fulfillment nationwide during this 520 promotion. Secondly, information tools and big data capabilities have become the key to the smooth progress of this Shihui Tuan promotion. Before the promotion began, the digital system made warnings about possible order surges, made advance allocations for core regions and core products, and front-loaded the back-end fulfillment process, minimizing the pressure on the back-end supply chain after orders occurred, safeguarding the entire 520 anniversary promotion. -03- Shihui Tuan Leads the Lower-Tier Market with User First "The endgame of the community group buying market will not be a single dominant player; it will be an industry pattern with multiple strong players coexisting." This viewpoint has appeared multiple times in internal letters from Chen Ying, chairman of Shihui Tuan, to employees. But it is clear that Shihui Tuan is undoubtedly the strong player that has emerged from this brutal battle. Facing industry regulatory pressure and the continuous expansion of giants, Shihui Tuan, which has fought its way out, deeply understands the survival principles under strong winds. It is reported that its business currently covers seven major regions: Central China, South China, East China, North China, Northwest, Southwest, and Northeast, spanning 34 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities), more than 2,000 cities and counties, and 830,000 communities. Shihui Tuan's community group buying system has formed a positively developing business network, covering more than 50 million users nationwide, with the majority distributed in lower-tier markets below the third tier. Undoubtedly, whether from the breadth or depth of coverage, Shihui Tuan has grown into a big tree in China's retail industry. In the fiercely competitive 2020, it achieved a 10-fold increase in sales, with annual GMV exceeding 10 billion yuan. Especially after multiple rounds of investment from Alibaba, Shihui Tuan, with ample resources, is destined not to miss any opportunity for rapid growth. But this is not the ultimate goal of Shihui Tuan's development. On the anniversary day of May 20, Chen Ying, chairman of Shihui Tuan, mentioned at the internal celebration that Shihui Tuan will continue to uphold the concept of "User First," use whether it creates user value as the criterion for daily decisions, and continuously build and upgrade user experience, letting user feedback drive the improvement of service capabilities. Facing the huge incremental lower-tier market, user experience cannot ultimately be bought with money. While other competitors and giants are still expanding frantically, Shihui Tuan will ultimately continue to lead the industry with "User First." Final Thoughts: As the latest-established head company in the community group buying industry, it is indeed not easy for Shihui Tuan to achieve such results. Especially after several giants have entered the market one after another, many platforms have begun to gradually shrink their market scale, and some have already ceased operations in the fierce competition and are gradually being eliminated. Shihui Tuan still adheres to its original intention and maintains such high-speed growth, which is inseparable from its continuous construction and strengthening of its own supply chain, team organizational capabilities, warehousing and distribution logistics capabilities, and IT technology capabilities. These capabilities will also become the core competitiveness of the platform in future development and market competition. Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan once the tip is adopted.