---
title: "Carrefour and New Internet-Famous Brands: Who Is Whose Lifeline?"
description: "Traditional large supermarkets, facing declining foot traffic, are increasingly stocking internet-famous new brands, while these brands seek offline presence to sustain growth. This mutual need reflects a strategic alignment, though neither may fully serve as the other's savior."
author: "王明雅"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2022-03-11"
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# Carrefour and New Internet-Famous Brands: Who Is Whose Lifeline?

> Traditional large supermarkets, facing declining foot traffic, are increasingly stocking internet-famous new brands, while these brands seek offline presence to sustain growth. This mutual need reflects a strategic alignment, though neither may fully serve as the other's savior.

Source: New Retail Business Review (ID: xinlingshou1001)
"Those who once held the power of discourse now present a different scene."
Change has been happening quietly.
Zheng Yi, a post-90s consumer, has developed a habit of shopping online. During the New Year shopping festival, unable to resist the overwhelming advertising enthusiasm in the elevator, she finally walked into a nearby China Resources Suguo hypermarket and was surprised to find that in this traditional large supermarket, some common online internet-famous new brands had been quietly placed in central positions.
The promotional products stacked in the aisles, besides the usual milk, orange juice, Want Want, and Lay's, also included Three Squirrels and Baicaowei, as well as combo packs of Li Ziqi's Luosifen and Genki Forest, occupying the core area.
Generally, large supermarkets, relying on their brand endorsement and channel layout advantages, have always held a dominant position in negotiations with incoming products, thus giving rise to industry practices such as entry fees and long payment cycles.
The most direct result of the high threshold is that only products from traditional large enterprises usually have the opportunity to be placed on shelves—especially in the highly competitive food and beverage section.
Online brands that rapidly rose from e-commerce platforms relied on the traffic dividend period of the internet for野蛮 growth, while new brands like Genki Forest, which opened new battlefields, took the convenience store channel that suited them.
**It seems that large supermarkets and new brands have no intersection, but today, they are beginning to connect and collide offline.**
The well-known reason is that the former, affected by online shopping, fresh food e-commerce, and other formats, are increasingly declining, with traditional supermarket companies struggling in the vortex of store closures and transformation, losing their arrogance. The latter have re-recognized the importance of offline channels, with the argument that "new consumption is not selling well" hanging over their heads.
They need each other—this is the most intuitive answer to their relationship.
What New Retail Business Review wants to explore is: what deeper factors lie behind this connection? For transforming large supermarkets, are new brands the most effective lifeline? And on the other hand, what choices do new brands make?
******Supermarkets Are Not at Dusk**
"Not qualified."
When mentioning the possibility of placing a new instant food product in a supermarket, before New Retail Business Review could finish, a restaurant brand founder sighed like this.
He had tried to contact Yonghui Superstores, and the first threshold in front of him was a three-month payment delay. As a small brand that had just gained a foothold in the market, it was unable to afford this "heavy investment."
"It could easily crush us."
To understand the ruthless rules at the negotiating table, one needs to start with the operation of supermarkets.
In the era when offline was king, large supermarkets, with sufficiently low and attractive prices and continuously expanding outlets, became the best channel to connect with consumers. The means to achieve low prices and expansion came from pressure transfer.
Generally, the difference between purchase and sale prices and additional fees constitute the basic revenue of traditional supermarkets. The former means further lowering the purchase price of goods to have enough confidence to provide consumers with low-priced products. But in any case, the margin between purchase and sale is thin, and the big appetite needs to be satisfied otherwise.
It first started in American chain supermarkets, where during product promotions, supermarkets would charge suppliers certain promotional fees. Gradually, it developed into an entry fee that suppliers must pay to ensure their products can be placed on shelves. In the 1990s, Carrefour introduced this system to China, making it a common industry practice.
The payment cycle is also a stubborn rule. **Today, whether it is offline retail channels or online e-commerce platforms, the "payment delay" transferred to suppliers or brands has taken on financial attributes and become the cash flow foundation on which retailers rely for survival.**
This means that due to low risk tolerance, small and medium-sized enterprises find it difficult to stand fairly at the negotiating table. Only large enterprises and big brands are qualified to be the protagonists entering traditional supermarkets.
It seems that new brands have pried open a small gap.
Gao Yan, the relevant business head of Baman Beef Rice Noodles, told New Retail Business Review that when Baman initially entered offline supermarket channels, the channel side provided different concessions and support in terms of entry fees, gross margins, and product display resources.
During a visit by New Retail Business Review, it was found that in China Resources Suguo, there was a specially designated "Internet-Famous Trendy Products" area, where Laxin Shuo, Baman Beef Rice Noodles, Wangbaobao, and Li Ziqi's Luosifen were placed on the same shelf. In Beijing Hualian, Wang Xiaolu occupied a prominent display position at the end of a row of shelves, with Zihaiguo and Baman next door.
In the beverage area, Genki Forest and its sibling brand Qingshan Chushan, together with products from traditional beverage giants, shared the shelves. Among them, Genki Forest, like Minute Maid and Coca-Cola, had large combo packs.
**Times are different; those who once held the power of discourse now present a different scene.**
In recent years, large supermarkets have been mired in a wave of store closures. A representative case is Walmart, which has closed over a hundred stores in the Chinese market since 2016. Another retail giant, Carrefour, recently closed three stores in a row, completely withdrawing from the Nanchang market.
According to Kearney analysis data, among the customers lost by traditional hypermarkets, urban youth and white-collar workers are the majority, and these consumers have flowed to e-commerce platforms and convenience stores. On the one hand, they want to enjoy more convenient home delivery services; on the other hand, they have obvious consumption preferences for trendy, internet-famous, and hit products.
Supermarket product selection needs fresh blood.
As symbols of innovation and vitality, new brands match the demand.
**Internet-Famous Brands Must Come Down to Earth**
Sam Walton, founder of retail giant Walmart, had a business philosophy that product turnover rate is above all else. Products with high sales volume, fast turnover, and high purchase frequency are what supermarkets favor.
Clearly, supermarkets are not charities. When we look back at those new brands that successfully entered and competed with Master Kong, Uni-President, and Coca-Cola in the food and beverage section, they are not just "new."
Genki Forest led an era of sparkling water; Wang Xiaolu won the Tmall chicken snack category sales championship for 13 consecutive months; Laxin Shuo completed 6 rounds of financing in five years, with annual sales exceeding 600 million yuan.
Wang Xiaolu's brand PR said: "Compared with several braised food giants, we are still far behind." But "Wang Xiaolu and similar brands" have already been verified for their hit product capabilities on e-commerce or convenience store channels.
**The current posture of large supermarkets is closer to seeking a delicate balance between "embracing all rivers" and "traditional rules."**
Last year, when Luosifen became a capital favorite, New Retail Business Review saw a concentrated display area for multiple Luosifen brands, including Li Ziqi's Luosifen, in a Hualian BHG supermarket. Now, as the market has cooled, it is difficult to find traces of Luosifen in the same supermarket.
The negotiation between supermarkets and internet-famous trendy products is based on mutual need, which is correct.
Gao Yan stated that **new consumer brands and large supermarkets have a mutually win-win relationship.** Under the circumstances where traditional offline supermarkets have been performing increasingly poorly in recent years, they need new consumer brands to bring certain new traffic, new innovative categories, new consumers, and new growth points.
At the same time, new consumer brands need a certain number of large supermarket terminal outlets for brand promotion, to achieve a certain market share, form sufficient brand momentum, and thereby create more revenue and brand value.
However, in the seemingly equal relationship, one side's need is more urgent.
In the second half of last year, the industry keyword for new consumption turned from hot to cold, with investors largely turning to hard technology, and investment and financing events declining from 153 in July. In the coffee/cereal/instant drink category, the top ten on Tmall's Double 11 pre-sale list were completely renewed compared to 2020, with Oatly's pre-sale amount declining by 30%, and Wangbaobao even halved.
Traffic on channels such as Tmall, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin is becoming increasingly expensive, making it harder for new brands to stand out—the offline battle has begun.
Tao Shiquan, founder of Jiangxiaobai, said that an important preparation condition for a brand is omnichannel reach capability. "E-commerce brands and live-streaming sales channels can solve part of the problem, but omnichannel reach capability is still very important. Otherwise, a pure brand in a sense is only heard of, but not seen or bought."
E-commerce brand Wang Xiaolu rapidly rose in 2019 through Douyin advertising and KOL seeding, and began offline layout in 2020. According to official statements, it has entered almost all large supermarkets and convenience stores nationwide, in order to "lay out channels and dialogue with users."
A fact often overlooked is that while traditional large supermarkets have been mired in negative public opinion of store closures and declining performance for years, in reality, compared to e-commerce platforms and live-streaming sales, they are still mainstream enough.
According to data from the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, in 2020, the total sales scale of China's top 100 supermarkets was 968 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%, with a total of 31,000 stores, of which community supermarkets accounted for about 73.3%.
Taking Baman Beef Rice Noodles as an example, data provided by Gao Yan to New Retail Business Review shows that currently, Baman's sales in large supermarkets account for about 50%. Its offline layout includes omnichannel coverage including Hema, 7fresh, premium chain supermarkets, traditional large supermarkets, and convenience stores.
More importantly, "the combination of online and offline forms gives new brands stronger market risk resistance and higher attention from investors," Gao Yan added.
**When offline becomes a symbol of hard strength, in other words, new brands are also extending their competitive defense line.**
Toshifumi Suzuki, founder of 7-11, said in his book "Philosophy of Retail":
"No matter which industry an enterprise belongs to, if it loses its vigorous spirit and is trapped in past glory, allowing 'aging' to happen, then its operations will also head toward a dead end."
Therefore, for 7-11's operations, "responding to change" is the basic principle.
This sentence is suitable for both traditional supermarkets and new brands. The speed at which traditional supermarkets respond to new things has become a key factor in determining life or death today. For the latter, facing fierce competition with a life cycle measured in years, the tolerance for error needs to be even lower.
Of course, to a certain extent, they are not enough to be each other's "lifeline." The transformation of supermarkets depends more on their own business models, site selection reshuffling, store upgrades, and other multidimensional controls, while new brands need to focus on product quality and supply chain infrastructure.
The new offline trend more reflects how different formats are assessing the situation. As long as they are not static, there are new stories to tell.
 _-END-_


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