The 5th FMCG + Internet Conference, hosted by New Distribution, was grandly held from March 15 to 18 at the Longemont Hotel in Chengdu! This grand event attracted thousands of industry professionals, including distributors, manufacturers, and internet companies, from all over the country, with a full house and an unprecedented scale. The following is the speech delivered by Mr. Yao Xuhong, Executive Deputy General Manager of Meiyijia, General Manager of Guangdong Meiyijia, and General Manager of Caihua Trading, at the main forum on March 16, organized by New Distribution for readers. The core of convenience store digitalization is to enhance customers' time value Every customer's time is limited; there are only 24 hours and 86,400 seconds in a day. In the convenience store scenario, the time for customer interaction is even more limited. If we implement digitalization, we believe the core is to enhance customers' time value. Therefore, I have set the theme of today's speech as: Grasping the core variable of convenience store digitalization: the value of time. Understanding Meiyijia's actual overview and characteristics Some public impressions hold that foreign convenience stores have strong store execution and better consumer experience, while Meiyijia may lack execution and provide a poorer experience. There are many reasons, including: First, different origins. Foreign brands are perceived as international, so they perform in China as they do abroad, whereas Meiyijia started from Dongguan and expanded nationwide, so to some extent, society's perception may lag behind. Second, different external styles. Foreign convenience stores operate more internationally with unified brand operations, while Meiyijia rarely publicizes or communicates uniformly. Third, different internal models. It is believed that direct-operated stores are strong, while Meiyijia uses a franchise model, which may raise concerns about cooperation effectiveness. For example, manufacturers worry that resources invested in Meiyijia may not achieve expected results, overlooking the proactive initiative of franchisees in the franchise chain. Therefore, many people's perception of Meiyijia may still be stuck on impressions from three to five years ago. After more than 20 years of exploration, Meiyijia has undergone four image upgrades in store appearance, and the current image presented to consumers has gradually become younger. After 22 years of development, it now has 16,000 stores with sales scale exceeding 18 billion yuan. In terms of development regions, it was established in Dongguan in 1997, expanded beyond Dongguan to the Pearl River Delta in 2003, and expanded nationwide in 2014. As of 2018, Meiyijia has laid out in 14 provinces and cities across the country, covering 98 cities. In terms of development speed, the first 10 years saw 1,000 stores, the second 10 years saw 10,000 stores, and as of now, Meiyijia has a total of 16,000 stores, maintaining a pace of 300 to 400 new store openings per month. Based on its scale, Meiyijia actively embraces the internet, using mobile payment and social media to interact and connect with consumers. So far, in addition to offline service scale, it has 23 million online users, of which over 7 million are deeply served members, and over 1 million daily active members. To provide consumers with richer and more diverse content, it has formed a multi-format development centered on convenience stores, including products, logistics, value-added services, training, information systems, as well as the B2B and Yueheji Convenience Store Free Alliance incubated by Caihua Trading. At the same time, it serves 16,000 offline stores, opens 300-400 stores monthly, and serves 23 million online users and 7 million members, which requires a complete support system, including franchising, operational systems, data mining, organizational training, and the brand and culture accumulated over 20 years. Overall, Meiyijia's characteristics are that it is a terminal that is more extensive, dense, multi-layered, and directly faces demand. Why is it more extensive? Because we have 98 cities and over 16,000 stores. Why is it more three-dimensional? Because we cover multiple regions, cities, levels, and business districts. Why is it more direct? Because convenience stores provide consumers with convenient living. Consumers' stay time in convenience stores is limited, and within that limited time, they must make quick decisions, which brings them closer to their essential needs. Meiyijia has 23 million members and over 16,000 stores, so the data it presents is more direct and closer to consumers' essential needs. These are Meiyijia's development status and characteristics. Ideas and practices for enhancing customers' time value Digitalization brings us a lot of information, reducing uncertainty; but at the same time, if not handled well, the information brought by digitalization may form an information cocoon. So we must first consider whether to digitalize; we believe that whether to digitalize mainly depends on whether it can bring greater value and experience to customers in the convenience store scenario. In the member data we currently have, we conducted an analysis of consumer attributes, and consumers born in the 80s, 90s, and 00s account for over 90%. This group, in the fast-paced convenience store scenario, places high demands on efficiency improvement, including communication efficiency, selection efficiency, and logistics efficiency. They hope that the service efficiency of convenience stores improves, maximizing the time value in every convenience store scenario. Combined with Meiyijia's more extensive, more three-dimensional, and more direct characteristics, digitalization can meet customers' needs for efficiency improvement. Therefore, Meiyijia has great digitalization potential. Meiyijia has strong potential for digitalization. Centered on its three characteristics of being more extensive, more three-dimensional, and more direct, and the three needs of communication efficiency, selection efficiency, and logistics efficiency, it forms a nine-grid for digitalization planning and layout. For example, to meet communication efficiency and combine with Meiyijia's more extensive characteristics, Meiyijia has established a membership system based on mobile payment, fully integrating online and offline channel resources, and connecting and interacting with consumers through multiple touchpoints. Combining with its more direct characteristics, Meiyijia continuously monitors changes in consumer needs, pushes content more accurately, and thereby saves customers' decision time. To this end, Meiyijia has built digital platforms and tools, including a smart store operation platform, a supply chain digitalization platform, and a precise member service platform. Enhancing time value for customers, bringing greater value to brands, and achieving win-win collaboration with brands Meiyijia's digitalization enhances customers' time value, and in the entire chain, brand manufacturers are a very important part. By enhancing customers' time value, it improves sales and strengthens brand promotion for manufacturers. Similarly, it also obtains consumer data feedback, more accurately grasps consumer preferences, and thereby helps brands enhance their influence and competitiveness in a timely manner. For example, in terms of products, Meiyijia will cultivate new products and categories based on data insights, develop innovative categories, and also enhance brand sales through marketing products such as coupons and community group buying. At the same time, we integrate more than 20 online and offline channels to provide brand merchants with integrated communication channels before, during, and after customers enter the store. Every month, we provide brand merchants with 60 million online exposures and 150 million offline foot traffic exposures. For brand merchants, in addition to sales and brand, there is also the opportunity to monitor user needs through Meiyijia, then discover and guide needs, making it a window for the brand's product system and user system to update with the market in a timely manner. The main paths for win-win collaboration with brand manufacturers can be carried out in three aspects: product level, marketing interaction level, and joint research level. From the product level, Meiyijia can be a site for new product development research, a first-time testing scenario for new products, and customized products for segmented markets. From the marketing interaction level, there are precise display plans for stores and staff, integrated channel promotion plans, supplier zone display interactions, themed store packaging, store sales guidance, annual consumer marketing plans, and precise brand marketing. From the joint research level, Meiyijia and manufacturers jointly study consumer psychology, trends, and new product development response plans. Summary of Meiyijia's digitalization: main content today and thoughts for continued thinking Grasping the needs of young consumers, taking time value as the decision variable for Meiyijia's consumer digitalization, and implementing consumer digitalization plans based on its own characteristics. This process simultaneously brings three levels of value enhancement to brands: sales, promotion, and consumer insight. Digitalization has gradually given Meiyijia and the Caihua Yueheji platform an understanding of consumers. Digitalization is our path and method to serve users and brands well. Digitalization brings us patterns, allowing us to achieve win-win goals in a faster and more precise way. More importantly, digitalization gives us inspiration for innovation based on patterns, allowing us to create and lead customers' potential needs while satisfying their existing needs.