Community group buying without group leaders is not attractive. Community group buying should be the most unique retail format at present. This track has released the quality of the model in the following characteristics: it is the first model that completely integrates online and offline seamlessly; the pre-sale wholesale retail based on group leaders controlling the front end helps precise supply chain efficiency; it conforms to the natural price advantage formed by simplifying the wholesale-retail relationship; and the model structure itself is not complex and is easy to evolve and transform in the long term. Since July 2020, leading internet companies have started to operate community group buying, and the evolution and transformation of this retail model's version and the relationship between upstream and downstream industries have entered an accelerated phase. The model optimization and transformation capabilities of large companies, the ability to expand and connect with partners, the speed of business implementation, and the ability to integrate resources and develop technology have elevated the overall business civilization level and customer service capability of community group buying. As a unique element that distinguishes this model from other retail formats, group leaders have naturally experienced various value changes since last year. Currently, the six major community group buying platforms in the market are: Meituan Select, Duoduo Maicai, Chengxin Youxuan, Alibaba MMC, JD Jingxi (including Xingsheng Youxuan), and Shihui Tuan. Naturally, two major factions have formed: "weakening group leaders" and "strengthening group leaders". -01- Are group leaders important? Just as Duoduo Maicai has ambiguously denied that they are not community group buying, group leaders, as the order aggregation and frontline grip for Duoduo Maicai, have indeed greatly helped Pinduoduo in its community-level agricultural product puzzle business. However, relying on the traffic brought by the APP built on WeChat, group leaders are not a necessary carrier for traffic and order aggregation. The weakening of the group leader's role in Duoduo Maicai's chain is itself a model need for Pinduoduo's community group buying business. As for Alibaba MMC, which has clearly positioned the front-end chain of community group buying from "people" to "scenes" — a million small stores, plus the lack of effective access to WeChat, which simplifies traffic and transactions for online users, it is also possible that Alibaba MMC will weaken the role of group leaders. Platforms that strengthen group leaders and value their role include Shihui Tuan, Meituan Select, and Xingsheng Youxuan. These platforms, especially Xingsheng Youxuan, have a notable feature: they place great emphasis on building small store owner-type group leaders. That is, those small store owners who already have complete store operation venues. The categories of group buying and the customers who come for self-pickup are incremental for owner-type group leaders. Community group buying platforms need group leaders very much, and it is necessary to build the group function of group leaders in the long term. Xingsheng Youxuan, as the main inventor of the community group buying model, attaches great importance to the functional value of group leaders in the chain. The front end is handed over to small store owner-type group leaders, while the company strongly controls the back-end supply chain and logistics supply construction. However, Xingsheng Youxuan has not done a good job of building and outputting a model of group leader value under long-termism for the entire industry. The relationship between Xingsheng Youxuan's group leaders and the platform is much weaker than the industrial relationship between the same two groups of people in Furong Xingsheng and small store franchising. The reason is that the early layout of this model was too instrumental in the role positioning and function construction of group leaders. Because the value return given to group leaders in this industry before was only commission points. The value positioning of group leaders was too single, which led to the inability to coordinate well the growth relationships among several core elements of community group buying, namely platform construction, order volume, gross margin, group leaders, community, and products. Simply put, under a fixed commission ratio, in order to increase income, group leaders will naturally pursue order volume growth, whether it is doing both collective ordering and self-pickup, or only doing self-pickup points; in order to pursue a healthy growth curve of order volume and gross margin in positive proportion, the platform needs to optimize the cost and efficiency of every link in the circulation chain clearly. Then in the actual process, group leaders, in order to pursue orders, play the trick of being on multiple platforms at the same time. The group leader's own ability to aggregate orders and the user group effectively covered are also unstable. In addition, during the early high-speed expansion, the upper limit of single community order capacity and the distribution of group leaders and pickup points were not precise enough, and the inconsistency between group leader income and the platform's long-term value building became prominent. What we see is that many group leaders, even if they are on multiple platforms, are still not stable enough, and the turnover rate of group leaders has been consistently high. The main business contradiction for many group leaders leaving has not yet reached the point where the platform weakens group leaders; the group leaders themselves leave and stop working. **In this industry, except for Pinduoduo, no one can do without group leaders. ** Without group leaders, community group buying would have no essential difference from traditional e-commerce in a short time. It will continue to fall into the question of where to find traffic? Who will do the pre-sale wholesale collective ordering that emphasizes single product scale? Does the delivery of goods to the community have to follow the traditional express station model? Without the service carrier of group leaders for the platform and countless communities, it will definitely drag down the platform's expansion speed. In short, community group buying without group leaders instantly becomes unattractive. Naturally, it cannot achieve what Meituan's Wang Xing said at the annual report analyst conference call: "Community group buying is a once-in-a-decade opportunity." Meituan Select very early on shouted the goal and slogan "Join hands with a million group leaders to serve 100 million families," indicating that Meituan Select is very clear about the indispensable business chain value of group leaders. Other veteran community group buying platforms that emphasize self-operation, including Shihui Tuan, also attach great importance to the value construction of group leaders. -02- How do group leaders evolve? The current views in the industry of "weakening group leaders" and "strengthening group leaders" are not actually a division between two model factions, but more like a misalignment in the pace of group leader function construction that must synchronize with platform evolution. Given the previously loose cooperative relationship between group leaders and platforms, and the overly individualized role positioning of group leaders, the pusher for the synchronous progress of group leaders and platforms in this track still depends on the platform itself. There are several business signs that have already appeared, indicating how each platform shapes the role of group leaders and protects the interests of specific group leaders. First, the order carrying capacity of group leaders? Improve. For existing group leaders who are still connecting with platforms, the phenomenon of those who previously exited due to low entry barriers and pursuit of short-term interests is actually an overall benefit for group leaders. According to our understanding, Meituan Select has already relatively accurately tested the order upper limit capacity of different communities in several provinces that were key expansion areas in the second half of 2020. Concentrating single community orders on high-quality group leaders can ensure that the order volume of a single group leader is guaranteed on a scale. However, the key here is that the comprehensive ability of a single group leader to carry order volume still needs to grow. This includes necessary service venues, small-scale team operations, etc. Second, the development and supply of differentiated products. In the early stage of high-speed expansion and promotion, platforms mainly used price means frequently. Naturally, the product power of these platforms, including explosive products under e-commerce thinking, differentiated products, and price means, dominated. Later, as the data testing of community order upper limits becomes more precise, platforms will inevitably return to the basic laws of retail and need to enter into product power in terms of exclusive product development, supply chain cost optimization, full category expansion, and channel-specific supply for community group buying, establishing unique purchase value for C-end users on the community group buying channel. With the unique value of the channel supported by products, the value of group leaders directly connecting users will naturally be strengthened. Third, timely response to policy changes. Through the standardized governance of the entire internet economy by the policy side in the past six months, and the guidance for orderly expansion of community group buying, the overall community group buying is likely to follow a quality expansion that returns to the essence of retail. Simply put, the short-term interest mentality of group leaders relying on platform subsidies for profit is definitely no longer a long-term income method for being a group leader. Group leaders need to fully recognize that as necessary front-end service nodes for the platform and users, and their small stores as necessary front-end service centers for the platform and users, they will definitely play an increasingly important role in the chain function during the platform's growth and evolution. Moreover, with the standardization of the community group buying track, the price and planning of products supplied by platforms will actually be strengthened. Many small store owner-type group leaders may also obtain supply services from community group buying channels for the optimization of their small store's category structure and procurement channels. Fourth, continuous self-growth of group leader capabilities. Group leaders need to master how to synchronize with the platform's service capability changes in model optimization? How to use the platform's skill training and resource empowerment to upgrade individual capabilities into organizational team capabilities? According to our understanding, Meituan Select, as early as the initial launch, jointly launched the "Select Group Leader Academy" with Meituan University. It conducts very systematic layered training for group leaders. It has set up more than 280 courses including: beginner introduction, special improvement, group leader assistant, and group leader culture. It also shares practical experience such as store operation and user service through benchmark group leaders' lectures, with cumulative online learning exceeding 2 million people. In addition, Meituan Select has an offline BD team of thousands of people that can provide face-to-face guidance and services to group leaders. Community group buying, as a unique retail model, still has a long period of model evolution and growth. The more a platform values group leaders, the more it will value the fine optimization of the overall chain. In this way, all circulation efficiency from the source to group leaders can be superior to the upstream and downstream circulation chain of traditional retail in every aspect. The efficiency of group leaders fulfilling orders for single products or products of equal value will definitely be higher than the efficiency of group leaders' daily small store sales. At that time, the symbiotic growth relationship between community group buying platforms and group leaders will probably reach a relatively healthy stage. Source: 36Kr - Future Consumption (WeChat ID: lslb168) If a tip is adopted, a reward of 400-2000 yuan will be paid.