---
title: "Community Group Stores Continue to Differentiate, Four Directions Gradually Become Mainstream"
description: "Since community group stores entered the industry's view, they have been accompanied by controversy. Some see them as a strategic opportunity for community group buying to break into offline retail, others as a new gimmick created by related media and service providers, and still others as a 'resurgence' of 'Dailuobo'. The existence of controversy reminds practitioners to rationally view small trends in industry evolution. The currently hot community group stores are still a subset of the community group buying industry, which itself is a subset of the retail industry. For practitioners, whether they have already achieved results or plan to enter, they must respect community group buying and retail."
author: "黄腾飞"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2023-08-19"
language: "en"
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---

# Community Group Stores Continue to Differentiate, Four Directions Gradually Become Mainstream

> Since community group stores entered the industry's view, they have been accompanied by controversy. Some see them as a strategic opportunity for community group buying to break into offline retail, others as a new gimmick created by related media and service providers, and still others as a 'resurgence' of 'Dailuobo'. The existence of controversy reminds practitioners to rationally view small trends in industry evolution. The currently hot community group stores are still a subset of the community group buying industry, which itself is a subset of the retail industry. For practitioners, whether they have already achieved results or plan to enter, they must respect community group buying and retail.

Since community group stores entered the industry's view, they have been accompanied by controversy. Some see them as a strategic opportunity for community group buying to break into offline retail, others as a new gimmick created by related media and service providers, and still others as a 'resurgence' of 'Dailuobo'...

The existence of controversy reminds practitioners to rationally view small trends in industry evolution. The currently hot community group stores are still a subset of the community group buying industry, which itself is a subset of the retail industry.

For practitioners of community group stores, whether they have already achieved results or plan to enter, they must have reverence for community group buying and even more so for retail.

In this article, from the perspective of the community group buying industry, we review the development history of group stores, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the group store model, and based on Cayman's long-term tracking research and industry observation, analyze the four major directions of group store differentiation and iteration, hoping to bring new thinking dimensions to practitioners.

**Group Store Iteration**

Group stores evolved from community group buying pickup points. Since early 2022, when Cayman reported on Xiaoxu Daojia, the group store model began to attract industry attention and entered the fast track of evolution and development. To date, four representative sub-models have emerged.

**[1] Birth: Original Group Stores**

For example, 'Xiaoxu Daojia' initially was a store in a building. With the establishment of private domain traffic and accumulation of customer relationships, it transformed into a street store. Leveraging unique traffic tactics, it became the first-generation model of community group stores. Xiaoxu Daojia's distinctive tactics include:

**First, aggressive customer acquisition** by selecting fresh produce categories and using extremely low prices to attract new customers, establishing a private domain of 1500-2000 people per store.

**Second, warming up groups to promote orders** by selecting daily necessities such as integrated seasonings, pricing at cost or slight loss, opening group buying in private domain groups, and using storytelling copy to warm up groups and encourage orders.

**Third, locking in customers with hit products** by selecting basic livelihood products and regularly opening group buying in groups, such as weekly affordable vegetables and eggs, using hit products for routine customer retention.

**[2] Differentiation: Category Group Stores**

For example, 'Guofengjia' is a 'fruit + group store' model, which is both a symbol of group store differentiation and the first-generation model of southern-style group stores. Guofengjia is the pioneer of SOP for community group stores. Its core tactics include:

**First, regular customer acquisition** mainly including 'opening promotion and daily operation acquisition'. Stores implement standard actions such as 'must join group upon entry' and guide customers to join groups through settings like 'retail price vs. group price'.

**Second, refined operations** by dividing group openings into three forms: community groups, Moments, and private messages, using creative copy strategies to attract users to order. At the same time, the platform focuses on building the store manager's personal IP to shorten the psychological distance between store managers and users.

**Third, ultimate service** by adhering to the business philosophy of 'after-sales is the foundation, exceeding expectations is service', creating 'surprise and delight' for customers, providing localized special services, and thereby gaining trust and word-of-mouth.

**Fourth, focusing on sales attachment rate** by tagging users, deeply analyzing user profiles, improving the accuracy of online product recommendations, and also increasing offline sales attachment rates.

**[3] Upgrade: Integrated Group Stores**

For example, 'Shanghai Shiliupu' is positioned as a 'hard discount + community group store' model, belonging to the 2.0 version of southern-style group stores. Its core tactics include:

**First, precise customer acquisition** by using data analysis and precise profiles to attract effective customers to enter stores and groups, guiding them to complete online and offline consumption actions.

**Second, refined operations** by producing refined materials for group products, carefully planning community activities, and comprehensively building the store manager's IP, further enhancing the refinement of group store operations.

**Third, warm social interaction** by maintaining good customer relationships, continuously interacting with users through social media and community activities, increasing customer stickiness and repurchase rates.

**Fourth, dual traffic and dual product portfolios** by coordinating the construction of online and offline product portfolios and the collaborative operation of offline stores and online communities, achieving dual improvement in online group efficiency and store revenue per square meter.

**[4] Evolution: Composite Group Stores and Group Warehouses**

**First, composite group stores, such as 'Xiaoqiang Cold Food'**, are upgrading from 'frozen food + group store' to 'composite group store'. By introducing innovative businesses like Douyin live e-commerce and Douyin store group buying, the headquarters becomes the traffic aggregation and order distribution center for 'Xiaoqiang Cold Food', strengthening the headquarters' traffic empowerment for each store.

It is reported that in a Douyin store group buying activity, Xiaoqiang Cold Food achieved 80,000 yuan in sales across 4 stores, while also importing Douyin public domain traffic into store private domains.

**Second, group warehouses, such as 'Hebei Little Bee Chain Warehouse'**, are based on the 'ABC model', where 'A' refers to source factories/bases, and 'BC' refers to B-end (group leaders, physical stores, etc.) and C-end (ordinary consumers) customer groups, creating a composite model of 'group wholesale + private domain group buying + discount warehouse (wholesale and retail integration)'.

**Objectively Viewing Group Stores**

There is no perfect business model, only continuously iterating market tactics. Group stores are no exception. Group stores will not be the ultimate model of community group buying; they can be said to be a transitional format, with their own strengths and weaknesses that need to be viewed objectively.

**Strengths**

**[1] Systematic tactics have been accumulated.** Since the birth of group stores, a systematic approach of 'aggressive customer acquisition + seven-day customer retention + activation and fission' has gradually formed. It can be said that no matter which branch of group store schools, they basically continue or improve this approach.

**[2] A traffic model for community group buying has been established.** The private domain traffic model of 2000-3000 people per store or group point is an important iteration compared to the local group mall model, providing a foundation for improving single-point group efficiency.

**[3] The issue of online and offline coordination has been solved.** That is, it has opened up integrated online and offline operations, achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement for physical stores, and is a strategic opportunity for physical retail to reverse integrate community group buying.

**[4] The relationship between platforms and group leaders has been deepened.** Under the group store model, the relationship between platforms and group leaders is closer, and platform management and service of group leaders are more efficient.

**[5] A hit product tactic for group buying has been created.** By upgrading pre-sale to reservation, community group buying can serve a wider range of people, including middle-aged and elderly. Through multi-store joint group openings and high-density market detonation, a standard tactic for group buying hit products has been created.

**Weaknesses**

**[1] Homogenization of group products.** Like community group buying, group store product selection focuses on daily basic consumer goods for family scenarios. Due to channel flattening and information transparency, the overly narrow product system makes it easy for group stores to fall into homogenization. Differentiation advantages established through special product selection can be followed, matched, or even suppressed by competitors.

**[2] Low industry entry barriers.** This year, various players have rushed into the livelihood consumption track, and group stores are no exception. Players entering group stores have strong capital genes, strong supply chain genes, or strong market genes. In a crowded track, involution is inevitable. It is reported that in Shijiazhuang, the birthplace of community group stores, some communities even have more than ten group stores, a surprising situation.

**[3] Poor replicability of single stores.** Group stores themselves have weak leasing capacity. Fixed costs fluctuate greatly across different cities, communities, and locations. If operating results are not ideal, it directly affects team morale.

**[4] High supply chain requirements.** The overly narrow product system and excessively high group efficiency requirements are a huge test of supply chain capabilities. However, hit products often cannot be continuously output, and group efficiency fluctuations are an unbearable burden for group stores.

**[5] Limited product richness.** The other side of the hit product logic is that only basic needs and basic models can be done, attracting and retaining users through extreme cost performance, leading to a lack of appeal to young people and other main consumer forces.

**[6] Low industry talent density.** Talent density determines the development ceiling of an industry. Retail talent is mainly concentrated in capital group giants, large platforms, and supermarket giants. Group stores often start from grassroots, or are small and medium-sized retail enterprises or local groups, often neglecting talent pipeline construction, thereby limiting enterprise development.

**Group Store Differentiation**

As more entrepreneurs join the group store track, early group store models continue to improve, and innovative group store models continue to emerge. Among them, four models are becoming mainstream.

**[1] Original Type: 3-5 hit products, such as Xiaoxu Daojia.**

In November 2018, Xiaoxu Daojia's first store (a store in a building) began operations. Through continuous traffic accumulation and management, it transformed into a street store.

After several years of dormant operation, until 2021, Xiaoxu Daojia began to accelerate the expansion of franchise stores. In January 2022, after Cayman discovered and reported on it, Xiaoxu Daojia entered the fast track of development and began national expansion.

In 2023, Xiaoxu Daojia began to cooperate with factories, deeply cultivate the hit product strategy, and empower the national supply chain of Xiaoxu Daojia. It is reported that Xiaoxu Daojia's national stores conduct a joint large-scale group opening once a week.

**[2] Community Convenience Type: Group buying + convenience, such as Keke Jingxuan.**

Keke Jingxuan was born in 2018 as a local group model, committed to transforming distributors into local groups. In 2021, Keke Jingxuan upgraded and adjusted to a composite model of 'community convenience + discount + group buying', targeting the more than 10,000 mom-and-pop stores in Shijiazhuang, empowering them to do group stores.

With the strategic merger of Keke Jingxuan and Zhongtong Tuxi, Keke Jingxuan included Zhongtong Tuxi as an empowerment target, accelerating expansion. It is reported that Keke Jingxuan currently has more than 50 stores and is expected to reach nearly 100 stores next month.

**[3] Fruit Quality Type: Fruit + snacks, such as Dingguo Xiansheng.**

Dingguo Xiansheng's original store type was a fruit store. In July 2021, it opened a 70-square-meter store in Xuanhua District, Zhangjiakou City. Through continuous customer acquisition activities, the store's private domain scale exceeded 10,000 people, with a monthly comprehensive sales of 500,000 yuan.

Since then, exploring and practicing the store group collaborative operation model, Dingguo Xiansheng clarified its model as 'fruit store + group store' at the end of 2022 and accelerated franchise expansion. It is reported that Dingguo Xiansheng has opened dozens of stores.

**[4] Group Warehouse Hit Product Type: 100 fixed hit products + rotating hit products + supporting products, such as Hebei Little Bee Chain Warehouse.**

Hebei Little Bee Chain Warehouse is a group warehouse based on the ABC model, benchmarking the 100 hit products of community group buying, continuously discovering at least 50 rotating hit products, plus supporting products with functions such as traffic attraction and profit, absorbing group stores, group leaders, physical stores, and individual users within a few kilometers around the warehouse.

Little Bee Chain Warehouse has explored a group warehouse operation model of '300-500 square meters, with basic fans over 30,000'. 'Little Bee' focuses on categories such as fresh produce and snacks. C-end business profit reaches 20%-25%, B-end business profit reaches 10%, and net profit is about 8%.

It is reported that Little Bee Chain Warehouse has entered a rapid expansion stage in Shijiazhuang and has begun planning to expand into the Hebei market. Founder Zhang Yong plans to launch a national joint warehouse opening through a group warehouse alliance called 'Shede Family'.

**Conclusion**

From the four directions of group store differentiation discussed in this article, **the future group store track belongs to 'chain group stores' or 'tightly organized group store organizations'.**

The reason is that group stores are a track with 'low entry barriers but high long-term survival barriers'. Single group stores will face increasing survival challenges. Finding an 'organization' early, banding together for warmth (franchising or joining forces with stronger group stores), may be the right path for group store entrepreneurs.


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