---
title: "Community Stores Eye Platform Interest, Platforms Eye Group-Buying Site Principal"
description: "In the seemingly calm community group-buying circle, a war without gunpowder has begun, and choosing sides has become a challenge for small merchants. As internet giants and retail supermarkets enter the fray, major community group-buying brands are leveraging convenience stores, laundromats, courier stations, and even beauty salons and tobacco stalls to grab market share. Meanwhile, these community stores have become pickup points, displaying promotional posters for various platforms. Some retail stores even neatly display ads for four or five community group-buying platforms, attempting multi-line development. However, as cooperation deepens, some operators are discovering that they may have been 'played' by the platforms, and the platforms are encroaching on their core business."
author: "懂懂本尊"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2021-05-14"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/community-stores-eye-platform-interest-platforms-eye-group-buying-site-p-338f40ee/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/community-stores-eye-platform-interest-platforms-eye-group-buying-site-p-338f40ee.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/dHgOP3JKJTkAsgwXd2y81A"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%A4%BE%E5%8C%BA%E5%B0%8F%E5%BA%97%E7%9B%AF%E7%9D%80%E5%B9%B3%E5%8F%B0%E7%9A%84%E5%88%A9%E6%81%AF-%E5%B9%B3%E5%8F%B0%E7%9E%85%E7%9D%80%E5%9B%A2%E8%B4%AD%E7%AB%99%E7%82%B9%E7%9A%84%E6%9C%AC%E9%87%91-338f40ee.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/community-stores-eye-platform-interest-platforms-eye-group-buying-site-p-338f40ee/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Community Stores Eye Platform Interest, Platforms Eye Group-Buying Site Principal

> In the seemingly calm community group-buying circle, a war without gunpowder has begun, and choosing sides has become a challenge for small merchants. As internet giants and retail supermarkets enter the fray, major community group-buying brands are leveraging convenience stores, laundromats, courier stations, and even beauty salons and tobacco stalls to grab market share. Meanwhile, these community stores have become pickup points, displaying promotional posters for various platforms. Some retail stores even neatly display ads for four or five community group-buying platforms, attempting multi-line development. However, as cooperation deepens, some operators are discovering that they may have been 'played' by the platforms, and the platforms are encroaching on their core business.

**In the seemingly calm community group-buying circle, a war without gunpowder has already begun, and choosing sides has become a challenge for small merchants...**
With the entry of internet giants and retail supermarkets, major community group-buying brands are using convenience stores, laundromats, courier stations, and even beauty salons and tobacco stalls in communities to seize market share. At the same time, these various community stores have hung up promotional posters for group-buying brands with discounts and full-reduction offers, becoming pickup points for major platforms.
Some retail stores even neatly display advertisements for four or five community group-buying platforms, attempting to develop on multiple fronts. Meanwhile, the group-buying products ordered by users pile up on store shelves and in freezers, waiting for the evening rush when large numbers of office workers flood in to pick up their orders. Such pickup points, which combine the advantages of various platforms, can be found in every mature community, with two or three in each.
According to data released by iiMedia Research: In 2019, the domestic community group-buying market size was 34 billion yuan; under the influence of the COVID-19 'black swan,' the market grew rapidly in 2020, reaching 72 billion yuan; institutions predict that in 2021, the market size will reach 88 billion yuan. Convenience stores, laundromats, courier stations, beauty salons... As traditional business operators, these small merchants clearly know that in the internet age, the 'community group-buying' model is unstoppable. Rather than resist, it is better to actively 'embrace' the new business model, so they have all begun to calculate how to leverage community group-buying to 'attract traffic' to their small stores. However, as cooperation between group-buying platforms and stores (sites) deepens, some operators are beginning to find that things are not quite right, and they seem to have been 'played' by the platforms. What exactly is going on?
What kind of business game rules lie behind the group-buying platforms' active expansion of community pickup points? **-01-** **Cooperative Sites All Want to 'Win Twice'**
Traditional commercial stores need traffic, while community group-buying platforms need to quickly establish a large number of pickup points at low cost. Combining the two to meet each other's needs seems like a win-win. However, in the eyes of some traditional commercial store operators, when they joined as pickup points, they intended to 'win twice' from the start.
Zhang Yuan (pseudonym) is one of them. Running a convenience store in a residential community in Daya Bay, she told Dongdong Notes that as early as a year ago, a community group-buying BD approached her, asking if she was interested in becoming a cooperative pickup point for the platform. 'At first, I didn't agree. I thought (e-commerce) platforms had already taken a lot of business from physical stores, and they had the nerve to talk about cooperation.' But given that convenience stores seem to be becoming a 'sunset industry,' and with three or four small supermarkets already in the community (fierce competition), after careful consideration, Zhang Yuan decided to agree to the BD's cooperation request: whenever a user placed an order and picked it up at the store, she would receive a 10% commission per order. **In addition to generating income, she, who deeply detests the e-commerce model, planned to use the opportunity of becoming a community group-buying pickup point to leverage the platform to attract traffic to her convenience store. As a small merchant, she calculated that when users came to pick up orders, they would inevitably enter the store and might buy a few daily necessities, which would be a small unexpected income.** After all, early community group-buying was mainly about fresh produce, which basically did not conflict with the store's existing products.
In fact, after becoming a pickup point for the community group-buying platform, the customer flow did boost sales of other items in the store for a while. 'Sometimes, users picking up orders would also buy beer, instant noodles, or even a few packs of cigarettes.' Having tasted the sweetness of 'winning twice,' Zhang Yuan basically accepted all subsequent BDs from other group-buying platforms that came to seek cooperation. As of April this year, her convenience store had become a pickup point for five group-buying platforms, including Duoduo Maicai and Chengyi Youxuan. During this period, nearly sixty group-buying orders were delivered to her store on average every day, and her commission income exceeded 200 yuan, accounting for nearly one-third of the convenience store's daily operating income. At the same time, to store the group-buying products awaiting pickup, Zhang Yuan also cleared a shelf and bought a second-hand freezer. Just as she was nearing her goal of 'winning twice,' she began to notice a problem: **Although users picking up orders were endless, the effect of using the platform to attract traffic to the convenience store was gradually weakening—previously, users would browse the store after picking up and buy some snacks; now, users basically left immediately after picking up, not bothering to stay.** As community group-buying commissions increased, Zhang Yuan even noticed that sales and revenue of products in the convenience store were declining. Many customers who used to frequently shop in the store were now placing orders on group-buying platforms and then picking them up at the store, rarely buying daily necessities or snacks in the store.
After careful observation and questioning several 'regular customers,' Zhang Yuan finally discovered the reason for the weakening platform traffic effect and the sharp decline in convenience store revenue: the internet giants were again grabbing business from physical stores.
And this time, she and other small micro-operators who had joined had become 'accomplices' in helping the platforms grab business from physical stores—staging a 'leading the wolf into the house.' **-02-** **Community Group-Buying Is Not Just Fresh Produce**
According to Zhang Yuan's recollection, one day in late April, while sorting the platform's group-buying products with her husband, she inadvertently noticed a new trend. Among the products ordered by many users, in addition to fresh produce like meat and vegetables, there were also beverages such as iced black tea and cola, and even snacks like potato chips and shrimp crackers.
In Zhang Yuan's impression, the BDs who cooperated with her all said that the platform mainly sold fresh produce, and the only items that conflicted with the store's products were grain and oil such as cooking oil, soy sauce, salt, and Northeast rice. Since many consumers are now accustomed to buying grain and oil online, she also felt that the platform's group-buying of grain and oil had little impact on her convenience store's daily operations. 'But now community group-buying platforms even sell ordinary beverages and snacks, which is really a blow to convenience stores.' As the weather in Guangdong quickly turned hot, Zhang Yuan even found that some users were ordering ice cream (provided frozen by the store) on community group-buying platforms and then picking them up at the site. She told Dongdong Notes: **Cold drinks and ice cream have always been the mainstay of convenience store summer sales. Even in winter, beverage and snack sales account for half or even more of the convenience store's total revenue. Cold drinks, ice cream, and snacks are almost the lifeblood of all community convenience stores.** Feeling that her business was 'threatened,' she immediately opened her phone and downloaded the user apps of several community group-buying platforms, trying to compare the prices of beverages and snacks sold on the platforms. To her surprise, the results were shocking: 'Almost all beverages and snacks are cheaper than in the store, even cheaper than wholesale prices.' She took Shenhui chrysanthemum tea, which was also sold in her store, as an example: her store sold it at 1 yuan per box, but on the group-buying platform, a case of 24 boxes was only 14.99 yuan, equivalent to 0.62 yuan per box. That was nearly 0.4 yuan cheaper than the convenience store's retail price, and even 0.09 yuan lower than the store's wholesale price. Similarly, snacks like potato chips and peanuts on community group-buying platforms were priced close to or even lower than convenience stores' wholesale prices. Only then did she suddenly understand why the sales of convenience store products were getting worse and worse. 'Ordering on community group-buying platforms is cheaper than in convenience stores. If I were a customer, I would also order online.' **As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. After discovering the 'trick' of community group-buying platforms, Zhang Yuan also told the truth to other operators in the community who ran convenience stores, beauty salons, snack shops, and also joined community group-buying platforms.** 'Convenience store and small supermarket operators are very nervous, while beauty salons and snack shops think it doesn't matter,' she told Dongdong Notes. The reason beauty salons and snack shops think that what products the platform sells and at what prices is none of their business is that they don't sell beverages or snacks, so there is no conflict in their business scope. But as the platform develops, one day it might launch beauty and skincare products, or directly put central kitchen cooked food and fast food on the shelves.
In fact, on a certain community group-buying platform, Dongdong Notes has already discovered that in addition to skincare products like masks, self-heating rice and other convenience foods are also prominently listed, and even summer mats, bedding, and other household items can be ordered online. As Zhang Yuan said: The only pickup sites that don't need to worry about the current situation might be courier stations. As for convenience stores that cooperate with community group-buying platforms as pickup points, they may soon go from 'winning twice' to 'losing twice.' **-03-** **Is Community Group-Buying 'Killing' Traditional Business?**
For cooperative pickup sites, community group-buying platforms are like 'hermit crabs.' Although they don't 'live for free,' they are constantly eroding the living space of the joined pickup points. Just as e-commerce squeezed offline stores ten years ago, today's community group-buying is also squeezing 'to death' the cooperative pickup sites.
'Since I discovered that the platform sells beverages and snacks at prices cheaper than convenience stores, I've really panicked.' Like other convenience store operators, when group-buying products arrive at the site, Zhang Yuan nervously glances at what products are there while sorting. Whenever she sees products that are also sold in the convenience store, she first feels angry, then anxious, fearing that one day the platform will use convenience stores and cooperative sites to expand the market and then form a 'use and discard' situation. In that case, she would truly be helping the community group-buying platform make money while also helping the platform squeeze out her own business.
So, is it too late to give up cooperation and withdraw from the site franchise? Zhang Yuan could only shake her head and sigh. She told Dongdong Notes that the situation of cooperative sites, especially convenience stores, can be described as one step forward is an abyss, but one step back is a cliff. **'Community group-buying uses convenience stores to conquer communities, and now it doesn't care whether you withdraw or not.'** For community group-buying platforms, whether convenience stores or snack shops, they are at best 'tools' for storing goods and providing pickup for users, with no competitive barriers at all. Any small store in the community with shelves and freezers meets the platform's franchise cooperation requirements. Even if all convenience stores and small supermarkets collectively unite and withdraw from platform cooperation, there are still a large number of courier stations to take their place, and if not, there are a large number of individual group leaders ready to grab community site orders. Compared to convenience stores and small supermarkets, individual group leaders have lower operating costs, and they are mostly stay-at-home moms with plenty of free time. **'Even if I'm no longer a site, as long as the community can still pick up goods, customers won't come to the store to buy snacks and drinks.'** Zhang Yuan admitted that the sales of products in convenience stores have plummeted, and now that the die is cast, if she withdraws from cooperation with community group-buying platforms, she might lose the commission from group-buying goods and cause her business to fall into trouble. Recalling her initial plan to use community group-buying platforms to attract traffic to her convenience store and earn commissions to 'win twice,' she felt she was very naive and rash. Now thinking about it, as a traditional business operator, she alone cannot compete with e-commerce platforms, let alone 'outsmart' community group-buying backed by internet giants.
Although since the end of last year, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Commerce jointly organized an administrative guidance meeting to regulate community group-buying order, and interviewed several group-buying (e-commerce) platforms, the low-price dumping caused by industry competition has subsided to some extent, but as of now, the prices of products sold on most platforms are still 15-30% cheaper than those in traditional convenience stores and community supermarkets.
Community group-buying platforms, in the form of 'hermit crabs,' are using their supply chain advantages and financial strength to penetrate the remaining living space of traditional retail stores such as community supermarkets, convenience stores, and even snack shops, beauty salons, and tobacco stalls. Whether intentional or not, the final result may lead to the gradual demise of more traditional stores.
If the cooperation between community group-buying participants and traditional stores is a win-win, it is better to say that community group-buying is the ultimate winner in this cooperation.
Source: Dongdong Notes (ID: dongdong_note) Author: Muzi
Tips will be paid 400-2000 yuan upon adoption.


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671