During the pandemic, which terminal channel is the hardest for frontline sales teams to visit in person? The answer is campus supermarket channel! Facing the recurring nationwide pandemic since the beginning of the year, campus closures have been implemented earliest, fastest, and most thoroughly. With students unable to leave campus (and in high-risk areas, not only people but also deliveries are restricted), the large student population has had to rely on campus supermarkets as their primary or even sole shopping channel. The campus supermarket channel has naturally "turned misfortune into a blessing" with counter-trend growth. Many manufacturers and distributors who had laid early groundwork reaped the benefits in the first half of this year. At the same time, we see increasing attention and resources from the industry focusing on this always "low-key" semi-closed channel. Undoubtedly, the campus supermarket channel will become increasingly important in the omni-channel strategy of every urban market. As a frontline city manager, you must quickly master everything from channel awareness to planning to daily execution. Act now, without delay!
Channel Awareness: Why Has the Campus Channel Become a "Hot Potato"? Not only after the pandemic, but even before, many FMCG manufacturers had already placed great importance on the campus supermarket channel, especially food and beverage companies whose products are most relevant to college students' daily consumption. Their attention and investment in this channel have a long history. This section will explain why the campus supermarket channel is increasingly important from four aspects:
A. Target Audience Analysis Young and energetic college students are the future of consumer goods! They are highly receptive to new things, have strong brand awareness, diversified consumption, and relatively high purchasing power. They are a must-win target group for every FMCG brand. The campus supermarket, being the closest and most concentrated stable channel to this group, must be fully understood and saturated with attacks from now on.
B. Channel Characteristics Analysis Compared to retail supermarkets in the broader society, campus supermarkets are adjacent to living areas, under unified school management, relatively closed and stable. Especially during the pandemic, the fully closed state made the channel even more sealed. Once stable cooperation is established, it leads to stable distribution and sell-through, which is the most desirable state for frontline sales teams and distributors.
C. Policy Orientation Analysis Previously, when talking about the campus supermarket channel, distributors and sales teams often showed a troubled expression. "The water is too deep" was the first reaction and common feedback, feeling it was a gray business that couldn't be entered without connections. However, policies are developing and changing positively. The transparency of bidding has made the recruitment of campus supermarkets more transparent and fair each cycle. More and more brand chains are accelerating their campus network layout, such as Tmall Campus and JD.com, which are speeding up their national expansion. Local leading chains have also entered or are fully penetrating the market.
D. Category Matching Analysis Eating, drinking, having fun, and entertainment are all essential for college students. Campus supermarkets can accommodate the vast majority of FMCG categories. More importantly, this channel serves as a testing ground and bridgehead for launching new products, premium products, and niche products. Brands in various categories should start paying more attention to investing in and promoting this channel. For local sales teams, developing and enhancing this channel is a must-do now. When there is a pandemic, you need to act immediately; when there is no pandemic, you must act even more!
Self-Awareness: Common Problems in Current Campus Supermarket Operations Having the right awareness of the campus supermarket channel is only the first step. Self-awareness is equally important, not only for our own sales team's thinking but also for the distributor's operational philosophy and capability fit. Here are some common pain points and bottlenecks in operating the campus supermarket channel:
A. Copying Old Methods, Not Adapting Many sales teams initially apply the same tactics used for social supermarkets to this channel, but results often fall short of expectations. The reason is that the consumer base, store characteristics, and social supermarkets differ. Faster turnover requires more efficient delivery; younger consumers who prefer novelty need more precise product selection; smaller and denser shelves and spaces require higher sell-through per square foot.
B. Focusing Only on Promotions, Neglecting Daily Sales As everyone knows, the two school opening periods are two peak sales windows, with the autumn opening more important than the spring. However, many manufacturers and distributors only focus on these two periods, ignoring the daily sales opportunities. Daily sales in campus supermarkets are also worth investing in and paying attention to.
C. Relying on Old Products, Price Confusion Due to rising rents and costs, campus supermarkets have higher gross margin requirements than off-campus social supermarkets, making store owners more sensitive to purchase prices. In the past, many campus supermarkets couldn't be entered mainly because prices didn't match, and salespeople easily gave up since it was the easiest excuse.
D. Poor Communication, Insufficient Service Campus supermarkets are closed, and especially in the past three years with recurring pandemics, the level of closure has increased, affecting daily communication, logistics response, and operational coordination. If distributors and sales teams lack meticulousness and responsibility, they can easily be replaced or influenced by competitors and other distributors. Improving service levels requires a comprehensive upgrade of the response system.
Planning: Building the "People, Goods, Place" of the Campus Supermarket Channel Combining the channel awareness and self-analysis from the previous sections, this section will focus on the "People, Goods, Place" of the campus supermarket channel, aiming to help frontline city managers truly implement practical actions.
"People" – Understanding College Students' Shopping Habits A. Traffic Tides: College students' study and life routines differ from community residents, so the traffic tides in campus supermarkets are different. After meal times, after classes, and during evening self-study are all shopping times, especially from 4 PM to 8 PM on school days, which are relatively peak shopping periods.
B. Weekdays vs. Weekends: In conventional supermarket management, we believe weekend sales are 2-3 times higher than weekdays, and even higher for some categories. However, weekends on campus are actually slow days. When there is no pandemic, weekends are when students go out shopping, visit family, or travel, leaving the campus often empty. Even during the pandemic, since there are no classes on weekends, many students are reluctant to walk to the "distant" supermarket, preferring to stay in the dorm and play a couple more rounds of Honor of Kings rather than take even two extra steps. Some schools even have QR codes at dorm bedsides, allowing students to order meals delivered from the cafeteria to their dorms...
C. Pandemic as a Variable: The recurring pandemic has imposed varying restrictions on off-campus food delivery and online shopping, creating short-term business opportunities. Local sales teams and distributors should proactively seize these opportunities.
"Goods" – Promote New, Sell Premium, Push Internet-Famous Products, Focus on Sell-Through and Increase Gross Margin A. Select Famous and Hot Products: College students are the group that receives information fastest, widest, and most. They have mature brand awareness of FMCG products. City managers need to carefully select hot products from the product list to improve sell-through speed and efficiency. However, since hot products have relatively transparent prices, attention must be paid to setting gross margin space to avoid excessive premiums.
B. Promote New, Sell Premium, Chase Internet-Famous Products: As a window channel for promoting "new, novel, and special" products, campus supermarkets are very suitable for launching new products, especially paying attention to the combination of internet-famous products. Internet-famous products that have been successfully incubated on e-commerce platforms like Tmall and JD.com can be more actively included.
C. Product Portfolio Strategy: Analyze and break down the gross margin of each store from a calculation perspective. Check the normal retail price and promotional price of each SKU individually to ensure each SKU contributes reasonable gross margin. Only then can the product portfolio be sustainable, making the store owner profitable. With a profitable product portfolio as a foundation, subsequent work will go more smoothly, and the business will grow larger. It is recommended that distributor owners fully participate in the detailed work of product portfolio formulation. To succeed in the campus channel, you must have an owner's mindset; an employee mindset makes it difficult to truly achieve channel breakthroughs.
"Place" – Understand Store Owner Needs, Enhance Relationship Stickiness, and Provide Good Service Response for Faster Sell-Through A. Be a Trusted Full-Category Supplier: Many campus stores are individually operated, and owners often handle supplier coordination themselves. They prefer fewer but more capable distributors. If a distributor only supplies a single or few brands, it's generally hard to compete with wholesalers or package operators. Therefore, unified procurement and distribution can help store owners save time and improve efficiency.
B. Build Logistics Centered on Store Needs: Except for a few large comprehensive universities in core cities with large on-campus supermarkets, most campus stores are small and lack storage space for safety stock. This requires suppliers to deliver frequently in small quantities, especially during the school opening period when every second counts in the delivery battle. Therefore, distributors must set delivery standards based on each store's actual storage conditions, ensuring logistics delivery satisfaction.
C. School Opening Period is a Battle: Advance planning and thorough preparation are prerequisites for a successful school opening period. Implementing promotional plans for each campus supermarket is key. For example, during the pandemic, each supplier is allocated a limited number of promoters, so they need to be trained in advance for selling in and taking shifts, otherwise, valuable selling opportunities will be wasted.
E. Agile Response During the Pandemic: During the pandemic, logistics become more difficult. Delivery schedules change, and access policies change, placing higher demands on distributors' delivery response. This situation is very similar to the delivery scenario when community group buying first started two years ago. It is recommended that delivery standards during the pandemic be benchmarked against the community group buying channel to ensure high mobility and agility.
F. Digital Marketing and Promotions Empower Campus Stores: Campus stores face college students who are born as internet natives. They are familiar with and welcome digital promotions and brand online marketing activities. In the past, manufacturers have not invested enough in digitalization for this channel. It is necessary to develop personalized promotional plans and marketing solutions for this specific customer group, using digital empowerment to help stores improve promotional efficiency and sell-through speed.
Finally, let's talk about the growth potential of the campus supermarket channel. I believe this business capacity is enough to move you, who have patiently read this far! According to official data from the National Department of Higher Education, the current number of college students is over 44 million, equivalent to the population of Fujian Province (41.87 million). If you do well in the campus supermarket channel, it means an additional business opportunity equivalent to a Fujian Province. What is your company's current sales volume in Fujian? Wouldn't it be wonderful to achieve that level of new growth? Come on, frontline city managers! If you haven't started on this channel yet, act now! Remember, the cold start of developing a channel from 0 to 1 requires great courage and persistence! I hope this article brings you courage. Go for it!
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