In recent exchanges with distributors, a common feeling is evident: widespread anxiety due to stagnant sales and shrinking profits. Facing operational pressure, many distributors are broadening their business approaches, no longer confining themselves to traditional offline operations, and are beginning to explore new incremental channels online. But for distributors, is online business always a good deal? Not necessarily; most e-commerce platforms are now saturated. For distributors, the first step in online business is to find a suitable platform that meets three conditions: profitability, growth potential, and ease of operation. Recently, New Distribution has noticed that many distributors are paying attention to a young e-commerce platform, Dewu, because of its simple operations and rapid growth. The latest data shows that on Dewu, the number of merchants with annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan grew by 70% year-on-year, the number of active merchants in the food category grew by 450%, the number of merchants with GMV exceeding one million grew by 400%, beauty brand GMV growth exceeded 150%, and the digital category grew by 200%... In this article, we look from the distributor's perspective at why distributors can achieve growth and profits on Dewu in such a competitive online e-commerce environment.

For Distributors Doing Online Business, the Core Metric Is Profitability

Previously, we asked many distributors why they hesitate to try online business. The answers were mostly consistent: they worry about high investment costs and ultimately not making money. Whether they can make money depends on three aspects: cost, sales volume, and price. How does Dewu excel in these three areas?

First, cost. The FMCG industry is mostly characterized by thin margins and high volume. With low profit margins, cost control is crucial to ensure profitability. Dewu has the characteristics of light management, high personnel efficiency, and low traffic acquisition costs compared to other platforms, giving it a clear advantage in overall operating costs. In exchanges with merchants, Lao Liu, a distributor in the 3C digital category, told us that after joining Dewu in 2022, his order volume exceeded 100,000 in just one year, with annual revenue reaching 400 million yuan, and an operations team of only 3 people. "Our personnel efficiency on Dewu is very high because we only need to list products and ship; the platform handles other operational actions. Basically, as soon as products are listed, sales come in, and the return rate is 50% lower than on other e-commerce platforms we use," Lao Liu told New Distribution. Additionally, New Distribution learned that on Dewu, there is basically no need for additional traffic investment; relying on natural traffic is enough to start quickly, with 90% being free natural traffic. Some toy and collectible distributors have achieved annual revenue of 100 million yuan, essentially relying on natural traffic.

Second, sales volume. According to public data, Dewu's user profile is concentrated in Generation Z, mainly students and white-collar workers, covering a high-spending group from first-tier to fourth- and fifth-tier cities. Here are some data points: In the food and beverage industry, GMV grew by over 1800% year-on-year in 2023, and order volume grew by over 4600%; beauty and personal care brand GMV grew by 154%, and new merchants grew by 161%; 3C digital grew by 200% against the trend; the number of merchants in the billion-yuan club grew by 100%... From the data, Dewu's high-quality consumer base can bring sustained orders and sales to merchants.

For example, KAALIXTO's Qinglong Porcelain Flower shoes, a new product with a national trend style, sold over 10 million in two months; the Disney Strawberry Bear snack gift box, exclusively customized for Dewu, rose to the top 3 in the food industry during Qixi Festival.

During this year's Qixi Festival, over 1,400 merchants in Dewu's beauty industry saw a 100% year-on-year increase in performance, and the number of young users grew by 150%. Brands like mistine, Chando, Hanhoo, Perfect Diary, and Guyu launched "Valentine's Gift Boxes," "Customized Gift Boxes," and "IP Gift Boxes" to meet the gift-giving needs of male consumers, achieving great sales. The "men's grooming" category also saw explosive growth, with Chando's Men's Glacier Gift Box selling over five times more, becoming the top 1 product in the "men's grooming" category.

Third, price. On e-commerce platforms, price is one of the biggest concerns for distributors because many platforms sell at low prices, leaving no profit after entry. On Dewu, this is not a worry. In its early days, Dewu focused on the trend industry, and its core user base is the youngest group of e-commerce users in China. These young people were previously high-ticket, high-loyalty consumers of shoes and trendy items. Moreover, through its "authenticate first, ship later" mechanism, Dewu has established a "Dewu = genuine" mindset in consumers' minds. With this endorsement, consumers are relatively less price-sensitive; as long as the product meets their needs, they are willing to pay. A personal care distributor told New Distribution, "Dewu users have strong loyalty to the platform, are more optimistic about consumption, and have higher purchase frequency and willingness to pay. For example, through a combination of "hand cream" + "moisturizing body wash" sets, the average order value is higher, and during the peak autumn/winter traffic period, they almost sold out, with profits far exceeding the market baseline.

Low cost, high sales volume, and stable prices are enough to show that Dewu has indeed become a new blue ocean for increasing revenue and profit. This is also corroborated by the large number of well-known head consumer brands that have joined Dewu.

In an Uncertain Market Environment, Dewu Brings Certain Incremental Growth

The most direct criteria for judging a business model are whether it can make money and whether it is stable. In the past few years, new channels have emerged frequently, only to fade after brief growth. Is Dewu's rapid growth a short-term dividend or long-term certain incremental growth? I believe it is the latter, which can be analyzed from three dimensions: population coverage, demand drivers, and content penetration.

1. Population Coverage: Focusing on Young Users, with Both Spending Power and Willingness

According to public data, Dewu has the youngest user base among all e-commerce platforms, with over 90% of users born after 1990. Its penetration rate among China's 260 million post-95s is as high as 70%, with a male-to-female ratio of 52%:48%. It has become an important trend hub and shopping platform for young users. "Young users are one of Dewu's core advantages, with strong stickiness and spending power. We offer home appliance sets for different apartment layouts, with average order values of 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, accounting for 30% of our GMV," said Li, a distributor of a home appliance brand, told New Distribution. On Dewu, their growth rate remains stable at around 50%, and the repurchase rate reaches 30%. "In the context of declining sales across all channels in the home appliance industry, this growth rate is truly surprising." A representative from the digital brand Baseus also said, "Dewu users have developed a mindset of natural trust in the platform; they have both spending power and a willingness to repurchase." After joining Dewu in 2023, Baseus's business grew tenfold, and Dewu is now its fastest-growing e-commerce channel.

2. Demand-Driven: Broadening Consumption Scenarios Bring Business Opportunities

Dewu's users are not only young and have spending power, but they also cover various life stages from campus to workplace to family, which means more and broader consumption scenarios and needs. To better meet these needs, Dewu's product categories have expanded from early trend items to now include over 20 categories such as shoes, clothing, watches, accessories, bags, beauty, trendy toys, 3C digital, home furnishings, home appliances, food, books, automotive products, and artwork. When doing business on Dewu, merchants should deeply understand consumer needs and provide targeted products to quickly hit the mark. Take Blue Moon as an example: on other channels, they mainly promote large-pack promotional products that are "large quantity and cheap." But after gaining insights into the rental housing scenarios of Dewu's young users, they adjusted their product mix to focus on small and medium-sized products and new items, quickly ramping up order volume. In February this year, their GMV grew at a triple-digit rate year-on-year.

Many people think that the younger generation doesn't drink alcohol, but that's not the case. Dewu's young users show clear consumption preferences: small-format daily drinks, big-name liquors with collection and gifting attributes, holiday liquor gift boxes, and multi-flavor combination sets for parties are all selling well. For example, after Du Kang joined Dewu, they launched a youthful new product—Du Kang Small Cup—which saw a daily total exposure increase of over 120,000 and quickly sold over 50,000 bottles. Another beauty and personal care distributor, noticing the demand for "women giving to men" during occasions like 520 and Qixi, specifically arranged men's skincare gift sets, easily selling over 20,000 orders per month.

3. Content Penetration: Closed Loop of Seeding and Harvesting, Efficient Traffic Conversion

Dewu's community content ecosystem is thriving. Users actively post unboxing and usage experiences through images, text, and videos, forming authentic and attractive seeding content. Data shows that 70% of Dewu users have the habit of browsing the community, and 80% of community posts carry product links that allow one-click ordering and conversion. Take Fujifilm cameras as an example: before the release of the new Fujifilm X100VI digital camera, influencers seeded content in the community to help potential users understand the new camera's performance. Combined with off-platform preheating, it gained millions of exposures before launch, and as soon as the new product was listed, sales quickly exceeded 5 million.

Another example: Yili Yousuanru and Line Dog co-branded products debuted on Dewu. By leveraging the precise "Line Dog" IP young audience on Dewu, they quickly captured users searching for "Line Dog," attracting orders and sparking discussions and active searches in the community. The product sold out within three days of launch.

1V1 Operational Support: Dewu's "Nanny-Style" Service

Most distributors have traditionally focused on offline business and are unfamiliar with online operations. Whether in experience or capability, doing online business well is not easy. Why can some people do well on Dewu?

To lower the barrier as much as possible and reduce operational and financial pressure on merchants, Dewu adopts a semi-managed model focused on listing and shipping, unlike the complex operational processes of traditional e-commerce. From operations to customer service, product details, and logistics, these tedious aspects can be handed over to the Dewu platform. Merchants only need to list products, set prices, and ship. Even traditional distributors without much online experience can quickly get started. A personal care distributor representing brands like L'Occitane, MartiDerm, and CPB told New Distribution that with just a 2-person team managing over 500 SKUs on Dewu, they can achieve monthly profits of one million yuan within six months.

In addition to simple operations, Dewu also offers one-on-one dedicated operational support. The aforementioned home appliance distributor, Li, told us, "As a new merchant, we had a dedicated platform operator who explained platform rules one-on-one and provided detailed guidance. Even when asking novice questions, the operator patiently explained, which is a core reason for our rapid growth and confidence in long-term cultivation."

Final Thoughts

From a trend e-commerce platform to a full-category e-commerce platform, Dewu's exploration continues, and its growth continues. For distributors with strong supply chain capabilities, the incremental business brought by Dewu is also an opportunity to build a second growth curve. To help new merchants grow quickly, Dewu also provides a series of support policies: 0 yuan deposit, 100 billion traffic, 30-day accompaniment, and 1V1 support. For new products, Dewu has also launched special support programs, such as targeted support for high-quality natural traffic, commission-free for products breaking zero, and differentiated marketing and content operation support, to help potential new products stand out quickly.

Distributors with inventory and seeking growth might want to learn more about Dewu. There are also new merchant discounts for joining now. For more preferential policies, scan the QR code below.