---
title: "Distribution: No Longer a Business for Everyone"
description: "“Our business is down 30% this year. If we don't develop more new channels and open more new customers, we won't even be able to pay salaries!” This is the real feedback from a distributor boss during our field research. During the day, he visits customers; at night, he livestreams. Facing declining sales, he works harder than ever. But the problem is: more investment, worse results, and less certainty in the business. This is not an isolated case. In our research, we found that despite widespread pressure, many distributors are not slowing down: adding staff and vehicles, expanding customers, launching new products, and investing more effort than ever, but returns are increasingly unstable."
author: "张雨薇"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2025-07-14"
categories: "Dealer Operations"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/g82rSH4oUqjr5Y0rz_gmkw"
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citation: "张雨薇. “Distribution: No Longer a Business for Everyone.” New Distribution, 2025-07-14. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distribution-no-longer-a-business-for-everyone-1ad7b56b/"
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---

# Distribution: No Longer a Business for Everyone

> “Our business is down 30% this year. If we don't develop more new channels and open more new customers, we won't even be able to pay salaries!” This is the real feedback from a distributor boss during our field research. During the day, he visits customers; at night, he livestreams. Facing declining sales, he works harder than ever. But the problem is: more investment, worse results, and less certainty in the business. This is not an isolated case. In our research, we found that despite widespread pressure, many distributors are not slowing down: adding staff and vehicles, expanding customers, launching new products, and investing more effort than ever, but returns are increasingly unstable.

## **“Our business is down 30% this year. If we don't develop more new channels and open more new customers, we won't even be able to pay salaries!” This is the real feedback from a distributor boss during our field research.**
## **During the day, he visits customers; at night, he livestreams. Facing declining sales,** he works harder than ever. But the problem is: more investment, worse results, and less certainty in the business.
This is not an isolated case. In our research, we found that despite widespread pressure, many distributors are not slowing down: adding staff and vehicles, expanding customers, launching new products, and investing more effort than ever, but returns are increasingly unstable.
Anxiety is spreading in daily operations—clearly, everything is being done, but the business just doesn't improve. Is the market the problem, or is the way of doing business the problem?
Traditional channels are “stalling”: running more but earning less
“Now doing business, you can't afford to wait or bear the pressure! Last week, I just stocked nearly 2,000 yuan of goods into a supermarket. This week, when I went to reconcile accounts, the door was locked and the phone was unreachable.” A distributor surnamed Yang (pseudonym) in the Central China region sighed.
In the past few years, he was a supplier to several major chain supermarket systems. With a few large orders, he could complete most of the annual tasks. The team was stable, capital was liquid, and life was solid.
But in the past two years, three major supermarket customers have successively stopped purchasing and closed stores, leaving over 400,000 yuan in receivables unrecovered. The remaining supermarket customers have cut their purchasing volumes by more than half, and they are also pressing for price cuts and delaying payment terms.
To survive, he had to break up his front and switch to mom-and-pop stores and community stores. In two months, his customer count grew from over 80 to over 300.
“Previously, deliveries were concentrated; now they are scattered. I added three new vehicles, and monthly fuel and driver wages have increased by tens of thousands, but shipment volume is about the same as before.”
Another distributor surnamed Xu (pseudonym) from East China reported similar feedback. Over the past two years, his customer count grew from 500 to over 3,000. He thought he could “get bigger and stronger,” but it did not bring growth.
“Previously, with supermarkets, 500 customers could generate 100 million. Now, to serve small stores, the team has expanded, but 3,000 customers still only generate 100 million.”
Traditional channels are becoming increasingly difficult to compete in, and the familiar operating rhythm is starting to fail. Many distributors say they envy peers doing “special channels.” However, during our research, we found that “special channels” are also struggling now.
**“Stable channels” are unstable; special channels are also losing ground**
“Previously, relying on relationships could win 80% of orders. Now, at best, I can get a bidding qualification, and winning depends entirely on strength.” Wang (pseudonym), who has been in the government and enterprise group meal business for 10 years, feels deeply about the changes in the current group meal market.
In the past, government and enterprise group meals were always regarded as a “hot potato.” As long as you got into the system and maintained relationships, customers would supply year after year, and orders were large enough. But in today's market environment, this layer of “stability” is collapsing.
“Now it's a bidding process every year, and some units even adjust every six months. The customer you work hard to maintain today may not be yours next year,” Wang said. “Previously, three to five companies competed for one project; now more than a dozen are fighting for it, and prices are being pushed very low. If you're not careful, you'll lose money.”
The bigger challenge is that service thresholds are getting higher, but stickiness is getting lower. Winning a bid does not mean the project is over; it means the start of a new round of service—on-time delivery, full-chain compliance, and process reimbursement. If one link loosens, you may be eliminated.
Another distributor surnamed Zhang (pseudonym), who serves airlines and high-speed rail systems, also expressed a similar dilemma: “This business is not something anyone can do just because they want to.”
On the surface, he deals with big customers and big projects, with partners being well-known airlines and transportation systems, with quality channels and stable customers. But in reality, long payment terms, heavy capital advances, and high risks keep him under “high pressure” all year round.
“Annual profit is only a few million, but accounts receivable have exceeded 60 million.”
The payment terms for many projects have stretched from three months to six months, or even a year. Once there is a personnel change or a problem in the contract process, hundreds of thousands in bad debts can appear at any time.
“This channel is not just about supplying goods. National distribution, invoice compliance, and system reconciliation—if one link fails, the customer will immediately switch partners.” Zhang's words reveal fatigue: “Today's special channels are not something anyone can bear.”
**It's not that some are struggling; it's that most are struggling**
In our research, we also received anxiety from many distributors. Facing declining sales, they try various ways to “save themselves,” but with little effect.
So many distributors attribute the problem to themselves: Is the team management not good? Is the product selection not right? Am I not working hard enough?
But we want to say that today's predicament is not necessarily your personal problem; it's that the entire market environment has changed.
At the beginning of 2025, the China Chain Store & Franchise Association conducted a survey of 47 supermarket companies (with a total of over 10,000 stores). 57.4% of supermarkets saw a year-on-year decline in total sales in 2024, and 53.2% saw a year-on-year decline in net profit, with nearly half of them experiencing a net profit decline of more than 10%.
And the Q1 2025 financial reports of 9 listed supermarket companies tracked by New Distribution show that only Bubugao and Sanjiang Shopping achieved double growth in revenue and net profit—if the leading companies are like this, the others are even worse.
At the same time, the brand side is also under pressure.
After analyzing the 2024 annual report revenue and net profit data of 131 listed FMCG companies, we found that 68 saw revenue declines and 65 saw net profit declines, with significant drops.
With slowing brand growth and weak terminal sales, distributors, as the middle link in the trade and circulation chain, naturally face pressure from both ends.
What distributors really need to change is not their hard work, but their cognition and direction: Where should the future business go? Can they still become an “irreplaceable link” in the chain?
Instead of being trapped in a small plot of land and “self-consuming,” it's better to go out and see the world: How are others doing it? Where is the market heading? What new opportunities are there?
From August 19-21, in Shanghai, [2025 New Demand · New Supply 7th FMCG Conference]. We will bring together outstanding distributors from across the country, representative B2b platforms in the industry, leading brand owners and retailers, and other frontline operators to systematically discuss the topic “Distributor Operating Rules and Dividend Opportunities under New Demand and New Supply,” conducting a systematic exploration of underlying logic and practical experience, and systematically deconstructing how distributors should go, transform, and win in the next stage.
🔺


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 张雨薇
- Published: 2025-07-14
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/distribution-no-longer-a-business-for-everyone-1ad7b56b/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/g82rSH4oUqjr5Y0rz_gmkw

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