Distributors' sales and profits largely stem from channel strength. Channels are not just a means for FMCG distributors to achieve sales, but also their core competitive advantage for survival and development in a complex market environment.

A diversified channel strategy can help distributors spread risks. When one channel is affected by market fluctuations, policy changes, or competition, other channels can still maintain business stability, avoiding overall business damage due to the decline of a single channel.

Today, let's discuss how distributors should plan their channel layout for 2026.

Offline: Four Channels Need to Shore Up Weaknesses

Consider a question: In an era of surplus, how can trading companies preserve their existing volume?

Let me share two cases from Jiangxi last year. One distributor primarily operated in the campus channel, with a product structure highly dependent on campus sales. They had been doing well for the past two or three years, but in September, a policy notice closed campus sales points, and their business volume halved, plunging them into an operational crisis.

Another distributor primarily operated in the modern trade channel, with a business model highly dependent on hypermarket systems. Although hypermarkets had been declining in recent years, they managed to survive. In August, one local hypermarket system closed, compressing their business volume by one-third, and they began to struggle.

These two cases tell us: In the era of incremental growth, distributors could thrive by leveraging their strengths across the four major channels. But in the era of surplus, any weakness in the four offline channels is a ticking time bomb for distributors.

I. Modern Trade: Four Key Points

1. Enhance Fine-Grained Store Management

  • Maximize terminal coverage: Ensure high penetration in core outlets, covering over 90% of core terminals.
  • Price stability: Use anti-diversion measures and price monitoring to protect distributor profits and reduce price chaos.
  • Data-driven decisions: Use terminal sell-out data to optimize production and marketing strategies, achieving precise resource allocation.

2. Improve Store Activity Effectiveness

  • Precisely target customers: Through market research and data analysis, identify the needs, preferences, and purchasing habits of consumers around outlets, and design activities accordingly. For example, for convenience stores targeting young office workers, launch convenient and healthy snack combo promotions; for supermarkets targeting family consumers, offer family-pack product discounts.
  • Strengthen cooperation with channel partners:
    • Share information and resources: Maintain close communication with outlets, promptly understand inventory, sales data, and consumer feedback, and jointly formulate promotion plans and replenishment strategies.
    • Joint marketing: Collaborate with outlets on activities such as joint discounts, in-store promotions, community promotions, etc., sharing costs and expanding activity influence.
    • Training and support: Provide outlet staff with product knowledge and sales skills training to enhance their enthusiasm and professionalism in promoting products.

3. Must Pay Attention to O2O

The combination of online and offline is the inevitable path for modern trade transformation. It is a trend that distributors must adapt to, and they must equip themselves with relevant operational skills.

4. High Coverage of Internal Purchases and Group Buying

Channel operations should not overlook the consumption power of internal employees. Secondly, consider how to develop internal employees into KOCs and KOLs. Thirdly, do not ignore the social relationships of modern trade. Leveraging modern trade for group buying is another breakthrough for sales growth.

II. Traditional Trade: Three Key Points

1. Systematic Operation of Channel Partners

This involves partner selection and evaluation, channel network layout and optimization, cooperation models and profit distribution, and channel risk management. Whichever distributor establishes this system first will take the lead.

2. Strengthen Operational Processes

This includes channel partner management, terminal store management, logistics and distribution management, information flow and collaboration, and promotion and marketing management. With process orientation, you avoid haphazard efforts.

Let me briefly discuss promotion and marketing management strategies.

  • First, formulate precise promotion strategies: Based on market demand, product characteristics, and consumer behavior, develop targeted promotion strategies. For example, holiday promotions, new product launch promotions, member-exclusive promotions, etc., using price discounts, gifts, lucky draws, etc., to attract consumers to purchase products.
  • Second, strengthen terminal promotion execution: Enhance supervision of promotional activities at terminal stores to ensure they proceed smoothly as planned. Provide necessary promotional materials support, such as posters, flyers, trial samples, etc., to improve the effectiveness of promotional activities.
  • Finally, integrate marketing resources: Integrate online and offline marketing resources to carry out comprehensive marketing activities. Through social media, e-commerce platforms, offline activities, and other channels, conduct brand publicity and product promotion to increase brand awareness and product exposure.

3. Establish an Effective Incentive System

The compensation system is a major topic. If distributors do not understand it, they cannot effectively activate their teams.

Key points of the compensation system: First, the model—are you in an employment or partnership relationship with your employees? Second, the profit logic—do employees earn commissions or profit sharing? Finally, KPI assessment—is there a priority order? Is there a sense of urgency? Assessment should not be "as numerous as ox hair."

III. Campus Channel: Three Must-Dos

  • Achieve 100% coverage in internal supermarkets.
  • Ensure 100% stock availability in dormitory vending machines.
  • If involving cafeteria sales (e.g., convenience foods), strive for 100% exclusive sales in cafeterias.

Often, doing well in one campus is equivalent to ten townships.

IV. Special Channels: Three Developments

  • Must develop scenic spots and factories.
  • Must cooperate with railways, highways, airports, and vending machines.
  • Best to achieve exclusive sales in internet cafes and leisure venues.

Special channels are the face of distributors and a plus for brand impressions.

Online: Four Channels to Plan

Consider another question: In an era of surplus, how can trading companies achieve incremental growth?

There is a consensus today that consumer shopping habits have changed.

Previously, information, transactions, and delivery all occurred offline. For example, when shopping in a supermarket, you saw a product promotion, then paid and took the product home.

Now, part of the information acquisition has moved online. For instance, you see a product on Douyin, or on a food delivery platform, then transact on the platform, and delivery is via courier or self-pickup.

Therefore, distributors must adapt to these changes and plan ahead. Striking first is always better than being controlled by others.

1. Establish Cooperation with B2b Platform Providers

Using internet technology to improve operational efficiency and leveraging supply chain optimization to enhance profit margins is inevitable for the FMCG industry.

With rising labor costs and a consumer environment seeking extreme cost-performance, single-brand deep distribution can hardly support the operational costs of large trading companies. Some distributors, leveraging category advantages, do category deep distribution to maintain normal operations. But the end of categories is more categories. How to manage more categories? A supply chain service provider based on B2b is clearly a good choice.

So, distributors face two paths: one is to build their own B2b platform, and the other is to cooperate with local B2b platform providers. Personally, I currently lean towards distributors first cooperating with B2b platforms, paying tuition with less profit to avoid unnecessary losses.

2. Establish a Regional O2O Operating Model

O2O focuses on guiding online traffic to offline stores, emphasizing "to-store" consumption, suitable for planned and semi-planned needs. Merchants center on offline stores, focusing on in-store service experience, professional consultation, and brand building. Online platforms are mainly used for information display and traffic generation.

The competitive focus is on channel coverage, price advantage, SKU richness, and offline service quality. Users care more about cost-performance and in-store experience.

For distributors, this is a means for channel outlets to cope with customer traffic growth. Some distributors always say they want to shift from operating channels to operating users. O2O is a good starting point. With proper product strategy and selection, price and promotion management, and inventory supply chain management, you can easily get started.

3. Embrace Instant Retail

Instant retail focuses on meeting users' immediate and urgent needs, such as suddenly wanting a pack of fries or a drink. Users pursue "want it now," with extremely high timeliness requirements and lower price sensitivity.

With the core of "order online, deliver within 30 minutes to 1 hour," stores or front warehouses serve as fulfillment nodes, with platform riders for rapid delivery, achieving "to-home" service. The fulfillment chain is shorter and more efficient.

Merchants need to strengthen inventory management, picking efficiency, and rider coordination to ensure quick dispatch and delivery. They also need to provide online professional services to meet users' immediate needs.

For distributors, the future competitive barrier is no longer brand product resources, but the efficiency of collaborating with terminal outlets to serve consumers. Distributors have three forms of cooperation:

  • First, the platform delivery model: Many outlets have their own partnered delivery platforms (Meituan Flash Purchase, JD Daojia/Seconds, Taobao Flash Purchase, Ele.me, etc.). Distributors need to think about how to coordinate with outlets to integrate.
  • Second, the retailer self-operated model: Many outlets, especially hypermarkets and chain systems, have their own mini-programs, apps, and online supermarkets, represented by Hema, Yonghui Superstores, etc. Platforms use offline supermarket stores as warehouses and distribution centers. Users can order online, pick up in-store, or enjoy delivery services. Distributors should actively pay attention and cooperate.
  • Third, the platform self-operated model: Front warehouse model, represented by Dingdong Maicai, Hema Fresh, Pupu Supermarket, Xiaoxiang Supermarket, etc. Platforms set up small warehousing facilities (front warehouses) near urban areas or communities, centrally purchase and store goods. After users order, front warehouse staff pick and pack, and deliver via self-built rider teams or third-party delivery platforms.

These platforms will appear more frequently in the future, and distributors should study them.

4. Regional E-commerce Platforms

Here, I mention Douyin Local Life. Through short videos and live streaming, it cooperates with merchants to offer local life services, including restaurant group buying, to-store services, and instant delivery for some products, leveraging traffic advantages to attract users to participate in instant consumption.

This model is both a sales channel and a window for brand localization and consumer localization operations. For distributors, it is a dividend in the era of media fragmentation. The earlier you operate, the earlier you benefit.

Final Thoughts

This is not just an adjustment of channel layout, but an upgrade and evolution of the identity of "middlemen."

Whoever completes this evolution first will gain the upper hand in the era of surplus. At the 6th China FMCG Distribution and Retail Conference (CFC) on March 16-18, 2026, in Chengdu, we will bring you:

  1. Find Answers: The first release of the "Next-Generation Middleman White Paper: China FMCG Distribution Insights 2026" will provide a roadmap for "redefining middlemen": who is improving matching efficiency, and who is becoming growth infrastructure.
  2. Three Parties Together: Brand x Distributor x Retailer collaborative reconstruction around the "three rights structure" of price rights, supply rights, and user rights, pushing manufacturer-dealer relations from "upstream-downstream game" to a "demand loop community," forming executable collaborative strategies.
  3. Benchmark Guidance: Deconstruct benchmark cases of "middlemen" to see what the future middleman looks like. Review organizational structure, product strategy, cost tactics, and growth paths—take them and use them.
  4. Regional Chain Supermarket Resource Matching: Over 100 regional chain supermarkets, 1,600+ stores, covering 14 provinces and autonomous regions, for precise matching. Instead of wandering in the fog with an old map, join 3,000 pioneers in the spring of 2026 to open the practical chapter of the next-generation middleman.

We'll see you in Chengdu in March!