Community group buying, I think many distributor friends after the COVID-19 pandemic are no strangers to this term. Many distributors may have learned about community group buying around 2019, either supplying goods or having direct conflicts over product prices. If it weren't for the pandemic, the fire of community group buying, which started in 2018, would have basically ended in 2019. Mergers and acquisitions happened, and closures occurred. Unexpectedly, things changed. Due to the pandemic, community group buying was reignited in February 2020. Of course, it wasn't just consumers unable to go out that ignited community group buying, but also support from local government units. It was initially thought the pandemic would completely end by late March or early April, but that was a miscalculation. With the global outbreak, national epidemic prevention and control measures remain unrelaxed. Therefore, in this context, more and more distributors are exploring and trying community group buying, not just as a business but also as a path for transformation and upgrading. At the end of 2019, New Distribution conducted a distributor survey. According to the data, among distributors' transformation intentions, the highest proportion was for e-commerce TP and community group buying platform operators. Considering distributors doing community group buying, New Distribution invited Mr. Li Bin, co-founder of Keke Selection under Hebei Shijiazhuang Dunjie Supply Chain, who is a distributor venturing into community group buying for the second time, to talk about this business. Whether you are already on the road to community group buying or still thinking about this business, this article discusses community group buying from a distributor's perspective, hoping to provide some inspiration and thoughts. Not only to correctly understand community group buying, but also to change fixed cognition and misconceptions in business thinking. **-01-What are the differences between the two? First, the obvious difference: distributors deal with community stores, convenience stores, and other types of terminals, earning price differences through distribution agency, while local community group buying serves surrounding community residents. A residential area has at least 2,000 households. With an average of three people per household, one community alone has 6,000 people. Although the decision-maker behind consumption is one person, this is just one community. Over 70% of those served by community group buying are female household decision-makers, aged 35-49. How to attract them to purchase goods is a challenge for distributors. The difference in service targets determines that the business models are completely different. In Li Bin's words, distributors focus more on product thinking, competing in daily work with vivid displays, store relationships, and capital strength, driving sales of second- and third-tier high-margin products through agency of first- and second-tier brands. Community group buying is more complex, requiring a combination of retail, e-commerce, and WeChat business thinking. What does that mean? For example, according to weather forecasts, if local rainy weather is expected in the coming days, consumers are likely to need umbrellas and raincoats. Community group buying must list these products immediately; this is retail thinking. Another example: recently, Tmall held a fashion festival, so community group buying could also consider creating a similar local festival. Just around the spring equinox, when the weather warms and the epidemic relatively improves, consumers go out for outings more. Community group buying companies can launch similar activities targeting outing scenarios, selling products like makeup hydration and fruits; this is e-commerce thinking. Finally, regarding WeChat business thinking, how to reach community residents with product information requires the power of group leaders. Using WeChat groups established by community store owners (group leaders) and their Moments, promoting through various videos, images, and articles in the groups is WeChat business thinking. Of course, although community group buying is complex, compared to distribution which requires significant capital and fulfilling annual sales tasks set by manufacturers, the advantage of community group buying is the model of selling based on procurement, with zero inventory. High turnover and strong capital liquidity. You might ask, if that's the case, why do many community group buying companies burn money? On this point, Li Bin explained: ** Many community group buying platforms burn money not because the business itself is money-burning, but because they consider expanding to other regions, building warehouses and vehicles, and burning money to increase GMV. In contrast, this is the advantage for distributors doing local community group buying: no need to consider expansion, just doing well in their own area is enough. These are the differences between distribution agency and community group buying from three perspectives: service targets, distribution model, and capital use, giving distributors a correct understanding of community group buying. **-02-**Platform Business vs. Distribution Business The term "platform" is familiar to many distributors, but their understanding may not be deep. Simply put, a platform is like setting up a stage where different roles get what they need; your core task is to set the rules of the game. Community group buying is a typical "platform business." The backend has at least a dozen SKUs, updated daily without repetition, up to 100-200 SKUs. On average, 3,000-4,000 SKUs per month, with new additions and eliminations each month, and different products for different seasons and scenarios, requiring hundreds or thousands of suppliers. Ensuring product quality is core. In the early stages, with few SKUs, you can directly purchase and control quality. Once SKUs increase, the platform cannot purchase every product itself. How to make backend suppliers do business autonomously on the platform, continuously adjusting product specifications, packaging, and even promotional points based on front-end sales and target consumer preferences? The platform must continuously stimulate suppliers to "progress"; the relationship is not simple supply but mutual dependence, like fish and water. For front-end community store group leaders, how to make them proactively post in groups and Moments and interact with consumers according to platform rules? Interest-driven is the basic guarantee, but making group leaders feel a sense of participation and belonging is key. Every time they post in Moments or recommend products, it is actually the store owner's endorsement and commitment to the product. Li Bin said that besides letting group leaders see income, they must also continuously train them to realize that "the platform is the store owners' own platform," belonging to all group leaders, not just the company; the company is only the operator of the platform. It can even be said that for community store owners, community group buying is also their second venture, extending from offline single physical store operations to online, selling goods to consumers. Through such indoctrination, the role of group leaders on local community group buying platforms is no longer just a distributor but an operator, purchaser, and quality controller. They are encouraged to proactively suggest product selection and sales. Because they are not only distributors but also consumers. For example, when launching new products, invite group leaders to taste and evaluate. First, get their approval; only then will they have greater motivation and confidence to recommend new products to consumers. Therefore, you can see that compared to distribution agency, community group buying is more inclusive and requires more roles to participate. Distribution agency is a single-line chain business: distributors only need to consider how to sell their agency products to store owners and do good displays. Community group buying is a networked business. Backend suppliers move their offline wholesale business online, considering how to optimize and iterate their products to better meet consumers' current consumption demands. Front-end community store owners, as group leaders, extend their online business, considering how to recommend good products to nearby community residents. In this process, the community group buying platform is just an organizer, operator, coordinator, and supervisor. **-03-**Whose business is it really taking? Many distributors may wonder: will community group buying products conflict with community store products, thereby disrupting the market price system? No. From a consumer demand perspective, community stores meet immediate consumption needs, like buying water when thirsty or snacks when hungry. Community group buying, on the other hand, is more about planned household consumption. I decide what to eat tomorrow, what's missing at home, buy today, and pick up at the store tomorrow. So community group buying often sells stock-up items, like 19.9 yuan Vinda toilet paper, toothbrushes in packs of 6-10, or frozen seafood. In fact, community group buying moves hypermarkets within 5 kilometers, vegetable markets within 1 kilometer, city vegetable wholesale markets, fruit wholesale markets, and frozen seafood markets online, making it more convenient for consumers to purchase and choose. Therefore, community group buying takes business from hypermarkets and various local wholesale markets. Li Bin gave an example: last spring equinox, they planned to sell flowers - lucky bamboo. At that time, the platform had no flower supplier, so they had to purchase themselves. Only when they went to the largest flower wholesale market in Shijiazhuang did they find that all available lucky bamboo totaled only 1,000 bundles, insufficient for the platform's needs. Because lucky bamboo is a non-standard product with high price volatility, existing market inventory is very limited. Later, we deeply cooperated with a flower and plant supplier, selling based on procurement, eventually forming a stable supply. Back to the demand side, without the platform, consumers might not have thought of buying lucky bamboo, or might have wanted to but had to drive several kilometers to buy it. The platform not only greatly facilitates the consumer purchase experience, being fast and cost-effective, but also encourages some consumers who originally had no demand to actively purchase due to our promotion. Therefore, distributors are not taking business from fellow distributors or community stores, but through the platform, they move various offline markets online, meeting consumers' needs for a better life more closely and quickly!