---
title: "How Can New Products Seize the Key Moments of Sell-Through?"
description: "A new product's sell-through is determined by two key factors: per-store sales volume and the number of outlets. Even a bestseller like Coca-Cola averages only 4-5 bottles per store per day, so expectations for new products should be realistic. The key is to find differentiated channels and maintain effective outlets through regular visits, while also leveraging experiential marketing at critical moments to drive purchases."
author: "冯瑶"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2022-05-29"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/how-can-new-products-seize-the-key-moments-of-sell-through-4a5d8c0b/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/how-can-new-products-seize-the-key-moments-of-sell-through-4a5d8c0b.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/kWL_m2724k2_QUXjScAd-g"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E6%96%B0%E5%93%81%E5%A6%82%E4%BD%95%E6%8A%93%E4%BD%8F%E5%8A%A8%E9%94%80%E7%9A%84%E5%85%B3%E9%94%AE%E6%97%B6%E5%88%BB-4a5d8c0b.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/how-can-new-products-seize-the-key-moments-of-sell-through-4a5d8c0b/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# How Can New Products Seize the Key Moments of Sell-Through?

> A new product's sell-through is determined by two key factors: per-store sales volume and the number of outlets. Even a bestseller like Coca-Cola averages only 4-5 bottles per store per day, so expectations for new products should be realistic. The key is to find differentiated channels and maintain effective outlets through regular visits, while also leveraging experiential marketing at critical moments to drive purchases.

Let me start with a question.
How much Coca-Cola do you think an average small store sells in a day?
The answer may be surprising: only about 5 bottles.
How did I come up with this number?
Although we can't get an exact figure, we can estimate using the "Fermi method."
Based on Swire Coca-Cola's 2021 revenue from soda products (16.8 billion yuan) and a conservative estimate of over 2 million direct-sale outlets, we can calculate that the average daily revenue per store is about 23 yuan. Then, considering different sales policies across regions and taking an average wholesale price for a bottle of Coke, we find that a single store sells about 12 bottles per day (including all soda SKUs like Coke).
This assumes all sales come from direct outlets; if we consider non-direct outlets like restaurants, game rooms, and internet cafes, the number would be even lower.
I was shocked when I derived this number—Coca-Cola, such a popular product, only sells about 4 or 5 bottles per store per day!
While this calculation isn't perfectly rigorous, it serves as a reference point.
**It made me think: What really determines the sell-through of a product, especially a new one?**
In this article, I'll use soda products as a case study to discuss sell-through.
Recently, I've seen many brands launching new soda products.
From my observations, both brand owners and distributors' sales teams face a common headache: the "anxiety" of new product launches.
This anxiety often stems from problems like:
How to distribute?—Why isn't the small store owner stocking up?—The owner says it's not selling—The team loses confidence.
For brand owners, promoting new products is difficult, and they often invest more in marketing, but these are surface-level fixes.
Whether big or small brands, budgets can't be infinite, so it's common to see new products not lasting beyond the first year, disappearing like a gust of wind.
Regarding this common phenomenon, everyone in the marketing system may have different views.
As the saying goes, "position determines perspective": salespeople blame product developers, and product developers blame sales, etc.
Looking from a single dimension is biased. Before a new product launches, it shouldn't be just R&D's job; it's a company-wide effort.
Once a product passes internal reviews and is ready for market, the sales department can only look to the market for reasons.
So, what factors determine sell-through? According to the formula: Sales Revenue = Per-Store Sales × Number of Outlets, there are two key indicators: **per-store sales and number of outlets.**
Since per-store sales are more directly perceived and feedback cycles are shorter, **sales teams often make judgments based on per-store sales, while overlooking the total number of outlets.**
The Coca-Cola example at the beginning is a reminder: if even a bestseller like Coke averages only 4-5 bottles per store, aren't our expectations for other products, especially new ones, too high?
Per-store sales have a ceiling, while scaling outlet reach has a higher ceiling and more growth potential.
However, this growth requires long-term accumulation and time to build. Most companies don't have the time to wait.
So, why do some new consumer brands rise and fall quickly? It's not that their products are bad, but their ability to scale reach is insufficient. This capability requires significant money and time to build. For some internet-famous brands, they can't afford such infrastructure, or even if they get funding, capital won't give them much time.
On the other hand, Coca-Cola, Master Kong, Uni-President, and Nongfu Spring—didn't they build their outlet networks one by one through sales reps visiting stores? **When they were unknown, these foundational tasks required people and long-term investment.**
Such a moat is hard for a new product to break easily.
Now that we've discussed the two key factors and the moats of industry giants, let's talk about effective strategies for new product sell-through.
In the soda industry, we see many brands opening new battlefields in terms of outlet numbers.
Coca-Cola, Master Kong, Uni-President, and Nongfu Spring have, through over 20 years of deep distribution, placed products in traditional mom-and-pop stores across towns and villages.
In the traditional channels dominated by these giants, the cost of entering stores is high, especially for lesser-known brands.
So what should be done?
Recent new brands like Genki Forest and Da Yao Jia Bin have achieved billions in scale, essentially through differentiated competition.
Genki Forest uses modern channels like convenience stores, supermarkets, and online; Da Yao Jia Bin uses foodservice channels.
Rather than saying they found a differentiated path, it's more accurate to say they had no choice but to take it.
How to enter outlets at scale and stay there?
In traditional channels, giants have first-mover advantages, making it an unfair competition for newcomers.
But modern and foodservice channels are like a window of opportunity; everyone starts from the same line. Giants entering these channels is like starting a new business, requiring the same money and manpower, which is costly and stressful for them.
**On this differentiated battlefield, you start from the same point as the giants.**
Moreover, you have no baggage—no growth pressure, no mental burden—just go all in.
**So the first step in sell-through is to find a differentiated channel for your product and get it on the shelves there.**
Is it enough to just get into outlets? Not yet. **The second step is to turn these outlets into effective outlets.**
What is an effective outlet?
It's an outlet that is regularly visited and maintained by sales reps and consistently generates orders.
At this point, our formula needs another factor:
**Sales Revenue = Per-Store Sales × Number of Outlets × Visit Success Rate**
Effective outlets correspond to the visit success rate.
Companies like Coca-Cola, Master Kong, and Nongfu Spring have tens of thousands of sales reps. Their daily actions are standardized into what we call the "Eight Steps of Terminal Visits," highlighting the importance of terminal visits.
So, **besides finding and entering a differentiated outlet as your battlefield, you also need enough team members to maintain the effectiveness of that battlefield.**
How to manage so many sales reps? How to improve success rates? How to enhance efficiency? These test a company's operational capabilities.
For soda, a restaurant might only need one brand per category due to limited shelf space, so store owners have many choices. Getting them to proactively stock your product isn't just about brand appeal.
The only way is to have sales reps persuade them.
Here, the persuasion process requires deep research by the company or distributor.
For example, what are the profit advantages? Packaging advantages? Should we run promotions? Should we do displays? Should we invest in display tools like refrigerators, shelves, or cabinets? Should we put up store signs or ads? Should we do joint promotions with other products? Should we offer giveaways?
Many of these actions involve costs. Without good management and operational thinking, it's hard to succeed.
Finally, let me add some practical ideas for your reference.
When launching a new product, consider how established brands like KFC do it.
KFC's design for new product launches ensures the new item appears in your sight from the moment you approach: posters at the entrance, queue signs, menus, tables—everywhere you pass gives the new product prime display.
With digital private domain tools and online traffic methods, there are many ways to learn from.
Also, learn from baijiu (Chinese liquor) practices.
You'll notice many restaurants have two small bottles of liquor on each table. Why? So they're within easy reach.
Soda brands like Da Yao and Hongbaolai have adopted this well. When I eat malatang (spicy hot pot), I see people casually grabbing a bottle from the table—this unconscious purchase is the result of scene-based marketing.
You can also apply the MOT (Moment of Truth) theory, proposed by Jan Carlzon, former president of Scandinavian Airlines, to focus on scene-based sell-through. Let me explain the logic behind these ideas.
What is a "Moment of Truth"?
**MOT is a key lever for experiential marketing**, including the initial contact moment, peak moment, and ending moment.
How to seize the "Moment of Truth"?
It's about capturing people's sensory and psychological emotions in real scenarios, which helps us design better experiences.
KFC and popular milk tea shops are practitioners of this theory.
By breaking down consumer behavior into four dimensions—"attracted (curiosity)" → "engaged (purchase)" → "loyal (repurchase)" → "advocate (recommendation)"—we see that designing around consumer experiences in specific scenarios effectively stimulates usage and purchase desire.
For our soda products, there are many ways to try and explore in frontline practice. The above is just a starting point for thought.
Regarding the promotion of new soda products, the previous article explained from the perspective of "terminal as advertising," while this one is from the perspective of sell-through operations. Together, they can be summarized as: **Your product is your advertisement; your visibility determines your sales.**
In today's market environment, for new brands, another summary is: **Operations are the process; brand is the result.**
Finally, let me end with a motivational quote to encourage salespeople struggling with new products: If you believe you're on the right path, bravely face the market's challenges!
If you're interested in the soda business, feel free to add my WeChat below. I'll create a discussion group to dive deeper into the soda industry.
**↓Scan the QR code with WeChat and note "soda" to join the group↓**
**More Articles**
 **_-END-_**


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671