Comparison Ten years ago, or even earlier, prefecture- and county-level distributors were living comfortably, one could say they were "earning" very well. Ten years later, the situation has completely reversed. Especially in the past year or two, the living space for prefecture- and county-level distributors has been increasingly compressed, and this year even more so. The main reasons are:

  1. Information has become more accessible. Previously, prices were secret, and making dozens to a hundred yuan per box was common, earning money from information asymmetry. Now, with a WeChat message or a social media post, what product can't be found, and what price isn't known? Information is transparent, and so are prices. A prefecture-level distributor gave this example: selling one box of squid skewers, adding 2 yuan, monthly sales of 10,000 boxes; adding 5 yuan, monthly sales of 3,000 boxes; adding 10 yuan, monthly sales of less than 1,000 boxes. Information is so transparent that even your downstream customers know how much you earn per box. If you earn too much, they won't work with you. The information dividend has disappeared. Even if you survive, life will get harder.
  2. Transportation has become more convenient. Previously, coastal cities had highways built earlier, but most inland regions had cities far apart with few highways, taking at least a dozen hours or even a day and a night between cities. Shipping was inconvenient, and you earned money from time and space. Now, highways crisscross and transportation extends in all directions. Not only within the province, but even cross-province shipments can arrive in the morning and reach by evening. Many county- and town-level customers go to provincial capital markets or even neighboring provinces to stock up, because large markets have more variety and lower prices, and shipping is convenient. Your "time" and "space" dividends have disappeared.
  3. Competition has become more intense. Previously, manufacturers, distributors, and products were relatively scarce, lacking competition, and it was a seller's market. Basically, if you had goods, you could sell them. Sales were not a worry, and you earned money from the trend. Now, you are no longer exclusive. Surrounding vegetable sellers, dried goods sellers, meat sellers, and aquatic product sellers are all selling frozen food. If you earn 5 yuan, they earn 2 yuan, and your old customers might become someone else's new customers. The trend dividend has also disappeared.
  4. Relying on relationships has turned into bidding. Previously, as long as you handled key figures and gave kickbacks, money would flow in continuously. Now, the original relationship units hold bidding every year. Even if your connections are strong, as long as competitors intervene, they will thoroughly expose your prices. Even if you win the bid, profits will decline year by year. Market-oriented operations are becoming more fair, open, and transparent, and your relationship dividend has disappeared. So, ten years later, the survival situation for prefecture- and county-level distributors is increasingly severe.

Analysis Not transforming is a dead end, for sure, just a matter of sooner or later, depending on when the dividend you rely on disappears. Of course, saying transformation is easy, but how to transform is difficult. However, "difficulty" is your opportunity. If you succeed in transforming, the market opportunity is yours. How to transform? With different time and space, there is no standard answer. I am also going deep into the front-line market, exploring together with the vast number of prefecture- and county-level distributor friends, making bold assumptions, carefully verifying, iterating quickly in practice, lean entrepreneurship, and working with them to find the most suitable transformation path for each. Specifically, you can start from the following aspects:

  1. Develop terminal customer frozen food combination solutions. No longer just simple delivery, but from the customer's perspective, provide what products the customer needs, rather than pushing whatever products you sell to customers. Over time, customers will become dependent on you.
  2. Explore customer needs. Provide customers with products they didn't expect but want. Understand their needs and pain points better than they do, because you are professional in frozen food, and you must be more professional than customers. Being one step ahead gives you a better chance of winning.
  3. Develop customized ingredient business for chain restaurants. Chain restaurant companies share a common pain point: how to reduce dependence on chefs and improve product quality and taste stability. That is to industrialize production and use more prepared dishes or semi-finished products. They mostly, after experiencing the failure of "central kitchens" (running a restaurant is quite different from running a factory), tend to cooperate with professional factories. Currently, there are too few products on the market that truly meet their needs, so customization is needed. Prefecture-level distributors can rely on the support of the manufacturers they represent to become the interface for ingredient customization and jointly develop this business.
  4. Open community stores. Open frozen food specialty stores in large communities, central vegetable markets, and township markets, focusing on retail and serving the public. In addition to traditional frozen foods, semi-finished products and prepared dishes are gradually entering household consumption. The "lazy economy" of the post-90s and post-00s provides huge development space for semi-finished and prepared dishes. This is a major trend, and seizing it may allow you to enjoy the "trend dividend" again.
  5. Delivery to door. Delivery is not just about sending goods; through delivery, you can also: (1) Through frequent customer communication, enhance customer relationships. Good feelings lead to high loyalty. (2) Understand market information and grasp product intelligence more accurately. (3) Race against provincial markets for time, winning by speed. (4) Build brand awareness. While delivering, you can post and distribute promotional materials for the products you represent, expanding their local visibility. (5) Understand competitor dynamics and adjust competitive strategies.

This article is excerpted from "Frozen Food" magazine, first published on the Frozen Food WeChat public account. For more information, click "Read the original" below to subscribe. Previous posts: **Winter Solstice is coming, which brand of dumplings are you planning to buy? During the peak season, a survey of the Shandong hot pot ingredients market If one day, you lose your value......