Click to read the original article for details. With the rise of B2B platforms, some start with brand owners, some with retail terminals, and some with distributors, with models emerging one after another. As an FMCG B2B platform, who is the best entry point, and who is the most important service target at present? Personally, I believe the best entry point is to focus on distributors, empowering them to transform into local service providers, promoting the integration of online and offline, and through low-cost, high-efficiency operations and services, connecting upward with brand owners, serving retail outlets downward, and uniting suppliers in the middle. Why do I say this? Let's look at each in turn. 1 Information technology for brand owners can only be a tool, not a model Brand owners' own transaction data is relatively accurate, but the channel transaction data they hold becomes less accurate and more incomplete as it approaches the terminal. Additionally, starting with brand owners makes it difficult to achieve effective data accumulation.

  1. From brand owner to consumer, the overall product flow is funnel-shaped, and platform construction from the brand owner downward will have irreconcilable contradictions. Moreover, the influence of brands on channels and consumers diminishes further down. For a single region, if every brand owner were to digitize the channel according to their own requirements, distributors would be at a loss.
  2. In terms of input-output, brand owners have no need to invest huge financial and human resources in digitizing distributors; they care about the sales of their own products, so brand owners' informatization relies on their own personnel. Information technology for brand owners can only be a tool, not a model. From an industry perspective, each enterprise remains an information island; from an interest perspective, brand owners are inherently exclusive.
  3. From a demand perspective, brand owners hope to control the channel to achieve their own development goals, but from the traditional supply chain transaction perspective, conflicts between brand owners and distributors are unavoidable. Even if brand owners provide system tools with a certain degree of adaptability, distributors' willingness remains low—one wants to manage, the other does not want to be managed. From the current situation, even if some brand distributors are forced by reality to use the manufacturer's system, they will still fabricate false transactions for their own interests. 2 Retail small shops are not the entry point but the service target Retail terminal transactions are largely missing for traditional convenience stores. Even with POS systems, they are basically for show, serving only as information islands for the store or enterprise, with data used mainly for accounting. Moreover, retail terminals are diverse in form and numerous, making them not ideal as an entry point. Whether it's terminal retail stores or special channel customers, they all present forms of scenario-based consumption, but their operational methods differ greatly.
  4. Scenario-based: Different channels and locations create differentiated consumption scenarios, with significant differences in product categories and operating methods, such as retail stores, restaurants, KTVs, etc., requiring refined operations.
  5. They do not exclusively operate a single brand, nor do they only operate first-tier brands.
  6. "Take only one ladle from the weak water of three thousand"—different regions, different locations within the same region, and different consumption scenarios determine the regional characteristics of FMCG. Even if a platform has tens of thousands of SKUs, convenience stores only need about 2000 appropriate items.
  7. Service needs differ: ordering is not even a pain point for retail stores. Compared to that, they care more about sales and the services arising from unsold goods. Since most terminal outlets have low operational capability, with little product optimization or promotion, they urgently need someone to help improve their current business situation. Therefore, for FMCG B2B platforms, establishing a comprehensive service terminal business model is the core of competition. Terminal small shops are the key service targets. 3 Low cost, high efficiency: distributors are the best entry point Distributors have long operated in their regions, familiar with local markets, possessing solid social relationships, and years of accumulated small shop customer relationships, and they can achieve full-channel coverage of the region.
  8. From a cost perspective, under the current domestic tax system and labor law, distributors' costs are not high. Take convenience stores as an example: over the past 20 years, they have undergone rounds of impact and transformation, but independently operated convenience stores remain the main force. Why? At its core, it's about interests: you need profits, while others need wages.
  9. From an efficiency perspective, efficiency is not low. They do not face the massive order sorting that e-commerce giants do, after all, the market capacity and product SKUs they target are different. Limited to a single region, their efficiency is not low, and they can achieve same-day delivery. In summary, the most suitable angle for FMCG B2B platforms is to empower traditional distributors and enhance their self-operation efficiency. Through internet technology output, with the goal of reducing costs, increasing efficiency, and serving terminals, promote regional distributor alliances, conduct differentiated and refined operations for different terminal customers, and build a low-cost, high-efficiency localized service system. 4 How to unite distributors to build a localized platform operation system Compared to current self-operated B2B platforms, distributors' costs are not high, and efficiency is not low—these are things that brand owners and B2B platforms cannot achieve. At the same time, without distributors' localized services, platforms either have incomplete business loops or operate at high costs. How specifically to build a regional platform operation system? 1. Build a two-level operation system to achieve shared marketing. The first level can consist of experienced manufacturer regional managers, who can ensure efficient implementation of brand owners' marketing activities while serving the digital construction of distributors in the region. The second level consists of capable customer relationship personnel in the region, responsible for maintaining customer relationships at retail terminals, providing ultimate service experiences, assisting in guiding store operations, and improving their sales and management. To ensure the operation system works, it is recommended that the platform operation entity not participate in traditional distribution business transactions.
  10. Segment retail terminals, refine operations, carry out diverse marketing activities, and assist distributors in digital marketing. For example, carry out targeted activities for different convenience stores, restaurants, KTVs, group purchases, etc.
  11. Own chains and franchise chains: Build a free chain system through digital store construction, connecting stores to the network. On one hand, standardize small store management; on the other hand, through data sharing, provide better services and operational guidance. From another perspective, this will also force regional distributors to operate jointly. Through franchise alliances, enhance store image, create comprehensive service stores, and bring added value to stores.
  12. C-end marketing: Through retail terminals, establish a business model directly facing C-end consumers. This is not only necessary to help small shops solve current sales problems but also the ultimate competitive resource for the platform in the future. For B2B platforms, building a regional platform system, controlling retail small shops through services, uniting regional suppliers in an open and fair manner, attracting brand owners with efficient marketing systems, carrying out diverse marketing activities in the region, and refining terminal customer operations. Supported by a data-driven operation system, improving service efficiency, operational efficiency, and marketing efficiency, effectively reducing operational costs, and assisting traditional distributors in transformation and growth is the way out. In the view of New Distribution, based on location, for some township and rural small shops, although stocking up is a pain point, for national B2B platforms, high logistics costs and low efficiency remain insurmountable gaps. This can be well solved by multiple distributors jointly establishing central warehouses and shared front warehouses (shared warehousing and distribution). For urban retail small shops, although stocking up is not troublesome, they face increasingly prominent diversified competition, requiring upstream platforms and distributors to provide in-depth services to solve sales and operation problems. Therefore, from the perspective of the small shops being served, platforms uniting with local distributors is the most economical, efficient, and best way to create value for small shops. National platforms hoping to bypass the distributor link to directly supply terminals may indeed be wrong! -END-