In Uncertain Times, How Can the 'One Inventory' Model Help FMCG Companies Seize Certain Growth?

The Biggest Question in Uncertain Times Where Does Growth Come From? If we go back ten years, most brand managers would feel fortunate. In that era of certainty, as long as we correctly implemented classic marketing theories, we could likely build brands, establish barriers, and sustain growth. The "HBG" theory summarized by Procter & Gamble, a Fortune 500 company, is a classic paradigm for building successful brands in the era of certainty. "Big media, big channels, big brands" was the most effective growth model for decades. When the internet changed everything, the world moved from the industrial age to the information age, and goods went from relative scarcity to severe surplus, many things that were once certain disappeared at an extremely fast pace. Brand managers face the most serious problem: where does growth come from? Everything that was once certain has lost its certainty. Big media still has influence, but we cannot build brands through big media placements. The countless new media created by the internet have brought information explosion, resulting in infinite fragmentation of information, which is rapidly generated and extinguished. No brand can cover all media; it is neither possible nor economical. Big brands are still alive, but the endless emergence of new brands and players from various backgrounds entering the FMCG market puts them under pressure. New consumer brands may not be doing well themselves, but their existence has successfully stripped big brands of their halo and lost a large number of new-generation consumers. The once-dominant offline channels have lost growth momentum, but various new models and channels are accelerating their erosion of major channels' share. B2b, O2O, private domain retail, community group buying, live-streaming e-commerce—these complex new channels make brand orders increasingly fragmented and fulfillment costs higher. Although offline channels still account for the majority of share, they often appear bloated and lack vitality when facing the attack of new channels. The widely followed futurist Kevin Kelly said in "Out of Control" that all material evolution tends toward increasing complexity, and one day this complexity will lead to everything spiraling out of control. The same applies to marketing competition: when brand managers cannot find certain growth, the brand begins to lose control.

Omnichannel Marketing The Only Path to Certain Growth The "deep distribution" and "channel intensive cultivation" models once represented the limit of channel capability in the FMCG industry, but if you only master this one offline channel operation capability, it is almost impossible to achieve certain growth. All FMCG companies must recognize that channel diversification and order fragmentation are an irreversible trend, and this trend is the only certainty. FMCG companies must adapt to this change as soon as possible and develop matching omnichannel operation capabilities to achieve certain growth. We must know that China's FMCG consumer market is still on a growth trajectory, but various new channels have taken away this growth. Ten years ago, mastering one channel type could support a brand's growth, but today one channel may not even sustain a brand, let alone grow. Since growth comes from omnichannel, it is necessary to do well in omnichannel operations to achieve certain growth. This is the only path to growth. Omnichannel operations, growth from omnichannel—the logic is easy to understand, but achieving it requires overcoming at least two mountains: omnichannel marketing and omnichannel fulfillment. First, the capability of omnichannel marketing. Previously, channel marketing capability mainly tested the intensive cultivation of a few major channels. Now, omnichannel marketing involves a geometric increase in the number of channels, reaching hundreds. Previously, channel marketing mainly involved offline B-end channels and online e-commerce. Now, omnichannel marketing includes not only original channels but also various new online channels, new offline channels, and integrated online-offline channels. It requires not only various B-end and C-end marketing capabilities but also the integration of BC integration. To achieve growth, online brands must go offline, offline brands must have online capabilities, and everyone needs to make up for their shortcomings in omnichannel marketing. This capability is not developed overnight; it often requires various failures and lessons to gain results. Second, the capability of omnichannel fulfillment. Diversification and fragmentation are basic characteristics of omnichannel, and omnichannel orders are inevitably diversified and fragmented. The challenge of omnichannel order fulfillment is no less than omnichannel marketing. In the past, offline B-end order fulfillment was relatively easy, with larger order values and clearer, consistent service requirements. Today's omnichannel orders combine large and small orders, B-end and C-end orders, products in full boxes and broken lots, and service requirements for in-store and home delivery. The difficulty of fulfillment has increased exponentially compared to traditional single B-end orders. Omnichannel order fulfillment not only increases difficulty but also makes cost control harder. When the main growth comes from long-tail orders, order processing and delivery costs rise significantly. Many FMCG brand teams have excellent adaptability in marketing, quickly building omnichannel marketing capabilities and achieving sales growth. But when the fulfillment cost of growth orders exceeds revenue, such growth becomes meaningless. Kevin Kelly said that when evolution becomes too complex for a single organization to control, only decentralized distributed collaboration can avoid losing control. Omnichannel operation is a more complex operational model than ever before. For FMCG companies to master this complex growth model, the only way is to separate omnichannel marketing from omnichannel fulfillment. FMCG marketing teams focus on improving omnichannel marketing capabilities to continuously obtain more incremental orders from omnichannel, while omnichannel order fulfillment is handed over to a partner specializing in omnichannel fulfillment. Annto, which has served 2000+ enterprise customers, is such a partner that can provide professional omnichannel fulfillment services for FMCG companies. Practice has proven that Annto's "One Inventory" service model can effectively help FMCG companies achieve omnichannel growth.

The "One Inventory" Model Helping FMCG Companies Seize Certain Incremental Growth In response to the omnichannel competitive environment in the FMCG industry, Annto has specifically proposed the FMCG "One Inventory" solution. The so-called "One Inventory" model is to integrate the inventory of e-commerce, direct sales, KA, circulation, new retail, and special channels into one system for management, merging online and offline channel inventory into "one inventory" by connecting the production end and distribution end. While managing omnichannel inventory as one, it also achieves one-stop processing and one-stop fulfillment for omnichannel orders. Annto's One Inventory solution includes three levels. The first level is inventory (physical) one inventory, which achieves cost reduction and efficiency improvement by realizing inventory transparency and real information visibility, reducing the number of logistics handling times; The second level is inventory (shared) one inventory, which connects and shares inventory across all levels of offline channels, achieving lower safety stock to meet market supply; The third level is online and offline + To B/C integration, which resolves product differentiation between online and offline, shares inventory, and drives channel reform and business transformation. After FMCG companies apply Annto's One Inventory model, the first value comes from inventory sharing. Warehouse space is greatly saved. After omnichannel one inventory, product inventory is shared across all channels, and warehouse space can be significantly reduced. The original warehouses of thousands of distributors can be integrated into a hundred, greatly improving inventory turnover and reducing inventory turnover days and warehouse costs. Second, delivery efficiency is greatly improved, and delivery costs are significantly reduced. Originally, an order required multiple transfers and distributions before reaching the terminal or consumer; now it can arrive in at most two transfers. Significant reduction in inventory and warehouse space, shortened delivery links, and one-stop processing of omnichannel orders are the three core keys to why the One Inventory model can effectively support FMCG companies' omnichannel orders. Understanding one inventory is not difficult, but achieving and doing it well is no easy task. Annto's "One Inventory" solution is realized through its rich professional warehousing and distribution service experience and solid network foundation. Currently, Annto has deployed 5 million square meters of warehousing management area, 136 operation centers, and 3000+ delivery and installation outlets for last-mile delivery and integrated delivery and installation services across the country. With this huge basic warehousing and distribution network, Annto effectively covers 95.3% of districts and counties nationwide, and 100% of townships under them. This physical network can provide omnichannel, full-link logistics services for industries such as home appliances, furniture, FMCG, and daily chemicals. Services include inbound logistics, VMI warehousing, production lean logistics, trunk and branch line transportation, warehousing management, urban distribution, and integrated delivery and installation. The services of the entire network are highly flexible, and different needs of different customers can be met with "self-service" service plans. Customers can freely select service products in the system to combine and receive corresponding services. In addition to this vast physical network covering the country, Annto has also developed a powerful internet system based on years of FMCG warehousing and distribution service experience, combined with the One Inventory model. For Annto's customers, the "One Inventory" service not only allows real-time understanding of inventory data at each node, nearby allocation and overall management based on sales conditions of different channels, but also connects online and offline, reducing conflicts between online and offline channels, and creating greater market growth. The One Inventory model not only improves customers' overall operational efficiency through system empowerment and logistics services but also helps FMCG companies and distributors save a lot of warehousing and distribution costs, making it more cost-effective than doing it themselves. To date, Annto has served 2000+ brand companies, including well-known FMCG brands such as Uni-President, Tsingtao Brewery, Snow Beer, Feihe Dairy, and Blue Moon. Annto's One Inventory solution has, in recent years, helped a large number of FMCG brands grow rapidly in new channels such as community group buying, live-streaming e-commerce, and O2O, seizing omnichannel growth opportunities. Companies and distributors cooperating with Annto on the One Inventory model, because they are freed from non-marketing functions such as capital advances, warehousing, and logistics distribution, have greatly improved their market and terminal operation capabilities, thereby enhancing their control over the market and terminals. In uncertain times, the sustained growth of FMCG companies depends on certain anchors. The current reality is that market capacity growth is certain, consumption growth is certain, and omnichannel growth is certain, but user purchase behavior is uncertain, and consumption scenarios are uncertain. Seizing the opportunity of omnichannel growth is seizing the development opportunity of the new era. To seize this opportunity, you cannot do without the support of partners like Annto's One Inventory service. If you don't seize the opportunity, your competitors will.