Amid intensifying retail competition and channel fragmentation, convenience stores, as the small-format业态 closest to consumers, bear the function of community life services while facing the practical challenges of difficult business and thinning profits. How to navigate the cycle through supply chain integration, digital capabilities, and zero-supply collaboration has become a focal point for the industry. At the 5th China FMCG Retail Innovation Conference on August 20, Su Hong, 2B Chief Operating Officer of Every Day Convenience Store and General Manager of Bang Bianli Platform, shared her thoughts and explorations on 'zero-supply integration' based on her over ten years of convenience store practice. The following is her on-site speech (partially abridged), compiled by New Distribution for readers. Positioning and Value of Small-Format Retail Convenience stores are representatives of 'small but beautiful,' serving as the basic supporting facilities for residents' '15-minute convenient life circle.' We define our own format as small-format, i.e., stores with an area of less than 1,000 square meters, covering convenience stores, tea drinks, fresh produce, fruits, etc. Convenience stores have four values in the retail system: 1. Growth potential: Convenience stores and discount stores have maintained a growth rate of 15% in recent years, showing the vitality of small-format retail in the national economy; 2. Instant retail entry point: With the advantage of network density, convenience stores have become an important entry point to meet consumers' fast and convenient shopping needs; 3. Community capillaries: Convenience stores undertake the function of livelihood security in community commerce, with more than 6.5 million mom-and-pop stores nationwide being typical representatives; 4. Multi-format integration: Convenience stores have comprehensive supporting functions and can achieve comprehensive services for residents' lives. In this context, the core pain points of the small-format supply chain can be summarized as: production does not understand customers, and channels do not understand production. This is mainly manifested in four divisions: zero-supply division, channel division, format division, and value division. Especially at the value level, the net profit margins of brand owners and distributors have declined, and the industry has entered a stage of 'no profit' survival pressure, only then truly realizing the core value that the supply chain should reflect. Exploration and Practice of Zero-Supply Integration In practice, we have summarized three variables to improve efficiency: zero-supply collaboration, omni-channel integration, and full-format coverage. 1. Zero-supply collaboration: Improve efficiency through data sharing, process online, and joint replenishment. Cost reduction and efficiency improvement do not mean low prices, but rather promoting information transparency through process reengineering and replenishment optimization. For example, as the distributor of Nongfu Spring in the northwest, we cooperated with Nongfu to renovate transportation compartments and reduce transshipment times; in cooperation with Tsingtao Beer, through data sharing and forecasting, we ensured supply under high-temperature weather. 2. Omni-channel integration: Connect online and offline, public and private domains, to achieve 'one inventory'. Unified order management through intelligent systems reduces costs of separate warehouses and channels. 3. Full-format coverage: Discount, snack, fruit stores and other formats share single items, improving upstream order fulfillment and regional distribution efficiency. For example, in Xi'an, we opened up supply chain resources, allowing multiple formats to share the same pallet, achieving synergy. Ultimately, it forms: a hub platform for full-format, omni-channel, zero-supply integration, driven by data and algorithms, connecting suppliers and terminals to form intelligent collaboration. 'Every Day' Supply Chain and Business Practice 'Every Day' convenience store was established in 2010, and currently has more than 2,000 stores in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Zhengzhou. At the same time, we have built the B2b supply chain platform 'Bang Bianli', serving more than 20,000 mom-and-pop stores. By connecting 2B and 2C supply chains, we achieve online and offline one-inventory, and optimize through agency, OEM, private label, joint ventures, and other methods. We have summarized the model of '3 stores + 3 lines + 1 network':
3 stores: Every Day Convenience Store (2C), My Home Good Discount (2C), Bang Bianli (2B);
3 lines: trunk logistics, intercity distribution, and future co-distribution merging;
1 network: IT-enabled supply chain ecosystem network. In business practice: 1. Instant retail: At the Xianyang Xinxing South Road store, we set up 'front store, back warehouse', with a 20m2 back warehouse configured with 300 SKUs, achieving a 309% year-on-year growth in performance, and the proportion of takeout sales increased to 35%. 2. Nighttime scenario: Launched DIY cocktail sets, converting single-item stacking into consumption scenarios, with sales volume increasing 4 times month-on-month. 3. Douyin local life: Supplementing insufficient offline customer traffic, driving an increase of about 200 yuan in daily sales per store. 4. Intelligent scheduling: Three formats co-distribute and merge lines, optimizing delivery routes, reducing logistics costs by 16%, and increasing order fulfillment rate to 98%. Through these measures, our inventory turnover days decreased from 28 days to 14 days, releasing a large amount of shipments; in 2024, shipment value was 3.5 billion yuan, with daily shipments of about 6 million yuan. B2C business profit increased by 20%, and B2B increased by 40%. Future Co-creation and Integration Looking ahead, we will continue to promote zero-supply integration, with key directions including: Co-building with brand owners: Invite more brands to enter the 'Every Day' shelves to achieve deep integration, rather than pure OEM; Regional sharing: Joint regional retailers to use shared platform capabilities to improve fulfillment efficiency; Technology empowerment: Through AI, blockchain and other technologies to improve intelligence, ensure account transparency, and achieve fair distribution; Comprehensive ecosystem cooperation: Joint financial, logistics, and marketing service providers to build an open ecosystem, allowing all parties to profit reasonably. The goal of the 'Every Day' ecosystem supply chain integration platform is: Good goods, good prices, good quality, and many benefits; more customers, more orders, more volume, and more business. Through the zero-supply collaboration platform, we reconstruct the zero-supply relationship, jointly serve consumers, and promote the convenience store industry to find new ways out in an increasingly competitive environment.