---
title: "Is There a Better Way for FMCG Distributors to Transform with the Internet?"
description: "FMCG distributors seeking internet transformation often start with B2B platforms, uniting local peers for centralized warehousing and distribution to improve efficiency and cut costs, then gradually move transactions online, digitize data, and finally achieve supply chain finance. The goals are to reduce costs, improve efficiency, digitize transactions, and monetize cash flow. While this path is viable, it requires heavy upfront investment, a long cycle, and adjustments to the distributor's own operating model, plus multiple external factors make the transformation difficult."
author: "赵波"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-07-16"
language: "en"
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markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/is-there-a-better-way-for-fmcg-distributors-to-transform-with-the-intern-b5d22c51.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/QsmC14MGxWg-RDUelnalsw"
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---

# Is There a Better Way for FMCG Distributors to Transform with the Internet?

> FMCG distributors seeking internet transformation often start with B2B platforms, uniting local peers for centralized warehousing and distribution to improve efficiency and cut costs, then gradually move transactions online, digitize data, and finally achieve supply chain finance. The goals are to reduce costs, improve efficiency, digitize transactions, and monetize cash flow. While this path is viable, it requires heavy upfront investment, a long cycle, and adjustments to the distributor's own operating model, plus multiple external factors make the transformation difficult.

FMCG distributors seeking internet transformation mostly choose to start with B2B platforms, uniting local agent peers, centralizing warehousing and distribution to improve efficiency and reduce costs, then gradually moving transactions online, digitizing data, and finally achieving supply chain finance.

The goals distributors hope to achieve through B2B are: **reducing costs, improving efficiency, digitizing transactions online, and monetizing cash flow.**

This path is not without merit, but the drawbacks are significant upfront investment, a long cycle, and the need to adjust the distributor's own operating model. Additionally, multiple external factors make the transformation difficult. Let's first look at the practical difficulties distributors face when doing B2B platforms:

**1. Building Warehouses**
Distributors face significant resistance when jointly implementing centralized warehousing and distribution: the investment in warehousing and distribution is too large, often in the millions, with a long payback period and certain risks; the difficulty in organizing supply is no less than building warehouses, as competitors fear being undercut, and few distributors can unite for common development.

**2. Service**
Even if centralized warehousing and distribution are achieved, distributors may cut vehicle sales operations and reduce logistics costs, but the service work beyond terminal delivery still requires people: sales promotion, terminal merchandising, returns, display, rebate redemption, end-cap displays, new product shelving, and many other tasks that must be synchronized with product arrival—none can be omitted.

**3. Orders**
Supermarket owners are accustomed to salespeople arriving with goods; without promotional incentives, they have no habit of ordering online. Without on-site sales pitches, order quantity and frequency will drop significantly, and competitors will seize the opportunity to intercept orders offline.

**Conclusion:**
**As long as there is market competition, increasing sales requires salespeople for terminal service; salespeople cannot be laid off, so the cost reduction from centralized warehousing is not obvious. Therefore, warehousing and distribution are not the biggest pain point for distributors—sales volume is.**

**Competitors and platforms compete for orders, so platform traffic fails to grow; without traffic, data loses value, and supply chain finance becomes impossible.**

The above issues are common to all distributors doing B2B platforms. Since distributors are doing B2B, these issues cannot be avoided! **Is there another model that, without touching the distributor's existing operating model, can both provide good service and digitize and financialize their business?**

Today, I recommend another approach to distributor friends: **Keep the distributor's existing management and operating model unchanged, overlay new internet tools internally to strengthen management and sales efficiency, move transaction data online, and achieve supply chain finance.**

This model is not proposed by me but is the operating concept of Ping An Bank's Ping An Steward. It does not affect the distributor's existing business model; through the Ping An Steward APP, it helps distributors achieve online sales and digitization, and can also use the "Loan Safe Ping An" feature for supply chain finance, allowing distributors to transform without major disruption.

**What is the Ping An Steward APP?**
Ping An Steward is a mobile business management program launched by Ping An Bank, helping customers manage and conduct business, and also providing financial services like Loan Safe Ping An.

Simply put, it is an online ordering system based on a familiar-person model. The distributor's original business model and supply relationships remain unchanged; orders can be completed online through Ping An Steward, and the online data can be used to quickly access loan and wealth management functions.

**How does Ping An Steward's new approach avoid the conflicts mentioned above while achieving data and financialization?**
The core issue mentioned above is sales volume; all sales depend on salespeople's promotion and customer relationships and service. **Using Ping An Bank's Ping An Steward APP, distributors do not need to lay off salespeople; while not affecting their terminal promotion and service, it can quickly digitize the distributor's transactions, and based on transaction flow, achieve financialization, helping distributors quickly turn over funds and achieve internet transformation.**

**How to use Ping An Steward?**
Distributors can import their products and inventory into the Ping An Steward backend to successfully open a store. Supermarket owners can install the APP on their phones and place orders. Put products into the pockets of terminal store owners, making it as convenient for them to view and purchase products as browsing WeChat Moments.

**Ping An Steward's financial payment is also a highlight: online payment settlement is free and real-time. When distributors generate a certain transaction volume with Ping An Steward, the Loan Safe Ping An feature can provide financial credit to distributors and downstream customers based on transaction flow, helping distributors and small stores quickly obtain low-interest loans. If distributors and small stores have idle funds, they can also use flexible wealth management to improve capital efficiency.**

Using transaction flow for financing and idle funds for wealth management is an overlay on the distributor's original business, adding increment without affecting existing operations or conflicting with them; no huge fixed asset investment is required, which means distributors can quickly implement the project without investment.

Ping An Steward promises to be permanently free for distributor friends, and all online payments and collections are free of fees, which not only saves usage costs but also eliminates concerns about future platform charges. At the same time, it can also help distributors solve the problem of delayed order processing due to salespeople's incomplete visits, improving efficiency and product sales.

**Advantages of Ping An Steward**

**1. Free Information Management: Free, simple, and convenient.**
Free help for customers to achieve information management, professional, simple, easy to learn, no installation required.

**2. Low-Cost Quick Access to Financing: Fast and low-cost.**
Internet-based "instant loan" financing model helps solve the difficulty and high cost of financing for small and medium distributors.

**3. Free, Efficient, and Secure Payment Settlement: Free, convenient, and safe.**
Free payment settlement, real-time arrival, integrated ordering and settlement, directed payment, more secure.

**4. Free Dedicated B2B Platform: Exclusive and open.**
Exclusive portal area, free store opening (familiar transactions), online transactions, online settlement.

Ping An Bank actively embraces the development trend of industrial internet transformation and upgrading, explores the integrated development path of "supply chain finance + internet finance," and has launched a free integrated solution for online ordering and inventory management tailored for small and medium enterprises. Through the Ping An Bank Ping An Steward platform, sellers can build an ordering management platform directly facing supermarket owners, franchisees, and distributors, building a zero-distance communication bridge between sellers and supermarket owners, creating a perfect production, supply, and sales ecosystem, and promoting industrial chain collaboration.

If you want to learn more about Ping An Steward, you can **add the customer service QR code** for in-depth understanding. To add, long press the QR code below and click Recognize:

You can also long press the QR code below to **try the APP**:

-END-

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