---
title: "Key Opportunities Distributors Should Seize in 2018: Difficulty Equals Opportunity!"
description: "For distributors, the current period is both the most difficult and the period of greatest opportunity. If they continue with old thinking, old models, old products, and old methods, they will certainly encounter many problems. However, if they can clearly see the current market environment, accurately grasp market changes, and promptly reform with new ideas, adjust models, organize new products, and adopt new methods, distributors face enormous opportunities. Distributors must recognize that the market and operating environment have changed. Enterprises must adapt promptly to changes; transformation brings new opportunities, while stagnation leads to losing development opportunities."
author: "鲍跃忠"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2018-01-02"
language: "en"
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---

# Key Opportunities Distributors Should Seize in 2018: Difficulty Equals Opportunity!

> For distributors, the current period is both the most difficult and the period of greatest opportunity. If they continue with old thinking, old models, old products, and old methods, they will certainly encounter many problems. However, if they can clearly see the current market environment, accurately grasp market changes, and promptly reform with new ideas, adjust models, organize new products, and adopt new methods, distributors face enormous opportunities. Distributors must recognize that the market and operating environment have changed. Enterprises must adapt promptly to changes; transformation brings new opportunities, while stagnation leads to losing development opportunities.

For distributors, the current period is both the most difficult and the period of greatest opportunity.
If they continue with old thinking, old models, old products, and old methods, they will certainly encounter many problems.
However, if they can clearly see the current market environment, accurately grasp market changes, and promptly reform with new ideas, adjust models, organize new products, and adopt new methods, distributors face enormous opportunities.
Distributors must recognize that the market and operating environment have changed. Enterprises must adapt promptly to changes; transformation brings new opportunities, while stagnation leads to losing development opportunities.
In 2018, distributors should focus on the following opportunities.

**Opportunity of Market Upgrade**
For FMCG, the market has changed.
Due to consumption upgrade, the overall FMCG market has undergone five significant changes:

**Consumer stratification:** In the current consumer market, mid-to-high-end consumption is increasingly becoming the mainstream. If you are still operating old brands and old products, their market share is declining. Even big brands like P&G and Nestlé are seeing declining market penetration. For example, in the snack food sector, demand for tree nuts is rising while seed nuts are declining. Mid-to-high-end demand shows new characteristics, with more focus on health. As China's economy continues to grow rapidly, the mid-to-high-end market will continue to expand.

**Market fragmentation:** According to Professor Liu Chunxiong's analysis, future big products will no longer be 10-billion-yuan markets; at most, they may be 1-billion-yuan. The current market is increasingly segmented and niche.

**Personalized demand:** The post-80s, post-90s, and post-00s generations have become the main consumer force. Their demands are more personalized. Your products must better meet their personalized needs. For example, products like Jiangxiaobai require personalized products and marketing.

**Convenience of purchase:** In the current Internet era, home delivery has become a major demand. New models iterated by the Internet are achieving goals of closer, faster, and more convenient. Unmanned shelves have reached office desks, and food delivery is one click away.

**Community influence:** Currently, community influence is a major factor affecting customer purchases. Future retail will become community-based retail models.

The market is undergoing profound changes. Distributors must clearly see this environmental change.

In the changes of the consumer market, there are more market opportunities, including greater market demand opportunities and newer model innovation opportunities. The potential is enormous. However, to seize these opportunities, change is necessary. You must develop new products and adopt new models based on accurate insight into consumer demand to meet new needs.

Of course, for distributors, the difficulty is that most brand manufacturers have not yet found the feeling. Brands and products like Jiangxiaobai and Three Squirrels are still in the minority.

Therefore, distributors should first study changes in consumer demand. This is the main force driving your change.

You should find products according to the above five consumption change characteristics. Can your products meet the stratified, niche, and personalized market demands? Especially critical is whether brand manufacturers have new product concepts, new marketing methods, and new Internet thinking.

During consumption upgrade, such market opportunities are huge. The key is to grasp consumer demand and adapt to new market needs.

**Opportunity of Market Diversification**
Distributors also need to see that the future retail market will be a diversified market structure.

Future retail will no longer be a relatively single model of modern channels + traditional channels + special channels; future retail channels will become more diversified.

Retail has entered a period of new retail transformation. Facing the new retail revolution, the essence of retail will change, retail forms will become more innovative, and people in retail will become more complex.

**New retail: The essence of retail will change from product-centric to customer-centric. Finding customers, establishing connections, influencing them, and creating customer value will become the main line of retail operations.**

New retail forms will become more diverse. Existing department stores, hypermarkets, and convenience stores may be iterated. Retail forms will become "thousand stores with thousand faces." Various new retail forms such as supermarket + dining, convenience store + coffee, specialty store + social are showing this trend. The Hema model has completely broken the traditional hypermarket model, and such retail forms may become the main form of future retail. Various e-commerce platforms are also iterating more new retail forms: Xiaomi model, Yanxuan model, Pinduoduo, Youzan, etc. **Various new retail forms are emerging: WeChat business, community retail, WeChat group retail, direct selling, direct purchase, etc.** Various technology-driven new retail models are also refreshing: **unmanned stores, unmanned shelves, self-service**, etc. Future technology-driven retail transformation will iterate even more diverse retail forms.

Currently, retail is no longer just traditional retail enterprises; various new enterprises and organizations driven by capital are entering the retail field. Real estate companies are playing retail, financial companies are also playing retail. Bianlifeng and Xingbianli are completely capital-driven enterprise models. Online enterprises are rapidly moving offline; Alibaba and JD.com plan to rebrand 1 million small stores, and many B2B enterprises are accelerating the pace of rebranding and franchising small stores. JD.com is launching various offline stores such as 3C stores, mother and baby stores, and fresh food stores.

**Facing the structural changes in the retail market, distributors should first change their mindset. They cannot just focus on traditional retail channels like KA and small stores. Future retail channels are diversified, and they need to pay attention to new enterprises and new models. Second, they must learn how to cooperate with new enterprises and new models. Explore better cooperation methods based on different new models. They cannot just supply goods; they must learn how to cooperate with new models.**

Facing the structural changes in the retail market, the share of traditional retail will definitely decline, while some new models and new organizations will occupy a certain market share.

New models and new enterprises will definitely bring new opportunities. Distributors must pay more attention to new models and new retail forms. There are very large new opportunities here.

**Opportunity of +Internet**
The current society is already a highly Internet-based society. In an Internet society, all business activities of any organization or enterprise must be Internet-based.

Distributors + Internet is imminent.

Distributors should not study B2B; formalities are meaningless for distributors. Distributors urgently need to transform their enterprises and business activities with +Internet.

You must +Internet and move all your business online. Currently, more and more distributors are transforming their business models with +Internet. Daqing Baiyun and Jiangxi Xiao Laor are doing very well.

**Moving business +Internet is of great value in improving order efficiency, enhancing sales capabilities, and reducing business costs.**

The most critical thing is to see the situation clearly: In an Internet society, business must be online. The efficiency of online business is definitely far greater than that of offline salesmen's vehicle sales and visit sales. This is the basic trend of social development.

Currently, the technology for distributor +Internet transformation is basically mature. Zhongke Shangruan, Suzhou Medelin, and Qianmi will provide relatively complete system services for distributor enterprises +Internet.

+Internet, the key is to change concepts and see the situation clearly. Second, learn how to use online methods to do business as soon as possible. There are still big differences between online and offline business methods, marketing models, and team management models. Think systematically to make the transition.

+Internet is a major opportunity for distributors. You must seize it, turn quickly, and +Internet.

**Opportunity of Unified Warehousing and Distribution**
Unified warehousing and distribution is an important direction for future FMCG channel model reform. With the development of the Internet and the advancement of socialized logistics systems, logistics will inevitably move toward unified warehousing and distribution.

Distributors should actively promote, develop, and participate in unified warehousing and distribution.

Unified warehousing and distribution will bring important value in reducing costs, improving efficiency, and enhancing management for distributors.

In the future, commercial flow and logistics will definitely be separated. Therefore, whether distributors promote unified warehousing and distribution or join it, it is the right choice.

Transforming to logistics and unified warehousing and distribution is one of the directions for distributor transformation. Handing over logistics and focusing on the market will also effectively solve management efficiency issues.

Unified warehousing and distribution is an opportunity. Distributors should actively participate and organize carefully.

**Opportunity of Organizational Reform**
Society is changing, and the employment environment is changing. Distributors should reform their enterprise organizational models to improve operational efficiency.

Implementing a partnership system is an important model for distributors.

**Do not stick to old employment views:** Recruiting, salary plus commission, and later you feel the wage burden is heavy, while salespeople still feel income is low.

**Transform to a platform-based enterprise organizational model:** The enterprise builds a platform model with various functions for market development, turning your salespeople into partners. Turn your enterprise into a platform that attracts capable talent to start businesses.

**The enterprise builds order platforms, logistics platforms, capital platforms, and service platforms to attract talent. Turn your employees from workers into makers. Change their positioning from working for you to co-founding.**

It is very necessary and valuable for distributors to transform to a platform and implement a partnership system. It will stimulate enterprise vitality and enhance development capabilities.

Currently, some large enterprises are undergoing organizational transformation. Haier has achieved organizational reform: the enterprise transforms into a platform, employees become makers, and enterprise payment becomes customer payment.

Including new economy enterprises like Handu Yishe, they have all undergone systematic organizational reform. Handu Yishe's small group system is the key foundation for the company's rapid development.

Organizational reform will also bring important opportunities for distributor development.

Introduction: Bao Yuezhong, Senior Economist, Expert of the Ministry of Commerce's "Ten Thousand Villages and Thousand Towns Market Project", Bao Yuezhong New Retail, New FMCG Innovation Studio, WeChat bc111246
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