I remember when I was working in FMCG manufacturer sales, our manager told us to classify outlets into A/B/C/D categories. This classification logic was actually built on the assumption that everyone's needs are similar, and as long as we do distribution + visits + merchandising, we can grow the pie. It's the classic: "Only strong or weak, no differences." Because we're a big brand, consumers will buy our products, so we only need to do four things: develop new outlets, sell the full range, fix the routes, and fully merchandise.

A couple of days ago, I was walking the market with a client and found that this method is still in use after all these years. But this assumption no longer holds.

Today's retail market has extremely abundant supply; products are no longer scarce. What's truly scarce is: users' time, attention, and mindshare.

What's more troublesome is: outlet functions have become highly differentiated. The same "Meiyijia convenience store" at a factory gate, at a high-speed rail station, or at the bottom of a CBD office building is essentially four completely different species.

So, using a one-dimensional logic like "sales volume + visit frequency" to understand outlets leads to an awkward conclusion: The same A-class store is not the same kind of store at all. If you still use the same sales visit method, the business will fail, and you'll see a lot of street-wandering salespeople who visit but don't generate sales.

What have today's outlets become? Let's take convenience stores as an example:

Consumers have different needs throughout the day, which can be summarized as "six meals plus two replenishments." That is, breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, and late-night snack, plus travel emergency replenishment and household daily replenishment.

This is not a simple time-point division, but eight task-based needs (JTBD: Job To Be Done). Each time period corresponds to a task: what problem needs to be solved at this moment?

This is a very simple time-dimension division of outlets from the perspective of the food and beverage industry.

There's also the business district dimension: for example, CBD, office buildings, single-person apartments, elderly communities, industrial and mining areas, schools, hospitals, and transportation hubs.

So, still taking "convenience store" as an example:

In an elderly community = slow pace + essential needs + familiar customer relationships

At the bottom of a CBD = extremely scarce time + high average transaction + instant gratification

At a high-speed rail station = emergency + high gross margin + high turnover

So: Business district = population structure + overlay of time value.

There's also the retail type division, such as snack stores, convenience stores, mom-and-pop stores, flash warehouses, self-operated O2O, warehouse membership stores, and hypermarkets.

Let me briefly translate their retail characteristics:

Snack stores: emotional consumption + impulse + high frequency, small amount

Convenience stores: close by + instant problem solving

Mom-and-pop stores: familiar relationships + daily essential needs

Flash warehouses/self-operated O2O: time is most precious + online decision + offline fulfillment

Warehouse membership stores: stockpiling + price-sensitive + rational calculation

Hypermarkets: planned + stockpiling + family shopping day

If we further divide by population preferences, scenarios (travel, friends gathering, family daily), and population (students, silver-haired elderly, Odyssey crowd), you'll find that people's purchase reasons become:

Population × Scenario = Consumption Story.

For example:

  • Single people + friends gathering + snack store → want something good-looking, fun, and shareable on social media;
  • Silver-haired + family daily + community mom-and-pop store → want a brand that won't let them down, is easy to buy, and is trustworthy.

Why divide the population so finely?

The old classification can no longer provide clear and effective sales guidance.

Essentially, it's still because supply is abundant, and users' various needs are instantly satisfied.

Look at the picture above, which simply divides user needs and behaviors into "fast, good, cheap, and convenient" vs. "buy, browse, follow, and stockpile," and you can classify outlets into many types.

This doesn't even mention users' flickering needs, instant needs, planned needs, impulse needs, advisory needs, etc., all of which can be satisfied by different retail scenarios.

If you still use ABCD outlet classification to cover this, you'll find that you simply cannot satisfy users' jobs to be done.

Let's take the four behaviors of buy, browse, follow, and stockpile and do a simple analysis for everyone:

Browse:

All outlets in the browse behavior category have the underlying need of being full and not hungry, strolling around, seeing what's delicious, and impulse buying.

  • Typical scenarios: snack stores, collection stores in malls, small shops in scenic areas
  • User needs: Since I'm out anyway, let's see what's delicious and fun
  • Our strategy: small sizes, multiple flavors, multiple displays, high aesthetics, high novelty
  • Core goal: Reach users → Trigger purchase desire

The function of these outlets is not "restocking" but emotional discharge + novelty experience.

Using ABCD sales classification will seriously misjudge: a single store's sales may not be top-tier, but it's extremely critical for new product trials, brand rejuvenation, and social diffusion.

Buy:

In the buy behavior category, the primary decision factor is problem-solving. These users have high time costs and will prioritize familiar brands. So the brand display logic leans toward large logos, centralized shelf displays, attention to online search keyword associations, good freezing, and front shelf positions.

  • Typical scenarios: convenience stores at the doorstep, community supermarkets, the store that office workers frequent in the business district
  • User needs: I need to buy something, don't waste my time
  • Decision priority: time cost first, familiar brands preferred
  • Our strategy: large logo + centralized shelf display, front shelf position + freezing (for beverages, etc.), online search association and recommendation linking

The real function in the outlet is to reduce decision costs. Using ABCD sales classification will ignore its mindshare entry value: this is the place where users default to choosing; once replaced, the brand's loss far exceeds a single sale.

Follow:

In the follow behavior layer, users are driven by being planted and by stories. Product display should use large images, big IPs, good stories, and strong visual impact to tell users: I can bring you a better life.

  • Typical scenarios: internet-famous convenience stores, IP co-branded stores, internet-famous beverage peripheral outlets
  • User mindset: I heard this is popular, I want to try it/take a photo and post it
  • Our strategy: large images, big IPs, good stories, strong visual impact, scenario-based displays, so users feel that buying it brings them emotional value

These outlets are essentially the propaganda front for brand value narrative. So, the profit per bottle or pack is not the most important; what's more important is the brand's identity narrative and value positioning.

Stockpile:

In the stockpile layer, users make rational decisions to optimize long-term cost-effectiveness. Sales should be concentrated with big promotions, multi-bundles, deep discounts, and large sizes.

  • Typical scenarios: warehouse membership stores, hypermarkets, large community group-buying warehouses
  • User needs: save money and buy enough at once
  • Our strategy: one 618, let users buy half a year's worth of toothpaste and shampoo

For these outlets, the function is to lock in future consumption at once. This is an early harvest of the brand's future cash flow and user shelf share.

Different brands should call their sales management departments and ask them to change their ABCD outlet classification into an outlet role model classification of people × time × scenario × behavior.

In the past, there was only one dimension to think about outlets: How much do they sell? Salespeople invest policies and expenses based on sales volume. All actions based on this logic revolve around: how often to visit and how much to promote to boost sales?

Now, what we need to do is break all outlets apart and re-tag each outlet on the SFA:

  • Who is the population (students, singles, middle-aged, silver-haired...)
  • At what time (six meals plus two replenishments)
  • In what scenario (travel, family, social, work...)
  • With what behavior to consume (browse, buy, follow, stockpile)

At this point, the core problem that salespeople with our products need to solve becomes: What task is this outlet mainly helping the entering user complete at this moment?

In simple terms, the classification logic of outlets should upgrade from "how much sales they contribute" to "in what time and space, for what people, completing what consumption task."

Actually, when tagging store outlets, there are many dimensions. You can't just classify by "it's a convenience store," but rather combine multiple dimensions and then evaluate. For example:

Tag each outlet with a population label: Is the proportion of single young people very high? Or is it more silver-haired + family? Or is it student-dense?

Or look at the weekly sales rhythm to determine the population role in time:

  • Strong morning peak: biased toward breakfast/commute
  • Strong evening + late night: biased toward late-night snacks/social/OT replenishment
  • Stronger on weekends: family + stockpiling type

Another example is looking at the category structure to judge the consumption type brought by behavior:

  • Mostly novel snacks, small sizes, multiple flavors → browse/impulse type
  • High essential, high repeat items like instant noodles, mineral water, cigarettes → buy type
  • Hot IP, co-branded, social media trending → follow type
  • Large packages, large sizes, whole cartons of cigarettes, large boxes of water → stockpile type

Then, define a role name for this outlet:

  • Late-night emotional convenience store: single + late-night snack + browse
  • Community family replenishment station: family + buy
  • Community group-buying stockpile warehouse: family + stockpile
  • Young people's social snack quick charge: single + follow + browse

Based on this combination of tags, you can systematically reverse-engineer OBPPC:

  • Product mix: sizes, flavors, new-to-old product ratio
  • Display method: pallets, end caps, IP zones, tasting tables
  • Price & promotion: big promotions, bundling, second item half price, trial sizes
  • Communication content: value narrative, fast, economical; or fun, good-looking, good identity

Final Thoughts

In the past, classifying outlets by sales volume into ABCD was acceptable. In the shelf era, brands dominated; whoever was the big brand had stronger shelf discourse power. But today, the bigger the brand, the more it becomes the background of consumers' lives. If you still immerse yourself in the illusion of being a big brand with cookie-cutter products and displays, you will inevitably be sacrificed by retail stores for special-price traffic.

In the future, use "people × scenario × behavior" to define outlet roles.

The real competitiveness is not where you distribute the goods, but knowing — what mood and task is this outlet actually helping whom solve?

When the outlet logic shifts from "sales volume" to "user jobs to be done," the brand's methodology must also upgrade.

The next round of growth in China's FMCG industry will definitely be born among companies that truly understand users, scenarios, and consumer task chains.

That's why we've condensed this industry's required course into the three-day CFC2026 11th China FMCG Conference!

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  • Deep insights from 200+ industry leaders
  • 200+ brand executives, 300+ retail pioneers, 800+ top distributors and platform representatives, bringing the most authentic market information
  • Comprehensive coverage of new and old channels, including regional B2b platforms, instant retail flash warehouses, discount retail, convenience stores, and overseas markets

If you want to know:

  • How will the industry change?
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