--- title: "Reflection: If FMCG Distributors Don't Embrace Community Stores (Convenience Stores) and Special Channels, How Much Room for Survival Remains?" description: "Decentralization has led to a sharp decline in foot traffic at hypermarkets and supermarkets, as consumers can now buy daily necessities at nearby community stores or convenience stores, which offer 24-hour services and even delivery. The rise of O2O mobile internet consumption and food delivery platforms has further eroded traditional offline channels, making it imperative for distributors to transform their channel strategies to survive." author: "沃顿智库@徐会舟" publisher: "New Distribution" email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com" telephone: "+8615854817671" published: "2017-11-01" language: "en" canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/reflection-if-fmcg-distributors-don-t-embrace-community-stores-convenien-a27ba3ca/" markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/reflection-if-fmcg-distributors-don-t-embrace-community-stores-convenien-a27ba3ca.md" original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Wz6QISmGEpiEK5hQYB25gg" translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E6%80%9D%E8%80%83-%E5%BF%AB%E6%B6%88%E7%BB%8F%E9%94%80%E5%95%86%E4%BD%A0%E5%86%8D%E4%B8%8D%E5%81%9A%E7%A4%BE%E5%8C%BA%E5%BA%97-%E4%BE%BF%E5%88%A9%E5%BA%97-%E5%92%8C%E7%89%B9%E9%80%9A%E6%B8%A0%E9%81%93-%E8%BF%98%E6%9C%89%E5%A4%9A%E5%B0%91%E6%B4%BB%E8%B7%AF-a27ba3ca.md" attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/reflection-if-fmcg-distributors-don-t-embrace-community-stores-convenien-a27ba3ca/" usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt" --- # Reflection: If FMCG Distributors Don't Embrace Community Stores (Convenience Stores) and Special Channels, How Much Room for Survival Remains? > Decentralization has led to a sharp decline in foot traffic at hypermarkets and supermarkets, as consumers can now buy daily necessities at nearby community stores or convenience stores, which offer 24-hour services and even delivery. The rise of O2O mobile internet consumption and food delivery platforms has further eroded traditional offline channels, making it imperative for distributors to transform their channel strategies to survive. Why? Decentralization has led to a severe decline in foot traffic at hypermarkets and supermarkets. Previous articles have analyzed the reasons, with the primary one being that consumers can buy daily necessities at nearby community stores or convenience stores, which provide 24-hour value-added services, allowing consumers to purchase what they want anytime, anywhere. Even faster, they can get home delivery; Or they can buy directly from local websites and have goods delivered to their homes... Online payment for physical store transactions has already reached about 60%, and even beggars have payment QR codes. Think about such a consumption environment—if you don't transform your own channels, how much room for survival remains? The second most important reason is the rise of food delivery! The food delivery market has reached 400 billion yuan! Imagine that office workers order food delivery almost every day, go out to eat on weekends, and rarely cook at home. Apart from buying food and drinks, who would frequently go to the supermarket to ponder life? In short, the mobile internet consumption O2O model plus food delivery—these two "atomic bombs" have quickly dismantled all the advantages of traditional offline channels. No matter what products you distribute, if you don't make money in these two areas, it will be difficult to earn profits. **Why Must You Do It?** The retail sales of China's convenience store market have an average annual compound growth rate of over 13.6%. From 2017 to 2019, the number of stores will grow at an average annual compound growth rate of 10.2%. Convenience stores can meet consumers' immediate and casual needs. Convenience stores understand consumer needs and quickly shift to "new retail." Retailers better cater to local consumers' needs and habits to build loyalty and establish close relationships with local consumers. Convenience stores can offer more new products and service options, including last-mile delivery services. At the same time, they also see more local and personalized services. The overall image of convenience store outlets and a more comfortable environment can retain consumers and enhance customer loyalty. Alibaba, JD.com, and others are rapidly integrating offline community stores (convenience stores). Strong chain brands like 7-Eleven and FamilyMart have long been seizing this channel nationwide. Express delivery stations are also expanding their community channel presence in this form. ... In short, part of the hypermarket's benefits are being rapidly fragmented by these entities. **How to Do It? (The following is for reference only)** Build a professional team to operate community stores (convenience stores). Create a local supply system APP. Engage in WeChat business or open a Taobao store, taking the fan economy route early. Take on more good products suitable for such channels. Cooperate with reliable manufacturers to develop this channel. Supply food delivery merchants. Mainly supply closed channels such as schools, factories, and canteens. Try the catering channel market. Open up other channels where your products are sold or used. Use private label (or products with strong manufacturer support) to enter large chain convenience store systems. Consider switching industries (with profit maximization as the priority during this period). **What Products Are Suitable for Such Channels?** Salty snacks are growing fastest, and dairy products have the highest penetration. Currently, dairy products (75%), soft drinks (72%), and salty snacks (70%) are the most popular in convenience stores. Salty snacks (70%), baked goods (63%), and confectionery (62%) are the product categories with the most significant purchase growth among consumers in first- to third-tier cities in China in 2017. New ready-to-eat foods, including imported products and more health foods. Finally, a word of advice: try not to take on new products that require your own vigorous promotion, as fragmented community stores can exhaust you with promotion efforts! Source: Xu Huizhou on Marketing (ID: xhz625545945) **2017 (3rd) FMCG + Internet Conference** will be held in Chongqing in November 2017. The conference will closely focus on the theme "New Forces, New Ecology," inviting domestic **1,000+ distributors, 500+ brand owners, 200+ B2B platform founders, and 100+ investment and financing institutions** to jointly explore a new chapter of cross-border integration! Click the link below to review the highlights of the first and second FMCG + Internet conferences: [2016 "FMCG + Internet" Summit Forum]() -END- --- ## Copyright and AI use This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL. Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671