---
title: "Surviving the \"Death Zone\": The Most Comprehensive Survey of Beijing's Convenience Stores | First Major Report of 2018"
description: "According to the experience of Japan and Taiwan, when per capita GDP reaches $10,000, the convenience store market enters a competitive phase. In 2017, Beijing's GDP just entered this range, intensifying market competition and leaving many opportunities for convenience stores in Beijing. This report covers market status, policy, opportunities, and capital trends in Beijing's convenience store sector."
author: "吴春辉"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2018-02-25"
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# Surviving the "Death Zone": The Most Comprehensive Survey of Beijing's Convenience Stores | First Major Report of 2018

> According to the experience of Japan and Taiwan, when per capita GDP reaches $10,000, the convenience store market enters a competitive phase. In 2017, Beijing's GDP just entered this range, intensifying market competition and leaving many opportunities for convenience stores in Beijing. This report covers market status, policy, opportunities, and capital trends in Beijing's convenience store sector.

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According to the experience of Japan and Taiwan, when per capita GDP reaches $10,000, the convenience store market enters a competitive phase. In 2017, Beijing's GDP just entered the per capita $10,000 range, intensifying market competition and leaving many opportunities for convenience stores in Beijing.
Source: Retail Frontier (ID: lingshouqianyanshe)
**Core Guide:**
**1.** Market Status: Major brands in Beijing's convenience store market
**2.** Policy: The lifeline of Beijing's convenience stores
**3.** Opportunities: Fresh food offers the highest gross margin; cross-border integration is the trend
**4.** Capital: Chasing the convenience store windfall
Since some unknown time, Beijing has been dubbed the "convenience store death zone."
According to the "China Urban Convenience Store Index" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association in 2013, Beijing ranked second to last among 26 cities surveyed. A megacity with over 20 million permanent residents, it had only a little over a thousand chain convenience stores for many years, far behind first-tier cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen, and even lagging many second-tier cities. There are two reasons: first, Beijing's urban planning and lifestyle habits are not conducive to convenience store development; second, the lengthy approval process for licenses in Beijing has been a headache for operators.
However, all this is changing. Not only is the market changing, but policy adjustments are also intensifying.
At the end of 2017, four departments including the Beijing Municipal Commerce Committee, Beijing Municipal Finance Bureau, Beijing Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce, and Beijing Municipal Food and Drug Administration jointly issued the "Work Plan for Further Optimizing the Development Environment of Chain Convenience Stores" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), proposing specific reform measures to address issues such as difficulty in store location selection, high operating costs, long administrative approval cycles, and limited value-added services. It encourages chain convenience stores with "unified brand, unified standards, unified management, unified procurement, and unified distribution" to leverage the demonstration effect of chain enterprises and further promote the standardized, chained, branded, distinctive, and convenient development of Beijing's life services industry.
According to Retail Frontier, this is not the first time the Beijing Municipal Commerce Committee has issued documents supporting the development of convenience stores. In 2016, the Beijing Municipal Commerce Commission, together with multiple departments, issued the "Opinions on Further Promoting the Development of Chain Operations."
Wang Hongtao, Deputy Secretary-General of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, told Retail Frontier that this time the Municipal Commerce Committee's efforts are significant. Unlike previous occasions, in addition to the Beijing Commerce Committee and Finance Bureau, the Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Beijing Food and Drug Administration have been brought in, which may break through some core pain points in convenience store development. It is evident that the Beijing government is determined to develop the convenience store format.
**The Plan also sets a future goal: by 2020, the number of convenience stores in Beijing will increase to 3,000. According to incomplete statistics, there are currently nearly 1,200 branded convenience stores in the Beijing market, meaning there is a market gap of 1,800 stores.**
The market is huge, but there are also many problems. When Retail Frontier interviewed Yang Bo, General Manager of Quanshi Convenience Store, in 2017, he discussed the issues in Beijing's convenience store market: Beijing can only do "three and a half" businesses: half a year's business due to seasonal reasons, half a street's business due to urban planning, and half a day's business due to lifestyle habits.
While some are pessimistic, the low-lying market in Beijing has indeed shown capital, industry practitioners, and the internet community a glimpse of future prospects.
According to the "2016 China Urban Convenience Store Development Index" released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, nearly half of the surveyed cities saw convenience store growth rates exceeding 20%. Beijing's convenience store growth rate reached 23.5%, making it a star region for convenience store development.
**Market Status: Major Brands in Beijing's Convenience Store Market**
Relevant data shows that in Taiwan, there is one convenience store per 2,000 people, but in Beijing, there is one per 7,158 people. Therefore, Beijing's convenience store market still has enormous room for imagination.
As mentioned at the beginning, without good consumption habits and even with urban planning as a constraint, convenience stores in Beijing are still developing with difficulty. Currently, the mainstream convenience store brands in Beijing include 7-ELEVEn, Lawson, Quanshi, Linjia, Haoneighbor, Bianlifeng, FamilyMart, Guo'an Community, Wumart Convenience Store, Jingkelong, Chaoshifa, Ai Bianli, Kuai Ke, Dia Tian Tian, Hao De, and others.
Regarding the current situation of Beijing's convenience store market, a staff member from the Circulation Development Division of the Beijing Municipal Commerce Commission said, "In recent years, the number of chain convenience stores in Beijing has continued to increase, and brands have become increasingly diverse. Foreign brands such as 7-11, Lawson, and FamilyMart are expanding rapidly; domestic brands like Quanshi and Haoneighbor are maturing; supermarket companies like Wumart, Jingkelong, and Chaoshifa are shifting their focus to the convenience store format; traditional retail enterprises like Wangfujing are beginning to lay out convenience store markets; emerging brands like Linjia and Bianlifeng are emerging; and brand concentration is on the rise."
**Major Convenience Store Brands in Beijing**
This is basically the overall situation of Beijing's convenience stores.
There was an article that used web crawler technology to analyze the market distribution of Beijing's convenience stores, providing a detailed analysis. Overall, convenience store coverage is directly proportional to population density, economic level, and consumption habits. In terms of site selection, different brands have different logics: 7-Eleven, Lawson, Quanshi, and Bianlifeng are concentrated in commercial areas; Haoneighbor and Jingkelong convenience stores are mainly located around communities.
"We are low-traffic and low-cost, while 7-Eleven is high-cost and high-traffic, and 7-Eleven has a higher proportion of fresh food in-store, catering to office workers' lunch needs," Tao Ye, General Manager of Haoneighbor Convenience Store, told Retail Frontier. For Haoneighbor, "the most important thing now is to rely on a strong backend supply chain, as well as a same-city mobile membership system, user online operations, and omni-channel services. Through technology-driven retail principles, we develop store formats that meet different segmented business districts to cover a regional market."
Of course, this state is not static. Market benefits, capital intervention, and policy support have accelerated site selection and store openings. An industry insider said, "From a potential perspective, convenience store brands cannot wait until the market is fully mature to grab positions." For example, Wumart Convenience Store was previously growing at a rate of 30-50 new stores per year in Beijing. Since 2017, many convenience store brands have been expanding rapidly, and clearly, such speed won't win the race.
The severe winter for physical supermarkets seems to leave convenience stores as the only remaining warmth. The head of a large supermarket in Beijing also said that the current Beijing market does not lack hypermarkets, but due to size issues, suitable locations are hard to find, and opening costs are too high. Supermarket miniaturization seems to be a trend. In contrast, convenience stores are more flexible in terms of store location, size, and product selection. "Convenience stores are a sunrise industry, and Beijing is still a blue ocean market," said Zhang Sheng, CEO of Lawson China.
**It is said that the "death zone" label for Beijing's convenience stores has shaped the development history of Beijing's convenience stores.**
**1. 7-ELEVEn**: In 2004, Japan's largest convenience store, 7-ELEVEn, entered Beijing, providing learning opportunities for local convenience store enterprises. The nationwide learning of the 7-ELEVEn model continues to this day. At the 2017 China Convenience Store Conference, 7-ELEVEn Executive Director and Chairman and General Manager of Seven-Eleven (China) Investment Co., Ltd., Uchida Shinji, detailed the secrets of 7-ELEVEn. This proprietary technology, known in the industry as "know-how," gave convenience store practitioners in attendance the opportunity to understand the company's core experience from the inside.
According to a 7-ELEVEn insider, the average daily sales of 7-ELEVEn stores in Beijing exceed 20,000 yuan, with an average daily customer count of over 1,000. According to media reports, the average gross margin per 7-ELEVEn store is 32%.
**2. FamilyMart**: In 2014, FamilyMart chose to open at Beijing Capital Airport. Currently, it has over 20 stores in Beijing. In fact, FamilyMart has over 1,000 stores in Shanghai. With the Shanghai market saturated, Beijing seems to be the next target market. In 2017, FamilyMart officially opened franchising in Beijing, accelerating its expansion.
**3. Lawson**: In 2013, Lawson entered Beijing. In August 2017, the first stores of Chaoshifa Lawson Convenience Store, a cooperation between Chaoshifa and Lawson, opened. The design of Chaoshifa Lawson stores follows Lawson's tradition, with blue and white signage and the "Chaoshifa Lawson" logo, operating 24 hours.
Wang Zengqing, General Manager of Chaoshifa, revealed to Retail Frontier that the two parties will jointly develop the convenience store market in Haidian District, Beijing, using a single-store franchise model, with Chaoshifa providing stores and staff and Lawson handling daily operations. **Miyake Nobuhiro, President of Lawson China, also provided the operating situation of Beijing stores: average daily sales range from 10,000 to 15,000 yuan, customer counts range from 800 to 1,200, and the gross margin of Lawson convenience stores can reach about 30%.**
**4. Quanshi**: Founded in 2011, the Chinese-funded convenience store brand Quanshi has average daily sales of over 10,000 yuan, an average daily customer count of over 1,000, and a gross margin of about 35%. In 2015, Quanshi's store count surpassed 7-ELEVEn. 7-ELEVEn is considered Quanshi's main competitor in the Beijing market, and for a long time, Quanshi adopted a strategy of following 7-ELEVEn in store openings.
**5. Wangfujing Department Store**: Also last year, Wangfujing Department Store Group cooperated with Henan convenience store brand Ai Bianli to develop a "community convenience store" project, converting street-side mom-and-pop stores into branded chain convenience stores through franchising. The two parties plan to achieve a target of no less than 3,000 franchised stores and no less than 1,000 directly operated stores within three years.
To seize market share, Wangfujing brought in Beijing Grain Group, Beijing Ershang Group, Shounong Group, and other state-owned enterprises. These supplier resource advantages help Ai Bianli reduce costs in product procurement. Ershang Group even provided a temporary distribution center for the newly established Wangfujing Ai Bianli.
**According to the experience of Japan and Taiwan, when per capita GDP reaches $10,000, the convenience store market enters a competitive phase. In 2017, Beijing's GDP just entered the per capita $10,000 range, intensifying market competition and leaving many opportunities for convenience stores in Beijing.**
**Policy: The Lifeline of Beijing's Convenience Stores**
The China Chain Store & Franchise Association has released the convenience store index for three consecutive years. From the index changes, it can be seen that the heat of Beijing's convenience store market is rising year by year. **Regarding the convenience store index, according to CCFA's explanation, it is a comprehensive indicator derived from core data such as the number of chain branded convenience stores, the growth rate of convenience store numbers, the proportion of 24-hour convenience stores, and policy support. It is evident that policy support directly affects the development process of convenience stores.**
Regarding the release of the Plan, Tao Ye of Haoneighbor believes, "This is a good thing. It is the first time the Beijing government has supported and encouraged the development of chain convenience stores with such a high level and concrete measures. Especially against the backdrop of Beijing's urban planning optimization and adjustment, this is extremely important!" The Plan addresses ten aspects of Beijing's convenience store development. Let's select a few representative ones and interpret them:
**1. Implement "one district, one license" registration.**
The Plan stipulates that pilot enterprises no longer need to handle individual store business licenses. Within the same administrative district, a "main store" can be selected as the district's management institution. When new stores register for business, as long as the business premises comply with the city's residence registration regulations and submit legal and valid proof of business premises, it is sufficient.
**Interpretation:** Retail Frontier reporters once discussed this issue with Yang Bo. Yang Bo also said that the most cumbersome part of opening a store is handling various licenses. The Quanshi flagship store in Yong'anli, Beijing, has more than 20 licenses, boasting the "most complete licenses."
**2. Expand development space.**
Relevant government departments will, according to the "Measures for the Planning, Construction, and Use Management of Residential Supporting Commercial Service Facilities," ensure the configuration of basic convenience commercial service facilities for chain convenience stores. They will coordinate the use of space vacated through relocation and rectification, prioritizing the layout of life service industry outlets such as chain convenience stores.
**Interpretation:** The deep implementation of Beijing's "open walls and fill holes" policy and the sustained downturn in real estate have freed up space for convenience store development. The relocation of non-capital functions has also made well-operated convenience stores with excellent shopping environments the first choice for tenants. For example, in the Zhonghong Beijing Pixel community near Caofang Station on the Beijing subway, many closed real estate agencies have been converted into convenience stores. From a site selection perspective, high-mobility communities dominated by young people are also the best choice for opening stores.
**3. Innovate the licensing and supervision model for convenience store value-added services.**
For new convenience store services such as laundry collection, utility bill collection, and other convenience services that meet the requirements, the industry and commerce department will support them according to law. For beverages sold by chain convenience stores that have obtained a "Food Production License," or beverages made from food materials that have obtained a "Food Production License" and are completed by automated equipment, they can be licensed as bulk food sales, without needing to be labeled as self-made beverage sales.
**Interpretation:** Don't think the above text is obscure; for convenience store practitioners, these are life-and-death clauses related to future development. Looking at provinces and cities where convenience stores have developed well, government support has played a crucial role. For example, Shanghai's "4050 Re-employment Project" allowed tens of thousands of re-employed people to enter the convenience store industry. Tianjin, Wuhan, and other places have relevant policies encouraging convenience store development.
Because no matter how advanced the business model, without local government support, the speed and effectiveness of implementation will be discounted. When 7-ELEVEn entered Aomori Prefecture in Japan, the prefectural governor helped promote it through various media. The main reason the governor was so supportive was to introduce 7-ELEVEn's exclusive factories through the growth of 7-ELEVEn stores. In this regard, 7-11, although a latecomer, gained an advantage.
**Opportunities: Fresh Food Offers the Highest Gross Margin; Cross-border Integration is the Trend**
According to the "2014-2018 China Convenience Store Industry Market Prospects and Investment Consulting Research Report" released by China Industry Research Report Network, China's economy will continue to develop at a relatively fast and stable pace in the coming years, and the convenience store industry will enter a golden period, becoming one of the most competitive formats.
Policy support provides a fair competitive environment, and major convenience store brands have made positive moves in response to changes in the Beijing market.
According to the sample enterprises surveyed in the China Convenience Store Development Report, nearly half of the convenience stores have fresh and semi-processed food sales accounting for less than 10% of total sales. The average proportion of fresh and semi-processed food sales in Chinese convenience stores is 15%, while in Japan it is 30-40%. Among Japan's three major convenience stores, 7-Eleven and FamilyMart have food gross margins higher than non-food gross margins, basically exceeding 30%.
**In other words, the category with the highest gross margin in convenience stores is fresh food.** 7-Eleven's fresh food accounts for over 60% of sales, and Quanshi's fresh food accounts for 41%. Lawson also invests in food, designing products based on regional differences and having greater product freedom. Beijing Chaoshifa Lawson Convenience Store has increased the proportion of fast-food areas such as oden, rice balls, freshly ground coffee, soy milk, and lunch, as well as over 2,000 Lawson private-brand products including ice cream, desserts, and dried fruits.
**The reason convenience stores are convenience stores is that product convenience is key.** Convenience stores around the world also set different fresh food compositions based on local consumption habits. According to a convenience store professional's calculation, the optimal food structure for convenience stores is 40% processed food, 5% fast food, 20% daily distribution food, and 35% other.
**The trend of convenience stores and supermarkets moving toward restaurant-style offerings is a global retail development trend.** In Japan, convenience stores can provide food to nearby consumers 24 hours a day, whether in residential areas, business districts, or commuter subway stations. It is worth noting that Japanese convenience store brands have their own food and beverage development teams, and they do not take food any less seriously than the fast-food industry.
This is worth learning from for Chinese convenience stores. According to a former 7-ELEVEn executive, to enhance the quality and taste of fresh food, 7-ELEVEn headquarters holds taste-testing events almost five times a week to find the best products for consumers. For the R&D team, the hardest part is passing Suzuki Toshifumi's scrutiny. Suzuki's extreme pursuit of food has made 7-ELEVEn's fresh food famous, and it is adjusted and improved according to local habits.
Quanshi Convenience Store has added products favored by Beijing consumers, such as date cake and sweet potatoes, based on Beijing's consumption habits. Yang Bo even joked that if the market demands, Quanshi might sell skewers.
On January 24 this year, at the on-site consultation meeting of the First Session of the 13th Shanghai CPPCC, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration stated that Shanghai is exploring providing catering services beyond boxed meals in convenience stores, conducting research on freshly made food in convenience stores, and formulating relevant standards. For the emerging Beijing convenience store market, these positive messages may be the beginning of change.
But the problem is that fresh food seems to have high gross margins, but its circulation and management costs are huge. It tests not only marketing capabilities but also supply chain and system construction capabilities. How to solve this? It still depends on the enterprise's pressure resistance and integration capabilities.
Some voices say that Beijing's convenience store development is repeating Shanghai's old path, but this seems not entirely true. Beijing's urban planning and urban ecological construction differ from Shanghai's, so it is destined to have a different development path. Wang Hongtao believes that "combined with internet technology, the overlay of fresh food and fresh produce categories, Beijing's future convenience stores will be new-style." Technology brings the attributes of the times. For example, the emergence of shared bicycles has expanded the coverage of Beijing's convenience stores.
At the end of 2017, Haoneighbor Convenience Store's upgraded store appeared, with the long-used red storefront replaced by green, and fresh produce placed in the most prominent position. Ying Lei, COO of Fresh Life, once said, "Fresh food will become a key category for Haoneighbor's renovation and upgrade."
Tao Ye said, "The pain point for convenience stores today is not cost but demand." Market demand has accelerated the evolution of convenience stores. Previously, 7-11's Beijing Dongzhimen store was piloting the sale of pre-cut vegetables, adding vegetable and fruit shelves to the original convenience store to facilitate office workers' shopping.
Beijing's policy also provides "financial subsidies for rent to chain convenience stores that carry convenience services such as breakfast or vegetable retail." **Just like in Japan and Taiwan, to some extent, Beijing's convenience stores will also become community centers, and the biggest profit lies in the value-added services of cross-border integration.** Pei Liang, President of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, told reporters, "From the perspective of convenience stores' own operation and management level, they are still at an extensive primary level. In China's current physical retail market, the proportion of convenience stores and supermarkets is roughly 8% to 92%. Convenience stores have huge development potential and space. The future development model of convenience stores will be diverse; there is no good or bad, only whether it is suitable. Cross-border integration and value recreation should still revolve around the two core values of products and customers." Wang Hongtao believes that "with the penetration of major convenience store brands over the years and the strengthening of young people's consumption willingness, the development of convenience stores will usher in an 'acceleration'."
For the convenience store market, there are those who chase the "windfall" and those who are pessimistic. To paraphrase Ma Yun's logic, "It's not that convenience stores are failing; it's that your convenience store is failing." The essence of retail is products and services. Convenience stores have their own product selection logic. Mainstream convenience stores like 7-ELEVEn and Quanshi have their own product replacement rates, aiming to ensure the match between products and demand.
Moreover, format integration will also become mainstream. As you know, Beijing's community supermarket formats are diverse, which to some extent limits the development speed of convenience stores. However, everything is changing. Wang Hongtao said, "In the future, the boundaries of formats will become increasingly blurred, and integration will become mainstream. Consumers will drive demand." It is certain that with the intensification of cross-border integration, the determination of convenience stores to transform and upgrade will determine their future market confidence.
**Capital: Chasing the Convenience Store Windfall**
According to Nielsen's "2016 China Hypermarket and Supermarket Shopper Trends Report," the penetration rate of convenience stores increased from 32% in 2015 to 38% in 2016. Under the convenience store windfall, Beijing has become a market that all forces will not let go, and competition is increasingly fierce. It seems that convenience stores have become the windfall of new retail.
**Wei Zhe, Founding Partner and Chairman of Harvest Capital, once said that in the past 12-18 months, about $1 billion in capital hoped to "dig out" convenience stores using so-called internet models. This also constitutes one of the appearances of the "windfall" that convenience stores are highly favored by capital.**
But Wei Zhe does not agree with the convenience store windfall theory. "Convenience stores are not the windfall of new retail, but the doorstep of new retail." At the 2017 China Convenience Store Conference, Wei Zhe made this slogan.
Not long ago, Wang Hongtao wrote in an article, "I never think convenience stores are a windfall industry. I think they are a 'heart-mouth' industry. Where consumers' hearts are, there convenience stores are."
**Windfall, doorstep, heart-mouth: which "mouth" is the convenience store? Retail Frontier believes these three are not contradictory; they describe three aspects of the industry: from operating capital, operating enterprises, to operating people's hearts. This is a descending order, approaching the essence of retail.**
**Regarding the windfall theory**, Pan Yuxin, founder of Langran Capital, believes that Beijing's convenience store market has less competition and huge urban development space. Such a market environment is more likely to attract capital. Under the windfall, capital is surging.
In 2010, Fuhua Holding Group invested to create Beijing Quanshi 365 Chain Convenience Store Co., Ltd., which was also the first case of a financial enterprise entering the convenience store industry. Now Quanshi has over 300 stores in Beijing.
In April 2015, with capital support, Wang Zi, the head of Beijing 7-ELEVEn, led almost all regional managers to resign and founded Linjia Convenience Store with a registered capital of 100 million yuan. In July, the first Linjia convenience store opened in Beijing, planning to open 100 stores in Beijing. However, at the end of 2016, due to capital flow problems, Wang Zi and his team, with the support of Zebra Capital, resigned again to create the Bianlifeng brand.
In February 2017, former Qunar CEO Zhuang Chenchao invested $300 million through Zebra Capital to create "Bianlifeng" convenience store, with the first store opening in Zhongguancun. This is a typical example of internet people entering the convenience store industry through capital.
In February 2017, Zhongshang Huimin announced the completion of a strategic investment and controlling stake in community e-commerce Aixianfeng. Aixianfeng was founded in 2014 and is known for its "palm one-hour convenience store" model. It had previously received a total of $110 million in multiple rounds of investment from well-known institutions such as Sequoia Capital, Meituan, Hillhouse Capital, and CITIC Capital.
**The story of capital and convenience stores continues.** In October 2017, Fresh Life, Yiguo, and Greentown jointly announced the acquisition of Beijing Haoneighbor Convenience Store for $84 million. Among them, Fresh Life, Yiguo, and Greentown hold 50%, 15%, and 35% stakes respectively. The three companies acquired all equity from Haoneighbor's owner Morgan Stanley.
**Financing Situation of Some Convenience Stores in Beijing**
At this point, it can be seen that besides the convenience store formats of established retailers and Japanese convenience store brands, in the Beijing market, behind the local convenience store brands of scale, there is a shadow of capital. There is a popular saying that "barbarians" have already invaded the doorstep.
**What is the "doorstep"?** Wei Zhe once explained: "If logistics costs and customer acquisition costs are not broken through, convenience stores cannot be done. These two costs are the dead spots that the internet cannot break through the last mile. So, it's not that capital is willing to let convenience stores go, but that these two costs cannot be broken through." Having worked at B&Q and Alibaba, both online and offline, Wei Zhe knows the pain points of physical retailers and the logic of the internet.
Whether it's the "capillary-like logistics node theory" or the "every convenience store should be 7-ELEVEn+Costco" theory, Wei Zhe means that the convenience store industry is consolidating its moat at the doorstep. However, Yang Bo of Quanshi Convenience Store believes there should be no moat, and the Beijing convenience store market should be faced with a more open and inclusive attitude. Having or not having actually refers to the same thing: how to establish one's own competitive advantage.
Some voices say that 7-ELEVEn's advantage lies in its asset-light model. Indeed, 7-ELEVEn has absolute advantages in product selection, logistics, warehouse management, and especially IT systems. But building a comprehensive supply chain is not necessarily the lighter the better. Last year, Bianlifeng spent 50 million yuan to buy out Beijing 7-Eleven's fresh food partner factory Yamiamia. Fortunately, 7-Eleven had another production factory to avoid embarrassment. **An industry insider said that convenience stores cannot be too light, otherwise they are easily disrupted by BATs. This also aligns with Wei Zhe's view.**
**For the convenience store as a "heart-mouth" industry**, Wang Hongtao said, "I hope practitioners can operate it with a normal mindset, enterprising spirit, and down-to-earth attitude." Wang also has another widely circulated article, "Convenience Stores: The Happiness of Bending Down to Pick Up Steel Coins," which expresses the feelings of many retail practitioners. Retail Frontier also deeply agrees.
Although Beijing is a star region for convenience store development, the logic of business remains unchanged, and the essence of convenience store operations remains unchanged. "Convenience stores are a diligent business. Indeed, unlike many industries that make quick and big money, they require too much dedication," Wang Hongtao said.
**In Retail Frontier's view, "heart-mouth" contains two meanings**: convenience stores are attentive to consumers, and consumers are attentive to convenience stores.
As the physical retail format closest to consumers, FamilyMart requires its staff to remember as much as possible the names, phone numbers, and purchasing habits of consumers in the community. 7-Eleven staff pay great attention to the weather, placing different products according to weather and climate changes to meet consumer needs.
On the other hand, establishing an emotional resonance between consumers and convenience stores is also the next theme in Beijing's convenience store market. Wang Hongtao believes that the more important thing for Beijing's convenience store market is to cultivate consumers' consumption habits. One important indicator is whether an emotional connection can be established. A successful business model is to form a specific consumption culture, such as Japan's convenience store culture.
Forget that movie; there is a saying: "If there were no 24-hour convenience stores, I really can't believe I could stay single for so long."
The famous French thinker Jean Baudrillard once said: "Consumption precisely illustrates a stage of development where goods are completely treated as symbols, as symbolic value, and symbols (culture) are treated as goods." No retail format can create as many warm scenes between the city and emotions as convenience stores, such as the convenience store pasta in "Love in a Puff."
One of America's most respected magazines, The Atlantic, wrote in an article: "Chain convenience stores are a component of urban value and a major source of comfort. Under the support of this system, the diversity of urban culture is more authentically and healthily reflected."
**Summary: Leave the Answer to Time**
Regarding the Beijing Municipal Commerce Committee's convenience store development goals, Wang Hongtao revealed that the China Chain Store & Franchise Association has invited major convenience store brands to hold special meetings and discuss future development. Wang also revealed that with the huge market gap and favorable policies, in addition to the current convenience store brands in the market, more brands are expected to enter the Beijing market.
The further deepening and implementation of new retail not only tests the original convenience store chain brands but also presents a huge opportunity for internet companies. Once, convenience stores were the only retail business not impacted by e-commerce, but now e-commerce companies are opening their own stores and doing fast delivery business. For example, JD.com has begun cooperating with Haoneighbor for e-commerce order self-pickup services, and recently even opened a JD convenience store inside Beijing Railway Station. Last year, Suning Xiaodian opened in the Beijing market.
Haitong Securities once published a report predicting that the capacity of convenience stores in Beijing will exceed 9,000 in the future, a huge consumption treasure. Japanese convenience stores, convenience store formats of major supermarkets, market convenience store brands, capital, and internet giants—no city has ever gathered so many forces at once like Beijing. Full competition is naturally exciting, but the awareness of "bending down to pick up steel coins" is never outdated.
Tao Ye gave Haoneighbor's development plan: "Both single-store and rapid expansion must be strong. If single stores are not strong, speed is useless. Our approach has always been a backend and supply chain system, with several front-end segmented store formats to meet different segmented business districts and customer needs in a 1+N model. The quantity plan depends on execution, but roughly we will ensure maintaining a leading position in scale." A hundred schools of thought contend, a hundred flowers bloom. Cross-border integration and value recreation are believed to become the mainstream voice of Beijing's convenience stores in the new year.
Someone asked Miyake Nobuhiro when he would succeed in China. He replied, "When convenience stores become a way of life."
If so, go Beijing!


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