The character "年" (year) first appeared in Shang Dynasty oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, originally meaning harvest. According to the Shuowen Jiezi, "年" means grain ripening. In 2024, what was the harvest? Perhaps the most important thing is still to seek inspiration and gain strength! For enterprises, survival is always the top priority; we constantly seek certainty amidst uncertainty. Summarizing is not to account for the past, but to find underlying principles for the future. Thus, we attempt to draw ten forces from the retail events of 2024.

Cycle and Awareness Currently, retail enterprises entering the era of stock competition face a development logic vastly different from the era of incremental growth. The planning and construction of people, goods, and scenes require entirely new strategic design and deep thinking. In 2024, hypermarkets remained difficult, but their value seems to have been re-evaluated. According to the author's incomplete statistics, in the first three quarters, only 2 out of 10 listed supermarket companies achieved growth in both revenue and net profit, accounting for 20%; 5 companies saw revenue decline, and 4 companies suffered losses; 4 companies experienced declines in both revenue and net profit, accounting for 40%. Pangdonglai's assistance and transformation made the industry see a new paradigm, and Miniso's stake in Yonghui Superstores is more like a typical case of seeking breakthroughs in this cycle. In addition, the transformation of instant retail front warehouses has regained momentum. Hema restarted front warehouses after four years, Sam's Club's front warehouses support 55% of its e-commerce performance, and Dingdong Maicai's GMV in Q3 2024 grew 28.3% year-on-year, with net profit under Non-GAAP standards increasing over 9 times year-on-year, achieving profitability for eight consecutive quarters. On October 15, Meituan Flash Shopping held an instant retail industry conference, claiming that by 2027, Meituan's flash warehouses will exceed 100,000, covering all categories and regions, with an expected market size of 200 billion yuan. On October 23, Ele.me held an instant e-commerce summit, planning to open 100,000 official flagship stores within three years. On November 1, JD Seven Fresh launched a "price-breaking, truly cheap, not afraid to compare" campaign... Front warehouses have apparently entered a second cycle with high enthusiasm. 2024 also saw a watershed in live streaming. Since the first year of live streaming in 2016, after eight years of crazy growth, by 2023, China's live streaming e-commerce market reached 4.9 trillion yuan, with growth rates varying from 35.2% to 40.48%, and user scale reaching 540 million. However, in 2024, incidents of host trust crises occurred frequently, with figures like Xiao Yang Ge, Dongbei Yujie, Internet celebrity Cat Cup, Xinba, Taiyuan Laoge, Bai Gongzi, Ni Haishan, etc., facing various integrity issues; Dong Yuhui's "breakup" with East Buy also sparked heated discussions. Great energy sometimes brings great tests; under the spotlight, only those with noble inner qualities can enjoy long-lasting popularity. In 2024, a large number of internet-famous brands receded. For example, Zhong Xue Gao, Hua Xizi, Benlai Buyingou, Kung Fu Coffee, Perfect Diary, Panda Don't Walk, etc. Enterprises must ultimately return to the essence of product power and customer value, with organization and operational capabilities being key. In 2024, e-commerce became more focused. ... In summary, every business format and category seemed to have its own significant cyclical manifestations in 2024. Business is never static; every industry has enormous momentum. Looking up at the sky, every industry actually has four possibilities: worsening or improving in nature, and accelerating or slowing in time. Many say the future is unpredictable, but from a safety perspective, retail enterprises should preset four possibilities. What deserves our deep contemplation is: Does the industry have a stall point? Are there tenfold better factors? When the inflection point comes, how do we enrich ourselves? The same applies to individuals. From the general trend and cycles, we should find the power of awareness of what changes and what remains.

Openness and Determination In 2024, the biggest event in the retail industry was undoubtedly Pangdonglai's assistance and transformation. From the decision to help Bubugao, public opinion went from doubt to amazement to recognition; time has given answers to everything. Most importantly, this transformation sparked a new paradigm for store improvement: Bosses must awaken first, treat employees well, prioritize quality, return to quality, reset property space and commercial aesthetics, evaluate a store over three years, establish mechanisms for team achievement, use scientific methods... Business is advancing from externality to internality, from scale-oriented to quality-oriented, from flashy to principled, and retail logic has entered a new kinetic cycle. On December 15, Pangdonglai Chairman Yu Donglai posted on his Douyin account the "Pangdonglai Assistance and Store Adjustment Public Notice," like dandelion seeds, "dancing lightly in the wind to the horizon, leisurely accompanied by evening clouds at dusk," which is worthy of being the annual cover in retail history. Any aware enterprise or individual should recognize the power generated during this period. The interweaving and ups and downs of public opinion were unprecedented:

  1. Pangdonglai's excellence, philosophy, and realm often operate at another level. In multiple public opinion arenas, there were rare scenes of large numbers of netizens speaking up for Pangdonglai.
  2. Compared to the rise and fall of many internet celebrities, Pangdonglai has a longer-lasting "myth." From opening queues after the New Year, shortening tea department business hours, jewelry purchase limits, food court employee incident handling, Pangdonglai recruitment, food court liangpi incident, salmon incident handling, Pangdonglai performance, Pangdonglai bride price, condemning AI imitation, Pangdonglai sanitary pads being snatched, Pangdonglai controlling daigou, and Pangdonglai issuing personal dignity compensation standards—within just ten months, Pangdonglai made headlines more than ten times.
  3. Whether Pangdonglai can be learned may indeed have levels of difference, but every awakening in business needs a spark, and this spark will ignite eternity. From a probability and time perspective, compared to Western commercial discourse, the beautiful business brought by Pangdonglai is a revolutionary spark for the localization of Chinese retail, and in the future, it will to some extent raise the baseline of business. What we often see is the news, but what is most overlooked is the institutional mechanisms and the science behind it. Shouldn't we be curious about that? Behind the excellence of a person, a team, an enterprise, or a culture, there must be massive value hidden, which is very worth choosing and opening up. Opening up is actually choosing a probability. On the given consumption denominator, it is the full product of the trust numerator that determines the magnitude of an enterprise's momentum. Pangdonglai and its true practitioners have also proven with actual actions and performance that once determination and awareness are achieved, everything becomes easy. But determination still takes a process! Recently, some public opinion says Pangdonglai talks too much about the "Way," but from the perspective of true seekers, what much of today's retail industry lacks is precisely the great "Way." The ancients said, "In the morning hear the Way, in the evening die content." Today, with information overload and much impatience, even if willing, there are many problems such as insufficient transformation, incomplete systems, selective absorption, and team misalignment. Good things often take time. We cannot require everyone to be on the same frequency; business will ultimately filter consensus groups, growing together and gaining strength together.

Dimensions and Structure What exactly is business competing on? Deconstructing industry themes can form many dimensions. Except for individual changes, most topics exist long-term. In 2024, AI applications became the basic state. Various general large models and generative AI applications have brought earth-shaking changes to the industry. No industry ever has a perfect technology that suddenly appears like magic. All results are actually the product of countless enterprises using resources and will to tackle challenges, educate with various scenarios, and train with various data. Therefore, the emergence of every technology deserves praise and respect. What is worth seeing is the combination of business and intelligence, pushing commerce to a new systemic height. We often define current events, such as the AI era, stock era, etc. Definitions often condense the current situation; this is the basic methodology for viewing the world from a time dimension. In 2024, we still discovered some dimensional changes: 2. Happiness and freedom dimension: All transformed enterprises have widened channels, streamlined items, upgraded category structures, conducted comprehensive maintenance and updates of existing equipment, improved facility quality and aesthetics, and strengthened commercial aesthetics. Under the new people-goods-scene, customers gain safety, happiness, and freedom in physical and psychological space. 3. Quality dimension: In the domestic transformation wave, a common feature is a 60%-80% product renewal rate, supplementing first- and second-tier brands as well as internet-famous and local specialty products, eliminating third- and fourth-tier and non-well-known brands, delisting products with unstable quality. Meanwhile, many supermarkets introduced a direct sourcing model, removing backend fees in procurement, purchasing directly at factory prices, and striving for pricing autonomy, making products more price-competitive and attracting consumers. Quality & price: China's retail industry is moving closer to the most essential genetic structure of commerce. Digging deeper, the means to achieve commercial value require more respect, sincerity, equality, and mutually beneficial ecological relationships. People should always be the greatest measure of business. In 2024, the situation and Pangdonglai acted as a push, raising the baseline of Chinese retail. Under dimensions, business will have new structures. Seeing the structure sometimes means seeing the future. I. Structure of People In May, international consulting firm McKinsey released the five major consumption trends of China's five main consumer groups in 2024. It specifically pointed out the differentiation of consumer groups, with optimistic consumer groups including: Gen Z (estimated at about 15%-20% of China's population), affluent silver-haired in first-tier cities (about 1%-2%), and affluent middle-aged and elderly in third-tier cities (about 2%-3%); while more pessimistic consumer groups include new middle class in first- and second-tier cities (about 5%-8%) and middle-aged and elderly in less developed regions (about 20%-30%). The combination of age and region forms a new perspective for viewing the market. If we examine our users, we will surely find strength. II. Structure of Goods In 2024, health-oriented food and beverage segments such as "zero sugar," "zero additives," and "functional" developed rapidly. Fresh drinks represented by fruit and vegetable juices, healthy low-calorie and functional drinks like prune juice, coconut water, blueberry juice, instant nutritional supplements like instant fish maw, fish glue, and bird's nest, as well as niche novelty flavors and regional specialty foods, have become mainstream choices for emerging brands to break out. In 2024, pet travel, care, and food continued to heat up. Currently, the pet companion economy is rapidly filling the market space vacated by low fertility. Traveling with pets has become an emerging blue ocean, with demand for portable and practical pet travel products growing continuously; pet feeding is becoming refined, grooming and care products are growing rapidly, with high demand for washing, fragrance, and deodorizing products; specialty foods and snacks with therapeutic effects are constantly emerging, with many brands like Paiduoge PETDOD, Xiaopei PETKIT, Shengchong FAVORPETS, Chongwujia pet'em, Xiuhu TYGRIN, Mengxiaota CuteMenta, Jichongjia, Zhaozhua, Tianyuan Pets, etc., rising. Male beauty economy is heating up. Brands like Miwang, Haiyang Zhizun, Biotherm, etc., are competing in men's cosmetics, with leading brands changing between old and new, and new domestic brands developing well; facial makeup is transforming into color aesthetics, with expansion colors and contraction colors giving blush functional product selling points that are popular; at the same time, consumers favor "functional skincare" cosmeceutical products and "skincare heavy hitters," with safety, health, and strong efficacy being the most concerned functional features. In lifestyle, social and green consumption methods are favored. Second-hand trading e-commerce platforms like Xianyu and Zhuanzhuan are growing well; tea drinks, trading cards, and concept stores have attracted capital attention. Amazon, combining e-commerce big data from the US, Japan, and Europe, released the "Global E-commerce Consumption Trends and Product Selection Survey Report," summarizing six global consumption trends for 2024, including:

  1. Sleep well: sleep economy; 2. Living elsewhere: outdoor life supporting relaxation, cooking, dining, leisure, and care cleaning products; 3. Escaping scenic spots and silent travel: niche, experiential, low-tech travel; 4. Emotional value: all products and services; 5. Home gardening: gardens, balconies, various new smart facilities and equipment;
  2. Hardcore tech soft experience: hardcore technology changes life supplements, user-friendly, wireless, personalized, finely crafted, flexible and portable, beautiful and fashionable, etc. Goods have become carriers of function, value, emotion, and feeling. Retail is the business of assortment; in a sense, retail professionals should be conductors. III. Structure of Markets In 2024, the lower-tier market seemed to fare somewhat better. In the first three quarters, total retail sales of consumer goods increased 3.3% year-on-year, with urban areas up 3.2% and rural areas up 4.4%. With the continued explosion of 5G and mobile internet applications, population return, and retail brands accelerating layout in lower-tier markets, supply and demand are mutually taming, and the potential of lower-tier markets is continuously released. Many brands and services going down-market express a wave of upgrade dividends. We don't necessarily have to go down-market, but it's worth seeking layered space. When information on people, goods, and scenes is aggregated, classification and clustering gain capacity. Combining elements, we can see the direction of action and may also find strength.

Abandonment and Reconstruction In 2024, if one type of phenomenon is classified as a major event, store closures take the lead. According to Tianyancha data, in the first half of 2024, as many as 1.056 million catering enterprises closed in China, and it is estimated that by the end of 2024, 2.3 million catering enterprises will close. There are also cases like Chenhai Group, Secoo, Haidai.com, Maiduoduo, etc., that went bankrupt, fled, or faced crises... Compared to previous years when store closures were considered disasters, in 2024, no enterprise avoided this topic. Store closures are the inevitable outcome of past mismatches between desire and capability, products of market cyclical adjustments, and possibly decision results of commercial cognitive progress. This may continue for several more years. After reducing redundancy, business may often have no growth, but the model and efficiency are healthy. Physical stores, due to location and experience advantages, may enter a stable state for a certain period. Many enterprises may have to accept persistence and repetition, accumulating more stable strength in the process. On the other hand, under survival pressure, more and more reconstruction may occur in business! Whether it's property or equity, different operators may have different values. Miniso's stake in Yonghui and Alibaba's sale of Intime Department Store may bring new efficiency in capital structure, actual controller structure, and cultural kinetic structure. In the past, we praised business for carrying heavy burdens forward; today, we can also draw strength from abandonment and reconstruction. The same applies to individuals: when you can't hold on, when love fades, giving up is also rebirth, and being at ease brings freedom.

Evolution and Growth In 2024, many business formats welcomed new massive growth. Instant retail and front warehouses entered a new stage. According to the China Chain Store & Franchise Association forecast, the overall instant retail market will exceed one trillion yuan in 2024. Sam's Club, Dingdong Maicai, JD Seven Fresh, and Meituan Xiaoxiang continue to develop, with more players entering and related technology applications continuously upgrading, such as deep learning, machine learning, and other core AI technologies widely applied in logistics management, predictive analysis, and supply chain optimization. Scale integration became the theme in the snack track. As of June 12, 2024, the total number of stores under the Snack Busy Group's brands, Snack Busy and Zhao Yiming Snacks, exceeded 10,000, making it the first enterprise in the snack chain industry to reach 10,000 stores. The group was officially renamed Mingming Busy Group, behind which is a support system from quantitative to qualitative change. Mingming Busy Group is also continuously exploring new discount store formats. There are other integrations in the snack industry. On October 28, Three Squirrels announced an investment of 360 million yuan, including no more than 200 million yuan to acquire control of Ai Snacks, and also cooperated with Ai Discount and Zhiyang Food; in 2024, Ai Snacks made frequent moves: in August, it announced the formal control of Dinosaur and Teddy in Chengdu, Sichuan; in September, it fully acquired Hu Weihong Snacks in Guizhou; in October, it announced the formal control of local Shaanxi brand Snack Bubble; in addition, in October, the leading snack chain in South China, Snack Cabin, integrated all stores of Guangdong snack chain Snack Meme, and officially announced that its store count exceeded 600... Membership and discount formats grew massively. In 2024, with Sam's Club and Costco booming, domestic discount membership stores also opened in large numbers, with RT-Mart M membership stores opening 3 new stores; some single stores and tail brands began to establish themselves, such as Yipinlai, Jingxicang, Laiyifen, Dazhang Membership Store, Nianyi Jipin, Yicangyiku, Happy Farm A Membership Store, Lianhua Lanyuan Warehouse Membership Store, Yigou Warehouse, Dafengcang... A large number of brands began to venture into membership warehousing or discount formats, and besides food and general merchandise, hard discount stores in fresh produce categories were also continuously breaking through. Two-dimensional culture continuously gave birth to new business forms. The "goods economy" (gu zi jing ji) with IP as a fulcrum has shown a trend of sustained explosion, with many brands rising like Guguguanggugu, Manku mancool, Heyzakka Heizhaka trendy toy and goods club, Wushawan karasumaya, Duoma Wanshiwu, Moxiong Bear, ipstar trendy toy planet, Baomeng boomcomic, Sanyueshou marchmonster, Manhun, etc. According to the "2024-2025 China Goods Economy Market Analysis Report" released by iiMedia Research, the scale of China's goods economy market in 2024 reached 168.9 billion yuan, an increase of 40.63% over 2023, and is expected to exceed 300 billion yuan by 2029. Various new-style category concept stores grew massively at the edges. New business formats with single-point breakthroughs such as fruit+, snack+, bakery+, cooked food+, dried goods+, and pet+ emerged in large numbers. As latecomers without legacy burdens, they can build entirely new business models on top of rich supply chains. When we see good stores and thriving stores, we should ask: What self-consistent elements do they have? In my value chain, what reinforcement and extension effects can they bring? Differentiation, scale integration, emerging markets, and edge forces are the continuous directions of growth. Stones from other hills can polish jade. Evolution is not necessarily growth, but it is definitely growth.

Breakthrough and Balance In 2024, the "low-price strategy" that many leading giants once insisted on seemed to collectively turn around. At a closed-door meeting with merchants after the 618 shopping festival, Taotian Group proposed that Taobao would weaken its absolute low-price strategy, changing search weight from the "five-star price power" set in early 2023 back to GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume); on October 8, "Tao Selected," focusing on providing consumers with high-quality and cost-effective products, was launched; during Double 11, Taobao no longer emphasized "absolute low price," instead focusing more on consumption stratification and membership operations. Douyin set price power as the highest priority task of the year in February, but by July it also decided to abandon it and continue to focus on GMV growth, with algorithm rules shifting from emphasizing OPM (orders) to GPM (sales), encouraging high-value live streaming rooms. Pinduoduo also adjusted its business focus in Q2 2024, shifting from pursuing commercialization and profit improvement to making GMV growth the primary goal. In the coffee and new tea drink tracks, where price wars are most intense, although there is no obvious sign of stopping, some new features have emerged. Heytea took the lead in September, saying it would not engage in "simple low-price involution." Chahuanao also revealed it would not participate in price wars, believing low prices "violate business logic," and shifted focus to existing store operations; including Guming, Tianlala, Auntea Jenny, Chabaidao, Shuyi Shaoxiancao, and other tea drink brands have slowed down store opening speed, instead focusing on refined operations of existing stores, enhancing brand power and product power, and no longer competing solely with low prices and store expansion. The history of Chinese retail development has proven in several waves that whenever a new track starts or reshuffles, low-price wars erupt, but often within less than a year, whether industry or enterprise, it eventually returns to normal business logic. If the low-price side of the commercial DNA double helix is taken as strategy, the industry cannot have healthy genes. Performance pulled up by abnormal demand must lack stability. Simple and crude low prices and single-point breakthroughs have sharpness, but balance, relying on inner quality to gain repurchase and stickiness, is more powerful. To some extent, Pangdonglai is a breakthrough in people's hearts, Sam's Club is a breakthrough in membership, and ALDI is a breakthrough in ultimate efficiency. More importantly, long-termism allows breakthrough themes to build systemic energy. While making single-point breakthroughs, brands are also continuously achieving balanced growth in organization, supply chain, and operations. Single points are strategic forces, while balance is long-termism. Essentially, this reflects the embodiment of key-point thinking and systemic thinking. Break through at a single point, then continuously move toward balance; every enterprise has its own river of time. Regardless of an enterprise's size, forming a mindset of single points and systems will give the enterprise strength. In 2025, every enterprise needs its own thinking: What single point should I break through? What systemic capabilities should I strengthen?

Narrative and Emotion In 2024, many events entered the eye of the storm of public opinion, such as the Nongfu Spring incident, the Three Sheep Meicheng mooncake incident, the CICC employee who fell to death due to salary cuts, and the Pangdonglai bride price incident. Behind all events, there are stories, but more importantly, narratives. What happens in business itself is a story, while different people's different understandings of the story constitute narrative. It is a collective term for all associations such as emotions, memories, feelings, and deductions. Stories occur in reality, while narratives occur in people's concepts and thoughts. Clearly, enterprises can have many good stories, but it is difficult to create good narratives. Therefore, often what determines the direction of public opinion is the narrative associations triggered by the events themselves. For example, many people side with Pangdonglai; the logic behind the narrative is that good people must win. Behind the Three Sheep mooncake incident is the narrative that a big store should not bully customers. The CICC employee fall is a tragedy where most people believe an excellent young woman took her own life due to life's setbacks. Some supermarket transformations are not good, with the underlying metaphor being insufficient sincerity in "turning over a new leaf." Thus, because of these settings, public opinion has more uncontrollable directions. Behind all narratives, the fact is consumers' own identity imagination and recognition, an expression of certain social values and consensus. In the future, narrative will remain the center of our lives, carrying "good" and "evil." If we compare, we should pay more attention to our own ability to create narrative trends, just like Pangdonglai, Sam's Club, and ALDI. We may not know them particularly well, but because of narratives, we firmly believe they have the light of "Tyndall." In the past, we attributed this to brand power, but that is a definition at the enterprise level. Narrative, on the other hand, integrates corporate brand, public relations, and social psychology into one container. Sincerity, kindness, and love may be the only direction for good narratives in the future. There are also old topics such as food safety, employee relations, and supplier relations, all expressing consumers' emotional perceptions of safety, health, responsibility, harmony, and respect.

Extension and Inner Quality In 2024, going overseas was a major topic. Internet giants basically regard going overseas as an important strategy:

  1. In January, AliExpress fully launched the "semi-managed" model, jointly upgraded global 5-day delivery with Cainiao, added core markets such as Germany, France, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, the US, and Mexico, and also launched live shopping in the UK.
  2. JD Industrial held partner conferences in Beijing on August 21, Bangkok on September 12, and Jakarta on December 10; JD Logistics expanded its international express service from Guangzhou and Shenzhen to the whole country.
  3. Pinduoduo massively recruited Amazon merchants and prepared to establish a small and medium-sized enterprise intellectual property service center; its cross-border e-commerce platform Temu launched the semi-managed model on the US site on March 15, and expanded to European sites by the end of the month.
  4. Meituan and Dingdong Maicai took the lead in choosing Saudi Arabia as their first overseas stop, starting the globalization process of the instant retail industry. The above is only part of going overseas. There are also many catering and new tea drink brands such as Molly Milk White, Chagee, Auntea Jenny, Mo酸奶, Chabaidao, etc., and Chinese food brands like Grandma's Home, Xin Rong Ji, Nonggeng Ji, Haidilao, etc., expanding overseas stores. Hema's private brand products entered the largest Chinese supermarket chain in the US, 99 Ranch Market, in 2024, cooperated with Singapore e-commerce giant Lazada in August, and entered Australia's top online Asian supermarket eBest in September. Undoubtedly, besides challenges in supply chain, operations, teams, and foreign exchange, going overseas also faces entirely new cultural, policy, political, technological, and humanistic issues. Therefore, in terms of actual performance, the scale of various companies varies greatly. Behind this is the release of internal strength. Most domestic retail enterprises may not face such problems and choices, but if one day enterprises need to go overseas, or if there is a new blue ocean, what capabilities should we have? Whether people are the source point or things are the source point makes a big difference. If there is a unified force inside and outside the enterprise, it should undoubtedly be the former.

Respect and Sincerity Sincerity + Trust = Hope is a concept shared by Pangdonglai at the third session of the 2024 Lianshang Donglai President Class. "Once thoughts change, nothing is a problem." But the retail industry is still an industry of everyday life; the hardest thing may be getting a group of people to reach consensus. Different people have different identity recognitions and interest entanglements. This is probably the underlying reason for continuous adjustment, optimization, and improvement. Therefore, no matter how many events occur in the industry, we should reserve a place for a "big event." In 2024, many enterprises made personnel and structural adjustments.

On March 18, Hema founder Hou Yi retired and was succeeded by CFO Yan Xiaolei (Baihe); on the evening of March 26, Gaoxin Retail announced Lin Xiaohai's resignation, with Shen Hui succeeding as Executive Director and CEO; on October 30, Yonghui Superstores announced the appointment of Lin Hongdong as Vice President to enhance its home delivery business and logistics system; on November 21, Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming announced the establishment of the Alibaba E-commerce Business Group, appointing Jiang Fan as CEO; in early December, multiple media reported that Walmart China Vice CEO and Sam's Club President Andrew Miles would retire on January 31, 2025, with current Walmart International Senior Vice President of Operations Jane Ewing succeeding as acting president... On December 12, Jiyue Auto collapsed suddenly, with four to five thousand employees demanding unpaid wages, attracting widespread attention... Under the general trend, many individuals in many enterprises may face pressure from personnel, position, or salary adjustments, whether large or small. Therefore, topics like unemployment after 35 and difficulty finding jobs continue to spark heated discussions about the future. On the other hand, we also see a large number of emerging economic methods and lifestyles related to emotional value and self-healing continuously rising, with numerous marginal inventions and creations emerging. No longer rolling, letting go, and being at ease have also become a force; rationally breaking the sense of security and pursuing true inner relaxation and freedom will give retail tremendous power. Respecting the safety laws of enterprise development, respecting the value laws of individual continuous growth, and respecting the laws of ecological coordinated development, letting sincerity ferment over time, both enterprises and individuals will have long-term strength.

Action and Resilience In 2024, Pangdonglai and Sam's Club were the two hottest retail brands, and they are in a completely different state from the "firework brands" of the past. Both brands have been accumulating in China for over 20 years. Summarizing their development history, we can clearly see a clear main line. This round of stock crisis in business once again highlights the value of long-termism. ALDI is considered by many to have greater lethality in the future, with its private brand share of over 90% astonishing the entire industry; Hema NB's reputation continues to rise, and its "double 15" business model is increasingly respected. In the future, there will surely be more and more imitators of both. Looking deeper, we increasingly find that in business operations, principles are often more important than operational techniques. We are often accustomed to quick wins, but summarizing the successes and failures of brands over the past ten or twenty years, we will find that choosing a universal philosophy and being determined for the long term, accumulating action and resilience, business will have exponential power, such as Pangdonglai's beauty, Sam's Club's membership value, and ALDI's good quality at low prices. Summarizing the past, we all want to have a baseline for the future. Besides tangible results, we need intangible strength. We are more willing to continuously draw angular momentum for growth on the S-curve of growth. The above ten points are decomposed based on dimensions of environment, strategy, tactics, and culture. Of course, everyone has their own cognition; what we say may all be wrong. In 2024, whether it's 10 major events or 20 major events, finding your own strength and logic should be our only major event.

【New Order · Symbiosis】 The 10th China FMCG Innovation Conference Time: March 17-19, 2025 Location: Chengdu, China