Introduction: Ofo and Mobike have recently been hit by corruption reports, which both companies deny and have taken legal action over, sending a chill through the booming sharing economy. We are well aware that their costly nationwide deployment of shared bikes and mutual attacks are aimed at capturing offline traffic. Once they secure a steady stream of high-volume traffic, they can convert it into other businesses and partnerships to generate profit or achieve sustainable growth. In fact, our FMCG industry has long had a foundation for the sharing economy. Isn't it time we embraced the sharing economy? Distribution channels themselves are a form of sharing economy. What is a distributor? Distributors are intermediaries that aggregate various products and then distribute them. Why exclusive distribution? It means: sorry, the channel distributor won't share with competing brands! Conversely, non-exclusive distribution means the channel distributor can share with other brands. In reality, the FMCG industry has always relied on the sharing economy to develop channel distribution. The more distributors are willing to share their regional markets and downstream customers with more companies, the more extensive each company's channel layout becomes, the closer to end consumers, the better the performance, and the more sustainable the growth. In practice, multiple SKUs from different companies gather at distributors, sharing channels; distributors' salespeople sell all products they distribute, sharing sales personnel; downstream orders are written on one order book for different companies' products, sharing orders; then unified delivery shares delivery personnel and vehicles. So, the FMCG industry's sharing economy already has a primitive foundation. Additionally, the same applies to terminals, which also implement the sharing economy. Channels were once shared, but corporate operations were closed. Although channels were shared in the past, the starting point of the channel—the enterprise—has always operated in a fully closed manner. How to understand this? Companies invest heavily in manpower, materials, finances, time, and expenses, even setting up branch offices, to recruit distributors, develop and maintain terminals, and execute business team operations, building a robust sales network. This is to get closer to consumers and avoid competition. Because besides products, another core competitiveness is channel construction, and a company's channels are independent and closed. We often hear companies say they have so many distributors, so many terminal points, each salesperson must maintain so many terminal stores, and they need to develop more distributors and terminals, sign distribution contracts with distributors, visit terminals daily, and even require distributors to sign exclusive contracts, dedicate funds and warehouses, and put company VI on vehicles—all attempts to close off channels and turn public resources into proprietary ones. China once had the saying "channels are king, terminals are king," mainly because channel construction is difficult and requires continuous maintenance. For example, Coca-Cola has millions of terminal stores on one platform, the result of decades of hard work by tens of thousands of frontline staff recruiting new business each year! All of a company's products must be sold through this pipeline. So it's no wonder companies build closed channels. In terms of channels, a company's operations are definitely fully closed. Customer data is confidential! Sales teams need to visit channels daily to avoid losing them! However, companies may not have realized that in the mobile internet era, this closure is being broken! Why can the B2B model rise? Why has the FMCG B2B model risen in recent years? Isn't it because mobile internet connects everything! From the original closed management style to a networked interactive style. Even if companies subjectively resist, people-to-people connections based on mobile internet have achieved an unstoppable natural seamless link, and companies' attempts to block are futile. So, some intermediate channel players can see the business opportunity, build their own sales teams, leverage the sharing nature of terminals and distributors, and through this shared intermediate pipeline, provide full or partial operations and services for commerce, information, logistics, and capital flows, thereby overtaking on the curve and entering the previously sealed channels to profit. We now also see that with the emergence of the B2B model, companies are not taking measures as early as they did with channel blockade. Why? Because B2B players "intercept" in the mid-to-lower reaches of the channel, and companies are helpless. Apart from direct sales, this sharing model cannot be changed or stopped by companies! If sales teams are shared, the sharing economy is fully established. Sales team sharing means that as long as intermediaries open up the functions that each company previously needed to build large teams for—recruiting, developing, and maintaining—several or even dozens of companies can share a sales team built and shared by the intermediary. Then the entire FMCG industry's sharing economy emerges! Let's briefly analyze:
1. Commerce flow is shared. That is, one team obtains orders for multiple manufacturers. This is achievable. Originally, each company's salespeople had to visit terminals one by one to negotiate orders; now one intermediary is enough.
2. Logistics is shared, whether it's logistics or delivery. This is already realized.
3. Information flow, i.e., distribution software, is shared. This is easily achieved in the mobile internet era.
4. Capital flow is shared. Now internet finance can even facilitate borrowing, which is more advanced.
5. Warehousing is shared. This is already realized, or not a problem in reality.
...... So, from this perspective, the FMCG industry's sharing economy doesn't need to spend huge sums to build new infrastructure like shared bikes or cars. There's already a rich foundation! Currently, Companies are anxious: existing volume is declining, and incremental growth is unknown.
Distributors are confused: in the mobile era, am I useless and being eliminated?
Salespeople are helpless: the market is hard to break through, and income shows no growth opportunity. The future seems bleak. Perhaps the above basic thoughts on the FMCG sharing economy can open your mind? Perhaps applying the sharing economy well to yourself is a future of infinite breadth, opportunity, and growth? Tomorrow, June 1st, Children's Day, is a golden moment to maintain innocence and advance toward hope! Teacher Tan Changchun's China Sales Force, together with New Distribution, invites you to knock on the door of the future and hope! We will jointly explore the future of the FMCG sharing economy! On June 1st (Thursday) at 8 PM, we invite Teacher Tan Changchun to do an online live broadcast titled "The Future of the FMCG Sharing Economy." Interested friends can add the editor's WeChat to join the group, and note "6.1 registration" when adding. -END-