In the past, they could rely on wholesale volume, but now not only is scale hard to maintain, profits are being eroded bit by bit. As middlemen, distributors in traditional channels often find themselves caught between upstream and downstream, in a dilemma. Today, brand direct supply is increasing, retail channels are changing rapidly, and bare-price purchasing has squeezed profit margins to almost nothing. Many have turned to online, but new problems follow. Based on past visits, most distributors are not doing well in e-commerce. On one hand, traditional e-commerce has long passed its dividend period, and its level of involution is even more intense than offline. High advertising costs and extremely high return rates are like mountains to climb. On the other hand, online and offline are completely different businesses, and distributors lack the matching personnel and capabilities. The labor costs of large teams also make many distributors lament: "Sales have increased, but profits are still not there." But on Dewu, we have observed many distributors and brands finding a completely new business logic. With a small team of two or three people, they achieve tens of millions in sales; return rates are only half of the industry average, and profits can truly be retained; they can better understand youth trends, using gift boxes, limited editions, and functional new products to create hit after hit.

From "Not Knowing How to Do E-commerce" to "Running Tens of Millions with Light Assets"

In traditional e-commerce, "doing business" almost equals "heavy assets": advertising burns money, teams need to expand, efficiency is low, and risks are high. Many distributors accustomed to offline shake their heads at e-commerce: "This is not something we can afford to play." "I used to think e-commerce was too difficult, requiring a team of a dozen people and spending a lot on traffic, otherwise it wouldn't move," said Mr. Xu, who works in the 3C category. But on Dewu, he and his partner, just the two of them, achieved monthly sales of ten million. They joined in May 2024, and in the first week, they moved 600,000 in sales. Since then, they have consistently exceeded ten million monthly, and during peak seasons, they even reached 20 million GMV. "In the past, we also supplied to other platforms, but now Dewu sells better on its own. The key is that our team is only two people." We found that the biggest difference between Dewu and traditional e-commerce is that low-cost operations significantly reduce the cost of trial and error for merchants. A beauty and daily chemical distributor told us: "We originally operated offline stores, and we thought we'd try Dewu. Unexpectedly, in the first month, we sold 60,000 orders with a transaction value exceeding 11 million." She smiled and said, "We didn't rely on large-scale advertising at all; we ran purely on natural traffic." Food distributor Tracy was even more surprised. He originally represented imported milk powder, and on one platform, the return rate once soared to 20%, leaving only a few yuan profit per can. "Customer service was dealing with complaints every day, and the more we did, the more exhausted we felt," he said. But after joining Dewu, the return rate was extremely low, and profits could be retained. "On other platforms, after-sales is a hassle; on Dewu, it becomes a growth point." It's not hard to see that the new platform logic is rewriting the threshold of e-commerce. In the past, it relied on teams and money for advertising; now it's about who can make products better and see trends more accurately. Traditional distributors are already good at category management, and with Dewu's operational advantages, merchants can shift their focus from "people and advertising" to "products and trends," concentrating on supply chain management and product selection rather than complex operational processes. Additionally, Dewu provides new merchants with 1v1 operational consultants, semi-managed models, and 90% natural traffic, allowing e-commerce to return to its "light asset" essence: it's not about who spends more, but who understands users better.

Low-Cost Operations + 90% Free Traffic

= Real Profit Space

Between sales and profit, there seems to be a "cost gap." In the past, high return rates and high traffic costs were like two mountains, squeezing distributors' profits to almost nothing. Especially in the FMCG industry, which is already thin-margin, adding these "hidden costs" makes many find themselves "working hard but earning only a little." "On some platforms, the return rate for down jackets can be over 50%, but on Dewu it's only 32%," said Long, the head of a well-known down jacket brand distributor, after calculating: with the same GMV, Dewu's profit margin can be 3 percentage points higher. "Advertising costs on Dewu are minimal, almost negligible, while on some other platforms it's 20%. The ROI is at least ten times different." Last year, with just two or three people, they achieved 40 million GMV. Behind this is Dewu's operational logic of mainly 90% natural traffic. For merchants, this means no need to compete in advertising; the core is to supply products, and there's a chance to be naturally recommended. Lower traffic acquisition costs, combined with the advantage of lower return rates, directly reopen profit space. Baoshuhang, a foreign liquor distributor, has a similarly representative operational logic on Dewu. "Our Rémy Martin and Hennessy gift box sets sell particularly well on Dewu. The new merchant support program gave us exposure and subsidies, and our profit margin is at least 5 percentage points higher than other platforms." The head of the daily chemical skincare brand Half an Acre of Flowers (半亩花田) even said directly: "Dewu is the platform with the lowest cost across all channels." When they joined, their goal was 4 million, and two years later, they reached 20 million, a 400% increase. Relying on word-of-mouth and accumulated natural traffic, the brand expanded rapidly among young people. In these voices, there is a commonality: sales ≠ profit. Only when return rates and traffic costs are controllable can sales truly convert into money. Dewu's value lies in this: it not only makes business run but also makes profits truly stay. And for the FMCG industry, where gross margins are already limited, this is the most scarce and fundamental competitiveness.

Dewu is a "Magnifying Glass" for Youth Consumption Trends

How Should Distributors Seize the Dividend Opportunity?

Young people have become the most critical group for FMCG business, but their needs change too fast. In traditional channels, new products have low acceptance, and by the time sales rankings reflect them, the opportunity has passed. Therefore, many distributors and brands are puzzled: What are young people buying? "At first, we only listed a garnet bracelet, and unexpectedly, we sold 5,000 orders in a single day," recalled the team of Jinfu Jixiang (金六福吉祥). Later, they found that young people have a strong demand for "meaning" and "gift-giving," so they gradually expanded SKUs, launching couple styles, best friend styles, and holiday gift boxes... In less than a year, SKUs expanded from 1 to over 30, and cumulatively, more than 77,000 people have bought their garnet products. This trend of "gift-giving demand" is especially amplified during festivals like Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day. This autumn and winter, gift box and seasonal consumption are becoming key choices for young people. For example, mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival, snack gift packs for National Day family gatherings, and Dove chocolate gift boxes have all become hot-selling categories on the platform; many distributors are also entering higher-profit gift-giving scenarios through seasonal products. At the same time, seasonal changes are driving rapid outbreaks of new categories. The daily chemical brand OHBT launched body lotion in the fourth quarter of last year and directly entered the platform's TOP3 category. "Young people are particularly sensitive to seasonal functional products. As long as you follow the trend, you can quickly gain momentum," summarized the person in charge. This autumn and winter, products like hand cream and lip balm are also expected to be popular, and some merchants have already started stocking up in advance to meet the autumn and winter consumption boom. Gift box products are also a high-profit, high-sales strategy. The daily chemical personal care brand Zhidou (芷豆) joined for two months, and their gift box set became the TOP1 product, with GMV exceeding one million in half a year. "Young people's demand for holiday gift-giving is too strong; gift box products are natural bestsellers on Dewu," they said. Providing young people with "exclusive" and "customized" product assortments that are aesthetically pleasing and functional is also one of the proven routes on Dewu. Weitesi (维特丝) developed functional gift boxes for platform users, with quarterly GMV exceeding 3 million, a year-on-year increase of 600%. "We create exclusive product assortments on Dewu because users here are more willing to buy refined, aesthetically pleasing products." Under the logic of young people's pursuit of "trying new things," emerging brands can also quickly gain volume with good prices and hit products. MRKU used a 9-yuan shampoo group-buying strategy and achieved monthly sales exceeding 500,000 in the second month. "Young people are willing to try new things, but they also care about price. As long as the quality is good and word-of-mouth is established, volume can quickly increase," the team said directly. Canban (参半) opened the situation with a "single hit product driving the whole" approach. Their color-correcting toothpaste sold over 600,000 units in 3 months, with a quarter-on-quarter growth of 160%, and drove the brand's overall sales past one million. "One hit product can drive the entire brand; this is the typical rhythm on Dewu," they said. Big brands are also continuously validating these trends: Dove (德芙) increased volume during holiday nodes, and within just three months of joining, monthly sales exceeded ten million; Blue Moon (蓝月亮) targeted the needs of young renters with small-size packaging, achieving monthly sales over one million; Half an Acre of Flowers achieved 400% growth through functionality and packaging iteration. It's not hard to see that for merchants, Dewu is not just a platform for selling goods, but also a trend amplifier. It puts young people's preferences under a "microscope," allowing more merchants to capture trends like gift boxes, functionality, value-for-money, and co-branding in real-time, and quickly translate them into actionable business logic. Such efficiency is almost impossible in traditional channels. Final Thoughts Distributors' business growth can no longer rely on inertia, but on whether they truly understand new trends and new channels; whether they can find structural opportunities in channels that traditional distributors don't understand; and whether they have the ability to act quickly in uncertain environments. And on Dewu, all this is happening:

  • Some use two or three people to achieve tens of millions in GMV;
  • Some find that return rates are half, and profits can finally be truly retained;
  • Some seize youth trends and use gift boxes, functionality, and value-for-money strategies to launch new products successfully. Dewu is not a short-term promotional window, but a new business curve. It returns e-commerce to light assets, returns profits to reality, and makes young people understandable. Currently, the platform also offers highly advantageous support policies: 1 billion yuan fee subsidies, 500 million yuan marketing rebates, 10 billion yuan traffic subsidies, and targeted support for new merchants. For FMCG distributors and brands, this is undoubtedly an opportunity to rebuild business logic. Merchants who want to know more about platform dividends and information gaps can scan the QR code to learn about the latest business opportunities.