---
title: "Understanding Community Group Leaders: One Article Is Enough"
description: "In this capital winter, billions of yuan have unusually poured into community group buying. The track quickly became hot, bringing the group of community group leaders to the surface and making them a hot topic in the industry. Frankly, so far there has been no systematic in-depth analysis of group leaders. Many questions in the industry are urgently seeking answers: Are group leaders WeChat sellers? Are they just a flash in the pan variant of WeChat sellers, or the sprout of a new channel era? Is the core function of group leaders merely connecting communities and collecting orders? Will they have the opportunity to become a powerful tool for brand promotion in the future?"
author: "任小东"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2019-05-17"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/6rbyQA4QF6Fe7-rrOWpqng"
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---

# Understanding Community Group Leaders: One Article Is Enough

> In this capital winter, billions of yuan have unusually poured into community group buying. The track quickly became hot, bringing the group of community group leaders to the surface and making them a hot topic in the industry. Frankly, so far there has been no systematic in-depth analysis of group leaders. Many questions in the industry are urgently seeking answers: Are group leaders WeChat sellers? Are they just a flash in the pan variant of WeChat sellers, or the sprout of a new channel era? Is the core function of group leaders merely connecting communities and collecting orders? Will they have the opportunity to become a powerful tool for brand promotion in the future?

In this capital winter, billions of yuan have unusually flocked into community group buying. The track quickly became hot, and the group of community group leaders surfaced, becoming a topic of interest in the industry.
Frankly speaking, so far there has been no systematic in-depth analysis of group leaders. Many questions in the industry are urgently seeking answers:
Are group leaders WeChat sellers? Are they just a flash in the pan variant of WeChat sellers, or the sprout of a new channel era?
Is the core function of group leaders merely connecting communities and collecting orders? Will they have the opportunity to become a powerful tool for brand promotion in the future?
Are only mothers and store owners suitable to be group leaders? Will the era of professional group leaders expand to brand sales teams, or even production and internal logistics teams? Will the name "group leader" no longer fully cover its functions a year later?
The raising of a major question often means that profound thinking and far-reaching changes have already begun.
If you happen to care about the above questions, you must read this article carefully.
**Where did group leaders grow up?**
Although operators know that today's community e-commerce is actually the group leader economy, many practitioners still do not know how this group emerged and evolved.
**Germination period:** Around 2015, a group called "group leaders" emerged.
The main sources of group leaders were: first, WeChat sellers who sold fruits in community WeChat groups; second, community store owners and their wives who set up WeChat groups to facilitate customers' ordering.
This stage was spontaneous, casual, loose, and local. Previously, selling through offline stores was "sitting business," waiting for customers to come. Since having WeChat groups, they suddenly found they could sell 24 hours a day, with good results and better customer relationships.
**Growth period:** In 2016, in the Changsha market, platform operators led by Niwoniwai and Xingsheng Youxuan discovered this business opportunity and began to replicate it on a large scale.
They started using marketing tools to improve efficiency, discovering and cultivating more and more group leaders. Many WeChat sellers at this time gave up the "moments" spam and became more pragmatic community group leaders. As community e-commerce became the norm in Changsha, it also established Changsha's supreme status as the birthplace of community e-commerce.
**Diffusion period:** In 2017, community group buying matured and expanded beyond the Changsha market.
With the explosion of "mini-programs" and the widespread application of various e-commerce SaaS tools, such as group relay and group pin, the Changsha community group buying market gradually matured. Empowered by tools, group leaders were like tigers with wings, and their powerful role in driving sales was beyond doubt.
Today, community group leaders have formed their own school in both scale and operation. They are very wary of being mistaken for WeChat sellers. But in fact, many marketers and even community e-commerce operators cannot clearly explain the difference between the two.
**Similarities and differences between group leaders and WeChat sellers**
Criticizing WeChat sellers is a "fashion" and even a political correctness today.
Group leaders certainly do not want to share the surname with the negatively charged WeChat sellers, but objectively speaking, they are in fact blood brothers.
The similarity between the two brothers is that both are businesses based on the WeChat ecosystem. Many excellent group leaders are actually transformed from WeChat sellers and are well-versed in online transaction skills. Promoting, communicating, and closing deals on WeChat is their biggest commonality.
But the differences are more numerous.
**Different models:** WeChat sellers use hierarchical distribution and current sales, earning from purchase-sale price differences; community e-commerce mainly uses a pre-sale model based on zero inventory, earning sales commissions.
**Different products:** WeChat sellers mainly deal with ultra-high gross margin, high-value, small items; community e-commerce mainly deals with relatively high-frequency, low-value fresh produce and daily FMCG.
**Different promotion methods and scope:** WeChat sellers are solely profit-driven, mainly promoting through WeChat Moments, without physical distance restrictions; community e-commerce targets community residents, with a sales radius generally limited to the community.
Relatively speaking, WeChat sellers are more profit-seeking, and product quality and reputation are not guaranteed; community group leaders care about community reputation, so products and services are relatively better. After all, it's business among acquaintances; one failure means no future.
Any business based on reputation can last long. The group leader group is growing larger. If professionalization is one of the development directions for group leaders, then what counts as a professional group leader?
**How to become a professional group leader**
"Group leaders" are trained by platforms and driven by the market, gradually moving from dispersion to organization. As the saying goes: "With traffic in hand, I have the world." After group leaders awaken, a group of professional, specialized, and independent group leaders gradually emerges.
Platforms provide special introductory training for recruited prospective group leaders. They also offer high commission rebates (around 10%), and equip them with marketing tools such as mini-programs and material libraries.
Through strong community WeChat groups, group leaders establish high-frequency connections with neighbors, gaining goodwill and trust. With platform supply chain support, cost-effective eggs and fruits quickly enter community households, consolidating trust and providing income returns.
A professional group leader thinks every day about one question: How to make neighbors continue to like me, trust me, and buy the products I recommend and share?
Based on my observation and summary, awesome group leaders are basically "internet celebrities" in the community, becoming node figures in the community relationship chain. Whether online or offline, they are good at labeling themselves and establishing a "persona."
Online persona: Use an interesting soul to achieve connection+.
Moments: Use real profile pictures and names; plan content in Moments, avoid violent spamming; do a good job of shopping guidance and information push. Excellent group leaders are good at using text, images, short videos, H5, etc., to clearly explain product advantages and spark interest.
Community: In various community activities, owner groups, and interest groups, do a good job of community interaction, making group members feel that they are "friendly, interesting, enthusiastic, and reliable" neighbors.
Use an interesting soul to achieve connection+, connecting and interacting with community residents and their networks through WeChat and Douyin as much as possible.
Offline persona: Create "interest tags," "advantage tags," and "identity tags" to become professional opinion leaders.
"Interest tags" reflect quality of life, personal hobbies, and life, such as square dancing, calligraphy, football, running, reading, tea drinking, chess, etc. Often, you have to start by "pretending to like it" and then gradually become professional.
"Advantage tags" reflect professional skills, such as financial management, handling common childhood illnesses, good cooking, being particularly good at dressing children or guiding homework, etc.
"Identity tags" reflect the group leader's actual identity or past social work identity. For example, a familiar convenience store owner, a friendly courier point owner, or a corporate manager, executive, coach, teacher, etc.
Once you have practiced the skills of a professional group leader, your sales ability is very strong, and professional group leaders become celebrities in community group buying companies.
From 2018 to the present, various "group leader grabbing wars" and "acquisition wars" of small platforms by large platforms are essentially using capital advantages to grab and harvest group leader resources.
But after becoming the de facto "buyer" for neighbors, professional group leaders begin to have their own "thoughts": Why should I only earn 10%?
The group leader group, from accidental appearance to scale and professionalization, has no history in the past and no direction in the future. Without road signs, where will group leaders and their accompanying business models go?
**Several speculations about the future of community group buying**
**Speculation 1: Mediocre group leaders rely on platforms, while professional group leaders are only loyal to themselves.**
Mediocre group leaders cannot independently obtain supply chain resources and support, so they can only rely on platforms. Excellent professional group leaders can always find high-quality product suppliers and service providers, or be found by others.
Professional group leaders know that their survival foundation lies in the community. They carefully protect the image and reputation they have carefully built. They know that as long as they have the community's trust, they can always find opportunities to monetize.
**Speculation 2: The "pre-sale" model of FMCG represented by group leaders and community e-commerce opens a new era of channel models.**
The traditional current sales model is essentially multi-level physical transfer and distribution, where orders and logistics are inseparable; the group leader's pre-sale model completely separates orders and logistics. This changes the cost structure of the channel, and this huge change will gradually affect upstream brand manufacturers.
**Speculation 3: The backgrounds of group leaders will become increasingly diverse.**
Due to the maturity of technology and models, the composition of group leaders is becoming more diversified. Everyone can provide "community group leader" services to their communities and friends in their professional fields, gaining benefits without embarrassment.
Some brand companies have already begun attempts at employee personal agency, and some have gone far, such as Blue Moon. On the new path, they have suffered a lot, but they have provided us with valuable experience and value.
Brand companies should think: Why can't my tens of thousands of team members endorse, sell, and profit for my brand on the WeChat ecosystem? As a company, can we provide suitable products, high-quality supply chain services, and empower our own team?
**Speculation 4: Professional group leaders may become one of the main forces for future brand new product promotion.**
The community traffic of group leaders is a combination of online and offline, warm, and influential traffic. This is high-quality traffic.
A professional group leader influences 100 families. If your new product can connect with 1,000 group leaders, it means your product and brand have the opportunity to directly enter 100,000 households. Undoubtedly, this is the most imaginative and attractive promotion method in the future.
The future of community group leaders is unfolding. Whether to embrace, reject, or sit on the sidelines depends on today's choices three years from now.
**Extended reading of community group buying themed series articles:**
If the tip is adopted, a reward of 400-2000 yuan will be paid.
**China FMCG + Internet Professional New Media**
**Dedicated to FMCG manufacturers' transformation and upgrading and channel digital solutions**


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