The mobile internet wave has swept across almost all industries, and we can see many sectors thriving in e-commerce, which is enviable. However, food, beverage, and alcohol (mainly beer), as essential FMCG products with huge sales volumes, seem to have limited affinity with e-commerce, with poor online performance and confusion about their e-commerce future.

What should be done? · Rankings prove that food, beverage, and alcohol are missing from hot-selling e-commerce categories! · According to Alibaba's 2015 B2B e-commerce report, although it is full of rapid growth and sales increases, it is basically irrelevant to food, beverage, and alcohol! Among the top ten hot-selling categories, only condiments and spices, which we could not have predicted, rank eighth. Recently, I chatted with leaders from the China Condiment Association. They also mentioned that some B2B e-commerce platforms for condiments and spices, unlike FMCG B2B e-commerce for food, beverage, and alcohol, which generally do not make money and continuously burn cash with no prospect of profitability, have basically formed their market structure and stabilized operations within less than two years, and have already started making money! For B2C e-commerce, we can also look at Taobao and Yihaodian. First, the top ten hot-selling categories on Taobao are apparel, digital appliances, cosmetics, mother and baby products, etc. Even for food, only two or three segments, such as snacks, instant drinks, and tea, sell reasonably well. Most food, beverage, and alcohol products seem to be far from e-commerce. Even on Yihaodian, which is an online supermarket primarily focused on FMCG, the platform emphasizes imported food, fresh produce, and overseas shopping as its main offerings. This is clearly different from entering a physical supermarket, where daily food, beverage, and alcohol products are immediately visible. This shows the strategic position of food, beverage, and alcohol on Yihaodian. Besides factors like profit, could it also be that the contributions of food, beverage, and alcohol are not satisfactory? · Basic characteristics of the food, beverage, and alcohol industry · Food, beverage, and alcohol are the main sectors of the FMCG category. Offline fast-moving consumer goods have the following characteristics: 1. Convenience: Consumers habitually buy nearby, with small shops, supermarkets, and small eateries being the most common. 2. Visual products: Consumers are easily influenced by the store atmosphere and make impulsive purchases. 3. Brand: Since there are many similar consumer products, and as packaged consumer goods require certain production and consumption volumes, companies need to create an impression and build a brand to encourage continuous, frequent, and loyal purchases. These characteristics determine that consumers' purchasing habits for FMCG are: simple, quick, impulsive, and emotional. Based on these consumption characteristics, we can basically infer the sales characteristics of food, beverage, and alcohol: 1. Commercial flow: Companies need a large number of sales and promotion personnel for near-field sales and promotions, creating a good atmosphere for consumer spending and stimulating impulse purchases. 2. Merchandising services: Similarly, to create a good purchasing atmosphere and competitive differentiation. 3. Channel distribution and services: To ensure products reach consumers without barriers for easy selection. FMCG, especially some beers, beverages, and milk, have shelf lives of one week, ten days, or half a month; some require cold storage and insulation; some require bottle return; all these require offline channel distribution and services. 4. Brand building: A brand is an asset and has value. Without a brand, FMCG companies can only compete on price, but FMCG products are often low-value; without brand building, FMCG companies basically cannot grow big or last long. So, the "Taobao brands" of a few years ago have gradually faded away. 5. Logistics: Some beverages and beers require immediate delivery. 6. Capital flow: Since FMCG terminals are mostly small shops and small eateries, which are small businesses with limited funds, many need credit terms.

  1. ...... There are other aspects, but I won't list them all here. These characteristics determine whether e-commerce can be done well.

· Can current e-commerce meet the above requirements? · Basically, food, beverage, and alcohol can still do e-commerce. Some aspects are inherently satisfied by e-commerce, and many e-commerce platforms are already working on solving specific problems:

  1. Cold storage, refrigeration, and cold chain transportation.
  2. Immediate impulsive purchases can basically be achieved through pre-sales.
  3. Online shopping makes many people more impulsive.
  4. As long as there is a mobile phone, services can be provided to every terminal store and consumer.
  5. In terms of capital, e-commerce can achieve internet finance. What is more difficult to solve:
  6. Brand building: E-commerce has difficulty in building brands.
  7. Logistics: Logistics is the last mile, which is still an offline matter. Due to high frequency and small quantities, this is a challenge for e-commerce delivery.
  8. Price impact and cross-regional sales: Food, beverage, and alcohol are basically managed by region, while e-commerce is borderless. This will greatly impact companies' existing sales and management systems.
  9. ..... These difficult problems are precisely the more important or even fatal ones. This may also be why companies are not necessarily willing to do e-commerce on a large scale, and why e-commerce platforms have their own difficulties and thus promote other products. Of course, consumer factors such as immediate consumption, impulsive buying, and scenario-based consumption are also important aspects.

· Can professional B2B e-commerce save the day? · From the above, it is difficult for food, beverage, and alcohol to have an explosive period in C-end e-commerce at the current stage, because many aspects cannot be well solved by mobile internet. So, can B2B e-commerce provide some relief? Professional B2B e-commerce also has difficulties to solve; otherwise, there are doubts about whether many B2B e-commerce platforms can sustain themselves in reality: 1. Profit model is not ideal: only relying on price differences. Can price differences be maintained? To grab market share, subsidies are definitely not advisable! These subsidies either come from companies or from capital. 2. Logistics: If outsourced to other logistics companies, profits disappear; if done in-house, the investment is huge, and logistics operation management is also a severe challenge. 3. Capital flow: There is some profit space, but the narrow regional and distributed nature limits the profit margin. Moreover, most professional B2B e-commerce platforms evolved from traditional distributors, so their capital is not abundant. 4. Information flow: Big data has some potential for profit, but it is minimal. Currently, most B2B e-commerce platforms lack the capability for data analysis, research, and decision-making. The data of several large B2B e-commerce platforms is basically shelved and cannot truly play a role. 5. Management capability: Judging from the continuous closures, operational difficulties, and repeated setbacks in B2B, B2B e-commerce is grassroots entrepreneurship with many uncertainties and problems, making it difficult to truly rely on or deeply cooperate with. So, from the initial investment perspective, it is not worth it. It is also difficult for distributors to operate professionally. If they truly had such high-level professional operation capabilities, intermediaries might not need to take on some of the manufacturer's functions and investments; instead, they would be better off doing the price difference and market service capabilities well, which is more promising for the future. · The future of food, beverage, and alcohol e-commerce · The current mainstream e-commerce platforms or models are generally formed by PC e-commerce. Simply put, they move business from offline to online. For food, beverage, and alcohol e-commerce, offline business is already well-developed. If online merely moves the original offline methods online, as analyzed above, that is the reason for their caution. Subjectively and objectively, they may be expecting new e-commerce methods to emerge. Mobile internet has developed for five or six years, and many basic conditions and operations have taken shape. In summary, the future of food, beverage, and alcohol e-commerce should be social e-commerce! Why social e-commerce? 1. Based on regionality, it can achieve distributed good operation and management. In terms of cross-regional sales, logistics, orders, information exchange, business operations, customer management, regional management, market operations, and policy handling, it has not worsened compared to the traditional era, but has significantly improved. 2. Based on communities and groups, due to interactive communication, it is easy to solidify the brand. 3. Social e-commerce does not require much additional investment; it just adapts to the characteristics of mobile internet, enhancing interaction and stickiness between products and target groups. It can also achieve communication and cooperation across the entire supply chain within a region or locality. 4. It places more emphasis on generating value from social interactions. E-commerce platforms and self-built e-commerce have limited value or cannot generate value; they are just electronic versions of traditional business. Social e-commerce for the food, beverage, and alcohol industry should see continuous exploration and application by companies within the next two to three years. We believe that a good breakthrough will be achieved in the near future! This also points the direction of e-commerce for the entire industry! Source: Sales and Market -END- The best learning platform for FMCG distributors in China Focusing on providing distributors and companies with professional, practical, and actionable tutorials Committed to helping Chinese FMCG distributors grow rapidly The most professional and practical knowledge base in the FMCG industry Reply with the red number below to get the corresponding content Reply with number 1 to view the complete knowledge base | 001 Excellent article selection | 002 Distributor market operations | 003 Terminal visit management | 004 Sales supervisor skills | 005 Sales improvement techniques | 006 Channel expansion | 007 Managing distributors | 008 Distributor development | 009 Distributor internal operations management | 010 Team management | 011 Efficient distribution techniques | 012 Sales manager's 18 skills | 013 KA operation methods and strategies | 014 First lesson for new salespeople | 015 Internet, brand | 016 Distributor B2B transformation | [Long press QR code to follow]