---
title: "Why Are Old Hands More Likely to Succeed? Insights from B2B Platform 'Wang Kai Wan Wu'"
description: "The article discusses the B2B platform 'Wang Kai Wan Wu' (网开万物), which focuses on the stationery sector, and argues that entering the FMCG B2B market through a niche segment may lead to greater success. It highlights the value of industry veterans ('old hands') who deeply understand the industry, and analyzes the importance of choosing the right track for B2B platforms."
author: "赵波"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-10-02"
categories: "Dealer Operations, Supply Chain & B2B"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-are-old-hands-more-likely-to-succeed-insights-from-b2b-platform-wang-997f8933/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-are-old-hands-more-likely-to-succeed-insights-from-b2b-platform-wang-997f8933.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TelmCTUC6QbAkGdjJhQfdA"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E4%BB%8Eb2b%E5%B9%B3%E5%8F%B0-%E7%BD%91%E5%BC%80%E4%B8%87%E7%89%A9-%E6%9D%A5%E7%9C%8B%E4%B8%BA%E5%95%A5%E8%80%81%E5%8F%B8%E6%9C%BA%E6%9B%B4%E5%AE%B9%E6%98%93%E6%88%90%E5%8A%9F-997f8933.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-are-old-hands-more-likely-to-succeed-insights-from-b2b-platform-wang-997f8933/"
citation: "赵波. “Why Are Old Hands More Likely to Succeed? Insights from B2B Platform 'Wang Kai Wan Wu'.” New Distribution, 2016-10-02. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-are-old-hands-more-likely-to-succeed-insights-from-b2b-platform-wang-997f8933/"
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---

# Why Are Old Hands More Likely to Succeed? Insights from B2B Platform 'Wang Kai Wan Wu'

> The article discusses the B2B platform 'Wang Kai Wan Wu' (网开万物), which focuses on the stationery sector, and argues that entering the FMCG B2B market through a niche segment may lead to greater success. It highlights the value of industry veterans ('old hands') who deeply understand the industry, and analyzes the importance of choosing the right track for B2B platforms.

**Formerly known as 'FMCG Distributor Professional Management Consulting', now renamed to New Distribution**

**Preface:** The author recently visited the domestic stationery B2B platform **Wang Kai Wan Wu** (网开万物) and had an in-depth exchange with its founder, Du Chao. Through the exchange, it was found that entering the FMCG B2B model through a niche segment may be more likely to succeed.

**Model Analysis**

Wang Kai Wan Wu focuses on an online B2B trading platform for stationery, providing one-stop procurement services for office supplies and printing consumables to all stationery retail stores/specialty stores, schools, government agencies, and enterprises and institutions.

The platform's founder, **Du Chao**, is the chairman of Li Xiang Stationery, the largest notebook manufacturer in North China. With over 20 years of experience in the stationery industry, he has a deep understanding of the industry. During the exchange, Mr. Du told the author:

The main consumer groups for stationery are students, government offices, and corporate offices. Except for a few brands like M&G, Deli, True Color, and Aihao, the vast majority of products in this industry are not well-known brands. The upstream and downstream of the industry are highly fragmented. Before the advent of B2B platforms, over 90% of stationery store merchandise was purchased through local secondary wholesale markets. Store owners typically visited the wholesale market every 2-3 days to restock. Compared to the FMCG industry, which has implemented deep distribution for many years, the stationery industry's model is very primitive and fraught with pain points.

**From a supply chain perspective, the stationery industry still adopts the traditional wholesale market distribution model:** Factory → Provincial Agent → Primary Wholesale Market (provincial capital/provincial agent) → Secondary Wholesale Market (prefecture-level city/secondary batch) → Store/Group User → Consumer, a long supply chain.

With the increasing penetration of the internet into traditional industries over the past two years, Mr. Du realized that a stationery B2B platform could potentially restructure the distribution of stationery products. After in-depth market research and analysis, he co-founded the **stationery B2B platform 'Wang Kai Wan Wu'** with several other founders.

Wang Kai Wan Wu builds its own online platform, with goods flowing from Factory → Platform → Store/Group User → Consumer. By directly cooperating with factories, it compresses the hierarchy, bypassing primary and secondary wholesale markets. This extremely short chain allows goods to reach stores quickly with high efficiency and low cost on the Wang Kai platform.

In terms of sourcing, Wang Kai Wan Wu directly connects with A-brand factories, allowing goods to be shipped directly from factory warehouses to Wang Kai Wan Wu's warehouses. They have established deep cooperation with most domestic stationery brands, including mainstream ones like M&G, Deli, True Color, Aihao, Guangbo, Le Pusheng, Marco, and Dianshi. To ensure service quality and delivery efficiency, they adopt a self-operated model with centralized warehousing and unified distribution. If stores place orders before 2 PM, Wang Kai Wan Wu guarantees delivery by 12 PM the next day.

Currently, there are only three B2B platforms in China involved in the stationery field: 51 Ordering, Wang Kai Wan Wu, and Shenzhen's Ji Mai Me. 51 Ordering started with 3C products and gradually incorporated categories like mother and baby, and stationery. Ji Mai Me started with logistics and operates a stationery matching platform. **Currently, only Wang Kai Wan Wu's founder comes from the stationery industry, making it a professional stationery B2B platform.**

Today, the author wants to discuss the value of old hands in the B2B model and the issue of track selection, using the industry in which Wang Kai Wan Wu operates as an example.

**The Value of Old Hands**

Many internet practitioners entering traditional industries face the biggest problem: they still use C-end thinking to approach the B-end market. In fact, B2C and B2B are fundamentally different. In B2C, users are consumers, and transactions are for consumption. Prices can change consumption habits, so the core of B2C is cost-effectiveness.

However, FMCG B2B is fundamentally different from B2C. In FMCG B2B, the purchasing users do not consume the products themselves but rather to generate value-added profit through resale. Therefore, users are more sensitive to the turnover rate of goods in their stores. Thus, from procurement to distribution, the core of B2B is supply chain efficiency, not cost-effectiveness.

Since B2C creates incremental markets while B2B restructures existing markets, the biggest problem in existing markets is that the industry can be very deep. There are many rules and pitfalls in the industry that are hard to navigate without experience and resources. This is where the value of old hands comes in. So, what is an old hand?

- **Technical proficiency:** Deep professional expertise in the industry and the ability to handle various unexpected problems.
- **Rich experience:** Sufficient accumulation of experience in related fields.
- **Ability to guide:** Not only can they do well themselves, but they can also guide the team in the right direction.

When communicating with Mr. Du of Wang Kai Wan Wu, the biggest impression was: Although both are FMCG, stationery and food and beverages are completely different industries and models. The details are vastly different, and the business opportunities and markets are not what outsiders see. Only by entering can one understand how deep the water is. The founding team of Wang Kai Wan Wu is a group of old hands who have深耕 the stationery industry for many years.

The transformation of traditional industries by B2B must be done by people who deeply understand the industry and also understand the internet. Such people can only come from traditional industries, not from the internet industry. Otherwise, no matter how much venture capital they raise, it won't be enough for trial and error.

**Issues in Track Selection**

For B2B platforms, choosing which track to enter the market is a topic worth in-depth study. Let's first look at the current mainstream ways to enter the B2B platform market in China:

- **From full categories:** Zhongshang Huimin, JD New Channel, Alibaba Retail Link, etc.
- **From technical services:** Zhongke Shangruan, Qianmi Network, etc.
- **From infrastructure:** Ping'an Guanjia, Yishang, Weijie City Distribution, etc.
- **From niche industries:** Wang Kai Wan Wu, Yi Jiu Pi, 51 Ordering, and Hai Pai Ke, etc.
- **From distributor integration:** Wan Dian Yi Gou, Pi Duo Duo, Yun Bao Shang Meng, etc.
- **From retail integration:** Bei Quan, Yu Bian Li, Nong Zhai Song, etc.

No matter where they start, when these platforms reach a certain scale, they will eventually enter the main track. However, to evaluate whether a platform can succeed, from a macro perspective, the priority questions are:

1. What kind of track is it on?
2. How many competitors are on this track? Are there industry giants or giants about to enter?
3. Can it quickly build its own barriers and achieve profitability on this track?
4. How soon can it merge into the main track?

Among the above models, the author is more optimistic about the model of entering from a niche segment. This model has a characteristic: in the initial stage, the main business is on a familiar and relatively narrow track, with not many competitors, and giants will not easily enter deeply due to market capacity.

Secondly, by quickly growing and deepening in this field, it can build strong market barriers and is relatively easy to achieve profitability.

Third, because of the 'cash cow', it can merge into the main track at any time without easily being crushed by competitors. Let's take an example:

Yi Jiu Pi and many full-category B2B platforms are installed on the same store owner's phone. Which APP do you think is more likely to have an advantage?

In terms of categories, Yi Jiu Pi may have relatively fewer, but because they have built barriers in the liquor industry, the professionalism of a single liquor product on a full-category B2B platform is definitely not as good as Yi Jiu Pi. Therefore, store owners will not easily uninstall Yi Jiu Pi's APP. When Yi Jiu Pi wants to enter the FMCG category, it can defeat competitors one category at a time. Even if the initial products are not profitable, because of the liquor cash cow, Yi Jiu Pi can still make money from the store owners. Of course, if a full-category platform grows large enough, it can also defeat a single niche platform, but I think that is currently difficult.

The core of a B2B platform, after all, is to optimize the efficiency of the entire supply chain and reduce the procurement costs of small B. If the platform's supply chain is not efficient enough, there is no competitiveness in anything it does. Note that this efficiency is not the speed of delivery, but the overall efficiency of the entire process from product procurement, operations, warehousing, distribution, and platform technology. For Walmart and Amazon, the greatness of such companies is not that they sell cheaply, but that they can sell cheaply and still make money. This is what B2B platforms should learn from them.

**Extended Reading:**

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**Agenda**

08:00-09:00 Registration
09:00-09:05 Host opening
09:05-09:35 2016 China FMCG Industry Trend Analysis Report - Zhao Bo
09:35-10:05 FMCG Enterprise Transformation Strategy and Path - Liu Chunxiong
10:05-10:35 Opportunities and Challenges Brought by FMCG Channel Reform - Field 365 CEO Liu Zhao
10:35-11:05 Reconstructing Distribution Channel System, Promoting Urban Retail Upgrade - Alibaba Retail Link Backend General Manager Tian Yuan
11:05-11:25 Channel Efficiency in the Internet Era - Benlai Holding Vice President Fu Xiaoyun
11:25-12:00 Roundtable Forum - Brand Transformation: Improvement vs. Reconstruction?
Guests: Liu Zhao, Liu Chunxiong, Fang Gang, Chen Feng, Shi Zhengchuan, Deng Xia
12:00-13:30 Lunch
13:30-13:50 Distributor Transformation: City Distribution Trends - Weijie City Distribution CEO Wang Qi
13:50-14:20 Roundtable Forum - Why Distributors Should Do Logistics in Transformation
Guests: Zhao Bo, Wang Qi, Liu Zhongmin, Tang Guangliang, Wang Cheng, Sheng Yan
14:20-14:40 How FMCG Enterprises Can Leverage the Internet to Take Off - Xijiu E-commerce Operations Director Wang Hui
14:40-15:00 Detailed Explanation of Zhongshang Huimin's 'One Machine, Two Wings' Strategy - Zhongshang Huimin Vice President Su Xiaoxin
15:00-15:20 Category Value and B2B E-commerce Development Strategy - Yi Jiu Pi CEO Wang Chaocheng
15:20-15:40 Supply Chain Finance as a Lubricant for B2B to Drive Traditional Business - 51 Ordering CEO Chen Xian
15:40-16:00 Zhanghe Cloud Factory Helps Upgrade FMCG Supply Chain - Zhanghe Tianxia CEO Yang Lixiang
16:00-16:30 Integrating Small and Micro Retail, Reconstructing Business Ecology - Quanshi Vice President Miao Dong
16:30-16:50 B2B Investment Principles and Approaches - Junlian Capital Vice President Zhao Mingwei
17:00-17:30 Roundtable Forum - Who is the King of FMCG B2B Models?
Guests: Fu Xiaoyun, Zhuang Jianzhong, Jiang Tao, Zeng Weiqin
17:30-19:30 Dinner

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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 赵波
- Published: 2016-10-02
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/why-are-old-hands-more-likely-to-succeed-insights-from-b2b-platform-wang-997f8933/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TelmCTUC6QbAkGdjJhQfdA

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671