AUTHOR ARCHIVE
Articles by 戚特
Browse 52 New Distribution articles by 戚特.
Published articles
52 articles · Page 2 of 3
A Guide for Chinese Brands Entering Southeast Asia: Where to Go, What to Do, and How to Sell? This Article Explains It All!
This article provides a comprehensive guide for Chinese FMCG brands entering Southeast Asia, emphasizing the dominance of offline traditional trade, the need to treat each country separately, and six critical questions to consider before market entry. It also announces the 'FMCG Overseas Channel Construction Forum' in March 2026.
戚特Who Are the Real Winners in the Instant Retail Subsidy War?
A recent rumor suggests Alibaba may exit the food delivery war, shifting subsidies to flash sales. This indicates both Alibaba and Meituan are strained, and Alibaba has partially dismantled Meituan's delivery capacity. Alibaba's non-food order volume is approaching Meituan's, and the company is now focusing on driving main-site traffic and expanding order flow.
戚特Where P&G Can't Win, Chinese Brands Have Triumphed
On August 12, Le Comfort submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a main board listing. On October 16, the China Securities Regulatory Commission confirmed its overseas listing, and according to investment bank sources, the company will list on November 10. This marks the first time this sanitary pad brand expanding in Africa has entered the public eye through capital markets. While few Chinese local FMCG companies achieve double-digit annual growth today, Le Comfort has grown at a compound annual rate of about 20% in recent years, and its parent company Senda Group has exceeded 30%, with a scale of nearly 20 billion RMB.
戚特Three Squirrels, No Longer Wanting to Be a Brand
Starting in 2025, after returning to 10 billion yuan in revenue, Three Squirrels quickly launched an 'all-category, all-channel' transformation strategy. The core of this strategy is to break beyond the single label of nuts and snacks in terms of categories, expanding into all high-frequency consumer goods categories, and to break free from reliance on a single online platform in terms of channels, achieving full coverage across online and offline channels. The industry has been debating the company's 'aggressive strategy.' This article neither supports nor promotes any particular strategy; all views expressed are solely my own. We aim to objectively evaluate and attempt to reconstruct Three Squirrels' strategic path, to understand what Three Squirrels wants to do, and through this case, interpret the changes currently occurring in the FMCG market.
戚特The FMCG Industry Has Fundamentally Changed! The Answers Must Be Sought from the World
China's FMCG industry is in a historic transformation cycle, with new discount retail formats emerging, distributors facing a turning point, and private brands developing rapidly. To find solutions, the article suggests studying mature markets like Europe, which offers insights into private label systems, discount retail, supply chain integration, and distributor models.
戚特Internet Giants Set Their Sights on Traditional Supermarket Business
A major shift in the 2025 market is internet companies entering offline retail. In August, Meituan opened its first offline hard discount store, Happy Monkey, with more planned. JD's 7Fresh is targeting 100+ 'store+warehouse' locations in Beijing and 20 in Tianjin by 2025, while Alibaba is retaining Hema's dual-format assets. This article analyzes why internet companies are entering retail and their strategic approaches.
戚特Major Release: "China FMCG Production-Supply-Marketing Transformation White Paper (Industry Insights 2025)"
I'm Qi Te from New Distribution. Every year, New Distribution publishes a white paper on retail industry changes. In 2023, it was the Snack Hard Discount White Paper, covering the snack bulk retail industry, which began rapid growth that year. In 2024, it was the China Hard Discount Development Report, as full-category hard discount stores expanded rapidly. For 2025, industry cycles have shifted again, leading to the concept of integrated production-supply-marketing, as retailers, brands, and distributors can no longer view the market from their own single perspectives.
戚特90% of Private Labels Fail Due to Copycatting
In 2025, some say the era of private labels has arrived. Indeed, from last year to this year, more retailers have begun trying private labels, and more brands have started attempting to serve retail enterprises. However, unfortunately, based on current market feedback, very few companies have achieved systematic success. Research shows that most failures stem from: 1) attempting without sufficient scale and lacking upstream supply chain integration capabilities; 2) lacking systematic understanding of private labels, naively believing that copying competitors' products will lead to success...
戚特The Trend of 'De-branding' Emerges in the FMCG Industry
A founder recently asked if I had seen any promising new FMCG brands this year. I replied that I hadn't seen a single one, but some white-label products seemed viable. Over the past year, branding in China has suffered a catastrophic setback, with the budding brand-building efforts of previous years not only extinguished but also giving way to a trend of 'de-branding'.
戚特Instant Retail: A Reshuffling
This article analyzes the current state of instant retail, a hot topic in the retail market, by dissecting business models, market dynamics, and strategic moves by major players like JD.com, Meituan, Alibaba, and Pinduoduo. It also explores the profound implications for brands and distributors, predicting market growth and structural changes.
戚特Traditional 'Hero SKUs' Fail: Brands Are Losing Channel Leverage
This article is the third in a series on integrated production-supply-marketing. From the brand perspective, it examines opportunities and challenges for FMCG brands in the new industry cycle. The retail and distribution sectors are undergoing profound changes that will reshape the FMCG landscape. From 2023 to now, the market has experienced three main shifts: 2023 as the first year of discounting, 2024 as the year of supermarket adjustments, and 2025 onwards as the era of integrated production-supply-marketing.
戚特Supermarket Overhaul Is Not the Endgame for Chinese Retail
Since 2023, the retail market has been exceptionally dynamic, with new innovation trends emerging each year. Observing from the front lines, new developments seem to occur monthly. Behind these innovations, a new major trend appears to be forming. This article discusses these changes, starting with the current predicament of retail, then exploring the second solution for retail overhaul, and finally the integration of production, supply, and sales.
戚特80% of Distributors Will Be Eliminated! Where Is the Way Out for Distributors in the Era of Integrated Production, Supply, and Sales?
The whole society is facing insufficient effective demand, which will intensify in the context of East-West confrontation. With the increasing risk of a US economic recession, the current economy is at a historic turning point. Many people around us are still in a state of confusion. For the sake of business, most of us maintain meager profits, hoping that the market will reverse after a few years. If you think this way, it shows you are still living in the old mindset. It is difficult for people to break free from our fixed thinking patterns, as this is determined by our natural physiological structure; we are inherently prone to laziness in thinking.
戚特The Second Half of the FMCG Industry: Retailers Lead a New Circulation Revolution, Entering the Era of 'Integrated Production, Supply, and Sales'
From last year to the first half of this year, several major events have occurred: 1. Retail enterprises have begun to build their own supply chain companies. On March 31, Jiangsu regional retailer Hongxin Supermarket listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. According to its prospectus, wholesale business accounted for about 56% of revenue in the first nine months of 2024, and its wholesale business grew much faster than retail. Traditional retailers are no longer limited to a single retail business; the model of wholesale + retail + regional deep cultivation has begun to enter the public eye. In addition, since the second half of last year, Metro...
戚特Two Main Lines Will Profoundly Impact China's Retail Transformation
The rapid changes in today's retail market are undoubtedly causing significant concern among many brand owners, as directly observed in our communications with numerous leading brands. I have always believed that the Chinese market, unlike North America, is a typical society where 'channels' outweigh 'brands.' Whether it's the early supermarket brands, Taobao brands, Douyin brands, or the current snack bulk-selling brands, many brands are homogeneous, and the difference among them is merely who laid out an incremental channel first. Strong channels creating brands is a common occurrence. Combined with the recent market narrative that retail will undergo 'full discounting,' this has intensified anxiety and confusion among frontline brand operators.
戚特The Retail Market Is Indeed Changing, but Full Discounting Is a Simplistic Misreading
In recent years, wholesale supermarkets have sprung up like mushrooms, and the term 'hard discount' has evolved from a 'foreign import' and a 'retail model' into a widely adopted concept, becoming a deeply ingrained 'trend' where everything seems to be hard discountable. Some even argue that the market will move toward full discounting. Consequently, traditional retailers are considering whether to enter the discount store business, while brand owners worry about the future of distribution channels and whether small brands will become OEMs for discount channels. This article aims to clarify the ongoing changes in the retail market to help stakeholders better anticipate and prepare for future shifts.
戚特Snack Stores Transform into Full-Category Discount Supermarkets, Accelerating the Revolution of Mom-and-Pop Stores
Recently, visits to frontline markets, especially stores, reveal that mom-and-pop stores are struggling. On one hand, the overall market is shrinking, reducing traditional small store business; on the other, snack and discount stores are causing sharp sales declines. Many snack stores are now transitioning to full-category discount supermarkets, covering most traditional small store categories. Whether these supermarkets can replace mom-and-pop stores is a pressing question.
戚特Supermarket Overhaul: Not a 'Pang Donglai Imitation Show'
In today's Chinese FMCG market, new terms and concepts emerge constantly. One such term in 2024 is 'overhaul' (tiaogai). To systematically understand this new phenomenon, we must first identify its origins. History serves as a temporal microscope for cognition, helping us grasp the essence and evolution logic while avoiding cognitive biases and misjudgments. What is a true overhaul? Why can most enterprises fail at it? How should brands and suppliers think in the face of change?
戚特Japan's Three Distribution Revolutions and China's Three Distribution Revolutions
The concept of "distribution revolution" was first proposed by Japanese scholar Shuji Hayashi in the 1960s. He used it to describe the transformation of the distribution industry through modernization, efficiency improvements, and business model innovations, involving systematic changes in Japan's wholesale and retail sectors. This article systematically reviews Japan's four stages and three revolutions in distribution, and applies the same framework to analyze China's current FMCG market, which is transitioning from a manufacturer-dominated to a retailer-dominated market.
戚特After Yonghui's Transformation, Traditional Chinese Supermarkets Will See a Return to Value
The author believes that traditional supermarkets in China have an opportunity for value regression, meaning they can return to their original value by changing their outdated business model. However, value regression does not guarantee successful transformation, and value creation requires a long-term effort, including corporate culture rebuilding.
戚特Is Low Price the Only Way Out for 'Chinese-Style Retail'?
On the evening of August 26, Pinduoduo's stock plunged 30% intraday, its biggest drop since October 24, 2022. Known for its low prices, Pinduoduo is also controversial for its supplier and employee relations. Despite this, it remains China's fastest-growing e-commerce platform. Meanwhile, in the second half of the year, wholesale and discount supermarkets have been proliferating across regions, with 'hard discount' becoming a buzzword and a lifeline for traditional supermarkets. The article argues that China is not entering an era of full discounting but rather a further consumption stratification, with a vertical stratification centered on price, unlike Japan's horizontal stratification based on culture and social identity.
戚特The Development of Discount Retail in China: A New 'Make-Up Lesson' for Lagging Offline Formats
This year, hard discount has reached a new peak of popularity. Just three years ago, it was a niche segment, but today discount formats are flourishing everywhere. This phenomenon is driven by two factors: a rapidly changing macro environment and the disappearance of online and offline snack retail dividends, leading many to view hard discount as the new opportunity.
戚特The Trend of 'De-branding' Emerges in the FMCG Industry
A founder recently asked if I had seen any promising new FMCG brands this year. I said none had launched successfully, but some white-label products looked okay. Over the past year, branding in China has suffered a catastrophic setback, with the budding brand-building efforts of previous years not only extinguished but also showing a trend of 'de-branding'.
戚特Bulk Snack Retail Enters the '10,000-Store Era': Where Does the End of Retail Industry Involution Lie?
This article first explains the essence of the bulk snack retail business, then analyzes why Maiming Henmang became the first to reach 10,000 stores, and finally discusses the profound impact of this milestone on the retail market structure, predicting a transformation towards discount supermarkets and a reshaping of the industry.
戚特