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Articles by 周群
Browse 114 New Distribution articles by 周群.
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“E-commerce prices are even lower than our wholesale price” – what should distributors do?
E-commerce prices have dropped so low that distributors are baffled. Some products are sold online for less than the distributors' own purchase price, undermining offline sales and trust. This is driven by platform subsidies, brand e-commerce teams chasing KPIs, and distributors dumping stock to meet sales targets, creating a vicious cycle that erodes offline margins and price perception.
周群Interview with Zhou Zhen of Zhoupu Data: Distributors Don't Lack Data, They Lack the Ability to Turn Data into Action
In the past year, AI has become an unavoidable topic in the FMCG industry, especially after the rise of large models like DeepSeek. Distributors are interested in AI not because of tech trends but due to operational anxiety. The real value of AI is not to create a chatbot but to help distributors reconnect data, metrics, roles, and operational actions, turning what once relied on owner experience into replicable organizational capabilities.
周群The Second Half for Distributors: 'Don't Blindly Chase Trends, Rebuild Your Business from Scratch'
Recently, I met with several distributors. One beverage and catering distributor said instant retail has severely impacted his business, while a daily chemical distributor noted that promotions no longer work and a good product portfolio is what matters. A Chengdu distributor of snacks and instant drinks emphasized the need to re-examine basic operations like finance, procurement, and warehousing to improve efficiency. The key takeaway: distributors should focus on rebuilding their core business rather than chasing new trends.
周群“Switching Warehouses Saves 1.8 Million; Changing Rules Grows Business by 20%” – Distributors' Business Worth Rebuilding
A distributor in Chengdu saved nearly 1.8 million yuan annually by switching warehouses, while another in Guizhou grew business by 20% after changing sales rules. These cases show that distributors can find growth by optimizing internal constants like costs and business rules, rather than chasing external variables.
周群Copying Sam's Club, Imitating Pangdonglai, and Mimicking Aldi: Most Retailers Have Turned Their Private Labels into 'White-Labeling'!
Private labels are heating up, with over 48% of urban Chinese households purchasing them in the first three quarters of 2025, up 10 percentage points year-on-year. However, most retailers are merely following the trend without understanding the core logic: private labels are essentially a trust endorsement from the retailer, and without strong brand credibility, they risk failure.
周群Distributors, Don't Be Kidnapped by 'Transformation Anxiety'!
During the CFC conference in March, I spoke with several distributor friends, and the most common topic wasn't a specific channel or product, but a shared emotion: anxiety. Many distributors are troubled not by a lack of direction, but by too many directions, leading to hasty imitation and investment that disrupts their core business.
周群Consumers 'Win Again and Again': Master Kong Green Tea's 'One More Bottle' Promotion Goes Viral
Recently, New Distribution noted that Master Kong Green Tea's 'One More Bottle' promotion, which once created phenomenal sales in China's beverage market, was fully relaunched nationwide in March this year, quickly sparking a market craze. This classic IP, which once achieved phenomenal sales, has once again become the focus of the beverage market after many years. This is not a 'rehashing old ideas' brand marketing, but rather proof that truly vibrant promotional tactics, even today, can reignite consumer enthusiasm and terminal sales if the mechanism is right and the experience is smooth...
周群90% of Brands Are Getting Lightning Warehouses Wrong!
A leading FMCG brand has developed a detailed internal playbook for lightning warehouses, treating it as a standalone business. However, most brands are approaching it with outdated mindsets, structures, and methods, leading to wasted investment and missed opportunities. The article outlines five key misalignments and argues that 2026 is the last low-cost window for brands to establish a controllable supply chain and scalable growth model in this channel.
周群Dialogue with Sun Qin, Co-founder of Jiangxiaotun: Lightning Warehouses Enter the Second Half, Competing on 'Grunt Work'
In the past two years, instant retail has been a hot trend, and lightning warehouses have been at the forefront. However, most discussions tend to stop at conclusions like 'fast growth,' 'intense platform competition,' and 'huge opportunities,' obscuring the core question: what truly sustains a seemingly hot business in the long run? Before the Chinese New Year, I visited Sun Qin, co-founder of Jiangxiaotun, in Xuzhou for an in-depth conversation that delved beyond the hype into fundamentals like organization, franchise recruitment, supply chain, and platform dynamics, and why a lightning warehouse company would deliberately slow down after rapid growth to focus on internal capabilities.
周群Major Release | "Next-Generation Distributor White Paper - China FMCG Distribution Insights 2026"
At the China FMCG Distribution and Retail Conference held on March 18, 2026, during the CFC Conference in Chengdu, New Distribution's chief editor Zhou Qun released the "Next-Generation Distributor White Paper - China FMCG Distribution Insights 2026." The white paper argues that the industry is not merely facing a stagnant market but an era of oversupply, where traditional distribution logic is failing, and the next generation of distributors must shift from scale-driven to quality-driven operations, from single-channel distribution to multi-channel layered management, and from being transaction intermediaries to becoming operationally capable matching intermediaries.
周群It's Time to Rethink Distributors Today!
Discussions about distributors have intensified recently, with views ranging from their increasing difficulty to their inevitable obsolescence. However, these perspectives only capture part of the reality; the true shift is a fundamental rewrite of the underlying logic of the FMCG distribution system, moving from an expansion-driven to a matching-driven market. This article argues that distributors will not disappear but must evolve into more organized, capable intermediaries to thrive in an era of oversupply.
周群Instant Retail Is an Offline Business—Brands Should Not Fall into the Trap!
Recent discussions with several brand owners reveal that while instant retail sales are growing by double or even triple digits, the heavy investment in resources is yielding disproportionate returns, often resulting in poor profit margins. Many brands treat instant retail as an e-commerce platform, relying on subsidies and traffic purchases, which leads to a vicious cycle of discount-driven sales and a failure to retain consumers or stabilize offline pricing.
周群The Great Offline Reshuffle: Those Who Don't Rebuild Supply Will Be Eliminated
Over the past two months, we visited the market and talked with brand owners, distributors, and retailers. The consensus is that retail is changing so fast that many don't know how to do business anymore. While traditional supermarkets and mom-and-pop stores shrink, new formats like snack chains and instant retail surge. The essence of retail has changed: it's not just about more channels, brands, and promotions, but a deep restructuring of supply methods and business models.
周群Private Label: Don't Follow the Trend!
Private label is indeed a hot topic recently, with various industry conferences featuring forums on it. Retailers from supermarkets, discount stores, membership clubs, convenience stores to instant retail are all accelerating their move towards private label (PB). However, while many discuss it, few truly succeed. The real challenge lies not in finding factories or imitating products, but in building a closed loop from consumer insight to product definition, quality standards, shelf performance, and data-driven iteration.
周群Major Release | Essential for New-Quality Distributors: 2025 New Alcoholic Beverage Industry Development Report
China's alcoholic beverage industry is entering an unprecedented structural cycle. While traditional alcohol faces overall pressure, new alcoholic beverages are surging with a compound annual growth rate of 37.18%, expected to reach 135.1 billion yuan by 2025. This dramatic contrast is not a simple category shift but a migration in the logic of alcohol consumption.
周群Covering 10,000+ Stores with Annual Sales Over 500 Million: How Did Chongqing Jiecang Wanggou Stand Out?
Recently, we visited Zhong Xiaoping, founder of Jiecang Wanggou in Chongqing, to discuss his insights on regional B2b. He emphasized that the company has been profitable since its inception, avoiding the common path of heavy investment for scale. Instead, it focuses on saving store owners' time through centralized replenishment, mandatory online ordering, and reliable delivery, turning supply chain into a replicable system.
周群If You Only Deliver Goods, You're a 'Mover'! Without Category Management, Distributors Have No Competitive Moat
Recent exchanges with distributor friends have made one thing increasingly clear: the most critical lesson distributors need to learn today is not transformation or people management, but category management. On the surface, the biggest changes in the industry over the past two years have been at the retail end—supermarket overhauls, accelerated discounting, the rise of instant retail, chain convenience store expansion, and the explosion of private labels—but ultimately, these changes all converge on one point: the rules of the shelf are being rewritten. All retail changes are doing the same thing: re-screening SKUs, re-aligning price bands, and re-matching assortments based on demand.
周群Brand Owners and Distributors: Don't Underestimate Lightning Warehouses!
Recently, the hottest topic in the retail industry is undoubtedly instant retail. Among all new formats in instant retail, lightning warehouses have seen rapid growth and expansion, but also sparked controversy. In recent visits to brand owners and distributors, everyone is asking whether lightning warehouses are viable and how to approach them. Clearly, when a format develops exponentially and impacts existing channel systems, it is not just a new channel but a business variable that must be re-evaluated. Why have lightning warehouses succeeded? What risks lie behind the rapid expansion? How should distributors and brands respond?
周群Post-90s Distributor Doubles Business in 2 Years by Supplying Lightning Warehouses
As instant retail booms, many distributors are asking how to get involved. Hu Rui, a post-90s distributor in Nanjing, transitioned from a traditional beverage distributor to a full-category supplier for lightning warehouses, doubling his business scale in less than two years. His approach focuses on meeting fulfillment, assortment, and operational service needs, building a sustainable supply chain model.
周群A Traditional Beer Distributor Ventures into B2b and Opens 7 Flash Warehouses
Recent surveys by New Distribution from 2023 to 2025 reveal that profit decline has become widespread among distributors, though revenue decline is narrowing. A case in point is Haochunte Trading in Zibo, which stabilized its traditional trade, launched a B2b platform, and entered instant retail with seven self-operated stores.
周群Distributors Have Lost Their Sense of Security
Distributors are feeling increasingly insecure as market growth stagnates while manufacturers continue to raise sales targets, terminal stores show little loyalty, and talent becomes hard to attract and retain. The industry faces intense competition, fragmented channels, and shrinking offline share, forcing distributors to adapt or risk being eliminated.
周群The FMCG Industry Has Completely Changed
If one word were to sum up this year's FMCG industry, it would be 'difficult.' Retail channel transformations have come one after another, with intense competition both online and offline, including supermarket overhauls and the aggressive expansion of snack stores. Brand owners are struggling with declining financial reports, having been held hostage by e-commerce in the past and now by new retail. Distributors face even greater hardship, squeezed by upstream and downstream players, and many are being abandoned, with the trend of big fish eating small fish becoming increasingly evident. However, 'difficult' is the current state, behind which lie changes in the underlying survival logic of retailers, the severe weakening of brand owners' market influence, and the need for distributors to redefine their roles.
周群Traditional E-commerce Slows Down, Instant Retail Accelerates
Instant retail is rapidly capturing market share from traditional e-commerce, driven by the perfect match of supply and demand. With sustained high growth expected over the next five to ten years, instant retail is becoming a core engine for the FMCG industry.
周群Distributors Lose Their Sense of Direction
Distributors are losing their sense of direction as traditional methods fail and new paths remain unclear. The shift from inertial to capability-driven operations is essential for survival and growth.
周群