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Articles by 陈思廷
Browse 124 New Distribution articles by 陈思廷.
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AI That Truly Works for FMCG Can't Just Be a Chatbot
The FMCG industry doesn't lack AI that can chat. In the past two years, AI has been red-hot, with ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and other general large models reshaping how many industries work. But FMCG is special: business happens on streets, in stores, at freezers, on shelves, during visits and promotions. A brand's growth often comes down to specific questions like how many suitable stores exist in a city, which areas to prioritize, and what actions sales reps should take. General AI can help organize thoughts but can't provide reliable answers because it lacks the most fundamental thing: real channel data. Without store data, AI is just talk; without format judgment, it can't guide distribution; without regional granularity, it can't translate into frontline actions. So, useful AI for FMCG must know where the real market is.
陈思廷Profit Soars 312%: Jierou's Three-Year AI Transformation Offers the FMCG Industry an Answer
In 2025, C&S Jierou's annual profit surged 312% year-on-year, and in Q1 2026, profit continued to rise 53%. Behind this counter-trend growth lies a complete AI-driven growth system honed over three years, which will be publicly detailed by Vice President Yang Senlin at a closed-door session of the 2026 China FMCG Conference AI Application Forum.
陈思廷The Next to Eliminate FMCG Companies May Not Be Competitors, but AI
During this year's Spring Festival, a war without gunfire changed China. Doubao, Yuanbao, and Qianwen flooded Spring Festival Gala, elevators, and social media, bringing AI to every family's New Year's Eve dinner table with billions of red packets. Data shows that in March 2025, domestic AI app downloads exceeded 160 million, with about 200 million daily active users. Doubao's daily token calls surpassed 50 trillion, a tenfold increase year-over-year.
陈思廷Most Private Brands Will Die from the Lowest-Price Mentality
Recently, Discount Ox was publicly reported by its Xi'an franchisee over food safety issues with its private brand products. This is not just a problem for Discount Ox but a spreading industry crisis rooted in the 'lowest-price mentality.' Retailers must shift from price-only procurement to Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) thinking to avoid catastrophic quality failures and brand erosion.
陈思廷5000 Words to See Clearly: Super Hema NB's Bold Gamble on Franchising
In November 2025, Hema's budget community supermarket Super Hema NB announced its first batch of franchising, targeting Shanghai, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou, with a cumulative investment of about 2.65 million yuan for a 600-square-meter standard store. The industry generally sees this as a positive signal, but this view warrants deep scrutiny. Franchising is a double-edged sword in retail, and Super Hema NB's unique model—high fresh food ratio, private label dominance, and rapid franchise expansion—has no successful precedent globally.
陈思廷Distributors Are Finding It Harder and Harder—At Least Half Are Driven by Anxiety
At the 11th CFC Conference in Chengdu from March 16-18, attendance surpassed 3,500, but the author felt deeply uneasy. A distributor, Gao Jingjing, expressed that dealers in her circle are universally anxious, constantly chasing new models and making hasty changes, leading to losses and more anxiety. The author reflects on the industry's role in amplifying this anxiety and urges dealers to calm down, think clearly, and consider a second battlefield in asset management.
陈思廷The Times Have Changed: The 30-Year B-End Path Has Completely Failed—How to Successfully Build a C-End Command Center?
Over the past three decades, the Chinese FMCG industry has had only one winning logic: mastering the B-end. As long as channel penetration was deep enough and the distributor team strong enough to continuously push products onto terminal shelves, you could win. This push-based approach dominated the thinking of a generation of marketers. However, in the last two years, the consensus is that this playbook has completely failed. Increasing rebates and issuing hard sales targets to push products has resulted in goods sitting stagnant at terminals like dead water. Why? Because the underlying commercial soil has fundamentally changed. We built a vast B-end empire in an era of shortage and incremental growth, but now we are lost in an era of severe oversupply and stock-driven markets.
陈思廷Scene Marketing: The Battlefield Shifts from Shelves to Life
FMCG is undergoing an invisible watershed—not of price or promotion, but of scenes that are redefining who can grow. On the morning of March 17, 2026, at Chengdu Century City International Convention Center, Crystal Hall 5+6, the 11th CFC China FMCG Conference's parallel forum, 'Scene Marketing: From Shelves to Life,' will explore how brands can win by becoming the answer to specific moments in consumers' lives.
陈思廷This Time, We Have the Path Ready for Beer Distributors to Break Through
This is the common situation we face today: industry volume shrinkage is an indisputable fact. But if you ask frontline beer distributors, they will likely tell you that the word 'shrinkage' cannot describe their feeling—it's a suffocating sense of being attacked from both sides. Upstream giants demand profits, squeezing margins and increasing inventory; downstream restaurant terminals demand fees, requiring advances for store purchases, promotions, and displays. Payment cycles are lengthening, cash is tied up in goods, and cash flow is at risk. The solution lies in opening a 'second battlefield'—using multi-category symbiosis to counter single-category competition, with beer as the core and complementary products like soda water to enhance the scene.
陈思廷The Impact of Instant Retail: Who Will Become Relics on the Beach?
The wave has arrived: this is not a choice, but a matter of survival. In 2025, China's instant retail market will exceed 2.5 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of over 35%. Instant retail is no longer a simple channel supplement, but a profound channel revolution. Data doesn't lie: in first-tier cities, instant retail already accounts for 18% of FMCG retail sales; in second- and third-tier cities, this figure is climbing at a rate of 5 percentage points per year. Coca-Cola's flash warehouse model, P&G's front-warehouse experiments, Unilever's instant supply chain restructuring—brand giants are exploring and acting.
陈思廷With Xinhua Net Culture on One Side and Dong Yuhui on the Other, the New Product Shanshanhai Is Becoming a Trump Card for Seasoning Distributors
In 2025, China's condiment industry experienced a prolonged and cold 'late spring chill.' Distributors on the front lines felt it acutely: traditional soy sauce, vinegar, chicken essence, and MSG fell into brutal price wars, once-proud hero products saw slowing sales and high inventory, while consumer preferences shifted quietly—they tightened their wallets but scrutinized ingredient lists for healthier, cleaner options. 'Business is getting harder, profits thinner, where is the next growth point?' Amid this market silence, the brand 'Xianzhihui' broke through with its core product 'Shanshanhai' in 2025, leveraging national media Xinhua Net Culture and top IP 'Yuhui Tongxing' to create a phenomenon online and signal to offline channels that in the healthy umami niche, Shanshanhai is becoming the most promising trump card for distributors.
陈思廷Alibaba P8 Enters Lightning Warehouse for Three Years: It's an Opportunity, but 90% Will Be Cut (Pitfall Checklist at the End)
In the past six months, 'lightning warehouses' have become a hot topic among distributors. Many are anxious about missing the next growth wave, but the reality is that lightning warehouses are a high-barrier opportunity, not a simple 'put goods online and sell' business. This article, based on a three-year veteran's experience, reveals the true thresholds and provides a practical checklist to avoid common pitfalls.
陈思廷Bidding Farewell to Youth and Involution: The Time Has Come for Traditional Distributors to Exit in an Orderly Manner
Distributors will not disappear, but their numbers will significantly decrease. This judgment is not emotional but reflects the changing landscape of China's FMCG industry. Many distributors already sense that the path of relying on hard work and diligence for growth has reached its end. The article analyzes why the number of distributors will inevitably decline, which distributors should exit or continue, and how to exit in an orderly manner to preserve the fruits of years of struggle.
陈思廷In the Darkest Hour, Wu Xiangdong Is Becoming a Ray of Light for Chinese Baijiu
“Wu Xiangdong is a ray of light for Chinese baijiu today.” This is not my words, but a sudden remark by Fu Chaoyang of Jiangsu Jinyue Trading during a chat. More importantly, Jinyue Trading has no business relationship with Wu Xiangdong's Jindong Group—this is the true feeling of an industry veteran. In the past two years, the most common phrase in the baijiu circle is “the industry is over.” Over, so talk less; over, so do less; over, so resting and recuperating is the most correct choice. Fu Chaoyang says that many people are now habitually self-deprecating and habitually negating...
陈思廷Don't Get Swept Away by Traffic! Instant Retail Is Just Redoing the 'New Terminal'
Over the past six months, the entire FMCG industry has been chasing instant retail. Platform subsidies refresh daily, flash sales wars rage on, and lightning warehouses have expanded from thousands to tens of thousands. Many have concluded that traditional marketing is obsolete and must be reinvented. However, I'd argue that instant retail is not the end of marketing but the return of terminal marketing. What has changed is the terminal's 'operating system'—from physical rules to algorithmic rules, from weekly/monthly rhythms to daily/hourly rhythms.
陈思廷Traditional Distributors at Their Most Critical Moment: It's Not That Business Is Bad, It's That the Foundation of Business Has Collapsed
Over the past three months, I visited markets in Sichuan, Hainan, and Shaanxi, and what I saw was not a 'decline' but a cliff-like 'plunge.' Since August, the sales scale of numerous distributors has suddenly dropped by 30% or even more than 50%. Many who were barely holding on with thin margins and high pressure have now stepped into losses. You ask why? The consumption environment and weather certainly have an impact, but they cannot explain the speed and magnitude of this collective collapse. The real turning point is that the retail channel suddenly underwent drastic transformation after August, and this transformation directly targets distributors' livelihoods...
陈思廷Don't Doubt It: European Giant EDEKA Is What Chinese Distributors Will Look Like in Ten Years
The traditional business logic of distributors is collapsing. In the past two decades, Chinese FMCG distributors have almost all followed the same growth logic: take goods, distribute goods, and push inventory. As long as you have brands, channels, and relationships, you can scale up. This logic was correct in the 'era of growth.' At that time, channels were scarce, shelves were empty, and consumers were hungry. Whoever could deliver goods to the end terminal was the hero. But today, everything is reversing. The market has entered a zero-sum game, with saturated channels, homogeneous products, and shrinking profits. Most importantly...
陈思廷Why Are They Still Growing? Decoding the 'Few Growers' in the Stock Era
In the current Chinese FMCG industry, characterized by overcapacity, slowing demand, and disappearing growth, traditional growth methods have failed. Yet, a few companies like Yanjing Beer, Uni-President China, Dongshen Te Yin, and Bottle Planet are still achieving significant growth by redefining their strategies, focusing on big products, channel assets, and execution.
陈思廷Beer Legend Steps Down: Hou Xiaohai Resigns as Chairman of China Resources Beer
On the afternoon of June 27, China Resources Beer (00291) announced that Mr. Hou Xiaohai has resigned as executive director and chairman of the board to devote more time to personal arrangements. The chairman position will remain vacant until a suitable successor is appointed, with Mr. Zhao Chunwu, executive director and president, temporarily assuming the chairman's duties during the transition.
陈思廷Decline and Hope in the Era of Great Disruption
China's FMCG sector is entering an 'Era of Great Disruption,' drawing parallels to the U.S. Great Depression of 1929-1939. While overall consumption declines, specific segments like healthy snacks and functional beverages surge, reflecting a dual-track market. The key to survival lies in discovering and meeting new consumer demands, shifting from brand-led to retail-led dynamics.
陈思廷2024 Annual Results Released: China Resources Beer Leads the New World of China's Alcoholic Beverage Industry
On March 18, China Resources Beer released its 2024 annual results. Against a backdrop of industry downturn and intensifying competition, the report drew significant industry attention due to the company's pivotal market position and strong performance. The results showed revenue of RMB 38.635 billion, gross margin rising to 42.6% (the highest in five years), and EBITDA of RMB 8.694 billion. Under the dual pressures of stock competition in the beer industry and deep adjustment in the baijiu sector, China Resources Beer achieved high-quality operations through its premiumization strategy and the 'beer-baijiu dual empowerment' model.
陈思廷Knowing Old Tao for 12 Years, I Realized I Never Truly Understood Jiangxiaobai
The author reflects on his 12-year acquaintance with Tao Shiquan, founder of Jiangxiaobai, and admits that despite his closeness, he never truly understood the company. He seeks answers to his confusions about Jiangxiaobai's insistence on light-aroma baijiu, its success despite negative publicity, and its strategic focus on 'future stars' and 'champion mindset'.
陈思廷The Call for a New Order
From a strong to a weak old order, the historical path is never a straight line, always moving through cycles of order and chaos. Today, China's FMCG industry stands at the crossroads of the collapse of the old order and the reconstruction of a new one. Over the past 40 years, a powerful order system was built on an expanding market, but now it is disintegrating. The root cause is the productivity revolution, which has led to severe oversupply. A new order based on 'symbiosis' is emerging, and the 10th China FMCG Innovation Conference will explore this theme.
陈思廷Why Didn't the Market Take Off Even After Small Companies Recruited Big Distributors?
Why did the market fail to develop despite recruiting a major distributor? Excellent large distributors are strategic resources in regional markets, a fact that is obvious. Being recognized by a major distributor in a region proves that the brand and its products have potential to some extent. Therefore, every company in its rapid growth phase goes through a stage similar to "big recruitment, recruit big distributors." If "recruiting big distributors" ultimately succeeds, the fate of the company and even the category can be rewritten. Of course, not only that, the rise of an excellent company often changes the fate of distributors, creating a batch of future big distributors...
陈思廷