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Process Control in FMCG Enterprises Is Turning Salespeople into Tools
Salespeople complain that logging into systems, taking photos, clocking in, and following procedures leave them less time to sell. Sales operations departments counter that without process data, they cannot verify performance or mitigate risks. This article explores whether typical process-control thinking should be abandoned in digital channel management and how to balance result orientation with process control.
JackSpecial Channels Are Hot Again
The status of special channels (special distribution channels) has changed dramatically in the past two years. Previously, they were mainly handled by second-tier distributors, with first-tier distributors unwilling to participate. Now, top brands are establishing dedicated special channel departments, highlighting their growing importance. This article discusses the three key characteristics of special channels: they are social spaces for young people, they integrate sales and consumption scenarios (bC integration), and their true value lies in seeding products for later harvest in general circulation.
刘春雄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AI in FMCG Starts on the Front Line
AI creates real value in FMCG only when it enters sales, stores, inventory, spending, channel management, and day-to-day operating decisions.
New DistributionThe Era of Distribution is Over: Old Channel Organizations in FMCG Can No Longer Hold Up
FMCG companies' channel organizations are at a point where change is imperative. This feeling has grown increasingly strong recently. I shared this judgment in articles in late 2023 and early 2024, when many readers dismissed it as alarmist. At that time, the industry hadn't reached today's urgency, but now, with the impact of overcapacity and AI, traditional channel organizations must transform. This article proposes a shift from distribution-oriented to matching-oriented organizations.
任文青FMCG AI: A Severely Underrated Sector
The FMCG industry is often perceived as traditional, low-tech, and digitally lagging, but this impression is only partially correct. While many distribution channels remain analog, giants like P&G and Coca-Cola have invested billions in digitalization, and the sector's complex decision chains and high trial-and-error costs present a massive, underappreciated opportunity for AI.
戚特Blindly Visiting Stores Won't Work for Frontline Sales!
Recently, while preparing for the AI Application Forum at the CFC conference at the end of the month, I've been engaging in intensive discussions with brand owners about AI applications. The feedback I've received can be roughly divided into three stages. The initial stage involves administrative tasks like meeting minutes, customer service replies, contract review, and bid document generation. The intermediate stage includes applications like internal knowledge bases, image recognition for store inspections, consumer demand insights, and sales report analysis, where some small business scenarios start to be addressed. From my interactions, most companies are still in these first two stages.
袁来Low Pay, High Pressure: FMCG Salespeople Trapped in a Decade-Old Rut
A veteran salesperson from a major FMCG company laments that the golden era of sales is over, with increasing pressure, stagnant wages, and constant scrutiny from both management and distributors. The root cause lies in capital's relentless pursuit of profit, leading to unrealistic targets and exploitative practices that leave salespeople with no good options but to endure.
金铭Luckin Coffee Launches Bottled Coffee, Offering a New Affordable Alternative to Starbucks
Luckin Coffee's first batch of bottled ready-to-drink coffee is set to launch at the end of April, featuring three store bestsellers—Classic American, Yuzu C American, and Coconut Latte—priced at 6-7 yuan, distributed across convenience stores, regional supermarkets, and vending machines. The company has completed provincial agency recruitment, with campus agents at universities like Wuhan University starting market entry, marking a strategic move to extend its brand into the RTD segment.
RBF团队Scenario Roadmap: Momentum Scenarios Break Through, Kinetic Scenarios Drive Volume, Long-tail Scenarios Sustain Growth
Sales expansion is essentially scenario expansion. A product's success depends on how many scenarios consumers associate it with. The scenario roadmap follows the path from momentum scenarios to kinetic scenarios to long-tail scenarios, guiding cognitive spillover in a controlled sequence.
刘春雄FMCG Industry Increasingly Fails to Retain Talent
As we enter 2026, the FMCG market remains one of the most dynamic and competitive industries. However, after years of digital transformation, changing consumption patterns, and supply chain restructuring, a severe challenge has emerged and increasingly become a bottleneck for FMCG companies' growth: talent shortage. More and more brand manufacturers are realizing that without solving the talent problem, many growth targets will remain on paper. This article offers some thoughts on this topic, hoping to inspire FMCG manufacturers.
邢仁宝FMCG Industry: Beware of "Fake Data"!
Last week, news of fraudulent investment attraction data in three places in Henan went viral. One county's investment bureau reported 7.8 billion yuan to the province, while actually attracting less than 100 million yuan—such an exaggerated figure is truly astonishing. In interviews, the parties involved explained that the problem was not their own work style, but the high-pressure targets from superiors. Faced with the requirement of "must grow," grassroots units had no choice but to cope by fabricating data at will. The higher-ups, without any vigilance, used these absurd numbers directly, leading to this explosion. In my view, both sides bear responsibility...
邢仁宝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Terminal POSM Done a Lot but No Effect? Because Your Materials Can't Speak
Scene marketing is hot, but many brands are even more confused: what is the relationship between scene marketing and terminal materials? How do consumption scenes and sales scenes connect? At the main forum of CFC·11th China FMCG Conference on March 16-18, Ms. He Luyi from New Canned gave a brilliant speech titled "POSM Practical Guide: Creating a 'Speaking' Terminal." She pointed out that consumption scenes are for sowing, sales scenes are for harvesting, and a hook is needed to connect them—and that hook is the speaking terminal POSM.
何璐伊From Channel Distribution to User Symbiosis: Reconstructing the Growth Logic of Personal Care Brands
The personal care industry has seen a significant shift in its growth logic. In the past, brands relied on channel distribution, terminal coverage, and regional penetration for steady growth; however, with rising traffic costs, channel fragmentation, and rapidly changing consumer demands, relying solely on shipments and distribution can no longer explain today's growth. For personal care brands, the new question is not just how to distribute products, but whether products can truly meet user needs, whether brands can build sustained choice, and whether channels can become interfaces for user connection. On March 17...
曹业林The Era of FMCG Distribution is Over
The more diligent, the more losses. Late one night before the Lunar New Year, I received a call from a friend. He has been an FMCG distributor in North China for 20 years, representing household-name brands. During the 'golden two decades,' he was almost synonymous with success: more brands, bigger warehouses, higher sales figures. But that night, he said, 'Teacher Wenqing, this past year has been really tough. I find myself in a vicious cycle: the more diligent, the more losses.' He broke down 'diligence' in detail: to keep the business alive, he added every possible lever—pressing another round of stock, adding a promotion, stacking another rebate, hiring people to monitor displays, end caps, and sell-through. The goods entered the stores, but two weeks later, when he followed up, the end caps were still there, the shelves were still there, the inventory was still there—the only thing missing was sales.
任文青AndyMajor 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New Distribution's Ren Wenqing: The Old Distribution System Fails in an Era of Oversupply!
At the 11th China FMCG Conference held in Chengdu from March 16-18, 2026, Ren Wenqing, CEO of New Distribution, delivered a keynote speech titled '2026 New Distribution Annual Insight: From Linear Distribution to Supply-Demand Matching System.' This article summarizes the core of his speech, which argues that the FMCG industry is shifting from a linear distribution model to a supply-demand matching system, driven by the need to address oversupply and changing consumer behaviors.
任文青AndyAfter Deep Distribution Loses Control, Channel Digitalization Cannot Follow the Old Path!
With the rapid rise of new retail formats such as snack discount stores, instant retail, and transformed supermarkets, there is a common feeling that the deep distribution model is losing control. What is out of control is not just the tactics themselves, but the underlying structure of 'brand-led, distributor-coordinated, terminal-passive execution.' Today, brands, distributors, and terminal stores are all undergoing new role changes. Where is channel digitalization heading, and how should it proceed?
JackFrom Distribution to Sales: Dali Gift Boxes Crack the 'Logic of Certainty' in the Spring Festival Market
Every Spring Festival, the gift box market is the most certain and most competitive battlefield. In the Nanjing market, distributor Mr. Li describes the sales pace before this year's Spring Festival: although the peak sales season is still over ten days away, Dali's Spring Festival gift boxes have already 'heated up' in multiple channels based on current distribution completion and terminal feedback. Through visits to multiple markets, New Distribution observed that Dali Food's Spring Festival gift boxes are becoming one of the key promoted brands among many distributors and stores.
田静293 Prefecture-Level Cities: How Many B2B Platforms Are There in China?
In March 2024, Retail Link announced adjustments and gradually suspended related businesses, leading some in the industry to declare that winter had arrived for B2B. As industry observers, our judgment at the time was that the retreat of giants precisely proved the complexity of FMCG channels, which cannot be easily flattened by burning money or subsidies. The exit of Retail Link actually returned the space once occupied by giants to local markets. Looking back from 2026, our judgment has been confirmed. We see a large number of regional B2B platforms, transformed from major distributors or evolved from unified warehousing and distribution, quietly rising.
New DistributionDistributors: Grab Share, Grab Terminals, Don't Get Left Behind!
At a manufacturer's meeting, a business manager said, 'Local consumers have a special attachment to competing products and only buy them.' The leader retorted, 'If that's the case, we might as well give up on this market.' The reality is that consumer loyalty is not as high as we think. If they only buy competitors' products, it's because your competitive strategy is flawed. Strategically, companies should avoid homogeneous competition, create new categories, and pursue differentiation, especially for SMEs.
金名Dialogue with Chen Liping: 'De-intermediation' Is a False Proposition!
In the winter of 2025-2026, China's FMCG and retail industry seems to be in a collective 'confusion'. On one hand, there is visible involution: e-commerce platforms compare prices, livestream e-commerce breaks prices, and hard discount stores slash prices. On the other hand, there is a panic spreading deep in the channels—de-intermediation. Platforms shout 'direct sourcing from the source', various new retail models shout 'direct supply from manufacturers', and brands ponder DTC (Direct to Consumer). It seems that overnight, distributors, agents, and wholesalers who have been struggling in this industry for decades have become redundant roles hindering efficiency.
任文青AndyFarewell to Blind Distribution: How to Make Consumers 'Choose You' in an Era of Oversupply?
The 11th China FMCG Conference will be held in Chengdu from March 16-18, 2026, under the theme 'Advance Toward the C-End.' As the market shifts from incremental growth to an era of oversupply, the industry must redefine the role of intermediaries and build a unified supply-demand loop centered on consumers, making it the key to the next round of growth.
New Distribution