NEW DISTRIBUTION RESEARCH TOPIC
How is instant retail changing stores, platforms, and supply chains?
Coverage of flash warehouses, front warehouses, discount stores, supermarket transformation, and local commerce platforms in China.
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2996 articles · Page 44 of 125
Carrefour China's Darkest Hour
As 3·15 approaches, Carrefour has repeatedly stumbled on food safety issues. Recently, a Beijing branch was fined 50,000 yuan for selling mooncakes containing foreign objects. In fact, Beijing Carrefour Commercial Co., Ltd. has multiple administrative penalty records for food safety issues, with total fines exceeding one million yuan. Looking at Carrefour China's performance over the past three years, its offline business can be described as 'bleak.' Even though Carrefour attempted to change its continuous losses through a membership store model in October 2021, the overall situation has not improved significantly.
乾行FMCG Daily News | Yunnan Baiyao Chairman Resigns; Major Supermarkets Report Collective Losses in 2022...
Yunnan Baiyao's chairman Wang Minghui resigned on March 6, 2022. Meanwhile, 10 major supermarket chains have issued profit warnings or reported losses for 2022, indicating a tough year for the industry.
New DistributionReviving Supermarkets: The Strategy Used by Sam's Club and ALDI
Amidst changing market dynamics, supermarkets, once the 'kings of retail,' have seen their glory fade, struggling under the combined pressures of online retail growth, evolving consumer demographics, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite explorations in channel integration, scenario creation, and new product introductions, the road to recovery remains long. According to the China Chain Store & Franchise Association's (CCFA) 2022 report on China's top 100 supermarkets, total sales in 2021 reached 907.6 billion yuan, a 2.6% decline from 2020.
贺晓青 王娅欣The Vanishing Wet Market
Wang Zengqi once said, "Wherever I go, I always visit the local wet market." He found joy in the lively atmosphere of fresh produce and bustling crowds. However, in recent years, wet markets have undergone dramatic changes: the rise of fresh food e-commerce and community group buying, coupled with repeated closures during the pandemic, have dealt a heavy blow to these traditional markets. In Nanjing, over 50% of wet markets have seen declining revenues year after year; in Beijing, only two large wet markets remain within the Third Ring Road; and in Guangzhou, about five wet markets disappear each year. The traditional wet market, once a symbol of urban life, is fading away, replaced by upgraded "smart" markets.
东方FMCG Daily News | JD.com's 10 Billion Subsidy Goes Live; Bestore Plans to Open 1,000 New Stores...
1. JD.com's 10 billion subsidy officially launched on March 6, 20 hours earlier than planned. 2. Bestore plans to open 1,000 new stores in 2023, focusing on Central, South, East, and Southwest China.
New DistributionInterview with 5 Convenience Store Heads: Why Embrace Instant Retail?
Delivery sales are pushing convenience stores to invest in technology. Some have said that the 20-plus-year history of convenience stores in China is a history of long-term competition between local and foreign convenience stores. The entry of foreign convenience stores brought many novel models such as 24-hour operation, fresh food, and supply chain. As 'latecomers' in the convenience store industry, local convenience stores have also shown strong learning ability, absorbing foreign business concepts while gaining insight into local customer preferences, forming their own business characteristics. In recent years, regional convenience stores such as Hunan Xinjiayi, Guangdong Tianfu, and Zhejiang Shizu have emerged as new city landmarks.
联商网编辑部Meituan's 'Three Brothers of Home Delivery': Flash Purchase, Medicine, and Tuanhaohuo's Retail Exploration
From local services to local retail, and then to online retail. 'Retail is the new continent, and we are Columbus.' In September 2020, at Meituan's annual strategy meeting for the Home Delivery Business Group in Changsha, Wang Puzhong, the group's president, could hardly contain his excitement when he said this. His general idea was that in early human history, civilizations developed in isolation. When the first navigator set foot on the American continent, he connected this barbaric land to modern civilization. Throughout human history, once technological capabilities break through geographical barriers, civilizations begin to merge. A higher-order civilization will bring a lower-order civilization up with it. The transformation of retail is the same.
晚点团队Can Chain Convenience Stores Conquer the Lower-Tier Market?
During the Chinese New Year, the author noticed a new Lawson convenience store in their hometown county, prompting an exploration of why chain convenience stores are expanding into lower-tier markets. The article examines the current state, reasons, and challenges of this downward expansion, including market saturation, cost pressures, and competition with local mom-and-pop shops.
赵胜男What Is the Essence of Lightning Warehouses? What Are the Three Links and Three Stages?
A lightning warehouse is an online convenience store or supermarket based on Meituan (or Ele.me). This implies that consumer shopping experiences and perceptions of price, quality, and service are similar to offline stores, and that the business model tends toward franchising. The article also outlines three links (operations, franchising, supply chain) and three stages (operations first, scale second, supply chain final).
陈维龙FMCG News: Gome Stores Shrink; 2022 Food, Tobacco and Alcohol Consumer Prices Up 2.4% YoY; JD.com Restarts Front-Warehouse Business...
1. Gome stores shrink and will open franchise business. 2. In 2022, food, tobacco and alcohol consumer prices rose 2.4% year-on-year. 3. JD.com restarts its front-warehouse fresh food business. 4. Lianhua Supermarket expects net loss for 2022 to narrow by about 40% to 60% year-on-year. 5. Genki Forest goes 'ALL IN Sales' this year. 6. CPMC's revenue exceeds 10 billion yuan. 7. Costco's Shanghai Pudong store starts trial operation. 8. China Resources C'estbon's East China base officially put into production. 9. Coca-Cola launches Japan-exclusive bottle. 10. Dayao launches its first soda sub-brand.
New DistributionNew Dynamics in Local Life Services: Douyin's Aggressive Goals and Meituan's Quiet Response
When ByteDance enters a new market, it typically downplays its goals and conceals its ambitions for as long as possible. Tencent and Alibaba have both experienced this firsthand, and now it's Meituan's turn. In early 2023, media reported that Douyin's local life services annual GMV target was 150 billion yuan, roughly half of Meituan's 2021 in-store and hotel/travel GMV. However, according to LatePost, Douyin's actual target for this year is close to 400 billion yuan, with in-store and hotel/travel at 290 billion yuan and food delivery at 100 billion yuan.
晚点团队Giants' Decline and Rise: Who Is the Retail 'Evergreen'?
The decline of giants is not death, nor is their rise eternal. Products, efficiency, and solid fundamentals are the 'evergreen' that sustains retail enterprises. Carrefour's decline and Gome's crisis highlight the industry's shift, while platforms like Meituan and Douyin rise with instant retail, urging traditional retailers to adapt or be eliminated.
龙商网The 'Salt Reduction' Seasoning Trend Is About to Explode!
Food safety and health have become societal issues of growing concern. As consumption levels rise, consumers are shifting from merely having enough to eat to eating well and healthily. In the condiment sector, 'eating well' means safe, healthy, and guilt-free. A typical demand is for less salt and lighter meals. Although salt reduction is a clear consumption trend, multiple forces are driving this movement, along with challenges.
秦淮Frontline Interview | The Snack Track Is Hot, Why Is This Veteran Snack Distributor Not Optimistic?
Recently, the snack collection store brand 'Zhao Yiming Snacks' completed a 150 million yuan Series A financing round, led by Black Ant Capital with Bestore following. Combined with previous financing news from brands like 'Snack Busy', 'Snack Youming', and 'Panda Momo', snack collection stores focusing on bulk low prices have suddenly become hot. What is a snack collection store? Simply put, it removes the snack food distributor link, directly sourcing or OEMing products from factories, offering low prices and product variety. In other words, it can be seen as a low-end version of 'Bestore'.
陈思廷The Post-Pandemic Era of Discount Stores
Discount stores appear to be a 'low-price business,' but in reality they are 'low-price, high-quality'—beyond low product prices, their product quality and operating costs are not low. The pandemic since 2020 has made discount stores a new trend in the retail sector, but within just one to two years, a large portion of the first batch of startups entering the discount store space have already collapsed, such as the highly visible Boom Boom Mart, whose parent company declared bankruptcy in March last year; the soon-to-expire food discount chain 'Bengong Snack Innovation Studio' has faced a similar fate.
东方Enduring: Three Ordinary Years of a Supermarket Owner
Not every fate is turbulent, not every destiny is full of twists and turns; more often, it's about 'enduring' while 'living.' We interviewed a small community supermarket owner and recorded some of his 'ordinary life' over three years. In the autumn of 2019, Boss Jiang 'drank' his father-in-law into becoming an angel investor, securing his first 50,000 yuan in funding, with a one-line business plan: 'For family happiness, I want to open a small supermarket.' He immediately rented a storefront at the south gate of his residential complex and started his business.
指北小付Attention Mom-and-Pop Stores: Local Convenience Stores Have Already Paved the Way for 'Instant Retail'
The level of awareness determines the amount of profit. After three years of pandemic, consumer habits have changed, and physical store traffic has declined. Data from the China Chain Store & Franchise Association shows that in the past year, 67.2% of convenience stores saw a year-on-year decrease in customer visits, while only 21.9% saw an increase. With large-scale traffic declines, convenience stores are at a critical juncture. Zhou Chenmin, operations director of Wuhan-based convenience store chain Today, said, 'Before 2020, our average daily foot traffic per store was around 550 people. After the pandemic, offline traffic has decreased significantly, and now it's down by more than 100 people, which is very serious.'
达尔闻Practical Guide | Management Reference for Boosting Performance of Supermarket Merchandisers
As offline foot traffic continues to decline, it's crucial to maintain the fundamentals of offline channels through meticulous, professional management. This article, part of the Key Account (KA) Management Practice series by New Distribution and former Coca-Cola China executive Cao Yang, focuses on why merchandiser teams are needed, their daily management, and how to utilize them effectively.
曹扬Geoffrey Cao2023: A New Wave of Community Group Buying Rises
Huang Tengfei: 2022 was the year of group store emergence, and 2023 will be the year of their explosion. Cayman 4000 predicts that the group buying industry will see over 1,000 chain group stores. With group stores as the main line, local groups will recover and group wholesalers will operate covertly, leading to a new wave of entrepreneurship in community group buying, and the grand spectacle of the 'thousand-group war' in internet history will be reenacted.
黄腾飞2023: A Thousand Groups Rise Again in Community Group Buying
Huang Tengfei notes that 2022 saw the rise of group stores, and 2023 will be their breakout year. Cayman 4000 predicts over 1,000 chain group stores will emerge, with local groups reviving and group wholesalers operating covertly, leading to a new wave of entrepreneurship in community group buying and a repeat of the internet's 'Thousand Group War'.
黄腾飞Industry's First "2022 New E-commerce Operators Survival Status Report" Released!
With the rapid rise of new e-commerce platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, the role of "new e-commerce operators" has emerged. This report, initiated by Youmiyoushu at the end of 2022, provides a detailed portrait of these operators, their workplace status, competitiveness, and industry trends, offering valuable insights for the industry.
OliviaFMCG Daily | China Resources Beer Executive Takes New Post; Carrefour Responds to COO Departure; Pangdonglai Recalls Products...
1. Fan Shikai, an executive at China Resources Beer, has been appointed general manager of Jinsha Wine. 2. Carrefour China denied reports of multiple vice presidents leaving, stating its management team is stable. 3. Pangdonglai recalled a product due to pricing issues and announced corrective measures. 4. Changshu Miss Fresh was again ordered to pay 12.33 million yuan. 5. Pinduoduo's Temu is testing its Canada site. 6. Yonghui Superstore's Huai'an Health Road store will close. 7. Hangzhou's online retail sales exceeded one trillion yuan for the first time. 8. Xiangnian Food updated its prospectus for a Shanghai IPO. 9. Moutai 1935 sales exceeded 5 billion yuan. 10. Nongfu Spring's Oriental Leaf launched a large bottle size.
New DistributionSecond-generation distributor of Unilever, Nice, Colgate and other daily chemical giants tells you how to break through in e-commerce!
At a brand's distributor annual meeting dinner, a distributor with annual sales over 100 million yuan lamented the difficulty of offline business and considered moving to e-commerce despite having no experience. This article shares the case of second-generation distributor Wang Banglai, who entered e-commerce in 2020 and achieved nearly 50 million yuan in sales within two years, highlighting the importance of seizing opportunities and hands-on involvement.
袁来After the Pandemic: Should Retailers Be Aggressive or Conservative?
How to achieve 'good products at reasonable prices' is what enterprises need to adapt to in the changing competitive landscape. Under the drastic changes, the pandemic has hit the real economy hard, especially retail, forcing many to adjust or exit. Some, like Fresh Legend and Beijing Chaoshifa, have thrived by innovating, while others like Gome and Suning have struggled due to high debt and outdated models.
东方