Have you ever shopped at a "7-11 convenience store" and how was it like? The feeling to you is not: all year round; convenient; fast; short and short; small and complete in size; products keep up with the trend and good quality; cooked food taste is not bad, and so on. Why can 711 convenience stores surpass traditional retail models such as supermarkets and quickly conquer consumers and occupy the market, creating a new miracle in the retail industry? Today, I will share the relevant knowledge I have learned with you, hoping to help you further understand the "7-11 convenience store" and its "business way"! Everyone is also welcome to interact in the comments!
7-11 History
In 1927, The Southland Ice Company, the predecessor of the 7-ELEVEN (7-11) convenience store chain, was founded in Dallas, Texas, USA, and its main business was retail ice, milk, and eggs.
In 1946, The Southland Corporation extended its business hours from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., giving birth to 7-ELEVEN.
In 1964, 7-ELEVEN began franchise (FC) operations.
In 1973, Ito Yokado signed a regional franchise agreement with the American Southern Company, and the first 7-ELEVEN store in Japan opened.
In 1987, the diversification expansion of the American Southern Company failed, and it filed for bankruptcy three years later.
In 1991, Ito Yokado bought a 73% stake in the company, becoming the largest shareholder of the Southern Corporation.
On April 28, 1999, southern companies were officially renamed 7-ELEVENINC.
On April 15, 2004, China's first "7-11 convenience store" opened in Beijing Dongzhi store.
Founder Profile
Toshifumi Suzuki is a world-class entrepreneur and founder of Japan's 7-ELEVEN. He was described by the Japanese media as the "god of new Japanese management" after Konosuke Matsushita, and the Harvard Business Review described him as "the best example of integrating the management spirit of The East and the West". He leads Seven &I Holdings, Japan's largest retail group, the world's fourth-largest retail kingdom and Asia's largest, with a turnover equal to about 1.25% of Japan's GDP. He led the corporate revolution three times without failing once, and the concept of "item management" he established even led the English-speaking world to coin a new term, "Tanpin Kanri" (The Japanese pronunciation of "item management").
7-11 Business Way
In Japan's retail industry, convenience stores have always occupied a pivotal position as a business form that pursues convenient and high-quality services. In this new retail format, 7-11 can be said to stand out from the crowd and become a model for convenience stores in the world. 7-11 company's excellent store and commodity management is the biggest feature and advantage of its operation, but also the cornerstone of its survival and development.
First, the site selection strategy
Good location selection is the primary and most faithful element in the process of store development, and the mistake in store location selection will directly lead to inefficient store operation and investment loss. Therefore, site selection has always been a very important part of 7-11 store management.
In the choice of store location, 7-11 considers a basic starting point is convenience, in a large way, that is, to open a shop within the scope of consumers' daily life, such as a place close to the residential living area, on the way to work or school, near the parking lot, near the office or school, and so on. In general, 7-11 pays special attention to setting up shops in residential areas, and when deciding on the location of the shops, it is very careful to avoid building shops in the following locations, that is, places with narrow roads, small parking lots, places with narrow populations, and places where buildings are too narrow and long.
Second, commodity display skills
1, "back" glyph of the store, so that you must go through these shelves
A standard 7-11 convenience store, the use of the area is generally about 100-120 square meters, convenience stores will be adjusted according to the size of the store in the equipment, such as 7-11 special stores will have a special shelf with heightened.
Unlike grocery stores, convenience stores rarely make you go back, from the entrance to the cashier, all the way to the innermost daily goods, and then out the door, just around the corner. Unless there is a clear shopping goal, consumers will generally follow this route for a lap.
On this "active line", you will pass the "promotional end shelf" promoted by convenience stores, the shelves of self-produced goods, and the fresh food products that account for 40% of the convenience store's revenue... In the center of the circle, non-daily goods and grocery shelves are placed, and magazines are placed in the window position.
The cash register is generally on the side of the store door, and the store door is generally not open in the middle of the storefront, so that it is convenient for customers to go out at the shortest distance after checkout.
The counters for instant foods such as oden and buns are close to the cash register, and are usually next to a standby cold store for drinks, guiding consumers to buy with drinks.
Most of the daily goods (also known as fresh food products) need to be refrigerated for sale, and the refrigerated shelves need to be placed against the wall, so the daily goods are generally on one side of the store, and the other side of the store is the cash register and counter against the wall.
2, top-heavy, "strong purposeful" goods down
From small to large, light to heavy, it is one of the rules for displaying goods from top to bottom on convenience store shelves. For example, Nongfu Springs bottled water and large volumes of pumped napkins are mostly placed on the bottom floor of the shelves. Visually, if top-heavy there is indeed a problem. On the other hand, if it is a small object, it is even less likely to be seen on the bottom floor. (For small items, convenience stores will have hooks in the shelves according to the packaging characteristics of the items, and even set up "shelf-in-racks" in the shelves.) ）
"Purposeful goods", such as lighters and stockings, are also placed on the inconspicuous bottom shelves. You think, how anxious a person who comes to a convenience store to buy stockings will be found wherever they are placed.
The integrated shelf is the trend of display in the future, so that the small objects of different categories can be neatly arranged together. The first criterion of convenience store Chen is to let customers see as many goods as possible.
The same display logic applies to beverage cabinets. In winter, convenience stores will put the popular "light taste water" such as qin lime water and sea crystal lemon on the best row noodles to play a role in guiding consumption.
And cola such a strong brand effect product is placed in a slightly inconspicuous position, the reason is still the sentence "people who want to drink Coke, where you put it he will find."
People's demand for beverages has declined, so we should guide consumers more on display. And in the summer, (the drinks are selling well) just put the best Coke sold in the most conspicuous and most noodle-making place.
In addition, the drinks, sandwiches, rice balls, etc. in the freezer are also "strong purposeful" consumer goods, and consumers have thought about buying them early on, so they do not need to be placed in a conspicuous position at the door for consumption guidance.
3, every convenience store has a most frequently updated shelves
After entering the door, the first shelf facing the cash register is considered to be the "prime location" of the convenience store, called the "promotional end shelf" or "special shelf" - this is a must for customers, and it is inevitable to stay here when queuing up to check out.
4. Why are convenience stores full of small packages with poor cost performance?
In general, large packages of food are more cost-effective. For example, in hypermarkets, we often see promotional packaging such as "family value sharing package" and "buy three get two free", in short, the more you sell, the better, and the more you buy, you will earn. But it is rarely seen in convenience stores.
The fashion trend in convenience stores is to sell small packages of food. Miaofu, sold one by one. 3+2 sandwich biscuits, two pieces sold in two pieces.
On the one hand, it is limited by the display space, and the shelf location is too luxurious for convenience stores.
On the other hand, the consumer population of convenience stores is not sensitive to price and will not care about the difference between a few yuan and a few cents, for this part of the population, eating a whole Oreo will be more stressful.
In the shops adjacent to the business buildings, white-collar workers and other business people are the main consumers of convenience stores. Two cookies with a cup of coffee happen to be an afternoon tea.
5. Did you find it? The package inclination of the bread and the inclination of the shelves are just right
Convenience stores are divided into: daily products (that is, fresh foods delivered every day, such as rice balls, sandwiches, box lunches, etc.); non-daily products (such as instant noodles and potato chips with a long shelf life), and inedible groceries;
Daily items come from factories exclusively supplied by convenience stores, which means that the recipes and even packaging of the food are carefully designed and exclusively owned.
7-11 provides two deliveries of fresh food items per day, and other goods once a day. After the noon rush hour, sandwiches, sushi, and homegrown breads in convenience stores will be out of stock to varying degrees.
Taking the bread shelves as an example, the clerk will compactly fill the top two rows of bread according to the principle of priority from high to low, so that the shelves are as beautiful as possible.
There is only one individual row of bread varieties left, but it is also topped at the very front of the shelf, flush with the other rows. Curiously, this lonely loaf of bread naturally stands on the shelves, but there is no support behind it.
A closer look at the shelves reveals that the inclination of the boxes inside the package matches the inclination of the shelves. Without the help of external forces, bread will stand upright on the shelves, showing customers the whole picture of the package.
6. Why is the freezer always on the side?
A row of freezers placed against the wall of the convenience store, open refrigerators called open-cases, with glass sliding doors are walk-in (walk-in) freezers. Both freezers are set at a temperature of 4 degrees Celsius (error plus or minus 2 degrees).
The former stores drinks and foods with a short shelf life, which means that convenience stores need to sell them in a shorter period of time, and the use of open freezers is more affinity, more accessible and accessible.
7. The location of convenience stores is different, and the things sold on the shelves are also different
Even if it is a convenience store of the same brand, the things sold in convenience stores in different locations and store types are not the same.
The refrigerated counters on 7-11 are very beautiful, with a whole row of Benazon coffee in various colors, while in a regular community store, there are only three rows of Benasong.
Merchandise display is part of the training course for new arrivals in Japanese convenience stores, which requires regular employees to undergo a six-day training period and part-time employees to train for two days. The store manager of each store has the authority to adjust the category and quantity of the purchase, but the real decision is still the preferences and purchasing power of the target consumer.
Third, the ultimate product development process
7-11 pays attention to product research and development, especially food research and development projects, 7-11 has almost harsh requirements on taste, and has an uncompromising evaluation benchmark.
The advent of a new product requires not only the consent of the person in charge of product development, but also the tasting of it, including the founder and all the senior directors of the company, as long as everyone is satisfied with the taste, and can be officially allowed to be sold. On the contrary, if someone feels that the taste is flat, the headquarters will deduct the new product to re-manufacture.
Even with thousands of products produced every day, founders and top directors never compromise. Since customers want to pay for consumption, manufacturers must pursue the ultimate in the taste of food. If it is only perfunctory, it is very likely to lose "repeat customers".
7-11 If you find that the product is not as delicious as the acclaimed specialty store, you must thoroughly investigate the differences between the two. Although some manufacturers will use the excuse that the sense of taste is a very subjective feeling, and everyone's preferences are different, if the elements such as food materials, raw materials, and spices with unique taste are valued and analyzed one by one, then "delicious" can also be visualized. If all methods are exhausted like this, and after repeated research, it is not possible to make the food delicious, considering the reputation of the company, it is more sensible to stop the sale plan. The concept of product research and development is the link that can best reflect the business attitude of the enterprise, so it must be strictly required and strive for perfection.
In order to consistently implement R&D standards, 7-11 adopts a team form for product development.
The product development members take the product development leader of the 7-11 product headquarters as the core, and join the heads of various raw materials, equipment, manufacturers or suppliers, and the whole team needs to control all aspects from product planning to program concretization. Because food is divided into rice, pasta, salad, bread, desserts, beverages and other varieties, product research and development has also been divided into categories according to the food category to set up a project team, and strive to develop new products every day.
The NDF (Japan Fresh Food Federation) was established in 1979 by 7-11 and Japanese food manufacturers, which is a unique and unique organization of 7-11.
4. Supply management
The supply chain management of 7-11 convenience stores is the cornerstone of its business success, and its unique management methods mainly focus on customer demand management, supplier collaborative management and digitalization, realizing a highly integrated management model between customers, stores and suppliers.
1. Customer demand management
On 7-11, when each customer completes the purchase and goes to the counter to prepare for payment, the clerk will estimate the customer's gender and age, and then scan the purchased item barcode, which will be transmitted to the headquarters system. Through real-time location data analysis, store managers can analyze product trends and inventory rates for customer purchases every hour. Headquarters managers gather regional operating data, understand customer needs, can more quickly identify which goods and packaging attract customers, predict daily sales trends, adjust selling prices in real time, tally and delivery activities. On this basis, we work with manufacturers and wholesalers to develop new products that are closely following customer needs, and the replacement rate of goods updated annually from 7-11 is 70%.
2. Supplier collaborative management
7-11 with the supplier to share inventory information and in and out of the data, convenient for suppliers to do scheduling and strain; let the supplier participate in the management of the ordering system and information sharing, reduce the complexity of inventory management; 7-11 will be the POS system and the ordering system connection, that is, stores, logistics centers and suppliers can receive order information at the same time, according to the sales situation, to achieve automatic ordering. By determining the replenishment quantity based on actual and forecasted demand, 7-11 can control the out-of-stock rate of each store at an average world-class level of 0.12%.
3, numbering
A comprehensive internal information management network including AN-based automated diagnostics and adjustment systems for POS machines, inventory terminals, order terminals, store controllers and back-end headquarters data centers in front-end stores. In addition to the advanced internal information management network, 7-11 also has http://7Dream.com online business, providing travel, music, photography, gifts, mobile phones, admission tickets, books, car services and other e-commerce services, customers can choose to settle and pick up in the store or express delivery to home, online business and traditional store business operations are organically combined, fully play the advantages of the original commodity development and logistics services.
V. Summary of key points of 7-11 operation and management
1, the origin of the operation must be customer-oriented;
2. Starting from customers, we strive to break the shackles of inherent concepts;
3. Improve service and product quality by obtaining various information;
4) The things that most people oppose can usually achieve success other than that;
5, big data is cold, must be guided by someone to improve performance.
6. As a seller, you must not be easily disrupted by the movements of competitors or the general trend of the times.
7, the knowledge accumulated over the years will sometimes become an obstacle to us.
8, the real competitor is not other convenience stores, but the changing needs of customers.
9, Japanese consumers are full of contradictory "two-sidedness" in their thinking: even in the era of material abundance, they are not willing to easily take out their wallets; although they live a wealthy life, they are particularly sensitive to the phenomenon of "difference".
10. Capture the social situation of the target country, the changes in the living needs of residents, and provide products and services that are compatible with them, 7-11, which is a business strategy to cope with changes, can be described as universal.
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