Written by | Kagura Editor | Qin Yan
Source: Understand the notes
Preface
Whether the model regresses or not, having enough profits to make money is king.
Recently, there are media reports that seven stores in the Beijing area of Aunt Qian have closed. On January 19, Aunt Qian responded to the news of the large-scale closure of stores in Beijing, saying that most franchised stores had long-term losses and that the adjustment of stores was a normal business operation behavior, and attributed the reason for "losing" Beijing to "the particularity of the Beijing market" and "underestimating the difficulty of the Beijing market". There is also news that at present, the goods in many Qian Dama stores in Beijing have been emptied.
According to the report of the Value Research Institute, the profitability rate of Qian Dama's stores in South China exceeded 90%, which was 10%-20% higher than that of stores in other regions. It can be seen that in the field of community fresh retail, the business situation seems to be "different from north to south".
However, in South China, where the development of community fresh retail is better, there are also some franchised stores that are trying to break away from the brand and "start a new stove". After getting rid of the protection of the brand, how should the franchised stores drain and operate?
Fresh
Franchise stores "escape" the aura of fresh brands in the community
Recently, some netizens said that they often buy meat and vegetables in the community fresh retail store, suddenly replaced the original mainstream community fresh brand store signs and posters, replaced by "own" brands, suspected of "starting another stove".
As an ordinary consumer in the community, I understand the notes to come to the store in a residential area of Daya Bay, hoping to understand the reasons behind the "makeover" of the fresh store.
The store operator is the young post-95 Xiao Liu and her lover. "Oh, there's no special reason, I just don't want to work for capitalists anymore." When asked why the store "made a makeover", Xiao Liu said lightly that he felt that he could not make money by following the brand.
At the beginning of 2020, Xiao Liu and his lover set up a storefront in the rented community, spent 80,000 decoration fees, plus 50,000 yuan franchise fee, joined a mainstream community fresh brand, and became a community fresh retail store under the brand.
"Why didn't you go to the meat dish husband and wife stall yourself?" It is because the platform advertises a strong supply chain, the purchase price of goods is low, and even if it is a low price to grab the market, the store will have considerable profits. She told her to understand the notes that at the beginning, the community fresh stores did make money, and if they did not make money, she and her lover could not insist on losing money and making money.
According to Xiao Liu, the initial price of goods in the community fresh supply chain was indeed 15 to 30% lower than that of ordinary farmers' market wholesale. At that time, compared with the meat and vegetable husband and wife file, the division of labor in the community fresh supply chain was relatively fine, coupled with the combination of brands and enterprises online and offline, the cost of employment in the Internet field was relatively high, and a large amount of cost was needed to be invested in marketing publicity.
"Even if the fresh food is shipped to the store, there is also term loss, sorting loss, these are also costs." Xiao Liu analyzed that the actual cost of fresh goods in the community is not low, even higher than that of traditional farmers' markets, and the reason for the low purchase price of "books" is that it is constantly subsidized.
Some industry insiders revealed that similar to any Internet industry, the community fresh industry has invested a lot of money from the beginning to attract consumers by issuing red envelopes, reducing the price of goods through subsidies to attract small businesses and small stores to join.
However, the community fresh burns money to rob users and franchisees, where does the money come from?
The answer, of course, is the blood transfusion of the capital market. Ai media data shows that in 2019, when the community fresh industry was hot, a number of community fresh brands were financed. Among them, Aunt Qian and Yipin Fresh have obtained financing of 1 billion and 2 billion yuan respectively; and Yipin Fresh has obtained a C round financing of 2.5 billion yuan in 2020.
But in 2021, the financing of community fresh food is rarely heard. Instead, some community fresh brands have withdrawn, closed stores and the news of business adjustments.
"Brands that can't afford to burn money can only reduce the intensity of preferential treatment and increase the purchase price of goods." Xiao Liu told to understand the notes, so that through the low price to attract, disloyal users lost, and user loss coupled with reduced profit margins, accelerated the franchisee "defection".
Community franchisees either withdraw from the market and stop losses, or transform into mom-and-pop shops like Xiao Liu, returning to the traditional business model. According to her, at present, there are more than one fresh store in the community that has "started a new stove".
So, what is the confidence of the community fresh stores to stop "working" for capital?
Franchise stores pondered private domain traffic
At first glance, community fresh brands and franchisees are mutually beneficial. But in fact, between the brand and the franchise store, it can be said that each has its own "small nine-nine" - the franchisee uses the reputation established by the brand through marketing to attract users in the community, and the brand once again expands its influence through the store.
"After nearly two years of joining and cooperating, even if you are separated from the brand, you can engage in activities." Xiao Liu shook her mobile phone and said that after two years of cooperation, she used the influence of the community fresh brand to establish a user WeChat group.
At present, she has two WeChat groups of nearly 500 users, after leaving the franchised brand, although she has lost the promotion of the brand unity, the store can do some small promotions and small activities, and can also go directly to community users through weChat groups.
"In fact, some community fresh brands do not allow franchisees to establish their own WeChat groups, requiring franchisees to lure community users to their platforms to register and become members." Xiao Liu frankly said that almost all the franchisees of the brand have explicitly or implicitly pulled the user's WeChat group. The purpose is naturally also to one day be abandoned or detached from the brand by the brand, and can use the private domain traffic on hand to continue to operate.
Like many community fresh franchisees, Xiao Liu is now very superstitious about private domain traffic.
"Recently just left the brand, so also often in the group to send some egg promotion information, the effect of publicity is still quite good, at least many users will be because of the promotion to the store to consume." The sweetness created by private domain traffic also makes her more confident in the operation after leaving the brand.
Just after leaving the brand, does Xiao Liu's store also have certain advantages over the meat and vegetable husband and wife stalls in the market?
She nodded and said that the advantage also lies in private domain traffic, "Mom-and-pop shops that do business in the market only care about fresh meat and vegetables, and do not understand the operation of activities." ”
Indeed, although in recent years, mom-and-pop shops in the market have also begun to make good use of private domain traffic, some actively adding buyers as friends, some pulling up groups, but in addition to occasionally sending fresh dishes, maintaining relationships, and liking each other, there are almost no promotions and activities.
"In the two years since joining the brand, I have also learned how to plan and operate activities." The same is the hand of accurate private domain traffic, community fresh stores than the traditional meat and vegetable husband and wife stalls are stronger, in the operation and deep ploughing of traffic.
Xiao Liu frankly said that the current community fresh brand seems to be in decline, but two years of cooperation, let her understand what is the spirit of the Internet, and know how to reasonably plan and operate promotional activities, "It can be said that it is a valuable experience that the vegetable market can not learn in a lifetime." ”
However, franchisees who have left the brand, although they hold private domain traffic and do promotional activities, it seems that they also convert store sales through low prices and profits. It is curious whether the fresh stores that have ended joining can escape the brand's "low price and low quality" curse?
Community fresh stores to do social marketing?
For "mom-and-pop shops", it is unsustainable to keep making profits, and there is no financial resource to keep "burning money" for activities. Therefore, after planning several days of promotional activities, Xiao Liu had to consider the issue of profitability.
"After all, the users in the micro are attracted by low prices, and there is no loyalty." Because of this, she is also very clear that once the promotion in the store weakens, the sales will decrease, so she can only change the way of operation to attract users.
Xiao Liu explained that the way community fresh stores operate is usually a standardized process. That is, standardized products, standardized packaging, standardized prices, and the cashier process is also standardized, "Therefore, there is not much interaction between operators and consumers, and there is a lack of temperature." ”
Even if it is separated from the brand, the fresh store is also beyond the reach of the traditional husband and wife store in terms of marketing publicity and promotion planning. However, in terms of interaction with customers and consumers, she believes that independent community fresh stores need to actively learn from mom-and-pop stores.
"Now without the process and standardized management of the brand, the operator will be more free." As a result, Xiao Liu and his lover in the business, also began to pay attention to the door-to-door neighbor Lala home, nagging about the recent social hot current events.
The purpose is to enhance the emotional communication between stores and community consumers, and build a relationship of trust, "I have also observed in the market before, many of the familiar customers of the husband and wife stalls, the relationship is quite good, even if the meat and vegetables sold are slightly more expensive, but as long as the quality relationship is good, there will be repeat customers." ”
In the name of consumers, when she went to several nearby fresh stores that were independently operated by the brand to learn the business model, she also saw the feasibility of social marketing of fresh food in the community, "Now it is completely home-bought and sold, and it is necessary to operate with care." ”
However, for some community fresh franchisees who choose to break away from the brand and operate independently, Zhang Qia (pseudonym), who was engaged in the operation of a community fresh brand in Guangzhou, is very disgusted, and he believes that the independent operation of community fresh stores is a regression in the model.
"It's not about whitewashing the community fresh, after all, I've been out of the community fresh industry for a year." He does not deny that in recent years, the pain points of the community fresh model are still not able to run through the business logic, and most of the brands are trapped in the vicious circle of low price and low quality.
But away from the brand, independent operation, back to the "mom-and-pop shop" model, is undoubtedly a big regression in the fresh industry, with the community fresh brand can not let more franchisees make money, similar back-to-back will be intensified, "community fresh failed to kill the mom-and-pop shop, but became a mom-and-pop shop, really ridiculous." ”
As for whether the fresh stores that have separated from the community fresh brands and operated independently can finally escape the low-price dilemma of community fresh food, move towards social, refined operation and success, it is too early to make a conclusion.
The only thing that is certain is that the seemingly mutually beneficial relationship between community group buying brands and franchisees is gradually disintegrating. For more stores, whether the model is regressive or not, having enough profits to make money is king.
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