Just in January 2022, Caijing published a report showing that Shihui Tuan, one of the "giants" of community group buying, is now almost "empty" in Beijing headquarters, and employees basically have none, except for the security of door-to-door debt collectors every day. It is reported that the total deposit and payment owed by the Shihui Group to the supplier have exceeded 10 million yuan.
At the same time, the Ten HuiTuan also owes many grid warehouse merchants delivery fees, the total amount is more than 5 million yuan, and even the security personnel have said that the Shihui Tuan also owes hundreds of thousands of yuan to the security company. Such a status quo, coupled with the "negative news" about the Ten Hui Group in the market, the only explanation is that this former "giant" has "exploded".
Speaking of which, Shihui Group used to be a real leader in the community group buying market.
Once favored by capital, Ali is an important shareholder
Community group buying is an emerging market, and the ten group was only established in 2018, at first it was only fresh and fruit, and later merged with the "I, you and you" platform, and under the fermentation of the "black swan event", the community group buying became more and more or, and the position of the ten groups in this market also ranked in the top three positions.
Moreover, everyone also knows that when the community group purchase market has just risen, the "price war" of "burning money subsidies" has struck a hit, and the Ten Hui Group can be said to have a rich strength. Why? Because the Ten Clubs were favored by a large amount of capital, the amount of financing was enough to make it gain a place in the "price war".
It is reported that from its establishment to 2022, Shihui Group has received a total of 7 rounds of financing, with a total amount of more than 1.3 billion US dollars, which is converted into about 7.7 billion yuan. Moreover, Alibaba is also an important shareholder of alibaba, because the number and amount of its investment in the ten groups are very high.
Not only did it invest four rounds in 2020, but the financing in March 2021 was also led by Alibaba, with a total amount of $750 million, or about 4.75 billion yuan. It seems that Internet giant Alibaba is also very optimistic about the Ten HuiTuan. Of course, the Ten Club Group also lived up to the expectations of capital, and after obtaining a large amount of financing, it continued to expand and continuously improve its status.
It is reported that in April 2020, the daily order of Shihui Group was once more than 1.6 million, and at the same time, its business spread throughout 25 provinces across the country, with a total of 830,000 communities and 50.83 million household users. Even in the first half of 2021, the total number of employees of the Ten Hui Group has reached more than 100 million.
Layoffs, order declines, grid warehouse closures
Unfortunately, the scenery of the past was fleeting, and the development path of the Ten Hui Group took a turn, all the way down. From the end of 2020, the state began to supervise the "price war" and "low-price subsidies", and the Shihui Group was punished many times in 2021, and the amount of punishment alone was more than 2 million yuan.
Of course, the punishment is not the most important, the most important thing is that the community group buying is an industry that relies on subsidies to survive, and it is natural to suddenly not let subsidies and business deteriorate. It is reported that from the second half of 2021, the Ten Hui Group has experienced a decline in orders, and even the problem of grid warehouse losses.
It is reported that there were more than 2,000 SKUs on the Shihuituan platform at its peak, but now there are less than 100 left. At the same time, since September, the Shihui group has shut down multi-provincial business, and the grid warehouses in Qingdao, Harbin, Yunnan and other places have also been closed. By January 2022, the Shihui Group was even fined 300,000 yuan again for collecting money and not shipping.
It was also during this period that news of a large number of layoffs from the Ten HuiTuan flocked to the scene, and the report of Lianxin Insight said that in those areas where the business had been shut down, the layoff rate had reached about 30% to 40%. It seems that today's Ten Hui Group has really had a "crisis".
Is the community group buying not working?
Some people also say that the ten groups are just a microcosm of the industry, and it may not be that the ten groups are not working, but the community group buying is not working. It is reported that since the second half of 2021, many community group buying platforms have collapsed, for example, the same city life, which has just been renamed Honey Orange Life, has publicly declared that it is not doing well and decided to apply for bankruptcy;
Since July 2021, the WeChat Mini Program has been unusable; and The Carrot has also announced that it will stop operating. This kind of news shows quite a sign of "annihilation". And now that the Ten Hui Group has "exploded", is it really impossible for the community group to buy?
It is not, industry expert Chen Weilong said that the scale of the community group buying industry is still very large, and the industry is also growing. It is reported that the scale of the fourth quarter of 2021 is about 35 million single / day, in the long run, the community group purchase is cheaper than the supermarket, the profit level is not lower than the supermarket, or very developed.
In this way, the industry is still very promising, and it is currently developing well. And the Ten HuiTuan, or even other platforms that have failed, may really have to find their own reasons. I don't know if you have ever purchased goods in the community group buying platform? Do you have any thoughts on the community buying industry? Feel free to leave a message in the comments section.