<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >1 Internet giants have entered the community group purchase</h1>
According to media reports, Jingdong is currently planning a community group purchase project called "Jingdong Preferred". The project will be launched at the end of December or early January next year, and will initially be piloted in Shandong, and then rolled out in the capital cities of jd.com's seven regions (East China, North China, Central China, South China, Southwest China, Northwest China, and Northeast China). At the same time, the omni-channel business group of the big commercial supermarket set up a separate community group purchase business department, which merged the original community group purchase business of Jingdong (Youjia Shop, Mo Mo Buy, Jingdong District District Purchase).
In addition to JD.com, there are also Internet giants such as Ali, Tencent, Meituan, ByteDance, Kuaishou, Didi, and Pinduoduo, and the community group buying is changing from "Three Kingdoms Killing" to "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea".
The originally somewhat neglected track of community group buying suddenly ushered in the collective entry of big and small giants in 2020. Capital is also optimistic about community group buying, believing that this is the "real form" of group buying.
△ The figure is from the network
Since the beginning of this year, the field of community group buying has been lively, and many major events have occurred:
In January, May and July, the Group received $88.3 million in Series B, $81.4 million in Series C and $80 million in Series C+, respectively. Among them, one of the B-round investors is Alibaba, which is also Ali's second investment in the Ten Hui Group;
In June, Tongcheng Life received a C round of $200 million financing;
In June, Xingsheng Preferred received $400 million in Financing from the F Series;
In July, Meituan announced the establishment of "Meituan Preferred" and officially entered the community group purchase;
In July, Ele.me launched "Community Buy";
In August, Didi's "Orange Heart Preferred" was launched. As early as April this year, Orange Heart Preferred tested the water in Chengdu, Sichuan Province;
In September, Pinduoduo's "Buy More Vegetables" was launched;
In September, Hema established Hema Preferred Business;
In October, the media reported that Kuaishou researchers for community group buying arrived in Changsha to investigate related enterprises;
In November, Didi CEO Cheng Wei said: Didi has no upper limit on the investment of Orange Heart Preferred, and strives to win the first place in the market. On November 10, Orange Heart Preferred announced that the daily orders exceeded 7 million, and said that this achievement "led the community e-commerce industry and became the first in the industry";
In addition, Today's headlines, Douyin's parent company ByteDance considers incubating the business itself, according to relevant sources, in the internal discussion of the plan, ByteDance's project was named "Buy Vegetables Today". According to reports, ByteDance has conducted research in Linyi, Shandong and Shijiazhuang, Hebei, with the participation of multiple business departments such as e-commerce divisions, content recommendation and data platform, and the current focus is on warehouse selection and supply chain links.
From the beginning of 2016 to 2020, the community group purchase has experienced fires, explosions, and mergers, in this battlefield, countless players have become victims and become martyrs; but there are also a few players who have persevered and become a powerful faction with great experience and combat effectiveness.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >2 Retailing has become the second growth curve for many restaurant companies
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Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic in 2020, most of the stores of Chinese catering enterprises were suspended in the first quarter, and the overall operation situation was seriously affected. In this case, catering companies have actively carried out self-help and have launched online takeaways, and some catering companies have begun to increase sales by selling prepackaged food and semi-finished products. According to the "Investigation Report on the Impact of the New Crown Pneumonia Epidemic on China's Chain Catering Industry" from the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, during the epidemic period, more than 90% of the surveyed companies made efforts to take out products, and 46.5% of the companies sold semi-finished products.
The "Research Report on the Retail Status of Prepackaged Food in Brand Catering Enterprises" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") jointly released by the China Chain Store and Franchise Association pointed out that in recent years, the supply chain and the layout of new retail have always been the direction of transformation and efforts of excellent catering enterprises, and the epidemic has made these catering enterprises realize the importance and necessity of laying out new retail.
△ Figure self-dining treasure book
For example, the hot pot enterprises that have been most active in the retailing of catering, such as Haidilao, Xiaolongkan and Xiaolongkan, have long laid out channels such as supermarkets and e-commerce, and their related business revenues have all achieved substantial growth since the epidemic. There are also some tea companies that have achieved good results, such as the first time to participate in the "Double Eleven" this year, the transaction amount during the "Double Eleven" period exceeded 10 million yuan, a number of single products ranked among the top 5 of the hot list, and the tmall flagship store fan increased by more than 200,000.
There are also some companies, such as Xibei, who have been trying semi-finished products before, and have stepped up their efforts during the epidemic. This year, it also set up a new business for retail channels , Jia Guolong Kung Fu Cuisine, whose super kitchen project was laid in Hohhot City and New District on October 9, and will become the largest central kitchen in the scale and production capacity of domestic catering enterprises after completion.
The report pointed out that both the catering enterprises themselves, as well as catering investment institutions and related institutions, have maintained a positive attitude towards the long-term development of catering retailing, although there is a relatively large bubble in the retailing of catering in the short term, but in the long run it is still the trend of the times.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >3 Community group buying may be a good opportunity for food and beverage retailing
The above-mentioned catering retail report pointed out that in the process of retailing, the main shortcomings of catering enterprises include limited channels for retail business in addition to insufficient understanding of retail and lack of professional teams. If there is no good channel, even if there is a very good product, its final effect will be greatly reduced. Channels are also considered to be the biggest difference between the restaurant industry and the retail industry.
The channels of catering retail are mainly divided into online and offline, with online e-commerce platforms as the mainstay, and offline mainly relying on stores, major supermarkets and convenience stores. At present, omni-channel has become the consensus of the industry. If the retailing of catering enterprises wants to do a good job, it is necessary to build omni-channels, especially channels that match their own products.
Among them, for catering enterprises, although the cost of their own private domain traffic is low, if they only rely on this private domain traffic, the retail business is unlikely to become bigger and stronger. Enterprises that really do well in retailing, without exception, almost all rely on external channels, and these companies attach great importance to the layout of external channels, which are a very important and critical part of the entire retail.
△ The picture is self-photographed from the picture network
So, why is community group buying perhaps a good opportunity for catering enterprises to retail? There are three reasons for this:
First, for catering enterprises, the traffic cost of traditional e-commerce platforms is too high; and for some catering enterprises whose brands lack obvious advantages, it will be more difficult to layout through offline channels. Therefore, a better solution is to find some more cutting-edge, young and flexible channels to cooperate. Xiaolongkan is more inclined to find such agents in offline channels, and its retail business has also achieved good results. Compared with other traditional channels, the channel of community group buying is younger, more flexible, and more imaginative.
Second, the entry of Internet giants, community group buying in the short term will become a game of capital and traffic, is bound to ignite the war in the fiercely competitive regional battlefield, carry out various subsidies, and rob users; at the same time, these players are also eager to find good businesses and good products. Catering companies can take the opportunity to deploy their own pre-packaged food, semi-finished products and other retail products through these platforms.
Third, because of its own business logic, it is difficult to produce a national monopoly giant, and the final result may be a win-win situation for all parties or the emergence of regional giants. For some catering enterprises that have influence in specific regions but are not well-known in the country, cooperation with such regional platforms is more targeted, and traffic will be more accurate and efficient.
Therefore, we believe that catering enterprises can seize the development opportunities of current community group buying and strive to enjoy the dividends of development.
Community group buying may be the "war" in which giant players in the history of the Chinese Internet have participated the most, and the current players are not the final winners, and the real victory may not be known until a few years later. But whoever wins in the end will be a great opportunity for the retailing of food and beverage companies.