The process of digitizing the automotive aftermarket has improved the user experience, but it has also led to increased pressure on the survival of traditional workshop-style "mom-and-pop shops".
In a report released by Roland Berger, Roland Berger pointed out that in the next 5 to 10 years, it will be a critical stage in the transformation and transformation of the independent post-market. The offline stores of the auto parts market will be integrated, especially the single store, which will become the object of integration, and the development trend of different channels is that the national and regional chain stores will maintain rapid development and expansion; the comprehensive maintenance plant will remain relatively stable; and the market share of "mom-and-pop stores" will decline. Public data shows that in 2021 alone, there will be more than 20,000 auto repair shops transferred on a website in the same city.
"The digitization process of the automotive aftermarket has accelerated, and the proportion of consumers booking and accessing car maintenance services online has increased significantly in the past two years. In addition, consumers are more receptive to standardized services, especially high-quality standard services. This has put the original scattered, fragmented, and single-handed individual auto repair factories and mom-and-pop shops in the market under tremendous pressure. Zeng Hongwei, director and general manager of Shanghai Fuchuang Industrial Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Fuchuang"), recently told the first financial reporter.
With the increase in car ownership, the scale of the automotive aftermarket has grown rapidly, and has now reached a trillion-level scale. According to the China Insight Consulting report, it is expected that the size of the automotive aftermarket will reach 1.7 trillion yuan by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 10%. However, the competition in the automotive aftermarket is also becoming more and more intense. As Zeng Hongwei said, individual auto repair factories and mom-and-pop shops are under tremendous pressure.
On the other hand, car dealers with 4S stores as the main body are also facing greater competitive pressure. In the past, due to the high price and opaque after-sales service of 4S stores, many consumers began to choose to leave the 4S stores for maintenance after the end of the warranty period. Although 4S stores have a user base, they are often criticized for their services and prices, while individual auto repair shops, although cheap, are guaranteed in terms of quality and service quality, which provides opportunities for the rest of the players in the automotive aftermarket field. In the face of this blue ocean market, Internet players including Tuhu Yangche and JD.com have entered the game.
The development of auto aftermarket players is also relatively rapid, tuhu, JD.com, Fuchuang and other players have built stores in the national enclosure. Taking the maintenance of Mobil No. 1 car established in July 2020 as an example, Fuchuang tries to break the status quo of the car maintenance industry and explore a new ecology of upstream and downstream integration of car maintenance. By the end of 2021, Fuchuang's stores of all types had reached 39,000, including more than 400 franchised stores, more than 1,700 brand certified stores, and the number of online registered users had also increased by nearly 5 times in 2021. The stores of the Beijing Tokyo Motor Club will also be 4,000-5,000 in the next three years, covering cities at all levels.
Shao Wei, founder of Mustang Internet, believes that the automotive aftermarket does not lack systems, but lacks digital infrastructure. The domestic aftermarket is too fragmented, especially the sinking market that covers the vast majority of car owners, and it is difficult for large-scale chain models to penetrate. Only digital infrastructure can be relied on to efficiently connect the entire ecosystem, so as to help the entire industry develop efficiently and synergistically.
"In the midst of market changes, we see very big opportunities." Zeng Hongwei told reporters that by operating the "Mobil No. 1 Car Maintenance" brand, Fuchuang has established a chain franchise system, which focuses on helping stores achieve standardization, quality and digitalization. Zeng Hongwei said that Fuchuang is doing full-link digitization from upstream to downstream. The tandem work between several key systems such as the data center of the consumer side of the Mobil No. 1 car maintenance consumer end and the data center of the store end is basically completed, and the key task this year is to integrate the data in the data center in the key scenes, that is, online and offline scenes, so that the key tasks can reach the store. At the same time, it empowers stores to realize the digitalization of the supply chain.
Although the automotive aftermarket is growing rapidly, there are still many industry pain points in the entire industry, including highly dispersed, non-standard competition, slow industrial efficiency improvement, and low consumer awareness and trust in aftermarket service enterprises. Because OEMs and accessories manufacturers absolutely control the right to speak in the industry, Internet companies that try to enter the automotive aftermarket cannot avoid the problems of traditional 4S stores and supply chain management.
The Beijing Tokyo Auto Association previously said that Internet car maintenance chain stores can rely on brand endorsement, starting from the headquarters, and cooperating with large brands, which often have their own logistics and car supply chain systems to ensure the supply and price stability of store products. Zeng Hongwei told reporters that this year to help the dealer network improve efficiency, one of the most important links is the supply chain category, Fuchuang now has 11 brand strategic cooperation upstream, all around the maintenance of products. In 2021, the construction of dealers in the city warehouse has doubled, there are more than 300 city warehouses in the country, covering oil, accessories, maintenance products, this year's important link is to expand the service category, improve the type of service items, so that consumers can get richer service items in the store. In addition, Fuchuang believes that the construction of store terminals can improve the efficiency and level of store operations through service support in many aspects such as brand, operation, training, supply chain, and system. However, Zeng Hongwei believes that the establishment of store standardization is still difficult, and the whole process is the process of establishing standards, implementing standards and fulfilling standards, but this is not achieved overnight.
From the perspective of the current development of the automotive aftermarket, many companies such as Tuhu Yangche, JD.com, Fuchuang and Tmall Yangche have entered the game, and the intervention of such enterprises will stir up the market pattern to a certain extent. However, Li Yi, chief operating officer of Xinkangzhong, believes that there should be no large number of store closures in the automotive aftermarket in the short term, but the total number of stores and workstations will definitely decrease in the long run. "Referring to other industries, the reduction of the total scale means that the industry is really upgraded and the efficiency becomes higher." Backward production capacity is eliminated is an inevitable result, in the next two to three years, the head player will definitely enhance the control of users, otherwise it is difficult to form a valuable help to the store. Among them, the supply chain, brand owners, etc. have laid out the auto service chain, although there are differences in the weight of the model, but the next industry problems are the same. As for the next 5 years, only companies with operational capabilities will survive. Li Yi said.