Orange Heart preferred to launch the "Orange Treasurer": abandon the fresh category and operate lightly

Source: Third Eye Retail Author: Zhang Siyao

Orange Heart Preferred is quietly testing new business.

"The Third Eye on Retail" noted that an app called "Orange Treasurer" was launched in the Android app market. Open its main page to see that this is the "one-stop procurement and sales platform" launched by Orange Heart For supermarkets, convenience stores, grocery stores, catering stores, Internet cafes and other formats, involving wine and beverage preparation, bread and cake, personal care cleaning, leisure snacks, daily necessities, grain and oil seasoning, dairy baking and other categories. At present, Henan, Hebei, Yunnan, Fujian, Guangdong and other regions have been launched.

Orange Treasurer is also focusing on advancing its business from two directions. On the one hand, it is based on the city as a unit to recruit regional partners. Among them, Orange Heart preferred to provide platform, operation guidance, resource docking and other support, and regional partners need to undertake functions such as commodity distribution, channel expansion, logistics warehousing and capital investment. Regional enterprises with local resources, including traditional dealers, will become the expansion objects of Orange Treasurer.

On the other hand, at the regional operation level, Orange Treasurer will also introduce suppliers and B-end small shop owners by regional partners. According to a group of official data of orange treasurer, the average daily GMV of regional partners connected to orange managers in Ninglang increased by 110%, the number of SKUs in the commodity pool increased by 200%, and the efficiency of personnel increased by nearly 50%; Dali regional partners added hundreds of small shops, and the sales of small shop orders increased by nearly 7 times.

Although Orange Heart Preferred has not made a systematic interpretation of the Orange Treasurer business, it can be seen from its recent trends that this is an important attempt by Orange Heart Preferred to shift from a community group purchase track to a B2B matching platform. Three of these key changes are noteworthy.

First, the attributes of Orange Heart's preferred asset-light operation are very obvious. This is first reflected in the cost structure of the orange manager, including warehousing, logistics, supply, terminal distribution and other sectors are borne by regional partners and suppliers, and the capital investment that needs to be borne by the orange manager is greatly reduced. Secondly, at the level of marketing and promotion of recruiting small shop owners, the subsidy of orange shopkeepers is also significantly weaker than that of the early orange heart preference.

Second, from the perspective of category, the orange treasurer did not launch the fresh category. This means that the orange keeper avoids the high-frequency, but difficult to operate fresh category, and its operational logic will also change. For example, changing the direction of focus from improving user stickiness to expanding coverage is a major attempt direction. The development vision in the official materials of Orange Treasurer is also expressed as "laying a broad channel of To B today, and sitting on a higher gross profit space of To C tomorrow".

Third, at the level of business prospect planning, Orange Treasurer also has the vision of becoming a digital upgrade solution provider. At present, the important support it provides is to help regional partners achieve system upgrades, and in terms of later development, Orange Treasurer also put forward the goal of "becoming the leader in the digital upgrading of the national consumer goods industry".

Leverage the power of traditional channels

Focus on commodity diversity

From the perspective of orange heart preferred operation of orange treasurer, with the help of traditional channel power is a big change. This not only reduces the resource and channel thresholds in the early stage of the expansion of the orange treasurer market, but also helps to weaken the financial pressure of the orange dispenser and achieve profitability as soon as possible.

"The Third Eye on Retail" understands that the business logic of orange manager can be divided into three levels, namely from orange manager (platform side) to regional partner (agent), from regional partner to supplier/brand owner, and then from regional partner to radiate small shop owners. Among them, the main link that is really controlled by the orange manager is the platform operation and agent recruitment management.

Depending on the level, orange managers also have corresponding cooperation models. For example, when the platform party cooperates with the agent, it is mainly under the premise that the agent bears the operating costs of goods, warehousing, transportation, etc., and the deduction point is shared with the platform party, and the proportion is about 1%-2%. When agents recruit suppliers, they use a buyout business model, so the former holds the right to goods. When the small shop owner purchases and places an order, it is similar to the small wholesale model, usually starting from 300 yuan.

An agent in Kunming, Yunnan Province, told Third Eye Retail that they were the exclusive agents authorized by the orange treasurer. It can promote cooperation, but also because I have been doing commodity distribution for more than ten years, and the business is becoming more and more difficult to do, so I hope to get more development space through orange display cabinets.

It can be seen from the agent filter conditions officially expressed by orange managers that on the one hand, orange managers are looking for local enterprises that need to break through the pain points of operation. For example, it has a single main commodity structure; most customers are wholesale channels, and the proportion of high-quality small shop business is low; the comprehensive gross profit margin is low; the lack of systematic management and the difficulty of expanding the scale are problems. On the other hand, the orange treasurer will also screen the intended agents from the hardware conditions. Including more than 5 brand regional agency rights, more than 5 own sales personnel, more than 100 small shop resources, more than 800 square meters of warehouse resources and other conditions.

These regional agents will control the key links such as small shop new, supplier recruitment, selection and sales, distribution and after-sales in the area. The platform order wholesale model of Orange Treasurer is also conducive to solving the problems of long account period and capital occupation of regional agents in the traditional distribution mode.

Moreover, regional agents are more aware of localization needs and more flexible, which is conducive to quickly opening the market. However, the platform model also has certain operational risks. For example, the negative problems caused by a certain regional agent may affect the overall brand image of Orange Treasurer and Orange Heart Preferred.

For small shopkeepers, the main attraction of orange shoppers is the diversity of goods.

Most operators such as husband and wife stores and tobacco and alcohol non-staple food stores in the fourth- and fifth-tier areas lack systematic supplier channels, and more rely on salesmen of local distributors to deliver goods. This will lead to problems such as small purchase quantities and weak price advantages. For example, a husband and wife shop owner only needs 2 pieces of Braised Beef Noodles from Master Kong at a time, although there were mineral water, beverages and other categories before, but when the order is disassembled into the hands of a single product salesman, it is impossible to get a lower price.

And the orange keeper can consolidate orders. This is also the main selling point of the B2B matching platform, that is, to solve the small batch procurement and delivery needs of small shop owners. "The Third Eye on Retail" learned that when the starting amount of a single order is set to 300 yuan, its gross profit margin can basically cover the transportation cost of about 15 yuan, and it can also be profitable.

An orange treasurer agent in the Jiaozuo area of Henan Province revealed that when the initial business volume is small, they will distribute through third-party crowdsourcing logistics such as Lala, and will consider building their own distribution team until the business volume reaches a certain scale in the later stage.

It can also be seen that Orange Treasurer is borrowing the existing power of the traditional distribution network to explore a new business model in the B2B matching platform model. However, through the app market downloads, the Orange Treasurer APP has only 100+ downloads in the Android mobile app market, and the iOS version of the mobile app market has not yet been launched, which shows that it has not been rolled out in a large area at the small shop owner level.

To B, To C two directions

Multi-dimensional competition is a difficult point

At the beginning of the launch of the orange treasurer, orange heart preferred did not make a clear plan for it. However, with the progress of the business, the orange treasurer has gradually revealed the two major breakthrough directions of To B and To C.

From the perspective of B-end business, Orange Treasurer is currently focusing on improving the scale of small stores and GMV. Compared with the community group buying business, it is relatively easy to improve the GMV of the wholesale business. For example, another group batch business platform for small shop owners such as community group buying leaders can reach an annual procurement scale of about 6 billion yuan after covering 350,000 small shop owners.

On this basis, the orange manager can use this as a chip to obtain more bargaining power and resources to the upstream brand. Then, the brand side of the new product launch, explosive promotion and other actions may become the source of profits of the orange treasurer. For regional agents and small shop owners, the overall procurement scale of Orange Treasurer may help them reduce procurement costs and thus improve the comprehensive gross profit margin.

At the same time, Orange Treasurer is also trying to become a digital upgrade solution provider for regional agents, small shop owners and other operators. At present, the target customers of major domestic digital service providers are mostly concentrated in medium-sized and large-scale enterprise groups such as mainstream retailers and national chain professional stores, and small B forces such as husband and wife stores have not yet been focused on by service providers. Theoretically, this provides a certain market space for the orange treasurer.

The revitalization of the C-end retail business is also a major purpose of The initial launch of the Orange Palmer business. According to Late Post, "Several Orange Hearts Preferred employees said they only knew the target profitability of the wholesale business. A vague direction is to first roll out the wholesale business across the country and make a full profit, and then find opportunities to synergize with the retail business. ”

However, from the perspective of the current business model of Orange Treasurer, it still faces many difficulties.

For example, when the orange manager is promoted in fourth- and fifth-tier cities such as Ninglang and Jiaozuo, a major background factor is that the traditional distribution network is not sound enough. The local small shopkeeper is difficult to get the goods, and will enter the orange shopkeeper system to collect goods. But when the orange manager enters first- and second-tier cities such as Guangdong, it will encounter multi-dimensional competition.

Among them, there are B2B platforms such as Ali Retail Pass that have been operating for many years, with a full range of categories and many users; there are also group batch platforms that have risen in the past two years, mainly selling "white-brand" goods so that they can provide higher gross profit space for operators such as husband and wife stores; and the sales network laid by mature dealers will also be more perfect with the higher the city level.

In addition, restrictions such as prohibiting channeling goods and protecting the rights and interests of dealers in traditional distribution channels will also become important variables that affect the deep connection between Orange Treasurer and brand owners. Although there are some brands that intend to break the traditional distribution system or have a sinking plan, they will use the hands of forces such as community group buying groups to directly contact small B groups such as husband and wife stores in the low-line market. But for now, it is still in the minority.

This means that if the orange manager wants to cover the whole country, it must first solve the problem of changes in the market environment brought about by the unbalanced regional development of the FMCG industry. Secondly, it is difficult to attract small shopkeepers with a full range of categories and low prices. How to provide performance growth solutions for small shop owners, optimize their commodity structure, and business capabilities are important ways to establish long-term cooperation.

However, in view of the fact that Orange Treasurer is expanding the blank market by recruiting regional partners, compared with the direct operation of the platform, the difficulty of improving the refined operation ability will also increase. 【End】