Text | E-commerce online, the author | Shen Songnan, the editor | Si asked
The opening screen advertisement of nearly 15 seconds could not stop the enthusiasm of everyone to buy Moutai.
Since March 28, Guizhou Moutai public account official announcement "i Moutai" App open for download on the same day, for 3 consecutive days, i Moutai App has ranked first in the App store free list, every day 430,000 people download "i Maotai", more than a number of national APP, Qimai data shows that from March 28 to 30, 430,000 people download "i Moutai" every day, the popularity can be seen.
Some i Moutai subscription styles
According to the subscription rules, the subscription time is 9-10 a.m. every day, and the requisitioner needs to be at least 18 years old and complete real-name authentication and ID card information registration. At the same time, each account and each variety can only be subscribed once.
After the official opening of the subscription at 9 o'clock on March 31, the purchase results are announced at 18 o'clock every day, and users can choose to pick up the goods at the nearest Moutai distribution point. "E-commerce Online" observed that among the nearby stores, Moutai 1935 had the largest amount of delivery, with a total of 51 bottles in the three stores. The two-bottle non-Yin Tiger Year wine is the least, a total of only 12 boxes, but the number of subscribers has exceeded 10,000 people in a single store less than 20 minutes after opening, and the difficulty can be imagined.
At present, the platform aggregates 12 third-party e-commerce platforms, including the comprehensive e-commerce platform Tmall, JD.com, and the wine vertical e-commerce "Wine Convenience" and "Jiuxian Network", etc., providing time for the show and supporting one-click jump.
i Moutai Aggregation part of the third-party platform
From the first self-built e-commerce, the final shutdown, to the distribution of goods through third-party platforms such as Tmall, and now fighting e-commerce, the iron heart to do direct operation. This article tries to answer: what kind of strategic direction does Moutai carry? Moutai, which has grown in the distribution system, how should it lay out its own e-commerce platform?
01 Moutai's e-commerce past
As early as 2010, Moutai has tested the water e-commerce, opened a Moutai online mall, but the supply at that time was extremely small, and some styles even only put 20 pieces, mainly playing the role of "price benchmarking".
In the trend of e-commerce, Moutai envisages to gather the resources of the subsidiaries of the upstream group, the midstream logistics company, and the offline store (dealer) system to jointly serve downstream consumers.
In June 2014, "Guizhou Moutai Group E-commerce Co., Ltd." was established, when the supply and demand relationship of Moutai was not as tense as it is today, and e-commerce still solved the problem of dealer inventory and capital flow. Two years later, Moutai launched the "cloud business platform", which put forward a requirement of 30% of the distribution quota for sales through cloud merchants, which means that dealers should take out 30% of the goods to be sold by cloud merchants, and the dealers will distribute them and charge service fees. According to the "China Entrepreneur Network", the total sales revenue of Moutai e-commerce channels exceeded 4.6 billion yuan that year, compared with the total revenue of 40.16 billion, accounting for 1/9.
However, the self-built e-commerce company then encountered many reasons and gradually stopped, so Moutai set its sights on the third-party platform.
In September 2019, Moutai is facing the national investment promotion, and intends to select 3 comprehensive e-commerce platforms to supply 400 tons of Feitian 53% vol 500ml Guizhou Moutai wine (with cup), supplying 170 tons, 130 tons and 100 tons respectively according to the ranking, and each bottle is sold at the official guidance price of 1499 yuan, at that time, the market price of Moutai is close to 2500 yuan. In the end, Tmall and Suning Tesco were shortlisted and obtained quotas.
Nowadays, third-party e-commerce platforms have become a normalized channel for Moutai distribution. For example, Tmall supermarket is 8 p.m., Jingdong is 10 a.m., and the two head e-commerce companies have a stable volume of Feitian Moutai almost every day.
Tmall supermarket Moutai launch
"China Times" once interviewed liquor analyst Cai Xuefei on this, the other side said that e-commerce investment is Moutai to change the original hierarchical agency system, do the continuation of the consumer direct sales strategy, the purpose is to maintain the normal price of manufacturers, shorten the channel, crack down on speculation hoarding, which is in line with the e-commerce direct sales of Moutai cloud merchants, as well as cleaning up dealers.
However, some insiders said that in the current e-commerce platform is a younger user group, the proportion of real bottle drinking or gifts is doubtful, and it is still possible to flow to the scalper after the price increase. At the same time, considering that the total quota obtained by the e-commerce platform is 400 tons, even if the offline supermarkets such as costco, Wumart, RT-Mart, etc. also have a quota of 200 tons, but compared with moutai sales of more than 30,000 tons that year, the proportion is not high. Moutai's offline distribution channels still occupy a larger right to speak.
02 What can i Moutai bring to Moutai?
Direct sales accounted for more than 20%
Ding Xiongjun, chairman of Moutai Group, said at the February 2022 group meeting that it is necessary to implement the digital marketing law, accelerate the completion of new retail shortcomings, and build and improve the digital marketing platform. At the extraordinary shareholders' meeting in September last year, Ding Xiongjun proposed to promote the reform of the marketing system and the price system.
These top-level designs, reflected in the financial report data, all point to the same specific measures: strengthen direct sales channels and optimize the distribution system.
According to the latest Moutai 2021 annual report, the number of domestic dealers is 2046, compared with 2987 in 2018, and in three years, Moutai has reduced the net number of dealers by about 900. At the same time, Moutai direct revenue accounted for 22% of 2021 from 5.94% in 2018.
Number of dealers changes for 2018-2021: on 2018, down 2021
Moutai business model to the dealer model, and is a rare industry "first payment after goods" model, accounts receivable is 0, "first payment after goods", is the dealer to pay the full amount to pick up the goods. Such a model reflects the strong voice of enterprises in the industry to a certain extent, such as Moutai and Haitian Flavor Industry, which are representatives of this model.
However, there are more risks in the proportion of distribution too high, such as the double-track price brought about by it, the loss of brand image, the obstruction of brand control of genuine products, and so on. Many celebrities sell alcohol frequently on live broadcasts, and the problem lies in the problem of cattiness and authenticity in the distribution price. Therefore, similar to Taobao Live's review of liquor categories will be more stringent, and employees of the huge engine of the byte commercialization department also said that liquor categories need to be reported in advance for advertising on the platform.
i Moutai is undoubtedly an important part of the path to strengthen direct operation, but it remains to be seen how many quotas i Moutai currently has, and whether it will launch the main "hard currency" Feitian Moutai.
The first private domain position
According to the Data Bureau of Statistics, in 2021, liquor enterprises above designated size in the country achieved sales revenue of 603.348 billion yuan, an increase of 18.6% year-on-year; the total profit was 170.194 billion yuan, an increase of 32.95% year-on-year. Traditional baijiu is still a fertile land full of imagination.
According to the "2020 Young People's Alcohol Consumption Insight Report" released by CBNDATA, domestic liquor is still the first choice in online alcohol consumption after 90 and 95, followed by wine and foreign wine. Although the penetration rate of liquor and water e-commerce is low and the average unit price is high, it does not prevent liquor from testing young consumer groups.
"2020 Young People's Alcohol Consumption Insight Report"
From Jiang Xiaobai, who aims at young people, to Guanyun, who has invested in Yuanqi Forest, Lu Xiao'er, Wuliangye's "hot family" in Luzhou's old cellar, and the blueberry refined wine jointly launched by Maotai and Xinxiao Ao jianghu mobile games. These young liquor brands or product lines are all traditional categories of liquor, which are young attempts made at the time of the iteration of the main consumers.
In the official interpretation of the name "i Moutai", "i" represents three meanings: internet (Internet), international (international). At the same time, there are individuals ( individuals ) , Moutai wants to get closer to consumers. And the consumers here, perhaps more specifically refer to young people.
Whether it is a social network or an e-commerce platform, Moutai with many labels such as consumer goods and financial products has never lacked topics and popularity among consumer groups. From the product price, the company's stock price, any wind and grass in Moutai has always been a potential stock for the whole network hot search. But it is such a "traffic password" that has never built its own private domain among young consumers.
"E-commerce Online" observed that both Moutai's public account and Mini Program are more "traditional" than its product lines. It is not difficult to find that from the beginning of i Moutai wind, whether it is Moutai public account or App, a large number of Moutai cartoon images and nicknames such as "Xiaomao" and other young elements have begun to appear on the page, such as pictures of the countdown to purchase, the user's default avatar, and the naming of online customer service.
i The youthful elements of Moutai
Moutai has not yet opened a brand flagship store on Tmall or JD.com, and there is no more private domain position in addition to the online official website. i Moutai is expected to close the brand influence that originally drifted and penetrated in all aspects of society, forming Moutai's first private domain position. Private domain traffic is as expensive as gold, which is equally important for Moutai in the future, and in the future, Moutai can use i Moutai to innovate, do marketing, tell brand stories, and transform imagination.
i Moutai's e-commerce platform is online, and it may not need to worry about its user volume, daily active, monthly active and other data. As long as you think carefully about the design of daily subscriptions, such as pushing some scarce funds, commemorative funds, or flying in the sky, it is enough to be "overcrowded".
Collect traffic from third-party subscription aggregation platforms
A senior scalper showed "E-commerce Online" the "Mao Raiders" in his hand, from major public accounts such as "Grab Mao Treasure Book", "Mao Powder Reservation", to various paid groups, as well as APP such as "Get Together", "Explore the Tide", and even update the daily product quotations. Moutai's strong circulation and financial attributes have made scalpers a professional and mature business.
The above-mentioned information from the public account to the App will provide its users with information such as the scale of the third-party platform, the opening hours, and even the rush to buy strategies, and even plug-in auxiliary software, which can be called a one-stop nanny service.
One user said that through the auxiliary software, she had snapped up six bottles of Feitian on the e-commerce platform, and it was difficult to even enter the payment page before. It can be seen that the mature scalper service matrix has attracted more people to join in disguise, expanding the scale of scalpers. And Moutai, who is bent on controlling the price, has suffered greatly from it.
A third-party Moutai snap-up aggregation platform download page
i Moutai is trying to become a "cattle knife". On the one hand, the subscription will generate a unique subscription code on the blockchain for the user, and the whole process can be traced back. Secondly, ID card registration + real celebrity face recognition, as well as offline delivery need to verify identity information again, weakening the possibility of scalpers using the "account matrix" to purchase in large quantities. The self-built e-commerce platform, relying on the logic of subscription rather than rushing to buy, can also make plug-in software useless for the time being.
This set of logic, similar to the membership model when Costco puts Moutai, not only needs to verify the IDENTITY card, but also has to match the membership status. To a certain extent, the interference of scalpers is reduced, giving normal consumers the opportunity to buy Maotai.
"Bottle opening rate" is a long-term pain point of Moutai, hoarding is strange, and the uncountable amount of Moutai reserves on the market is always a "bomb". The subscription model of i Moutai and other platforms is a useful attempt to see if more quotas will be offered in the future, or open up feitian.
Picking up goods from distribution outlets also allows consumers to bid farewell to the "paradox" phenomenon of the guidance price Moutai sold by distribution outlets, which is never available.
03 How will the story of young people be told
At 0:00 on the same day as the official operation of i Moutai, Moutai officially released its 2021 annual report. In addition to the known revenue growth of 11.71%, the first time to break through the scale of 100 billion, net profit increased by 12.34% to 52.46 billion. When the scale of revenue continues to rise, the growth rate of Moutai has actually declined for 4 consecutive years.
Moutai revenue and growth rate in 2017-2021
We can also see that the number of dealers in Moutai is decreasing, and the number of dealers has increased by 63 in the year. Moutai distributors are divided into two categories: the increase is mainly sauce liquor series distributors, while Moutai liquor distributors are still slowly decreasing.
As well as Moutai's consolidated balance sheet, accounts receivable are still normalized "0", and the brand power of dealers and markets is still incomparable.
"China Buffett" Duan Yongping just recently posted in the snowball that he had a little more money on hand, so he bought some Maotai, there is no special reason, purely optimistic. But now the price band of thousand yuan liquor is crowded, in 2017, the national cellar 1573 price increase into the thousand yuan price band, followed by Jian Nanchun's 52 degrees of Oriental Red 1949, Gujing Gong Vintage Pulp · Gongxun Pool Wine. In recent years, there are also Dream Blue M9, Shuijingfang Collection Master and so on. At the same time, the revenue of Wuliangye has now exceeded 50 billion, and the growth rate is even stronger.
Liquor is particularly special as a water drink, with many attributes such as consumer goods, social currency, and even collectibles. It also makes its pricing and distribution particularly complicated. i Moutai is a young attempt for industry players to cope with new consumer groups and scenarios. Of course, the possibility of follow-up by subsequent players is not ruled out.
Ji Keliang, a former director of Moutai Factory, said in an interview that young people do not drink liquor because they have not yet grown up. Nowadays, many post-90s generations have entered the year of standing, and the story of young people and liquor needs to be told by the market.