"Huaxia Wine News" reporter Jin Feng
"I am the owner of a tobacco and alcohol store in Buyeo City, Jilin Province, and I have been running a tobacco hotel for 16 years. In previous years, the store distributed regular liquor, the turnover can be stable and rising every year, and the profit is 150,000-200,000. But in the past two years, we have obviously felt that the operation is difficult, and the online live broadcast has made many customers become peers, and the new liquor stores offline can be seen everywhere. Adhering to the traditional route is not a long-term solution, I want to represent other products, and I am afraid that I will not find the right one, what should I do? What is the way forward? ”
Recently, the reporter of Huaxia Liquor News received a message from a tobacco and alcohol store owner. In the past two years, in the field of terminal physical stores in the circulation of alcohol, there are not a few similar situations with couples in the northeast.
Relevant data show that in 2020, 3.1 million physical stores in the mainland collapsed; in 2021, the number of physical stores closed more than 10 million, mainly including restaurants, clothing stores, bakeries, milk tea shops and tobacco hotels.
New marketing accelerates the reshuffle of traditional stores
As early as 2012, some people predicted that tobacco and alcohol stores would disappear by 50% within five years, and the obvious downward inflection point of their sales model was in the Spring Festival in 2020. During the epidemic, people were isolated at home, which to a certain extent promoted the development and popularization of new media such as vibrato, video numbers, and today's headlines, and also brought opportunities for practitioners of new media in the wine industry.
The emergence of new media marketing has accelerated the decline of the sales model of tobacco and alcohol stores. The reporter of Huaxia Liquor News noted that new media marketing has brought two major changes to the traditional sales model.
First of all, the information dissemination speed of wine products is faster and more transparent, whether it is vibrato, video number or today's headlines, they can quickly popularize the knowledge of wine. Through new media marketing, such as old wine identification, counterfeiting of famous wine, product tasting, etc., consumers have mastered a lot of alcohol professional knowledge, broadened their horizons, and strengthened and accelerated the reshuffle of the sales model of tobacco and alcohol stores.
Secondly, some new media salespeople take advantage of the rapid dissemination of information, and in only two years, the new media sales model has undergone subversive changes, and formed a serious internal volume in the field of traditional terminal retail stores. For example, a fan anchor with hundreds of thousands of people sells more alcohol in a day or a year than a traditional distributor in a region. The development of new media marketing models has left tobacco and alcohol stores with nowhere to go.
Talking about the development trend of tobacco and alcohol stores, Zeng Pintang founder Zeng Yu said: "In the next one or two years, there will be a large number of tobacco hotels closing. ”
In Zeng Yu's view, the traffic of traditional tobacco hotels has shifted to the stores of foreign giant crocodiles such as Gome Cellar and Suning Liquor Store.
"In addition, at present, whether it is a national or regional chamber of commerce, associations, councils, etc., there will be several people selling alcohol, these people's product stores are not in the tobacco hotel, but in the circle of friends, people with customer resources have seized the traffic of traditional tobacco hotels, and directly to consumers." Zeng Yu analyzed that in the past, most of the tobacco hotels were located in the most core commercial centers of the city, and now the traffic has shifted, from the commercial center to the mobile phone, the circle layer, the clubhouse, so the tobacco hotel will eventually be eliminated by mobile phones, circle layers, high-end clubs, etc., and even eliminated by different industries.
Increase traffic, strengthen yourself, and conform to human nature
According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 7 million traditional tobacco, alcohol and tea shops in the mainland, how to make tobacco hotels better survive and let practitioners have money to earn?
"What will the future of a money-making tobacco hotel look like?" Please answer my two questions first: Are you willing to sell alcohol for less money than three? Are you willing to buy wine and return it freely and can you deliver it to your door? If you want, you support the current online new retail. Ren Hanjun, a well-known analyst, said that everyone complained that new retail robbed the business of tobacco hotels, but in fact, consumers chose online new retail. In the future, if the smoke hotel can find the correct positioning, it will not only not disappear, but also become more prosperous.
Ren Hanjun believes that the future smoke hotel noodles should first be a display place for alcohol products, consumers can experience wine products in the store, and under the premise of ensuring the authenticity, maintain the same price as the online; secondly, the store is a lecture platform for wine culture knowledge, consumers can see professional recommendation, purchase and tasting and drinking video lectures in the store, or regular professional on-site lectures, turning the store into a community club for wine brands.
Ren Hanjun also said that the storefront does not need to be located in the bustling commercial street, the future commercial street will not have many people to visit, the liquor storefront will be located in the street with cheap rent and convenient parking, people will watch the short video pushed by the tobacco hotel on the mobile phone, and come to the store to buy alcohol according to the map positioning.
Playing iron also needs to be hard, and tobacco and alcohol stores need to reserve professional knowledge and improve their industry awareness in order to be invincible in the future competition.
In this regard, Zeng Yu said that at present, the price of famous wine is very transparent, and profitable products need high-end services, it is recommended that tobacco hotel practitioners improve their wine culture and wine tasting level, so as to lead consumers around them to better choose wine and drink wine, so that consumers can have a stronger sense of trust in you, and expand the power of the circle layer through circle fission.
"Strong wine knowledge reserves can recommend products with high cost performance for people, and at the same time, there are profits to support the survival and development of tobacco hotels." In today's increasingly transparent information, we can't always think of cutting consumers' 'leeks', but earn service fees through knowledge and profits through greater traffic, which is the correct solution. Zeng Yu said.
In the view of Hu Shikun, a well-known commentator in the industry, "If the tobacco hotel only studies products and does not study human nature, then, in the future development, it will either be unsuccessful or will miss greater success." ”
When the reporter of Huaxia Liquor News asked "what kind of human nature should be studied in tobacco hotels", Hu Shikun used Fenjiu as an example, why did Fenjiu use a 475mL bottle? Some people think that the cost saving is 25mL, and some people think that reducing the net content is a hidden price increase, in fact, Fenjiu wants consumers to open an extra bottle of wine. Common wine glasses are basically "two and a half" and "three two three" specifications, such a wine glass no matter how many people drink, the last cup of 475mL of liquor is always poured with dissatisfaction, only to open another bottle.
"Don't underestimate this detail, how much sales do you have to increase in a year?" Taking the price increase of liquor as an example, some liquor relies on price increase announcements to promote, while the sales volume of Fenjiu relies on 'control of goods', and the market supply is insufficient, so the price will naturally increase. Hu Shikun's analysis pointed out that the difference between tobacco hotels that will make money and will not make money is that in addition to studying the wine products themselves, they must also carefully study the humanity of consumer groups.
Agent product heavy brand, stress strength
Even though there are more than 7 million traditional tobacco and alcohol tea shops in China, even if there have been problems of one kind or another in the physical store model of tobacco and alcohol in the past two years, new entrants are still flocking to the industry. So, what are the admonitions of industry veterans for new entrants? Senior tobacco hotel practitioners want to represent suitable products, what should they pay attention to?
"At present, the tobacco hotel is seriously squeezed, for new entrants, if there is no upstream resources, there are no good customer resources and good products, coming in is equivalent to seeking their own death." Zeng Yu said frankly.
Zeng Yu believes that if a novice who has already entered the industry wants to survive his shop, he must think about three things and put them into action. The first is whether to recycle old wine? Can I sell old wine? The second is whether it can have its own products, even if they are niche products, but they must be independent and have pricing power; third, tobacco hotels must think about what to rely on to maintain customers?
"200,000 district and county agents, 500,000 city agents, 1 million provincial general agents, 30% off purchases, CCTV advertising, tasting, tourism expenses, hand-in-hand development of the market, the end of the year to send BMW, Mercedes-Benz." Mr. Zheng of Inner Mongolia is brushed into such an advertisement, and the propaganda also said that the city just lacks an agent, zero investment, and can do it with a car.
Mr. Zheng followed the promotion company for a round, with 300,000 as an agent of the city, and sold 90,000 yuan in the past 10 months. "It's all sold through relationships, and 'they all regret dying.'" Mr. Zheng said.
"Mr. Zheng's situation is not unusual, at present, some investment advertisements are indeed very touching to laymen. He made a principled mistake in brand selection. Therefore, the friend who opened a mom-and-pop shop in Buyeo in Northeast China, in order to represent the right product, should be cautious in brand selection, and observe more and negotiate more. Hu Shikun said.
"Huaxia Liquor News" reporter noticed in the market visit that the reason for the failure of the agent wine products is two other reasons: one is that although the agent has a large brand of liquor, but the product itself is transparent in profits, coupled with the large amount of social inventory, the market is in the reshuffle period, the cost of others hoarding goods in the early days is low, the cost of your agent is higher than the selling price of the secondary market, and it is impossible to sell; the other is because of insufficient strength, such as the agent of 500,000 brands, even if the borrowing belt is enough for the first money, I feel that I can sell the goods while repaying the money. However, operating expenses and various unknown expenses were not taken into account. When operating expenses greatly exceed actual income, funds cannot keep up, so the mentality collapses.