Wu Jiabin, who lives in Yangpu, Shanghai, is a project manager at an automotive company whose expertise in developing processes and executing them has recently been used in group buying. Under the epidemic, since the closure, Wu Jiabin's community residents need to buy various materials, he and several small partners set up a group purchase project team, as the "head of the group", he through the formulation of strategies and subdivision process, in 4 days to the residents to complete 2,000 orders.
There are many "regiment leaders" like Wu Jiabin. Until mid-April, most of The districts in Shanghai were still under lockdown, and most restaurants, supermarkets, vegetable farms, and e-commerce platforms had not fully resumed normal supply for the time being. Group buying has become the daily life of residents, from Bao Ma to project manager, the "head of the group" in the community has become the traffic center. However, the price of some group purchase products is much higher than in the past, and some even double several times, and the relevant departments have also noticed the price problem of group purchase. In this "scramble" for group shopping funds, who is making a lot of money?
The "regimental commander" becomes a traffic center
During the sealing period, the logistics capacity is insufficient, and many merchants can only take bulk sales to reduce the pressure of logistics and distribution, which also gives birth to the community group buying boom and a group of "group leaders".
Chen Yi, a resident of Sanlin Township in Pudong New Area, has not been out to buy vegetables since the Pudong New Area was sealed on March 28. "At the beginning, e-commerce platforms such as Dingdong buying vegetables and Meituan buying vegetables could still grab vegetables, and then even if they grabbed several times a day and several platforms, they couldn't grab it when they were numb." She told the first financial reporter.
After being recommended by neighbors, Chen Yi embarked on the "road of group buying". Through a certain group buying group, Chen Yishun joined dozens of group buying groups, and different "group leaders" are organizing different types of food groups. As of the interview with the first financial reporter, she has participated in the group purchase of 14 batches of food.
"Later, a neighbor said that if you want to buy strawberries, 30 portions can be formed, and I have not eaten them for a long time, so I became the 'regimental leader' with her." After truly entering the role of "regiment leader", Liu Ke found that the residents in the group had a great demand for meat, eggs, vegetables and other necessities, so he took the initiative to shoulder the responsibility and helped the residents find reliable suppliers.
"The first thing is to make sure that the supplier is real, and the second is to choose whoever ships it as quickly as possible. Under the epidemic, everyone's requirements for cost performance are not so high, and there is no difference between an egg of 1.3 yuan and an egg of 1.5 yuan. Once, in order to prove the authenticity of the supplier, Liu Ke called the phone on the bread bag to determine the credibility of the supplier.
Another "regiment leader", Wang Mir, has been very busy lately, she is a mother, working from home, taking care of children, taking care of the family's large and small affairs, and responsible for the group purchase of some residents in the community. Wang Mir said that he had organized a total of 2 group purchases, and the group was fresh boiled noodle products of Hefu Fish noodles. "After becoming a mother, I always think that my child can eat nutritious and healthy." Wang Mir said that in order to prepare rich and nutritious meals for children every day, he added a lot of group buying groups during the sealing period: "There are WeChat groups that specialize in group purchase of vegetables, there are also WeChat groups that specialize in group purchase of meat, and even materials such as fruits can also be bought by special groups." ”
The needs of the residents of the community are also the driving force for Wang Mir to open a group.
Because the residence is close to the Zhangjiang High-tech Park, many of Wang Mir's neighbors are typical "Zhangjiang men" - they can't cook, and some people don't even have kitchen utensils at home, so they can only rely on convenient food to survive during the sealing period. "At that time, our community was a group of group purchase ingredients, that is, a group buying group without some convenience foods. So I wondered if I could help them solve some problems. Wang Mir said that after placing an order, she always pays attention to logistics information, "the frequency of paying attention to logistics information is more than when I bought things on Taobao myself." When he learned that it was about to be delivered, Wang Mir also waited at the door of the community in advance, afraid that there would be something wrong with his group purchase.
With the first successful experience, Wang Mir soon opened the second round of group purchases. And under the first word of mouth, the popularity of the second group purchase is more prosperous, "I sent a message to wash a dish, and when I came back, I saw that the number of people who signed up for the group had exceeded the standard of delivery many times." ”
Due to the rising demand for group buying, the "group leader" has now become a community traffic center.
Li Yun, the "leader" of SMIC Garden Community in Pudong, is docking carrefour and other large retailers every day, and early in the morning, the owners issued several notices in the group, @all "The vegetable package of our community group has arrived, the milk has come, the fruit package has also come, please ask the volunteers of each building to go to the designated place at the south gate of the community to help everyone take it down." Subsequently, the volunteers received the floor materials from the fixed location at the entrance of the community and placed them at the door of each household one by one.
After Li Yun's community was just sealed and accused, a volunteer community was spontaneously established. The "head of the group" works almost 24 hours a day online, not only linking stores, but also linking community service neighbors. From the consultation of the front-end order solitaire to the payment and arrival of the goods, the pick-up, the sale of the goods and the exchange of goods, as well as the daily listing of the goods and the checking of the goods and information of the terminal, the reconciliation and verification of the accounts every night and the synchronization of the store's material reserves. It can be said that a "group leader" is also a small editor, customer service, operation and finance and other functions, and also has more traffic data for community consumption.
Professional "head of the group" of watchmaking process
Compared with Bao Ma and so on, with a group of "regiment leaders" with professional backgrounds, they have become more and more "mainstays".
During the interview, the reporter found that most of the "regiment leaders" in Shanghai are "post-90s" and "post-95" white-collar workers, who come from all walks of life and are good at applying their own work expertise into the work of "regiment leaders". The "head of the group" in the logistics industry is good at ERP system and has a clear logic for the group purchase process; the "leader" of the daily data analysis position is very skilled in using excel and has created a form template; the "group leader" from the assistant partner position has strong communication and coordination skills with suppliers and "team members".
Liu Ke, the "regiment leader" of Zhoujiaqiao Street in Changning District, told the first financial reporter that in the past ten days of being the "regiment leader", his tools have been upgraded step by step, and his helpers have gradually increased. "At the beginning, the group solitaire was used to count the number of people, and the more people in the back, the Tencent document was used, because this can be edited online by all staff." Later, the 'Fast Tuantuan' Mini Program was introduced to facilitate collection and statistics. In addition, the "deputy regimental commander" and the "building regimental leader" in the building were also recruited to help distribute the goods. ”
Wu Jiabin is a post-80s male student, after becoming the "leader of the group", relying on the professional advantages of his project manager, he formulated a set of professional strategies and processes, which formulated four major steps - the initial construction of the team, the group purchase group and fine management, the construction of more functional teams and efficient community management, the formation of standard processes and even the development of training.
"We formed a group purchase project team, which is divided into channel group, volunteer group, statistics and finance group, material distribution team, overall management team and data analysis group. The channel group is responsible for inquiring, quality and safety confirmation, placing orders, tracking logistics information, etc.; volunteers are responsible for residents forming groups, receiving goods, inventory, distribution and other matters; statistics and finance groups are responsible for payment summary, payment and refund; material distribution team is responsible for making material distribution checklists, contacting means of transportation, material elimination, inventory and distribution by building; the overall management team controls the rhythm and frequency of group purchases as a whole according to the team's operational capabilities, and adjusts the channel list according to the user feedback after receiving the goods; and the data analysis group initiates user research , based on the data of each order to produce an analysis report. Wu Jiabin showed his elaborate flow chart to the first financial reporter, and his community is generally doing group buying in accordance with this process.
What is more professional in big data is that after mastering the traffic data of users, Wu Jiabin's working group also has a special "spokesperson" to uniformly release the analysis report of the data group for the residents of the community, including daily information and feedback, which is used to improve the group purchase after that.
Halfway through the conversation with the reporter, Wu Jiabin received a notice of the arrival of materials, he immediately went downstairs to pick up the materials and count, and then stepped on the yellow fish cart in the community, spending about half an hour with his friends to put it into the buildings, at this time it was already evening. Within 4 days, Wu Jiabin and his team completed a total of 2,000 orders and distributions of supplies.
Li Bin, who is engaged in Ctrip's destination supply chain business, took the lead in dividing the community into 4 sections, and collected the user's procurement needs from the specific residents - the leader of the corridor group - the block leader of the plate - the link of the group purchase group to carry out the group opening action that has formulated a standardized process. When the materials arrive in the community and the volunteers kill them, the "regiment leader" will first sort and discharge them according to the three different lane numbers in the community. To this end, Li Bin also formulated the rule of "sorting items according to the map of the community", and the material distribution team can distribute the goods in the order from far and near. Li Bin said that it currently has nucleic acid group, material distribution group, group purchase group, elderly care group, medical group, copywriting group and liaison group, 7 groups, and the mutual help of neighbors makes neighbors who do not know each other closer.
Who is making money for group buying?
Chen Yi recently purchased a vegetable gift bag worth 60 yuan, which contained 2 cabbages, 1 potato, 1 onion, 2 carrots and 2 cucumbers, and the price was significantly higher than usual.
The first financial reporter learned that at present, the overall price of large retailers such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour, METRO, Bailian, Hema, RT-Mart and Yonghui is stable, because the supply chain advantages and large-scale direct procurement are conducive to price stability. But not 100% of the goods circulating in the market come from these large retailers, and some merchants with wholesale channels, their pricing is not uniform.
The first financial reporter consulted several vegetable suppliers as the "head of the group", one of which revealed: "The net profit of a batch of 2 tons to 3 tons of vegetables can currently have 10,000 yuan, while the net profit before the current round of epidemic is only 3,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan." It's like doubling your money. Another vegetable supplier said: "The vegetable blind box that now costs 118 yuan was previously priced at more than 30 yuan, but our cost has also increased by 1 times." He also said that the "regiment leader" can sell for 128 yuan at a higher price, and some "regiment leaders" are selling at this price.
"These small and medium-sized suppliers or wholesalers are difficult to manage as a whole, so their prices are unstable, and some of the 'regimental leaders' who look for them to get goods will be very costly." This first allows the supplier to make a double profit. Then it's up to the 'regimental leader' himself, some 'regimental leaders' will not increase the price, and some will increase the price on the basis of the supplier. So there are some suppliers and 'group leaders' who make money. A retail source revealed.
After the first financial reporter interviewed, he learned that the original intention of some "regiment leaders" is relatively simple, mainly to help neighbors solve material troubles, and even some "regiment leaders" are posted with money. But there are also some "regiment leaders" who hope to make some money through group purchases.
The first financial reporter also joined a rebate group purchase group as the "head of the group", where some people will share some group purchase resources that can be rebated from time to time, and each group will have a rebate of about 400 yuan to 500 yuan. Looking at a commodity alone, the profit margin is about 10% to 15%. In addition, there are some group purchase groups that need to pay a "group fee" of 5 yuan to join the group, and then you can enjoy the group purchase information in the group.
Some residents believe that it is reasonable for the "regiment leader" to earn some hard fees, not to mention that during the epidemic period, they seek supplies for everyone and help deliver goods, but the fees charged should be within a reasonable range.
For suppliers, in addition to the increase in the cost of the dish itself, logistics costs are also soaring. Some suppliers said that now the freight of a truck delivery trip is more than 2,000 yuan, which used to be only a few tens of yuan. And some of the little brothers who take orders also have a price increase phenomenon, the reporter has encountered a price of 100 yuan, and the running errands cost 200 yuan of the list.
In this regard, the relevant departments have noted some problems in group buying.
The Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau said that community group buying should strengthen price self-discipline and operate in accordance with laws and regulations. Standardize the price and truthfully explain the information. For goods sold in the form of packages, the name and quantity of the goods contained shall be indicated while indicating the total sales price. For those who separately collect service fees such as packaging fees and delivery fees, the service items, prices and pricing units shall be indicated, and the goods shall not be sold at a higher price than the list price, and no unspecified fees shall be charged. Optimize organizational management and protect the rights and interests of consumers. Verify and register the real information such as administrative licenses, identities, addresses, and contact information submitted by relevant business operators, clarify the contact persons and contact information for after-sales service, and promptly coordinate and solve problems such as missed issuance, wrong issuance, and refunds.
According to the "Shanghai Market Supervision" WeChat message, the Shanghai market supervision department announced a number of typical cases of price violations, including "price fraud" and "unclear price marking".
On April 13, at the press conference on the prevention and control of the epidemic in Shanghai, Peng Wenhao, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, said that in order to further standardize the price behavior of "community group buying", recently, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision formulated and issued the "Reminder Letter on Regulating the Price Behavior of Community Group Buying During the Epidemic Prevention and Control Period" according to the problems that the public reflected more concentratedly, suggesting that relevant organizers and operators should provide consumers with reasonably priced goods according to the operating costs in carrying out "community group buying". The market price order shall not be disturbed. At present, a number of typical cases of price violations have been investigated and punished.
There are also some community neighborhood committees that give relevant tips, requiring the "group leader" to have certain qualifications and sign a letter of commitment before the group can be opened, and the "group leader" should be responsible for the group purchase goods to the end, and if it is found that the person who earns the difference will be exposed.
(Chen Yi and Liu Ke are pseudonyms in the text)