At 5:30 a.m., the phone alarm goes off. Liu Tao rubbed his eyes and scratched the mobile phone screen, opened the Dingdong Grocery Shopping App, selected vegetables, meat, soy products and dairy products, clicked "Settlement", entered the "Pay Now" page, and then began to wait. At 5:59, Liu Tao began to quickly click "Pay Now", and the middle kept popping up "Congestion ahead, please try again later" or a certain item has been robbed. Liu Tao quickly clicked "Return to previous step" or "Reload" to continue the previous action. At 6:07, Liu Tao finally successfully completed the payment and grabbed the only dish in a week. He originally checked more than 200 yuan of goods, and finally only successfully paid 40.9 yuan. From then until the evening, when he re-entered the Dingdong platform, the system prompted that "the capacity of the day is about full", and almost all the items in each category were displayed as "sold out" or "replenished".
For a long time after the outbreak of this epidemic, this cycle was the daily routine of many Shanghai residents. Everyone discussed the secret of grabbing vegetables on platforms such as Dingdong and Hema in the owner group, but not many people succeeded. Around April 10, Liu Tao added almost 10 WeChat group buying groups, including vegetables, milk, pork, crucian carp, seafood and so on. Usually 50 to 100 servings are in small groups, and can be delivered as soon as the afternoon of the same day.
Under the control of the blockade, the emergence of community group buying has solved the problem of many Shanghai residents having difficulty in buying vegetables. The first financial reporter recently learned from a multi-party survey that due to the tight logistics capacity, retailers can only reduce the number of deliveries, increase the amount of goods per single goods, and channel docking, acquaintance economy and unified procurement model have all promoted community group buying to become the mainstream of shanghai consumer shopping in the near future. It is worth noting that once the future lockdown is over, will the "regimental leader" continue to exist or disappear? Where will community business go?
The reason why community group buying is hot
Group buying is not a new word, but since the Shanghai lockdown, community group buying can be described as hot.
"In the past, group buying was only one of the shopping methods, I could buy in store, I could order takeout, and I could buy and deliver online. However, under the control of the seal, everyone can not go out of the community and cannot go to the store to shop. Logistics and distribution capacity is tight, you buy a single item, can not find anyone to transport, at this time the community group began to discuss the spelling order, everyone buy together. The most fundamental logic is to hug the group for warmth, everyone's basic needs such as rice flour oil are the same, it is more convenient to buy a large order together, and the delivery will be counted on. Consumer Wu Ping told the first financial reporter.
Jiang Ting, the "head of the regiment" of a community in Jing'an, Shanghai, also had the same idea. "Some young people mainly order takeaway every day, not only can not order takeaway during the sealing period, there is not much hoarding at home, and it is difficult for e-commerce companies such as Hungry Mo, Meituan, Jingdong, and Tmall, which are usually dependent, to deliver for a time." Community group buying made up for the tight transportation capacity in the early stage of sealing and control. ”
Under the control, community group buying has almost become the only way to solve the needs of consumers. For merchants, community group buying is almost the only sales model.
"Usually customers can buy in stores, but now they can only buy online. And our 300-employee store, now only a few dozen people stay in the store, but need to receive more than 2,000 or even 3,000 orders a day, equivalent to ten times the previous online orders. It is unrealistic to rely on one-tenth of our manpower to deliver a single order. So we can only adjust the goods, some things do not do single sale, but the whole box of sales, consumers group purchase of the whole box of goods, we send it at one time, a logistics actually meets the shopping needs of the entire community. Ji Linfeng, the manager of the Shanghai Carrefour Wanli store, told the first financial reporter that in his circle of friends, it is now a full box or a gift package of goods displayed, all of which are convenient for group purchases.
"Many suppliers do not have the ability to distribute each order individually, but at the same time, many suppliers have sales needs. 70% of the residents in my community are middle-aged and elderly, and the purchase channel for the daily necessities of such residents is not e-commerce, but the small shops around the community, which account for almost 80% of the purchase of goods in the community. But during the lockdown period, everyone began to flock to e-commerce, and e-commerce could not afford to undertake so much demand. However, the original offline supermarket suppliers can not find sales channels, in addition, residents also have no purchase channels, in this context, the needs of the two parties have been docked, using the form of community group buying to digest the supplier's goods, that is, the past vegetable market, supermarket sales channels to the 'head of the group'. In Jiang Ting's view, the popularity of community group buying is that residents do have needs, and the other is that the original supplier needs a distribution channel, and the combination of the two promotes the development of community group buying during the sealing period.
A volunteer from a community in Nanxiang, Jiading, Shanghai, told reporters that according to his observation, for a long time after the outbreak of the epidemic, a unit building had to transport about 10 to 20 dingdong goods every day, while there were nearly 100 households in a unit building. Wu Jiabin, who lives in Yangpu, Shanghai, and several small partners set up a group purchase project team, and as the "head of the group", he completed 2,000 orders for residents in 4 days by formulating strategies and subdividing processes. There are many more such cases.
Why is the "regimental commander" better than the "regular army"?
Although we understand the necessity of community group buying for Shanghai consumers under the control, why is the importance of the "group leader" more than some professional e-commerce platform managers?
This has to start from the business model of this community group purchase.
The first financial reporter learned from the interview that the general group purchase is a single purchase, but it does not necessarily guarantee how large the purchase scale is, nor may it be concentrated in some basic categories. However, the community group purchase under the control can ensure a sufficiently large amount, and the shopping needs of most residents are basically the same. This has a lot of unity, and it needs a group buying leader to dock all matters, that is, the "head of the group".
"Now the basic model of community group buying is the 'head of the group' to count everyone's needs, and concentrated in some categories, and then by the 'head of the group' and related staff together to compare prices, after everyone's approval of unified procurement and distribution to the community, 'head of the group' to point goods, sorting and distribution, and finally there is the settlement of the payment, if you want to do more professional, you can also set up an information feedback mechanism." Our community group purchase has set up a project team, which is divided into channel group, building volunteer group, statistics and finance group, material distribution team, overall management team and data analysis team. Everyone performs their own duties, which is equivalent to the project management model of an enterprise. Wu Jiabin described to the first financial reporter.
In such a set of procurement processes, the "regiment leader" is crucial, and under the control, the "regiment leader" can do what is difficult for some e-commerce "regular army" to do.
"In the case of tight logistics, merchants have to save logistics costs, so from the original one-by-one delivery to a small community delivery, it can be understood as 'to C' sales to 'to B'." In this process, an organizer is needed to unify the needs of each consumer. Inside the community, the 'last kilometer' or even 'last hundred meters' of logistics must be opened, and the 'regiment leader' solves this problem. Moreover, the onlineization of fresh goods is the lowest proportion of consumer goods. During the epidemic period, the original offline suppliers and offline consumers need to be docked, and the consumption scene is transformed from the market, supermarket, etc. to the online, and the docking person is the 'head of the group', who replaces the previous offline distributor's work. A fresh e-commerce platform practitioner told the first financial reporter.
It can be seen that under the sealing control, who can solve the problem of the "last kilometer" will have a certain initiative. This can be done by the "head of the group", but some e-commerce companies may not be able to do it.
"Ding-dong, box maca on the rider resource." A "regiment leader" said that the e-commerce platform relies on riders to complete the delivery of materials from the distribution station to the community, and only some riders have passes during the epidemic period, and many riders are difficult to travel in the community.
Public information shows that Dingdong Originally had 29 sites in the Baoshan area, covering about 1,000 communities, under normal circumstances, each site has 30 to 40 people, and the average daily single volume is not less than 2,000. After Puxi was sealed on April 1, 15 stations in Baoshan District were closed, and the number of attendance at each station was only 20 people, and 1,500 orders per day were already fully loaded. Based on this simple calculation, the average daily delivery volume of Dingdong Buy Caibaoshan District before the sealing and control is about 58,000 orders, and the average daily delivery volume after the sealing and control is 21,000 units, which reduces the transportation volume by more than 50%. Coupled with the uneven distribution of resources in different areas, many areas of Baoshan cannot be covered, which obviously cannot meet the needs of users.
The "regiment leaders" find suppliers with guaranteed documents and passes through social resources, and directly trade with suppliers by virtue of the large transaction volume formed by the group, eliminating the need for intermediaries. After receiving group purchase demand from multiple communities in the same area, the supplier drove his own truck to deliver the materials to the doors of each community one by one, and the community properties and volunteers distributed them to the unit buildings and household doors. To put it simply, e-commerce platforms such as Dingdong are often stuck in the "last mile" of transportation capacity, which in turn restricts their ability to take materials. Community group buying returns to a more traditional model, not as fine and efficient division of labor as the e-commerce platform, but because the logistics are smooth, it can ensure that the materials are delivered to the hands of residents.
In addition, the community group purchase under the control also has the characteristics of "acquaintance economy" and demand-based supply, compared with other e-commerce platforms, "group leader" has more advantages in this regard. Yuan Shuai, deputy secretary-general of the Rural Revitalization and Construction Committee of the China Cultural Management Association, believes that some of the "group leaders" are freelancers such as community shop owners and bao mamas, and the advantages of the "group leaders" lie in the socialization of acquaintances and reduce the cost of customer acquisition, and the second is to reduce the inventory backlog by supplying with demand. In the community group buying, the "leader" is looking for suppliers or opening a group, and it is very important to find a controllable, high-quality and stable and reliable supply chain. The group purchase mode determines that there is no need to configure a large number of terminal distribution resources, but the independent and controllable logistics system is still a necessity.
"Leader of conscience" vs. "Leader of the Black Heart"
After the community group buying was booming and the "regiment leader" mastered the traffic password, a new problem emerged - the quality of the "regiment leader" was uneven, and there were "conscience regiment leaders" and "black heart regiment leaders".
In the community where Jiang Ting is located, due to the large number of elderly people, even after the gradual recovery of transportation capacity in mid-to-late April, many residents rely on community group buying because they are not good at using the e-commerce platform to place orders. As a result, after the "conscience group" was gradually diluted, the "black heart group" also appeared in the community.
Jiang Ting said that the group purchase organized by young people in the community has run through the entire process in the early stage. To improve efficiency, her community divided its organizational structure for a week in early April. The decision-making group is responsible for docking with the neighborhood committee, and 10 residents are responsible for the approval of group purchase goods, including supply channels (only qualified suppliers are selected), group purchase categories (perishable goods do not buy together), group purchase prices (some suppliers will have room for concessions according to the number of reservations), etc.
After the approval is passed, the goods are first forwarded to the building representative group, and then forwarded to the respective resident group by the building representative, which refers to the group where the building representative (the person in charge of the resident group) of each building is located. Jiang Ting said that due to this structure, the group rate of the community is very high, and the number of group purchase commodities can basically reach more than 300 copies, and there is no trouble with the group. In addition, the decision-making group will continue to pull in residents with a source of goods, and after passing, the residents will become the "head of the group" responsible for docking with suppliers.
On the issue of the "head of the group" commission, Jiang Ting said that the kickback problem was caused by the irregularity of the supplier. "Regular suppliers, including Sam, Light, Arowana, etc., it will not have this 'unspoken rule'. Big brands won't allow this to happen. Just like Guangming is a unified price in the city, consumers know where its reserve price is, and where the price of group buying is. ”
Regular suppliers are also managing the issue of "head of the group" kickbacks. Sam clearly asked the neighborhood committee to cover a certificate for the group purchase promoter, the group purchase promoter to provide ID cards and names, promised that all the group purchases in the community will not earn any 1 point difference, must be the original price of the group to come in the original price to sell to residents. The smaller the company or the smaller the channel, the bigger the price difference, the more catty, and the larger the company will be very transparent, because it will worry about the risk. If the 'head of the group' resells it is also harmful to the brand. Jiang Ting told the first financial reporter.
With the recovery of e-commerce capacity in mid-to-late April, the community's willingness to buy groups has weakened, and at this time, some "black-hearted leaders" have begun to appear.
"By late April, the small traders have returned to the taste, and there may be some inventory in the store, or the small merchants have some purchase channels." Some people in the community launched a small bread group purchase in late April, the official group purchase price was 72 yuan, the community 'group leader' price was 99 yuan, and a single net profit was 27 yuan. This price difference caused controversy in the community, and some small partners exposed him in a large group, saying that the buyer was 99 yuan, and he did not earn the difference. The little partner said' if you dare to open 99 yuan, I will open 72 yuan', and then opened the link of 72 yuan. As a result, the supplier contacted by the small partner who opened 72 yuan sent him a WeChat message, saying that your group could not open it for you, because your price affected the price of other 'group leaders'. ”
Jiang Ting calculated an account, "I remember that Xiaoyang bread sold more than 130 copies, Zongzi sold one or two hundred copies, if each price difference is counted as 25 yuan, daily income of ten thousand yuan is not a dream." ”
In order to fight back against the "black heart regiment leader", the young people in the community recently opened a group again, and the "black heart leader" launched a group purchase in the same category but at a lower price.
At the previous press conference on the 152nd epidemic prevention and control work in Shanghai, Peng Wenhao, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, said that the Shanghai Municipal Market Supervision Bureau 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 citizens reflected more concentratedly, which may further curb the phenomenon of high-priced group buying.
The first financial reporter learned that in order to make the community group purchase more standardized, many communities have adopted stricter management for the "group leader" and suppliers, such as the need for both parties to provide relevant qualifications, enterprise licenses, etc., and the "group leader" even needs to sign a letter of commitment to prevent the occurrence of price increases or irregular secondary scalping.
Will the "regimental commander" continue to be popular?
With the resumption of work and production in Shanghai, can the community group buying that has ensured people's lives continue to be lively in the past month or so?
Many "group leaders" said that at present, it is because of the need to shop under the control, once the future is unblocked, then residents can go to the store to shop or buy alone through normal online shopping, and do not necessarily need community group purchases. As everyone's demand for goods is no longer a simple rice flour oil, but upgraded to desserts, hot pots and other daily necessities, some of the "regiment leaders" are also tired, because the crowd is difficult to adjust.
Zhang Tian sleeps 4 to 5 hours a day, and spends the day in a full day returning messages or voice calls. "Once the order failed to arrive on time, at this time the group was divided into two factions, one faction asked for a refund, and the other was willing to wait, sandwiching me in the middle, and some people's attitudes were obviously not good." A big difference between the head of the group and the shopkeeper is that the shopkeeper is facing an individual, I am targeted to solve a person's after-sales service, 'the leader' is facing the entire group, everyone's ideas are different, it is more difficult to solve and deal with. ”
Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the Institute of E-Commerce of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that after the ban is lifted, the "head of the group" will still exist, but the role will be greatly reduced. The "regimental commander" is a relatively loose organization. During the lockdown period, people cannot flow freely, and some people who are more familiar with Internet technology and enthusiastic about it invest in community group buying. After the ban is lifted, a considerable number of "regimental leaders" will return to their jobs. The number of only full-time "regimental leaders" in the community will be reduced, and the level of professionalism will also be reduced.
"After the epidemic recedes, a large part of the regiment will be dissolved and will gradually lose its vitality. Because the temporary 'regimental commander' is to return to his normal work and life. Lin Cong, head of Fujian Funiu Supply Chain Co., Ltd., told the first financial reporter that due to the geometric expansion of the base, the high-quality "group leader" will leave a part after the big wave of sand and sand. Compared with the general e-commerce platform, on the one hand, community group buying can gather a large number of orders, using the effect of small profits and large sales, merchants are willing to reduce the price of goods; on the other hand, it can save the "last kilometer" delivery costs.
For the development trend of community group buying after the epidemic, Lin Cong believes that it will definitely undergo a wave of reshuffle, small-scale, poor quality, after-sales problems of group buying will gradually withdraw, boutique groups will quickly emerge; brand parties will pay more attention to the construction of the group purchase market, Zhihu, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and other "planting grass" should introduce the "group leader" model; the relevant supervision will become more and more perfect, and each "group leader" will do a good job of reviewing the goods and improving the quality of service.
"How the community group buying will go in the future has a lot to do with what it does and how it does it, if it is still regarded as a game of capital, through the traffic game to monopolize and then make money, this model will definitely not go on." Whether we can seize the opportunity of this 'unexpected popularity' and the node of community group purchase consumption habits, continue and retain user habits, and design long-lasting services is what community group buying enterprises should consider and deepen at the moment. Yuan Shuai thought.
(Liu Tao, Wu Ping, Jiang Ting, Zhang Tian are pseudonyms in the text, photo in the text: Ren Yuming)
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