This article is the 481st original work of Deep Dive Atom
The duan zi hand is keen to say that if you think differently, rotten fruit can also sell for a high price. For example, you can make a result tray. Change a consumption environment, rotten fruit is worth a hundred times. But the reason why a paragraph is a paragraph is that it can enjoy the privilege of not considering the common sense of production.
Baiguoyuan has been more disturbed lately. On the one hand, it is to sprint for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and on the other hand, it is plagued by user complaints, and it can also be on Weibo hot search after issuing an apology. The cause is that the user complained that he bought spoiled fruit cuts in Baiguoyuan.
If the Baiguoyuan IPO is successful, this is also the first stock in the fresh subdivision. The temptation of fresh e-commerce lies in the high frequency of consumption; but after so many years, everyone has found that the difficulty of this is completely underestimated. As a non-standard product, fresh e-commerce not only needs to open up the entire process from the field to the table, but also quality control and loss, which is a technical job.
Baiguoyuan chose the fruit subdivision track, and the advantages over other homes are obvious. The overall transportation and preservation of fruit categories are relatively mature. Baiguoyuan has gone through 21 years from 2002, when it opened its first Baiguoyuan store in Shenzhen. The biggest advantage of this franchise model is that it has made a modern transformation of a traditional offline business.
01
Hundred Orchards
Modernization of traditional fruit shops
Output unified standards, visual images, brands, procurement, quality control, service have made a unified standard. For example, the "three noes" return policy implemented since 2009 - that is, no physical goods, no receipts, and no reason to return. This is almost in accordance with the standards of online e-commerce to do services. But at the same time, the risk also comes from the rapid expansion of the number of franchisees, for 5351 offline stores in 130 cities in 22 provinces, it is difficult to implement unified and effective management.
Founder Yu Huiyong attaches the greatest importance to "trust". To build the "trust" of the entire link, it is necessary to reconstruct the relationship of each link. But this, again, seems to contradict the construction criteria. Baiguoyuan attaches great importance to the trust of employees, and the rotation of procurement is not allowed. Procurement, as the most important part of this business logic, becomes extremely authoritative.
And for fruits, offline, in a sense, has more advantages. For daily consumption, offline consumption is the highlight. In a sense, the importance of online is highlighted in the context of the epidemic. Of course, Baiguoyuan has long made an online layout, and announced in 2017 that online annual sales exceeded 10 billion.
△ Hundred Fruit Orchard
But this franchise model, the benefits are obvious, can form a brand effect and scale, and even report consolidation, but it is powerless to change the overall limited profit problem. In the model of Baiguoyuan, he was stuck in a very awkward position - either jumping and becoming the most influential brand and wholesaler in the fruit field, which not only focused, but also very light; or went down to form a deep processing of the fruit industry and reduce losses.
In this dimension, the most valuable thing with Baiguoyuan is Haidilao. Haidilao's previous advantages came largely from its modernization of the traditional catering industry, whether it was the human structure and resources, or the incentive mechanism of the entire store, as well as the way of communicating with customers. However, when latecomers and capital also enter this track, the deepening of Haidilao's learning will not be a bit difficult.
Similarly, Baiguoyuan is also facing a more competitive environment. In addition to the emerging high-end brands such as Hema and Qixian, community group buying also relies heavily on fruit explosions and single products. Although community group buying has been quiet and tepid in first-tier cities, in second- and third-tier cities, its development has been still and deep.
So far, Baiguoyuan has not formed a very distinct brand tone, which is equal to a certain consumer demand. This is the part that has been overlooked in the process of rapid expansion.
02
A pot of rice sandwiched in a hundred orchards
Because of the unclear positioning of this positioning and the ambiguity of the transformation of the industry, the model of Baiguoyuan is more like a collection of a bunch of stores, which looks like an aircraft carrier at first glance, but in fact, it is completely different. After selecting the 3C category, Jingdong directly opened the self-operated mode, which is an effective way to play with one hole. But Baiguoyuan did not establish its own moat on the self-operated model.
The modernization of traditional industries is definitely not a transformation of the sales model. Baiguoyuan has experienced 21 years of development, but it has lost itself in the pursuit of scale, and this "business school" model of relying on joining the volume has missed its golden age at present.
Even if Baiguoyuan does not do the upward and downward exploration and efforts we mentioned above, making full use of the offline store space and expanding new fashion consumption items, it is also imaginative, and it is also of great benefit to the destocking of fruits. However, offline stores still reveal a strong store atmosphere and pursue high-speed circulation.
In recent years, the sudden rise of Nai Xue's tea, hi tea for the time being, Luckin coffee after experiencing major setbacks, with the help of raw coconut latte to regain popularity and love, it is very instructive. These emerging tea drinks, in the development of new products, are also very dependent on seasonal fruits. If you think from this dimension, it is that the brand of Baiguoyuan has no dynamic evolution, on the contrary, it is solidified. Shop signs and vision, placed 21 years ago, may have been conspicuous and eye-catching, but today, it can not attract young users, naturally can not produce more imaginative business practices.
△ Product curing
Under the franchise model, no matter how baiguoyuan emphasizes "trust", the essence of the business is "to make good money", the store does not make money, or does not meet expectations, the owner will definitely make business adjustments. However, in order to pursue the scale, Baiguoyuan actually chose to sink in a hurry - in the view of deep diving atom, Baiguoyuan only needs to hold on to the first- and second-tier cities to eat thoroughly. From 2019 to 2021, the number of stores in Baiguoyuan first-tier cities accounted for 36.8%, 35.4% and 33.8% of the total number of stores, decreasing year by year, while the average revenue contributed by each store also fell from 2.0841 million yuan to 1.9603 million yuan. In the past three years under the epidemic, more and more franchisees have chosen to decisively withdraw from stop loss. According to media estimates, from 2019 to 2021, Baiguoyuan closed 166, 249 and 379 stores respectively, accounting for 17.86%, 35.8% and 43.8% of the number of new stores, respectively. That is to say, for every 100 new stores opened in Baiguoyuan in the past three years, about 18, 36 and 44 franchisees chose to close their stores.
Baiguoyuan seems to have done nothing wrong, but the fault is that it only wants to be a fruit shop trust. But when the scale is large enough, it loses the most important flexibility to respond to market changes. Scale is a flower work that wins the hearts and minds of the capital market, but it is not necessarily a necessary condition for the healthy development of enterprises.
Whether this table sprint can be successful or not, there should be an answer soon. However, taking stock and combing through the development of Baiguoyuan is of great benefit to us in thinking about the evolution of traditional industries.