introduction
Whenever this question is asked, almost all practitioners will have mixed feelings, and the once prosperous scene seems to be gone, accompanied by problems such as involution and price war in the post-epidemic era.
This article analyzes the current chaos in the aftermarket and makes some thoughts and suggestions based on the author's own work experience and cognition of the industry.
Author|Deng Haibing
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In the future, China's economy will enter a period of steady growth, the previous high-speed growth stage will be gone, and the development of the industry will also enter a bottleneck period and a period of change, giving birth to a variety of chaos emerge in an endless stream, but it is also the only way for the industry to move towards standardization. The following analysis hopes to promote the aftermarket colleagues to maintain their original intentions, see the essence through the phenomenon, bravely embrace the changes in the development of the industry, actively seek change and innovation, and work together to build a standardized ecological environment.
01 Capital gradually returned to rationality
The automotive aftermarket is a relatively slow-paced industry, the competition is endurance and sustainability, rather than looking at how fast it starts, this inherent attribute determines that even if there is capital support, it will not go fast, but the capital attribute is just the opposite, the purpose of capital is to quickly make profits in a short period of time and cash out.
Capital began to get involved in the supply chain track of China's automotive aftermarket about 10 years ago, and then in 3-5 years, the franchise system and self-operated system have sprung up everywhere, with various propaganda slogans, various listing visions, various market plunder, and even arrogant claims that the auto parts city will disappear in the next 5-10 years. 10 years have passed, and there is still no real aftermarket supply chain company that can break out of the encirclement and fulfill its promises. On the contrary, many companies and alliances have been thunderstormed, collapsed, bankrupt or acquired one after another, and eventually disappeared.
Of course, the blessing of capital is not useless, and the reasons for this are many and complex. The author believes that it is mainly due to the lack of self-awareness and poor strength of the enterprise, and the blessing of capital has caused the magic of mentality and strategy, and finally fell into the abyss.
The past has become the past, and the future is what we need to reflect on and look forward to. Looking forward to the future, I hope that whether it is enterprises, alliances or individuals, they will be more pragmatic, and constantly consolidate the product system, channel system and service system, and there will definitely be a place for you in China's automotive aftermarket in the future.
02 Rationally look at new energy and going overseas
In the post-epidemic era, especially since 2023, "new energy" and "going overseas" are the most mentioned keywords, whether it is various exhibitions or forums, these two words must be the focus of discussion and interpretation.
First of all, about new energy, threatening fuel vehicles are about to be eliminated, the new energy era has come, and actively encourage the layout and investment in new energy in advance, the bad market is also due to the impact of new energy, resulting in many auto parts and auto service companies began to become anxious. That's right, the future must be the new energy era, but whether it is the current technical route is still unknown, combined with the author's 13 years of work experience in the main engine factory, I firmly believe that it is definitely not the current technical route, fuel vehicles will exist for a long time, especially in the aftermarket, the next 10 years of market players are still fuel vehicles.
Secondly, regarding going to sea, the domestic aftermarket is too volatile, promoting a blue ocean in the overseas market and encouraging everyone to go to sea, and even many enterprises and organizations that provide consulting and supporting services for going to sea, such as overseas consulting, group overseas investigation and overseas exhibitions. It is not wrong to go to sea, it is of great significance to the future development and strategic planning of enterprises, however, not all enterprises have the ability to go to sea, and they may be drowned just after going to sea.
Jiang Renhai said at the 2023 Auto Parts Supply Chain and Channel Development Conference of the Auto Parts Circle: "Not all companies are suitable for going to sea, they can try to go to sea, we must recognize ourselves, and we need to be cautious when going to sea."
There are many uncertainties in the overseas auto parts market, which are also affected by policies and regulations. Government regulations and policies can affect the supply and demand of the auto parts market, thereby affecting the market price, for example, the European market has high requirements for environmental protection and safety, so the threshold for entering the market is high.
Therefore, I hope that colleagues in China's aftermarket will keep a clear head, not be troubled by the so-called public opinion and artificial anxiety or even be cut leeks, and continue to learn and constantly improve their self-awareness and judgment.
03 "Experts" are mixed and uneven
A tiger went public, a treasure went bankrupt, and an Olympic went bankrupt...... For a while, countless experts came out to comment and discuss, whether it was an afterthought or not, what you saw and what you thought was not necessarily the truth, have you been deeply contacted? Have you had an in-depth understanding? Have you experienced it immersively? I think the vast majority of them are using hot spots as materials and rubbing traffic.
Some so-called "experts", who originally only had some work experience in a certain subdivision, call themselves "experts", commenting at length on the ecology of the whole industry chain of China's automotive aftermarket, predicting future development trends, providing strategic planning consulting, marketing assistance and various enterprise management training, etc.; The correctness and scientificity can be imagined, I hope everyone will take a look, just think differently, don't believe it too much.
Internally, we welcome and encourage the industry ecology where a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend, but the premise should be positive and scientific guidance.
04. Brands need to be precipitated, and excessive publicity and expansion should be avoided
As we all know, there is no shortcut to the brand, and it is slowly precipitated after the baptism of the years. Looking at the current automotive aftermarket, there are two typical oddities:
Strange phase 1, the new brand that has just started, in order to establish a brand image and quickly occupy the market, adopt strategies such as low price and excessive publicity, such as the import of engine oil stock fluid, zero noise of brake pads, noise compensation for working hours, the highest friction coefficient in China, zero jitter of brake discs, and a warranty of 2 years for chassis parts of 100,000 kilometers or more...... In this case, it may have a certain effect in the short term, but it will definitely be self-reaping the consequences in the long run.
Strange phase 2, well-known brands in the industry blindly set foot in other categories, these brands have a high reputation in their own fields, but have launched other products, such as ** brand oil and water products, ** brand tires, ** brand wipers, ** brand brake pads, etc., the essence is that they are not their own production, but with the operator OEM, to seek profits, can be described as not doing business, and may eventually lead to a backyard fire because of quality and reputation, the position falls, so that the gains outweigh the losses.
In view of the chaos of low-price competition and excessive publicity of new brands and small brands, it is hoped that relevant enterprises and practitioners will gradually give up the luck mentality, seek truth and be pragmatic, continue to deepen product quality, scientific publicity, explore differentiated competition ideas, and build a flexible channel and service system.
Write at the end
For the increasingly competitive automotive aftermarket, with the implementation of major industry policies, the future automotive aftermarket will show a more healthy, standardized, orderly and prosperous development trend. According to the requirements of the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Automotive Aftermarket" jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce and other 9 departments, accurately grasp the development law of the automobile market, accelerate the construction of the relevant regulations and standards system and quality certification system of the automotive aftermarket, and improve the level of administration and standardization according to law. How to take advantage of the warm wind of this wave of policies and win the growth curve will also become a problem that practitioners need to think about in the future.
END