In 2024, with the announcement of a number of brands returning to offline, the offline war of beauty retail has officially begun. But offline is not simple, in this intertwined ecology, what is really important?
In mid-April, the 2024 president class of the new youth organized a small channel study tour to visit large supermarkets, CS stores, wholesalers, agents and other offline channels in Henan to gain insight into the real offline ecology.
Even if there are thousands of problems, the secret of the winner must be hidden in the water temperature of the first-line market.
In retail circles, ask Fat Donglai where the best thing is, and most of the time you will hear a surprisingly consistent answer: the service is well done.
In today's era of advocating playing style and being good at tricks, this five-word answer seems a little sloppy, a little ordinary, and even full of doubts: That's it?
But if you really go to Fat East, you will understand: the secret of excellent retail enterprises is as simple as that.
When e-commerce rewrites the channel map of the cosmetics industry with a devastating trend, we have to admit that the beauty retail industry is already facing an era of limited flow and surplus stores. In this world where there are no anchors, no KOLs, and no "lowest price on the whole network", what can be used to capture consumers? Let's take a look at Fat Donglai's answer.
Good service, made up of details
The feeling of "good service" of Fat Donglai started from the moment he landed in Xuchang.
Walking out of the high-speed rail station, there is a long-awaited bus that directly takes tourists to the Fat Donglai Angel City Shopping Center. After April, Fat Donglai also opened for business on Tuesdays (originally Fat Donglai stipulated that the store was closed every Tuesday), and the taxi driver in Xuchang told us: "The weather is hot, and I am afraid that you tourists from other places will be empty." Discipline is not unbreakable, as long as you put the interests of consumers at the heart of your decision-making.
At 10 o'clock in the morning on Tuesday, Fat Donglai was already crowded
Walking into the store, this feeling is even more obvious. "Fat Donglai has thought ahead of all the problems that may arise when you are shopping. A new youth cadet concluded.
Compared with an ordinary large supermarket, there are many service facilities here: near the door is a large row of luggage lockers, enough to fit into a 24-inch large suitcase; there are freezers, microwave ovens, direct drinking water, handwashing stations and disposable paper cups at the entrance for consumers to access at any time; in the case that the shared charging treasure has risen to "3 yuan per hour", the first half hour of the charging treasure in Fat Donglai is free; in the dining area, each table is equipped with a charging interface, as well as a fast and stable WiFi signal.
Services near the entrance
If these hardware facilities still require strong financial strength, then the refined service to consumers is the secret that every retail store can learn at low cost.
If consumers want to try fruits, the staff will generously cut them for you and prepare disposable gloves at the same time, there is a magnifying glass next to the shelf to make it easy for the elderly to see the details of the product, and there are 3 BAs in the shelf area of the 2nd to 3rd row of skin care products, so that they can explain each brand in detail.
Fat Donglai's employees told us that although the agents will send people to the site, they also have to learn about products and skincare, and take regular exams. When we visited, one of the BAs was explaining how to use HBN glowing water.
Even if you don't buy anything, you can feel this kind of generosity regardless of return when you walk around Fat Donglai: it doesn't require you to exchange your mobile phone number to change a wifi password, and you don't need a membership threshold to enjoy the service - but most people will willingly sign up for a membership and then spend it.
Do not lose the "good things and good prices" of e-commerce
In the core area of the retail industry, every player insists that they value product selection, so how does Fat Donglai do it?
Specifically in the cosmetics category, relying on Henan's rich agent ecology, Fat Donglai has almost achieved "what customers need, Fat Donglai has" in product selection. ”
One of the manifestations is that the selection range is wide, including high-end brands such as Youlai, Hou, and Sumi, as well as cutting-edge national trends such as HBN, Guyu, and Ximuyuan, as well as men's skin care brands such as Estee Lauder's Langshi. In the display area, where every inch of land is valuable, even makeup tools cover extremely subdivided categories such as eye brushes.
Secondly, Fat Donglai does not reject the "new and exotic" categories, such as Cocoa Star Petal Mask/Lip Mask, Derma Bell Soft Mask and other recent newer categories.
But offline shelf space must be limited, and there will always be times when it can't be covered. The staff told us that if consumers have the products they want, but they can't find them here, they can leave a message for feedback, and Fat Donglai will purchase a set for consumers separately and sell it at the normal price of the counter.
In addition, there are also various shopping tips everywhere, such as the efficacy of different masks, the use of body lotion, and the sunscreen spray over 100ml will not be able to be brought on the high-speed rail, etc., which also reflects Fat Donglai's deep and meticulous understanding of the category.
Tip stickers for skincare areas
If "good things" are the basic skills of retail, "good prices" have been promoted to another iron law in recent years, but different roles and scenarios have shaped different directions.
Fat Donglai does not fight price wars, and its opponents are not Pinduoduo and Douyin. Fat Donglai promises: The price of all skin care products is not higher than that of Taobao flagship store and JD.com. The staff told us that they will track online prices regularly, and if Taobao and JD.com reduce prices, Fat Donglai will immediately follow.
Although Fat Donglai does not guarantee that the price will be lower than online, on Xiaohongshu, many netizens said that the skin care products bought in Fat Donglai are cheaper than those in the live broadcast room.
Just like the sentence "You can always trust Fat Donglai", the sense of trust created by Fat Donglai has made it jump out of the whirlpool of price comparison of retail platforms. We have observed that some consumers will come directly to the service staff and ask the service staff, "I am oily skin, can you help me choose a skin care product that is suitable for me?" And this is not very common in most supermarkets.
The reason is that Fat Donglai has done the ultimate in the details that many stores will not take into account, and has achieved its own unique temperament in the accumulation day after day - maybe Fat Donglai is not the cheapest, but its rigorous commodity concept and thoughtful service are enough to attract a group of loyal customers who insist on repurchasing.
Fat Donglai's success is the victory of values
Today's Fat Donglai has become a business symbol that cannot be ignored in China's retail format.
Its explosion even directly stimulated the development of tourism in Xuchang. During the Spring Festival holiday in 2024, Xuchang received a total of 8.176 million tourists, a year-on-year increase of 173%, and a comprehensive tourism revenue of 5.069 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 543%. Among them, the three supermarkets of Fat Donglai Angel City, Times Square and Life Square received 1.1633 million tourists in 3 days, close to the sum of the city's 11 4A scenic spots.
Every day, groups of tourists come to Fat East to "make a pilgrimage"
Retail is the oldest industry, and no matter how innovative it is, the most essential logic is still the same: price, goods and experience. "And Fat Donglai's strategy is a clear card, anyone can learn it, it's just a matter of whether they can learn it. A senior retail expert summed it up.
In other words, there is no secret to this retail miracle and Internet top-stream in fourth-tier cities: just do a good job of the triangle of "people, goods and yards", which is enough to lead in the competition.
However, in the innovative Chinese market, why is it Fat Donglai who is the first to do this?
The answer may have to go back to the company's genes. In Fat Donglai, you can see the slogan of "freedom and love" everywhere, which is exactly the business philosophy that Yu Donglai has been advocating: to do business is not to satisfy your own survival, but to promote the progress of society in a better direction. Let the environment be fair, free, respectful, trusting and kind.
A supplier mentioned that if Fat Donglai wants to remove or update a batch of goods, he will notify the supplier 3 months in advance, leaving them ample time to deal with this batch of goods and not suffer losses.
On social media, stories such as Fat Donglai's "setting up grievance awards for employees" and "only earning 3 cents for a down jacket" are circulating, which makes people surprised that the company's simple conscience "really treats people as people, not resources".
"Respect for customers, respect for employees, respect for partners", these views are neither trendy nor unique, but the ability to implement this "spiritual core" into every "business detail" is the deepest moat of Fat Donglai.
More and more people are moved by Fat Donglai's feelings and spirit and become its fans. A student said that once his wife saw someone deliberately finding fault with the "Fat Donglai's unconditional return policy", and walked up to the other party and asked loudly: "You all do this, and there will be no Fat Donglai in the future, see what you do?"
Now, the era of the beauty industry is over, and retail players in the industry are looking around and anxiously looking for a way out. But the real answer in the industry may have long been written on the wall of the "Mochizuki Lou Fat Shop" (the predecessor of Fat Donglai) opened by Donglai in 1995: operate in a down-to-earth manner and exchange genuine products for sincerity.
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