"In recent years, with the nutrition sector, the store has been more enjoyable, which is also my advantage. ”
Qin Jiamin, the founder of Youle Baby, said that the nutrition segment now accounts for 40% of the entire store's sales. As the president of Guangxi Maternal and Child Medical Care Base, Qin Jiamin is very concerned about children's nutrition and health, and will continue to expand the nutrition section of the store in the future.
Nanning City, where Youle Baby is located, is the only second-tier city in Guangxi, with a GDP of more than 500 billion yuan in 2023, consumer prices are generally stable, and the level of maternal and infant consumption is stronger than that of other parts of Guangxi.
Qin Jiamin, founder of Guangxi Youle Baby
A local dealer once joked that "500 mother and baby stores may have more than 400 owners", which actually sums up the ecology of Nanning's mother and baby stores - there is a lack of super-large mother and baby chain stores, mainly mother and baby stores, mom-and-pop stores, small chains and regional chain stores.
Therefore, how to obtain differentiated competitive advantages in the market environment of small stores is a compulsory course for the owners of single mother and child stores in Nanning. Qin Jiamin said, "We must adapt to the changes in market demand, be brave in innovation, embrace the Internet, and the combination of online and offline is the general trend in the future." ”
To get in touch with newer ideas, educate the market
In 2009, Qin Jiamin resigned from his original job with good salary, stepped into the maternal and child industry under the guidance of acquaintances, and the first Nanning store was officially opened in the next year.
may be similar to the experience of many mother and child shopkeepers, Qin Jiamin's original intention of opening the store is also to facilitate the care of his children. "At that time, I was planning to have children, so I wanted to know more about motherhood and children. ”
In 2010, the market size of the domestic maternal and infant industry exceeded one trillion yuan, and in the following five years, the scale of the maternal and infant market doubled to more than two trillion yuan. It can be said that her entry into the industry and the opening of the store are just in time for the bonus period, and all products related to infants and young children, such as milk powder, diapers, feeding bottles, strollers, cribs, etc., are very popular.
But after solving the problem of food and clothing, how to ensure the healthy growth and development of children in the next step? So, Qin Jiamin looked at basic nutrients. "I prefer to go out and get exposed to new things and ideas, and then spend a lot of time precipitating myself. "On this basis, consumers are more willing to accept these new ideas.
But in this process, Qin Jiamin also paid a lot of tuition, and it is common for guests to disagree. "It's not that I'm wrong, it's not that the guests are wrong, it's just that at this point in time, the old and new ideas are staggered. ”
Qin Jiamin recalled that the current mothers consciously supplement their children with DHA when their children are born, which can make the children smarter, or the children eat DHA and their eyes are like grapes, and it may be a raisin if they don't eat it.
But more than a decade ago, customers in the store were largely unaware of DHA. So, when she recommends DHA to her guests, they think that such a young child should take medicine? Is it not harmful for pregnant women to eat this thing? Everyone is very cautious about what they eat. "Gaining the trust of our customers is a slow process, we are one of the first stores in Nanning to popularize health conditioning, and we have spent a lot of effort and cost in educating the market. ”
Before the epidemic, the store was reduced, and the loss was 300,000 less
In 2023, Nanning's economy will improve, production and supply will continue to rebound, and people's livelihood and well-being will be more solid. According to the results of the unified accounting of regional GDP, Nanning's GDP in 2023 will be 546.9 billion yuan, an increase of 4.0% over the previous year if calculated at constant prices. As the provincial capital city of Guangxi, Nanning's consumption level of maternal and infant groups is weaker than that of other developed provinces, but higher than that of any other region in Guangxi.
The good economic development has made Nanning a hotbed of hundreds of mother and baby stores, and now there are more than 10 stores in the community where Qin Jiamin's store is located. "In the past, a supermarket was full of mother and baby counters, and I couldn't wait to open some stores in every district of Nanning. ”
However, with the change of the consumption environment, Qin Jiamin and other mothers and babies have gradually realized that the number of stores is not the winning point of the industry.
"Attendance rates are decreasing every day. In the past, I used to explain products to customers in stores from morning to night, but now the communication with customers is more online. But the drop in attendance doesn't mean customers don't want products, but they need a more convenient way to get them delivered to their doors, known as "instant delivery."
Seeing these trends, in 2019, Qin Jiamin made a bold decision: "downsizing", from the original many stores to the current one. Convert the cost of rent, labor and other costs of the store into the cost of delivering goods to customers.
At the beginning, the store delivered to customers through Nanning's local delivery program "Dada Delivery", and in 2019, it could be delivered to the door within 1 hour in the same city. Now, instant delivery has gradually become a standardized process, arranging for store assistants to deliver to the door within the community, and more than the same city.
In 2019, the number of new births in China began to fall off a cliff, and the number of new births fell by nearly half in four years. At the same time, the trend of consumption downgrade is becoming more and more obvious, and major manufacturers are gradually moving towards e-commerce distribution. The "flood beasts" of all parties have hit, and "shrinking the store" has become the survival method that most mothers and babies have to compromise today.
"I'm very lucky", Qin Jiamin described when describing his advanced "store reduction" strategy, "The epidemic has had a great impact on the maternal and child industry, and now this store has been closed for two and a half months at that time, and the loss is serious." If there is no 'shrinkage' in 2019, at least 300,000 will be lost. ”
Deeply cultivate online, and establish strong user stickiness through private domain operations
After shrinking the store, Qin Jiamin began to deepen the online industry. "In 2020, I started to focus on private domain communities, which are low-cost and efficient online, and I have a third of the guests that I have never seen. "Now, there are more than 300 senior members in the store, with an average annual consumption of hundreds of thousands, and more than 2,000 ordinary members, from all over the country.
In fact, for many mother and baby stores, it is not difficult to have a certain number of members, but the difficulty is how to make the member community active. During the conversation, Qin Jiamin's member community kept coming with the prompt sound of new news. "Getting along with guests is like falling in love, if you don't chat, how can there be emotional intersections," Qin Jiamin said, "I position myself as an 'excavator' for the quality of life of guests." ”
The author also saw in the store that in addition to the conventional maternal and infant products milk powder, diapers, nutritional products, etc., children's toys are placed in a row of shelves, and there are rocking cars and various children's snacks at the door. Therefore, Youle Baby is not only a mother and baby store, but also a "paradise" for children in the community.
In fact, the store has far more category richness than meets the eye, and there are many "hidden items". Last year, Qin Jiamin picked up the children's clothing section again, but not as a permanent product. In a quarter, through cooperation with agents, 1-2 new clothing festivals will be launched for a limited time, and with community publicity, only 2-3,000 goods will be sold. "I've found that many categories come back on a regular basis, and the sales are actually better than the permanent ones. Guests also find it novel, which is not only highly receptive, but also increases stickiness. ”
Under this logic, as long as it is needed for life and does not affect the products sold in the store, Qin Jiamin will "dig", including seasonal cotton products, mats, summer quilts, sunglasses, etc., and add new purchase links in the community from time to time. The author also saw a lot of bags neatly stacked at the door of the store, and it was said that these were all products purchased by customers in the private domain community. In 2022, more than 168,000 single masks were purchased.
Private domain operation can not only be used as a way to make profits, but also an important starting point for maintaining customer relationships. Qin Jiamin said that the reason why we can establish a very strong stickiness with users is that the private domain operation has contributed to it, "When the guest finds that no matter what she needs, I can meet her, she can't do without me." ”
But it's not enough to keep old customers safe, it's also necessary to keep attracting new ones. "I used to throw away the basic parts such as milk powder, diapers, and clothing, but now I have picked them all up, because I realized that it is unlikely that a new customer will say 'boss, you can help me recuperate' when they first arrive at the store," Qin Jiamin said. ”
"The essence of nutrition is a relationship of trust, and my customers and I have become friends, and they will consult me first when they have a little headache and brain fever," said Qin Jiamin, "I think the role of community conditioning stores sometimes overlaps with that of community hospitals, and we will provide some safe and effective green treatments, which are more convenient for customers." ”