Can online supermarkets replace offline supermarkets?

No, because offline Shang Chao is also in transition. Especially from 20 15 to 20 16, more and more supermarkets began to lay out a supermarket form called "small format".

Moreover, this model of opening stores is accompanied by the closure of large supermarkets and stores.

Has the hypermarket model reached the bottleneck?

Hypermarkets, also known as big formats. Since it entered China from 65438 to 0995, this model has been regarded as a treasure by various retail giants. However, since 2008, there has been a turning point in the operation of national supermarkets, with a serious surplus of stores and fierce competition in the industry. Even foreign giants such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour have closed their loss-making stores in order to protect themselves.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, in the first half of 20 15, major retail enterprises (including department stores and supermarkets) in China closed 12 1. Among them, poor performance and strategic restructuring are the main reasons for the closure of retail enterprises. It is worth noting that behind this turning point in 2008, it is precisely the time node for e-commerce represented by Alibaba and JD.COM to take off.

At the same time, the small business model has sprung up. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce on more than 4,000 typical retail enterprises in 2065,438+05, the sales of national retail enterprises in 2065,438+04 only increased by 4% over the previous year. Among them, department stores increased by 4. 1%, large supermarkets by 5.3% and specialty stores by 3.7%. As a small format, convenience stores increased the most, reaching 8.2%.

In fact, this situation is not unique to China. On 201410/6, Wal-Mart's global headquarters lowered its annual sales forecast, and said that it would vigorously adjust its investment direction, increase its investment in e-commerce, and no longer expand mainly by landmark shopping centers (hypermarkets). In fact, it also shows that the weakness of the supermarket model has become a global problem, which is not a general comment, but caused by the current economic slowdown in China.

The core factor still lies in the defects of the hypermarket model. Compared with small businesses such as chain convenience stores, the biggest feature of hypermarkets is "large volume". Most of it covers an area of 1-20000 square meters and is located in the core area of the city. The rent is much higher than that of ordinary community supermarkets. In addition, with the current rising rents, it is increasingly difficult for hypermarkets to deepen profits. However, in recent years, there are more and more stores in various hypermarkets, which lack characteristics and shopping experience, resulting in a large number of customers "shifting their positions".

One-stop shopping mall model will encounter greater challenges: the advantages of big and complete are being surpassed by small and beautiful exquisiteness. In recent years, independent shops such as baking, cosmeceuticals, pregnant women, snacks and fruits have mushroomed all over the streets, and various specialty stores are making a strong comeback with a brand-new upgrade. These factors forced Shang Chao enterprises to start to consider looking for more integration points in small formats.

Especially under the impact of e-commerce, traditional standardized goods can be purchased in online stores and delivered to your door. The past price advantage, category advantage and shopping experience of hypermarkets are no longer obvious, so their fatigue is more distinct.

In this situation, "while the growth of traditional stores has encountered bottlenecks, many commercial giants have set foot in community commerce and supermarket convenience stores." Xin Xiang, a special correspondent of the Ministry of Commerce in Shanghai, analyzed the reasons for the rise of small enterprises.

Hypermarkets are also taking practical actions to change their route. In February this year, when CR Vanguard released a brand-new LOGO, Hong Jie, CEO of CR Vanguard, once said with emotion, "In the past ten years, the management of hypermarkets was extensive, but the floor efficiency was not high, so it is necessary to achieve higher floor efficiency with a smaller area." Soon, CR Vanguard's actions proved this feeling. "CR Vanguard has a variety of formats such as hypermarkets, high-end supermarkets, standard supermarkets and convenience stores. We classify convenience stores and Tesco Express as small stores. At present, there are about 1500 small business stores in China Resources. " Zheng, general manager of CR Vanguard Jiangsu Company, said: CR Vanguard is planning to open the franchise of small-scale stores, and CR Vanguard plans to expand the number of small-scale stores to about 6,300 in 2020.

Similar small-scale expansion plans are also reflected in other supermarkets. Suning, which has been seeking breakthroughs in e-commerce, is actually laying out offline formats on a small scale. As early as 20 14, Suning Supermarket was established, dealing in snack food, fresh grain and oil, drinks, personal daily care, daily necessities, home textiles and other categories. Carrefour's Easy Carrefour also started trial operation in Shanghai at the end of last year. Metro, which focuses on the concept of cash-and-carry, also tried its convenience store and Maijia in Shanghai.

Condensed version? Convenience store? Not a small format

Trying to create a small format is actually a choice that is blocked by other roads.

Another way mentioned here is e-commerce in Shang Chao. According to media reports, the online stores opened by Beijing Huaguan Supermarket in Taobao and JD.COM are almost in a state of zero sales. Suning, which has been operating e-commerce strongly, finally achieved the third place in B2C market share in 20 14, but it was 59.3% of the first Tmall and the second JD.COM. 20.2% of COM and 3. 1% of Suning.cn's market share are extremely cold, while Gome, another hypermarket, ranks fifth with only 1.7%. Shang Chao's e-commerce route has obviously hit a rock.

In view of this, since the beginning of this year, most supermarkets have stopped taking pure e-commerce as their first development goal. CR Vanguard, BBK, etc. Most of them focus on O2O and fresh e-commerce, and strive to achieve breakthroughs on the edge of e-commerce. Suning, which is still drilling the platform, reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation with Alibaba in August. However, Ali wants to use Suning's existing logistics system consisting of 4.52 million square meters storage area, 4 aviation hubs, 12 automatic sorting centers, 660 urban distribution centers and 10000 express delivery points to realize his logistics dream, but he has not given much help to Suning's e-commerce goals. In this year's Double Eleven e-commerce war, Suning was quite weak to JD.COM.

How to do small business? Take CR Vanguard as an example. Since 20 15, Tesco Express, a small enterprise, has been testing water in Shenzhen, Suzhou and Tianjin. It is not only different from the consumption experience of supermarkets in the past, but also different from the rapid consumption experience of convenience stores for individuals. As a standard supermarket, Tesco Express aims at the daily consumption of families. Compared with convenience stores, it has more services such as fresh food, catering and leisure, which is more convenient and closer to life than supermarkets. It can be regarded as an upgraded convenience store or a selected hypermarket.

The condensed version of the supermarket is the basic idea of many supermarkets in the layout of small formats at present, which is close to the definition of standard supermarkets, that is, there is a kind of existence between convenience stores with a capacity of more than 80- 120 square meters and supermarkets with a capacity of more than 50,000 items with a capacity of more than 120 square meters. Chen Yan, general manager of China Resources Million Small Business Management Department, has a very clear view on choosing this small business layout. In the early stage of urban development, the rise of hypermarkets adapted to the needs of population agglomeration. But now, the scale of the city is getting bigger and bigger, the roads are congested, the urban population is increasing, people's consumption demand is gradually stratified, and people pay more attention to the quality of life.

However, only the condensed version of the supermarket is not enough to meet the needs of consumers. Huang Shiying, general manager of Alu Financial Convenience Store in Yin Fu, pointed out that enterprises began to flock to make small stores, thinking that the turnover of small stores was fast, but the common problem of retail industry-homogenization was still serious, and the convenience of convenience stores was not done well. The category management of convenience stores is made into category management, which leads to the similarity of products in stores and consumers have no choice.

Therefore, some supermarkets have also begun to try differentiated management. Typical is China Resources. Its Tesco Express has more than 30% fresh products. According to Chen Yan, general manager of China Resources Small Business Management Department, the biggest competitor of the new standard is not the supermarket, but the vegetable market. Behind this goal, in fact, it also reveals the plot of China Resources taking advantage of small formats to realize the wide spread of self-promotion and enter the fresh e-commerce.

SF Express, which started as a courier, has gone further. In May of 20 14, SF "hacker" stores were opened near communities or commercial centers in major cities, focusing on displaying and paying for specific goods bound by QR codes in visual space, and realizing the trinity of "community physical stores+online shopping pre-sale+quick delivery". However, in August of 20 15, a news that "10 billion was burned and SF hackers were going to close down" went viral on social media. Although SF said that the "hacker" did not go bankrupt and renamed the upgrade as "Shunfengjia", it has already metaphorically failed the small business model of "hacker" combined with e-commerce.

Small formats are still being explored. What about hypermarkets? "Supermarket miniaturization, the supermarket model has been broken in China." Is Liu Hui, the chief consultant of Beijing Yi Hui Retailer Management Consulting Company, as he said?

Indeed, Shang Chao's road to China is getting more and more confused. ...

The mashup mode forms a long tail effect.

Any debate about supermarkets and small-scale formats is usually confined to one field. Once we expand our sights from first-and second-tier cities to the whole country, we can see Duanmi.

One is that the hypermarket model is still promising. On the surface, the retail form of hypermarkets is no longer attractive to consumers in first-and second-tier cities, but it is a hot spot for consumption in third-and fourth-tier cities or even lower places. For enterprises in Shang Chao, it is necessary to combine the lessons of supermarkets in first-and second-tier cities, especially the disadvantage that their commodity composition stays in daily consumer goods and takes low prices as a strategy, which can't keep up with the changes in consumption levels in first-and second-tier cities.

According to Dong Gang, general manager of Wu Mei convenience store, the "big format" needs to be cultivated more carefully, keep the profit level unchanged, retain the original consumers with higher quality and lower price products, and further accelerate the transformation of the facilities and environment for customers' shopping experience. Judging from the development track of European and American countries, eventually hypermarkets will gradually move to the suburbs, leaving only small retail stores such as standard supermarkets and convenience stores in urban areas. Obviously, the relatively backward urbanization process in China has also fission to the "transfer" stage.

The second is that the small format model must not take the road of miniaturization of hypermarkets. On the surface, small business forms can quickly cover the main outlets in urban areas, but more importantly, the form of small business forms is by no means the miniaturization of hypermarkets, but really meets the precise category needs of the community, or accurately points out the individual needs of the community.

In the eyes of the industry, it is a common problem for domestic small-scale convenience stores to overlap with traditional supermarkets. Apart from the weather and living habits, the cost of providing convenient services is too high, which makes it difficult to distinguish convenience stores from supermarkets and form competitiveness. According to industry insiders, "Japanese convenience stores can get a commission of 1% from value-added services such as payment and reservation, Chinese mainland and Taiwan Province provinces can also get a commission of 0.6%, and mainland convenience stores may only get a commission of 0. 1%".

In this regard, some small businesses have begun to try, and the number of ways to choose a breakthrough is no longer to imitate the convenience service model of foreign counterparts, but to give more points in the accurate provision of goods. For example, in office buildings, stationery will be regarded as a necessity, and office workers, as the main consumers of lunch boxes, will also launch more kinds of lunch boxes in convenience stores near office buildings. If it is a convenience store in a residential area, the proportion of daily necessities in the product composition is relatively high. Some foreign convenience stores will also equip their residents with Japanese or Korean groceries in residential areas in different countries.

The third is to take the single product route and amplify the needs of users. When a traditional supermarket operates 20,000 items, there are only 200 to 300 items or even less in a certain category, while a small chain store can do one or two thousand items. For example, Lecheng Supermarket's "Ledazui" small package leisure food store has more than 2,000 kinds of casual casual clothes, which is more than any Taobao store. It is incomparable for supermarkets to do all the categories thoroughly, but also to be differentiated and characteristic.

But fundamentally speaking, this small-scale business model is actually still the tentacles of the accurate needs of the community under the hypermarket, disassembling the parts of the hypermarket and decomposing them into the community, while the central hypermarket still bears the responsibility of the central logistics and goods-intensive platform. The small format here is quite similar to the long tail extended from the hypermarket platform, forming a long tail model of physical stores similar to the long tail law of e-commerce.

However, the correct strategy choice may not be able to make a breakthrough in the specific tactics of small format. How to open the development path of small format and jump out of the laundry list of convenience stores in the past?

Deeply cultivate small enterprises with internet thinking

It is the unanimous choice of many people who have tried e-commerce but failed to achieve their own breakthrough with the thinking of Shang Chao's biggest competitor, e-commerce. This kind of internet thinking is more prominent when the small format is implemented.

The first is fast iteration. In Germany, the story that Aldis, a small food supermarket, drove Wal-Mart out of the market was talked about by the industry. A chain store only has 500 to 800 square meters and more than 700 kinds of goods, but it insists on the principle of careful selection, the lowest price and the highest cost performance, and minimizes the number of goods and operating costs. The little people finally beat the Big Mac.

In this model, a more critical factor is fast iteration. In China, the Kou Snack Kingdom under Lecheng Supermarket is its imitator. According to its official statement, in terms of procurement, the procurement standard of Ledoukou is "Don't enter my mouth, don't enter my store". The purchasing staff of Ledoukou have to taste hundreds of kinds of food and choose the best one. The monthly elimination rate of snack products of Ledazui is 30%, while the annual elimination rate of new products is 70%. This is unmatched by the relatively solidified hypermarkets.

Every time you enter the store, you will find something new. In fact, in order to meet the individual needs of consumers through rapid iteration, the seemingly small storefront area has been expanded to almost the same scale as the hypermarket through rapid iteration.

The second is vertical market segmentation. With more and more attention paid to small business, more newly renovated chain baking shops, maternal and child shops, snack shops, fruit shops and so on. Relying on the advantages of convenient community and close to people's lives, we will continue to expand. Among them, the success of the good shop can be described as classic. In just seven years, the number of its stores has expanded to more than 1200. By the end of 20 13, the total sales of good shops had reached nearly1500 million yuan. The trick is to deeply cultivate vertical market segments through brands. Similarly, in recent years, Baiguoyuan, which has thousands of stores all over the country, focuses on fresh fruits and directly extends its tentacles to the community. Through the self-built global procurement system for imported fruits, we can directly purchase goods from 44 fruit enterprises in the United States, Britain, Argentina and other 16 countries. This physical store model connecting the producing area and the community effectively avoids the problem that fresh e-commerce can only rely on logistics to blow up money because it can't land, and avoids the problems of fresh rot and backlog of goods.

In fact, this is not uncommon abroad. For example, American department store chain Merck recently opened the second smallest store in the world in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, focusing on the pharmacy model to meet the needs of families, empty nesters and college students in the community. In fact, it is the product of vertical segmentation of communities.

The third is to make full use of big data. The successful experience introduced by Baiguoyuan is that it is often mentioned that every time you enter a big city, you will build your own urban logistics center, and the role of this logistics center actually reflects the big data elements that small businesses can directly contact the community and accurately judge the demand for goods. By studying the monthly demand of a certain type of fruit and related categories in a specific city, it is often possible to order fruits in advance and send them to the logistics center of the city, so as to avoid deterioration and meet the needs of consumers to the greatest extent. Once combined with the fresh e-commerce model, it can even achieve the efficiency of delivery in the same city on the same day. In this model, because big data of small format reaches the community in time and accurately, once big data plays a role, its ability to detonate consumer demand will increase geometrically.

Similarly, there are cosmetics monopoly chain companies and plant doctors. Through the background system, the plant doctor headquarters can realize real-time tracking of sales, including which products are sold in which store, which members consume, member preferences, skin conditions and so on. And there will be a visual display in the background. On this basis, we can develop popular products closer to the market and consumers.

Fourth, take online to offline as the starting point. For hypermarkets, the e-commerce experiment of pure network platform has entered a bottleneck, and with the increasing prosperity of O2O, Shang Chao enterprises with national logistics storage system are trying to really build their own O2O system through small formats. From the landing measures of Ali, Tencent and JD.COM, and the O2O attempts of SF's hackers, we can see that the small format is also the most critical link in the O2O closed loop because it is more grounded. In particular, the fresh food, catering and local life service systems that hypermarkets and small businesses are trying to cultivate are actually short legs of the current online O2O platform, and this has become a window for supermarkets with a large number of stores to enter e-commerce again.

In short, the decline of supermarkets is caused by external factors such as urbanization development and changes in consumer demand, but it is more caused by the disadvantages of extensive management in the past. Through the small-scale business model, Shang Chao enterprises will gradually form a refined operation system, and constantly tap more demands of consumers, which is the ultimate way to break through.