A few years ago, Suning Appliance [19.00 1.60%] opened about 50 new stores every year, but since 2009, more than 200 new stores have been opened every year. This rapid expansion is somewhat similar to the McDonald's model, but for the larger home appliance retail enterprises, it faces more complicated problems than fast food enterprises, such as huge initial investment in new stores, low initial purchase rate of customers, high logistics construction and distribution costs.
The 2009 annual report shows that Suning Appliance achieved a total operating income of 58.3 billion yuan in 2009, a year-on-year increase of 16.84%, and the net profit attributable to the parent company reached 2.89 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33. 17%. While realizing the rapid expansion of stores, profits have also increased simultaneously. This is in sharp contrast with the phenomenon that the scale of chain sales enterprises is inversely proportional to the profit rate, which is common in the retail industry. In this regard, Geping Guo, president of China Chain Store & Franchise Association, believes that Suning Appliance has been adhering to the two growth modes of extension and endogenous parallelism in recent years, and has always maintained the "single-store profit level" among household appliance chain enterprises. The most important reason is that the construction of Suning background information platform system has brought a series of revolutionary influences to internal management.
Enlightenment from Wal-Mart
The enlightenment of Wal-Mart to Suning is not the global distribution and annual turnover of 200 billion US dollars, but its information and logistics distribution system for global chain operation.
"At the moment when the customer pays, the sales information of related products has been transmitted to Suning's erp system-even if you are at Suning's Nanjing headquarters, as long as you have enough authority, you can always check the real-time sales status of Suning in any store in any city in the country. At the same time, Suning's erp system has achieved b2b docking with some upstream suppliers, and suppliers can keep abreast of the sales and inventory status of goods and obtain user information at any time. At the same time, Suning's customer service system immediately started automatic scheduling, automatic stowage and other procedures, and delivered them to the logistics base in Suning, Beijing. The staff of the logistics base began to carry out a series of delivery preparations, including commodity classification and automobile dispatching, which are based on Suning's informationization. " Fan Zhijun, CEO of Suning Appliance North China Management Headquarters, told the reporter of China Business News.
Suning is the earliest home appliance chain enterprise focusing on information construction in China, which mainly stems from the judgment of Zhang, chairman of Suning Appliance, on the future of chain operation. As early as 2000, when commercial capital was just emerging, Zhang put forward the goal of "building 1000 chain stores nationwide and becoming the Wal-Mart of China".
"The enlightenment of Wal-Mart to Suning is not the global distribution and annual turnover of 200 billion US dollars, but its information and logistics distribution system for global chain operation." Zhang said to him.
In order to achieve this goal, Zhang realized that while focusing on developing retail business, it is necessary to work closely with consulting service companies that can integrate management consulting and it services in order to raise the integration ability of enterprise IT application and enterprise management to a strategic height. Finally, Suning Appliance chose ibm Consulting Company as its information development partner. From 2004 to 20 10, Suning maintained a strategic partnership with ibm, and spent 300 million yuan to optimize the whole system management, improve the it application level, implement the construction project of multimedia monitoring command center, and establish an information platform based on multi-dimensional management and control.
Zhang said that Suning aims to establish an "e-chain" model, realize the docking with suppliers and market information, and realize the coordination of customer-centered procurement, sales, inventory and after-sales service. In order to further clarify the business model of docking with suppliers, Suning Appliance has simplified the rebate model, and this adjustment is an attempt to form a one-to-one correspondence between sales and profits. In addition, Suning also proposed to build a "35 15" plan including15 logistics bases within three years, and build a large-scale logistics base to realize the centralized operation of marketing business, procurement business and logistics business. According to Suning's calculation, the average investment of a regional logistics base is between 200 million and 300 million. With the implementation of this plan, the overall investment of Suning will exceed 654.38+0.2 billion yuan. Of course, after the completion of the national modern logistics system, it will also lay a very solid foundation for the subsequent development of Suning. At present, the state has issued relevant policies to revitalize logistics construction, and the land cost and construction cost are also declining, which also brings convenience to site selection, so it is also a good opportunity for Suning to speed up and increase construction.
B2b docking between manufacturers
Suppliers such as Samsung and Haier can access Suning's erp system at any time to check the sales progress and inventory of their products. At the same time, using the market information obtained by direct contact between Suning Appliance and consumers, suppliers can clean up their inventory more quickly and produce marketable products.
The construction of Suning erp information platform is not only aimed at the interior, but also open to suppliers. At present, there are more than 900 retail terminal stores in Suning, and the number of suppliers exceeds 1000. Supply chain operation is quite complicated. For the downstream business, Suning Appliance needs to sell the goods to the final consumers through stores distributed all over the country; For upstream business, Suning Appliance also needs to communicate with suppliers in terms of commodities, purchasing plans, orders, receiving and dispatching, settlement and reconciliation, and information exchange. , including cross-operation of logistics, capital flow and information flow. Therefore, whether and how much each link in the supply chain adds value will affect the competitiveness of Suning Appliance and upstream suppliers.
"At first, both Suning and Samsung had their own independent information systems. At that time, the cooperation mode was: Samsung supplied goods according to Suning's order, and the sales situation could only be known during monthly or quarterly reconciliation. The direct result of this is that hot-selling products often cannot be replenished in time when they are out of stock, while slow-moving products can only depreciate slowly in the warehouse. " A person in charge of the Samsung color TV market introduced to the reporter.
In order to make up for the above shortcomings, Suning directly connects with suppliers through b2b information technology. According to He introduced by Suning Information Department, Samsung and Haier are the first suppliers to conduct b2b docking with Suning Appliance. These suppliers can access Suning's erp system at any time (through a public platform of Suning to realize the docking of erp systems of both parties) to check the sales progress and inventory of their products, and reduce the cost of business communication and labor intensity. At the same time, using the market information obtained by direct contact between Suning Appliance and consumers, suppliers can clean up their inventory faster and produce marketable products, and the supply chain is improved in this cycle.
For this reason, the customer service of lg and Samsung grasped the information of their commodity users at the first time, and they can pay a return visit to users in time according to the requirements of their respective brands to better improve after-sales service.
Process optimization of logistics base
According to the delivery location required by customers, Suning's information system can calculate how the team should design the route to save more gasoline.
Logistics distribution network is one of the core competitiveness of retail enterprises, and it is also the second largest cost expenditure of retail enterprises after property cost. The second phase of Suning Beijing Logistics Base in Tongzhou, Beijing has started, which is one of the projects that Fan Zhijun attaches great importance to. Because this means that more decentralized back-office service systems in North China will be brought into the centralized management system, and the speed of commodity sales and capital circulation will be greatly improved.
Suning's 2009 financial report shows that in terms of logistics base construction, Suning Appliance's logistics bases in Shenyang, Beijing (Phase II), Chengdu, Wuxi and Tianjin have entered the construction stage; The site selection of 10 logistics base was completed throughout the year, with nearly 20 sites selected. In 2009, Suning's national retail distribution capacity increased by 30% compared with 2008, and its daily distribution capacity increased by 25% compared with 2008.
In the warehouse of Suning Beijing Logistics Base (Phase I), the reporter saw that a clamping machine was busy nervously. Refrigerators and color TVs were removed from the delivery manufacturers' trucks, labeled with bar codes compiled by Suning himself, and then put on pallets in batches for storage. In order to ensure that the products are not damaged, each tray will be fixed with a rope. When necessary, some commodities will be sampled and unpacked for inspection. According to reports, under normal circumstances, such a large warehouse has only three or five employees. The staff of the logistics base told the reporter of China Business News that most of the work was done through the computer system.