Where is the best place to buy household appliances? In metropolis, Suning Gome may be the first choice for most consumers. But in small and medium-sized cities and rural areas, today's choices are more abundant. Aunt Zhang, who lives in Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, has a deep understanding of this.
At the beginning of this year, Aunt Zhang, who had just finished decorating her new home, planned to take advantage of the Spring Festival promotion to buy her several sets of new home appliances. Compared with shopping in department stores only ten years ago, Aunt Zhang doesn't know where to choose: besides local meager profit appliances, Suning, Gome and Wuhan industrial and trade household appliances can be seen everywhere. In addition, there are many new products to choose from in RT Mart, Wu Shang Merchants, Zhong Bai Warehouse and other large supermarkets. Aunt Zhang, who is used to shopping around, visited almost all the appliance stores in the city, big and small, and finally chose a Haier double-door refrigerator of Xiao Li Electric. Coupled with holiday promotion and trade-in, the refrigerator with a price of 3336 finally cost less than 3000.
Just after the Spring Festival, my son, who works in Wuhan, bought Aunt Zhang a brand-new Skyworth 42-inch LCD TV for Wuhan Industrial and Commercial Household Appliances, with a little more than 4,000 yuan, which is several hundred yuan lower than the price of Jingzhou Branch of Industrial and Commercial Household Appliances. Because my son works in a state-owned enterprise, the company has some internal procurement cooperation with Wuhan industrial and trade household appliances, so he can get more discounts. Although there are stores in Suning and Gome near the unit, he bought a lot. Usually, he often comes here to choose some 3C products and small household appliances, such as soymilk machine, digital camera and computer.
On May 1 day, my daughter who settled in Beijing went home to visit her relatives. She told Aunt Zhang that she had just changed a LG LCD TV: "There is nothing like the new one, just bought it in yangqiao Suning Appliance." During visiting relatives, my daughter ordered a Siemens drum washing machine for her online and delivered it to her home in less than a week. After-sales service is not bad at all with supermarkets, and the price is more affordable.
Aunt Zhang's purchase choice reflects the ecological status of home appliance chain in the whole China market: in first-and second-tier cities, Suning Gome is basically the only choice; However, down to the second and third tier cities, some home appliance chains that master the advantages of the original state-owned shopping malls often occupy a large share; Further down to the third-and fourth-tier counties and even rural areas, some home appliances "field armies" rooted in this and deeply understanding the rural purchase demand have become consumers' first choice.
Grass-roots field army: remittance sample
Like Aunt Zhang, many residents in third-and fourth-tier cities can now "enjoy" this "shopping around" choice experience. In fact, to some extent, this is because when giants such as Suning Gome are constantly seeking channels to sink, their market has become the focus of home appliance chain stores.
In fact, between the third line and the fourth and fifth lines, home appliance chain giants are being attacked by different forces.
Taking Jingzhou, a fourth-tier city, and its surrounding towns and villages as an example, 20 10 local "local" low-profit electrical appliances have been radiated to Xiangfan, Zhijiang, Jingmen and other nearby towns and villages, with sales exceeding 600 million yuan. The complex characteristics of many rural markets and the urban-rural fringe of the fourth and fifth lines are not as easy to control as the markets conquered by chain giants in the past. Well-equipped regular troops are often unable to step on these narrow paths. Although the investment is quite large, the effect is not ideal. Compared with giants such as Suning Gome, the field troops accustomed to mountain roads have obvious advantages: First, they are familiar with the consumption needs of the local market and can be well targeted when purchasing; At the same time, because the purchase volume is not large, it is generally cash, and at the same time, cost control and supply and marketing relations are strengthened; Secondly, the policy of home appliances going to the countryside has created new growth opportunities for it, and many products suitable for the rural market are concentrated in these channels, which has consolidated the rural market for it.
In the vast cities of the 34th and 5th lines in China, there are not a few field troops coming out of the deep mountains and dense forests, and they are gradually taking shape. Besides Jingzhou's meager profit, there are Jinhua Sitong Electric Appliances, Ningbo Guo Mao Household Appliances, Nantong Wenfeng Electric Appliances, Mianyang Jiafulai, Mudanjiang Guanghui, Baotou Tongli and so on. As a product of the same market, its group image has obvious characteristics: based on small county towns and rural markets, the radiation range is several prefectures and county-level cities in a province; In the process of development, most of them adopt the strategy of parallel expansion and extension to downstream towns, densely distribute points in counties and towns, and take the compound mode of "retail+wholesale". The chain model includes "couple shops joining" and small-scale shops in rural areas. The scale is mostly between 1 and 10 billion. Although the integration is not strong, it solves the problem of small single retail business. Deeply cultivate a certain area and its surrounding rural markets, and have a solid foundation.
Only in terms of scale, these irregulars that have not faded the traces of guerrillas have not yet entered the sight of Suning Gome and others. But at least this model based on the rural market has been proved to be feasible: in March 20 10, Yangzhou Yin Hui household appliances were listed in Hong Kong, which made many frontline troops struggling at the bottom for many years find the most authentic samples, and the value of the route of "rural encircling the city" began to be officially recognized.
As an authentic home appliance chain born in the third and fourth lines, Yin Hui five years ago is almost the same as many field armies today. The positioning of "based on the big countryside" begins with its in-depth study of the consumer market: the consumption power of China market is passed on step by step, and most people in towns and villages spend at the county level; In the same way, most of the county population spends in the county, and the rich spend in the city center. After the big city centers are occupied one after another and the consumption power of villages and towns is rapidly improved, the prospect of this market is equally considerable.
Opening the market, Yin Hui has made two key breakthroughs. First, we have found a suitable channel, that is, establishing an information platform in low-level cities, docking supply and demand, and realizing what farmers need, suppliers will do. Second, considering the scattered residence of farmers, the channels are completely localized. Its original "four-wheel drive model" includes opening a direct store in the county, and then opening a franchise store in the surrounding rural market by localized franchisees, distributing it to other third parties in places that are out of radiation, and increasing maintenance services.
Compared with the competition mode of "large-scale procurement and low-price distribution" of home appliance chain giants, Yin Hui's regional home appliance chains have more "characteristics and core competitiveness". In the whole system, all county-level cities set up self-operated chain stores, which are not only flagship stores and model stores in Yin Hui, but also integrated control centers integrating logistics, management and service. Around each county-level city, open 1 or 2 franchise stores in each surrounding township. At the same time, Yin Hui opened a repair shop between every two chain stores. In addition, Yin Hui will operate a relatively mature brand as an independent company, and Yin Hui Gree Air Conditioning Sales Co., Ltd. is one of them. Now, this company is the exclusive regional agent of Gree. While supplying its own business system, it also acts as a supplier of other channels, such as local department stores.
This model has achieved good results in grassroots third-and fourth-tier cities and township areas. In Yangzhou, giants such as Gome, Suning and Wuxing Electric Appliances have arrived, but the "boss" is still Yin Hui household appliances.
Focusing on the grass-roots market, deepening supply chain management, and combining self-operated stores with franchise chains constitute the most basic business model framework of Yin Hui household appliances. On this basis, suppliers and franchisees have become active builders of the industrial chain. For the latecomers who are watching, Yin Hui's exemplary experience is practical and effective.
First of all, the purchase mode of complete buyout system is more suitable for the smaller grassroots market. Because you can get the lowest price and the freshest supply from the manufacturer. On the surface, the buyer bears the market risk, but with the "short, flat and fast" sales model to help them achieve rapid turnover. It is reported that Yin Hui changes the hottest supply every 10- 15 days on average, which can keep the supply up to date. This is a more practical way than credit for small chains that don't take the "quasi-financial" road.
Secondly, the most direct way to solve the convenience problem of rural consumers is to open the electrical store to the door of farmers; The most effective way to solve the consumer trust problem in the third-and fourth-tier markets is to open chain stores, unify brands, unify commodities, unify pricing, and unify services, which are operated by local people who are easily trusted by consumers. Yin Hui's practice is to let employees go back to their hometown to open stores. These home appliance stores opened in front of farmers' homes sell the same products as the brands and prices in the city, and they can also be delivered to the door quickly, and the maintenance service is also very convenient, so consumers naturally buy them.
Third, after-sales service will become the most powerful advantage of small chains. In order to meet the after-sales service needs of consumers in the third-and fourth-tier markets, Yin Hui Household Appliances has set up Yin Hui Household Appliances Maintenance Point in a convenient geographical position between every two franchise chain stores. The training and daily management of employees in these maintenance points are also included in the management category of self-operated stores.
Regarding the replicability of the Yin Hui model, Wu Xianjian, secretary general of the National Consumer Electronics Channel Alliance, believes that whether the Yin Hui model can be successfully replicated in other rural markets in China remains to be tested by practice, but its "retail+distribution" model is in line with the regional nature of the rural market. The so-called "ten miles with different sounds" has great differences in the market environment of each region, and the "flexible integration" approach adopted by Yin Hui in promoting localization channels is also worth learning.
However, there are also problems. By the end of 20 10, 9.35% and 26.09% of the income of self-operated stores in Yin Hui came from the sales of goods under the two plans of "home appliances going to the countryside" and "trade-in". These two favorable policies are only temporary measures. According to the deployment, "trade-in" will end at the end of 20 1 1, and "home appliances going to the countryside" will also complete its historical mission by the end of 20 12 at the latest. After that, how to maintain high growth is a problem that Yin Hui and all home appliance chain "Field Army" need to consider.
Regional chain: "small fish" gang up in groups
Yin Hui model has found a way out for the small electrical appliance chain located at the bottom of the ecological chain surrounded by top giants, but just like the hierarchical structure of big fish-small fish-shrimp in the natural ecological circle, there are also medium-sized chain operators with the level of "small fish" in the household appliance chain. Most of them have occupied second-and third-tier cities for many years and still occupy a considerable market share. Representative enterprises include Wuhan Industry and Trade Household Appliances, Dalian Dashang Electric Appliances, Zhejiang Baicheng, Hefei Baida, Anhui Guo Sheng, Chongqing Trading Company, Shenzhen Shundian, Zhejiang COFCO, etc.
Their growth genes are equally distinct: they were born earlier and concentrated in some provincial capitals or special economic zones with higher openness; Most of them were reformed from state-owned department stores and supply and marketing cooperatives, and gradually formed a wide coverage in counties and cities in the province with the provincial capital as the center; At present, the scale is between 10- 10 billion.
In terms of business model, they also take a different road from the "quasi-financial" model expansion of home appliance giants such as Gome and Suning. In terms of commodity procurement, payment is generally made first, which is well received by suppliers; In the aspect of chain development, more attention is paid to improving the quality of single stores, and the pace of opening stores is not blind; In addition, many locals are full of affection for these companies that have been with them for many years, and creating "family cards" is their same advantage; Compared with the national chain stores, the business model of such regional distributors in the secondary or even tertiary market is more flexible and adaptable; Compared with most grass-roots chains, they have higher advantages in procurement and scale.
The above characteristics make these "small fish" groups firmly control the control rights of some second-and third-tier cities. In fact, although giants such as Gome and Suning quickly attacked the city in various places, such regional home appliance chain enterprises still lived smartly. Take Wuhan industrial and trade household appliances as an example. In 20 10, its sales in Wuhan market accounted for 52%, with total sales exceeding 5.5 billion yuan.
But to some extent, the mixed operation mode also brings many challenges to its management. Like all enterprises seeking market breakthrough, such enterprises are not satisfied with entertaining themselves in the mid-market at present. However, whether going up or down, you need to master more and stronger survival skills. After all, home appliance sales is a more regional market than other industries.
The most feasible way is the spontaneous establishment of various regional home appliance chain enterprises. In June, 2002, when Zhong Yong Tongtai was founded, it tried a regional home appliance chain enterprise procurement platform.
At the beginning of its establishment, Zhong Yong Tongtai built a bridge of mutual communication and equal dialogue for the development of household appliance chain enterprises in various regions, and signed a purchase contract of 2.8 billion yuan in June 2002. However, with several enterprises headed by Yongle Electric, the purchasing function of this company has been transformed into a bargaining chip for the rapid expansion of enterprises to win the resources and support of upstream home appliance suppliers, which not only makes the upstream suppliers dissatisfied, but also causes the concern of member enterprises. With more and more enterprises being merged, a number of member enterprises have returned to the track of regional independent chain development, and Zhong Yong Tongtai ended in 2005.
On the one hand, the collapse of Zhong Yong Tongtai was because the member enterprises at that time did not build an open platform of mutual trust and mutual recognition, which seriously deviated from the original intention of establishment; On the other hand, at that time, the format of China's home appliance chain was still in a dynamic change: Gome and Suning successively completed the staking in various places, and some regional home appliance chains wanted to compete with them for the control of first-and second-tier cities, which aggravated the instability of alliance member enterprises.
Although it has not been established for a long time, Zhong Yong Tongtai pioneered the cooperation of regional home appliance chain enterprises. This model not only solves the problem of rapid expansion and successful replication of the chain format in the initial stage of the development of China household appliance distribution industry, but also provides a model reference platform for the chain transformation of household appliance agents and wholesalers in various regions. At that time, Zhong Yong Tongtai, Wuhan Industry and Trade Home Appliances, Shenzhen Shundian, Zhejiang Baicheng, Shangshe Electric Appliances, Anhui Guo Sheng and other members were still the strongest home appliance chain stores in various regional markets.
Without the fetters of Yongle, large and medium-sized interests, it is necessary and more feasible for regional household appliance enterprises to re-enter the alliance road. On July 20 10, the national consumer electronics distributor alliance was established in Beijing, and its members are all regional home appliance distributors. This time, because the focus of market growth has shifted to third-and fourth-tier cities, many grass-roots chains that stand out have also been included in the system. Zhu Renhe, chairman of china national household electric appliances commercial association, even declared that "in the next few years, the alliance will form a sales scale of 100 billion yuan, and the home appliance sales industry in China will form a three-legged situation of Gome, Suning and the alliance." Cao Kuanping, chairman of Yin Hui Household Appliances Co., Ltd. also holds the same attitude: "There is no competitive relationship between regional household appliance chains. We are all enterprises based on the development and expansion of various regional markets, and are deeply cultivating the third-and fourth-tier markets. Therefore, they can cooperate with each other in information sharing, experience exchange and mode discussion. There is no problem of aggression between us, but we must support each other and make the future third-and fourth-tier markets bigger. "
Experts also predict that in the next five years or even longer, regional home appliance enterprises will usher in the best period of all-round development and expansion. At this time, if the regional household appliance enterprises can establish a new mechanism of industrial coordinated development, share management means and experience with each other, and build a smooth information platform, it is expected to achieve common development and * * * growth. From this perspective, Yongtongtai is not just a failure case. At least, it has played a role as a stage propeller and incubator for the development of household appliance chain formats in China. More importantly, this model provides a reference for the coordinated development and win-win cooperation between domestic regional household appliance chain enterprises, and also makes those "kings of the third line" who have a strong vision of entering the "first line" understand that "sinking" is easier to obtain the market than "floating".
The only worry now is that the combination of purchasing has proved to be difficult to sustain in the retail industry in China. How can this formal alliance be implemented in depth, and can it give a bright future to the regional household appliance chain enterprises scattered in the region and not yet formed a real joint force? Everything is unknown.
New predators: peripheral invasion+e-commerce penetration
From villages and towns to counties and cities, and then to cities at all levels, there are still many people eyeing the cake in the home appliance market when the distribution chain channels have been intensively cultivated to the extreme.
The most direct predator is the chain channel built by home appliance manufacturers. The first to bear the brunt is the specialty stores opened by some home appliance brands. In order to ensure after-sales service and avoid being blocked by chain channels, many white electricity manufacturing enterprises began to lay out their own store channels many years ago. Today, this intensive channel distribution has benefited manufacturers a lot. In the county-level towns under the jurisdiction of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, stores of Midea, Haier and Gree Electric can be seen everywhere, but there is no sign of home appliance chain giants.
Another channel construction is complete market competition, represented by gooday. Founded by Haier in 2003, it is responsible for the development strategic planning of Haier Group's comprehensive electrical appliance franchise stores and the sales of household appliances in the township market. Backed by Haier's brand and channel advantages, the sales volume has increased geometrically, and the speed has remained above 30% in the past three years. In 2009, more than 40% of Qingdao Haier's sales revenue was realized through gooday. Today, the market scope has expanded from the northern market to the central and western regions such as Sichuan and Hubei. In 2009, it achieved sales of 32.3 billion yuan, second only to Suning and Gome.
The risk of invasion from retail channels should not be underestimated. Although before the influx of foreign capital, China's home appliance chain has established its own model, and formed a unique business model suitable for the local. The sudden departure of Circuit City and Best Buy also explains the inapplicability of foreign models to some extent. But if the retail warehouses that have blossomed everywhere join the battle, the result will be unpredictable. 2010165438+10, the world's third largest wholesale and retail enterprise with 437 shopping malls in 24 countries, the largest German retail and wholesale supermarket group Metro, and the home appliance chain brand "Wan Decheng" jointly invested by Foxconn opened in Shanghai. It also set the goal that the number of stores in Shanghai will reach 65,438+00 in 2065, and 438+02 stores and 65,438+000 chain stores will be opened nationwide in 2065,438+05. Foxconn is also constantly encouraging employees to set up small home appliance supermarkets, aiming at the vast rural market and seeking new profit growth points. In Wuhan, an important town in central China, Zhong Bai storage electrical appliance chain has become the fourth largest household appliance sales channel, which keeps pace with Suning, Gome and Industry and Trade.
The biggest threat may still come from the rapid growth of e-commerce. Nowadays, many home appliance sales websites are popular for their rich products, cheap prices and convenient distribution and logistics. Many young people who are used to online shopping begin to expand their scope to home appliances after clothes, books, snacks and gifts. In addition to household appliances, the huge online shopping market of 3C consumer electronics will also make traditional chain channels unprepared. Among them, a number of online shopping malls, such as JD.COM Mall and Century Electric Network, are warmly sought after.
JD.COM is one of the fiercest wolves. In the past few years, this B2C company is famous for its sharp purchase channels and fierce prices. From 3C home appliances, which had an absolute advantage in the past, to the increasing proportion of home appliances, stable consumer groups will expand to all levels and all ages. Although compared with mobile phones, cameras and other communication digital products, traditional channels have more advantages in ice washing, especially white goods such as air conditioners, kitchens and bathrooms, which rely heavily on after-sales service. But, JD COM is called "smuggling of goods", which has also caused a devastating blow to traditional channels. JD。 The smuggling of COM has two different meanings. The first layer is that there is no difference in the price of B2C websites facing the whole country, which makes the channel price management system of local brands disrupted; On the other hand, some goods with low gross profit, zero gross profit or even negative gross profit in online shopping malls are obtained by small dealers in some places, forming a phenomenon of "secondary wholesale".
According to the official figures of JD.COM, JD.COM's sales in 20 10 exceeded 10 billion yuan, and will exceed 20 billion yuan in 2010/year. Although its business is still dominated by IT and digital products, Zhong Da's home appliance sales of 654.38+0 billion yuan are only over 654.38+0 billion yuan, which is far from Gome and Suning. However, for the B2C market, a new channel field, many home appliance manufacturers have indicated that the possibility of establishing a B2C business unit in cooperation with JD.COM will not be ruled out in the future.
The biggest bottleneck for e-commerce to intervene in the home appliance market still lies in logistics distribution and after-sales maintenance. At present, the after-sales service of online shopping appliances can only achieve the most basic protection such as return and warranty. This is because the "zero supply relationship" between online distributors and manufacturers has not yet reached the strong position of Gome and Suning, so manufacturers still tend to chain channels in after-sales protection. As a matter of fact, JD.COM has increased its investment in basic investment such as logistics after recently obtaining financing of 6,543.85 billion US dollars.
For traditional home appliance chain enterprises, the current situation is like B&Q facing a huge building materials professional market. It is increasingly difficult to balance the relationship between product quality and online mall price.
Duopoly: New Market for Nuggets
With so many competitors swarming in, how can the traditional home appliance chain giants find their new profit growth points?
At present, the commonly used method is staking a horse to expand the scale effect. By 20 1 1, the number of stores of the two oligarchs has reached more than 2,200. Suning announced the goal of opening 370 new stores in 20 1 1 year, with 480 Gome stores.
However, as stated in the analysis of this paper, the layout of the two giants in first-and second-tier cities has become saturated, and the development of third-and fourth-tier cities does not have advantages. It is obviously not the wisest choice to continue to follow the old routine. To achieve real profit growth, in addition to scale, it is a single store profit. Now the scale growth has faced a bottleneck. From a realistic point of view, it is time for Suning and Gome to seriously consider the profitability of a single store. Take Xinjiang market as an example. By August of 20 10, Suning had opened 1 1 stores, but the annual sales of the whole province was only 654.38 billion yuan.
Another consideration to improve monotonous efficiency stems from improving relations with some home appliance manufacturers. In recent years, the contradiction between suppliers and chain giants has become increasingly acute, and many domestic home appliance enterprises are gradually adjusting the focus of channel marketing, and constantly reducing Dalian's sales share and market share in the channel. It is reported that Suning Gome is blocked in third-and fourth-tier cities largely because many home appliance companies are unwilling to go further. They are worried that once the two companies form a three-dimensional coverage of the whole system market, it will increase their burden. At present, the dualization of urban and rural areas and the simultaneous development of national and regional household appliance chains are conducive to increasing their control and discourse power over channels.
In addition, Gome and Suning also set foot in the pace of home appliance manufacturing in the form of "own brands or franchised brands". Suning, which started as an air-conditioning agent, once owned the exclusive distribution rights of Panda Air Conditioning, Gefei Air Conditioning and Feishifu Air Conditioning, and now it is the exclusive operator of whirlpool air conditioning and York Air Conditioning in China. The profit obtained by this model is higher than that of distribution enterprises 10%-20%. However, in the opinion of some experts, it is not a trend for retailers to launch their own brand products. The core advantage of retail enterprises is to manage a large number of products of manufacturing enterprises at the same time, rather than manufacturing products themselves. Li Dejun, director of the marketing department of Anhui University of Technology, pointed out that "extending from retail to manufacturing will increase the management chain of retailers. Once you can't get a stable market and profit in your own brand business, the management cost can easily double. "
In addition to the traditional offline market, online sales and overseas market expansion are expected to become the explosion point of chain giants' future growth.
The rapid development of e-commerce has created an unprecedented new market. Although the chain giants didn't catch the first bus, they are all trying to extend the offline market to online. 20 10 February, Suning officially launched Suning.cn Mall. "Suning's decision to vigorously develop online shopping has been very clear, that is, it is necessary to take online shopping as an important carrier for Suning to establish new channels and expand new categories, and recreate a virtual Suning on an equal footing with the entity Suning Appliance." Sun Weimin, president of Suning Appliance, once said so. At the same time, Gome also accelerated the construction of its e-commerce platform. 2010110/0 In October, Gome acquired the B2C website Kuba Shopping Network for 48 million yuan, and successively set up branches in Chengdu, Wuhan and Shenzhen.
Backed by many high-quality home appliance manufacturers, overseas markets are also regarded as another blue ocean for chain giants to achieve high growth. In this regard, Suning Appliance succeeded in wading. In 2009, taking the financial crisis as an opportunity, Suning Appliance made two successful overseas acquisitions. First, in June 2009, it subscribed for a 27.36% stake in Laox, an old Japanese electrical chain. Suning Appliance became the first China enterprise to acquire a Japanese listed company, and took this acquisition as an opportunity to establish a collaborative development platform with Japanese home appliance chain enterprises. Subsequently, 65438+February 2009, Suning acquired Laser Company for HK$ 35 million and officially entered the Hong Kong market. These two measures enabled Suning Appliance to complete the "going out to sea" plan ahead of schedule. The management of Suning said that 20 1 1 year does not rule out more acquisitions and overseas expansion.