What are the operation schemes of community supermarkets?

In recent years, there are more and more large communities, and the cost of people going out to shop is gradually increasing. In order to meet people's consumption demand, community supermarkets have mushroomed and spread. In this environment, community supermarkets as investment targets tempt many entrepreneurs. However, at present, the situation faced by community supermarkets is ice and fire. Most of them went bankrupt at a loss, and only a few really made money. In this situation, community supermarkets need to consider how to use their own advantages to stand in the vast community, so as to survive and develop better. Based on the advantages and problems existing in the development of community supermarkets, this paper discusses the future development of community supermarkets and related strategies.

Keywords community supermarket; Advantages; Insufficient; tactics

Community, in China, mainly refers to all kinds of residential areas located in cities or towns, urban-rural fringe, including universities, factories, real estate development communities and other residential areas. Community supermarket is a kind of supermarket that mainly serves community residents. Specifically, it is to locate supermarkets in the community, that is, to open supermarkets in different residential areas with a certain scale, stable residents' income and good consumption habits, and to provide products and services needed for daily life with different structures according to the cultural level, consumption habits and characteristics of consumers in residential areas, so as to fully meet the needs of consumers in this area. Its commercial format is between large-scale comprehensive supermarkets and small and medium-sized convenience stores. Compared with small and medium-sized convenience stores, community supermarkets have a larger business area, more varieties and types of goods, and a wider range of consumers. Compared with large-scale comprehensive supermarkets, there are great differences in site selection, target customer groups, product scale and types. It can be said that the three are complementary.

First, the development advantages of community supermarkets

(1) Convenience advantage: close to life. Community supermarkets are generally located in crowded communities or main streets around communities, close to consumers' residential areas. It greatly reduces the transportation cost and time cost paid by consumers for shopping. Especially for ordinary working-class customers, community supermarkets are convenient, time-saving and labor-saving, with lower shopping cost and convenient return. But large supermarkets usually gather in downtown areas. For the vast majority of consumers who live in non-central urban areas, they often need to take buses to get there, which leads to a corresponding increase in travel and shopping costs, and brings a lot of inconvenience to residents in shopping, especially in purchasing daily necessities and related services. (2) Cost advantage: low operation cost and flexible operation mode. Large supermarkets are generally located in downtown areas, with large area, many booths and many employees, which are difficult to manage and have high operating costs. In case of emergency, it takes a lot of time and energy to make adjustments. Community supermarkets are located around residential areas, and the scale is generally small. The operating cost is much lower than that of a large comprehensive supermarket in the central business district. There are fewer employees in the supermarket, and the variety and quantity of goods will not be too much. Operators can formulate flexible business strategies according to the consumption ability and habits of the main consumers around them. In case of emergency, structural adjustment can be realized quickly. (3) Emotional advantage: customers are relatively stable and have high customer loyalty. Large supermarkets are located in downtown areas, with a large flow of people and fierce competition. Consumers are often attracted to a large supermarket because of some low-priced goods, promotions and other reasons, and when the same situation happens in another supermarket, they will turn to another supermarket, and it is difficult to cultivate loyalty. Community supermarkets are close to residential areas, with relatively few competitors, and their business is mainly oriented to communities and surrounding residents. Community population is relatively concentrated and consumption is relatively stable. Because there are fewer employees in community supermarkets, shopkeepers often serve in person and communicate directly with customers face to face. With the increase of communication with customers, it will naturally form a good relationship with customers. If you sometimes forget to bring cash when shopping, you can allow credit, which further increases customer loyalty.

Second, the problems in the development of community supermarkets

(1) positioning is not accurate enough. At present, many community supermarket operators regard community stores as a reduced version of large supermarkets or an expanded version of convenience stores. The community supermarket itself has no partition or can't find its own partition, so it is difficult to highlight its core competitiveness. In order to effectively cope with the "one big and one small" squeeze of large supermarkets and convenience stores, community supermarkets must tap their own unique core competitive advantages. (2) the variety of goods is not rich enough, and the purchase cost is high. Large supermarkets have abundant funds and a wide variety of goods, so consumers can choose from a wide range. Community supermarkets often sell a variety of goods because of insufficient funds and limited business area. Because the quantity of goods taken is less than that of large supermarkets, the cost is higher than that of large supermarkets, which directly affects the operating profit of community supermarkets and has a great impact on their operation. (3) insufficient publicity, weak "brand effect" and low trust. Big supermarkets have done a good job in publicity, with great publicity and wide publicity scope. Some regular or irregular promotional activities have attracted the attention of many consumers. However, community supermarkets are affected by economic strength, and at the same time lack the awareness of promoting sales activities. There are often few publicity activities, so it is difficult to improve the popularity among consumers and attract foreign consumers. In contrast, the brand-name goods operated by community supermarkets are definitely much less than those of big supermarkets, and the brand image of the stores themselves is far from that of big supermarkets. Even the same brand of goods, customers will think that the quality of big supermarkets is better and more authentic than that of community supermarkets. (4) Lack of market understanding and management experience. Managers in large supermarkets often have high management level and rich management experience, and the recruited employees have received systematic training and have high professional quality. However, most of the operators of community supermarkets have not received formal management training, and some operators, even those who have just started a business, lack full understanding of the sales market, and the management methods are not scientific and standardized enough.

Third, countermeasures.

(1) differentiated positioning. In the face of market competition, community supermarkets should do their own positioning and differentiated management. Through differentiated management, tap their core competitiveness. Large supermarkets solve the problem of "one-stop shopping" for consumers, requiring complete goods and parking lots and other corresponding facilities around the shops; Convenience stores are characterized by convenient and fast checkout, but the number of goods is small, mainly food and beverage; The orientation of community supermarket is to solve the problem of "three meals a day" plus buying some daily necessities. First, subdivide the customer base, accurately locate and operate flexibly. With accurate positioning, community supermarkets should study their own consumers and customer groups and choose the appropriate product mix according to their own positioning. People in different communities have different needs. Community supermarkets should do a good job in the investigation and analysis of the community and surrounding markets, and formulate their own business strategies according to the market capacity, consumption level, age structure, occupational structure and existing habits of the target market. So as to achieve accurate positioning and enhance regional competitiveness. At the same time, community supermarkets can also build some distinctive brands in this sales area according to their own characteristics. On the premise of ensuring the quality of goods or services, efforts should be made to enhance their influence and cultivate community residents' awareness of them. For example, the Huapu community supermarket in Beijing really considers the freshness, high quality, low price, health and environmental protection of its operation for the community residents. First of all, the food is fresh and safe, and the service is thoughtful. In the noisy and messy "vegetable market", you don't have to bargain, you can buy comfortably and eat with confidence. Secondly, the fresh vegetables in Huapu Supermarket are generally "clean vegetables". After preliminary processing, the preservation treatment is perfect. Most vegetables are packed in plastic trays and covered with film, which is very fresh. In addition, Huapu Supermarket can fully mobilize resources and continuously increase new products according to market feedback information; At the same time, we also pay attention to and introduce the best-selling goods and new products on the Internet, and set up a special area for imported food and Taiwan Province food and specialty products, so that customers can always find different and distinctive goods in the supermarket, ensure good commodity competitiveness, and let customers feel more care and convenience. The second is service differentiation. First of all, do a good job of dislocation management. There are often some unexpected situations in the life of community residents. For example, when sending children to school, children want to buy some school supplies; Or when I was on the night shift, I suddenly found that there was no cigarette. When consumers have a temporary purchase demand, they will generally randomly choose a store close to them based on the principle of proximity. Large supermarkets usually don't open until after eight in the morning and close at half past nine in the evening. Community supermarkets can make full use of this "time difference" and do a good job as soon as possible according to the living habits of surrounding residents, for example, opening in advance, closing late at night, or even opening 24 hours a day. This can not only meet the shopping needs of community residents as much as possible, but also establish a good image of supermarkets among community residents. More importantly, it can improve the profitability of community supermarkets and increase operating income. Secondly, it is necessary to serve sincerely, manage attentively, and make every effort to be a "humanized" supermarket. On the one hand, community supermarkets can provide some services that big supermarkets can't, such as collecting milk and newspapers for community residents, paying utilities, selling bus tickets and train tickets, handling tourism affairs, or taking blood pressure for community residents free of charge, providing household appliances and water and electricity maintenance, dredging sewer pipes, cleaning furniture, carrying, introducing nannies, sending gifts and flowers, providing free rain gear for customers, providing psychological consultation for the elderly, and even providing unlocking services. On the other hand, some simple entertainment facilities can be set up in the supermarket for residents and children in the community to play; You can also carry out some meaningful interactive activities with community residents on a regular basis, such as singing and dancing, holiday parties and so on. To create a community supermarket culture. (2) Joint development of supermarket chains to form economies of scale. Developing community supermarkets through chain operation can not only meet the needs of community consumers, but also enable enterprises to achieve economies of scale, which is an effective way to develop community small supermarkets. When formulating the development strategy of chain operation, network layout and logistics distribution are two major problems that need to be solved in particular. First, the reasonable layout of community small supermarket chain outlets. With the continuous improvement of community management, domestic service, community culture and other projects, the commercial department should make a reasonable layout of community commercial outlets to seize the market closest to the people. Generally speaking, 1000 households or even 500 households can open stores. Specific to the location of community stores, the selection of stores should be based on the core business circle of community population, and it is best to let consumers shop within 5 ~ 10 minutes on foot, so as to reflect the purpose of "convenience". The second is to build an effective third-party logistics distribution system. Because the small supermarket chains in the community have the characteristics of scattered outlets, small scale and small batch, if a separate logistics distribution system is organized, it will lead to scattered resources, which is not conducive to giving full play to the advantages of small enterprises. Small supermarkets in various communities can unite in the form of joint-stock system under the guidance of the government or industry associations, enjoy a unified logistics and supply chain platform, and realize large-scale development; You can also seek to become an existing strong brand franchise store and directly enjoy its mature logistics and supply chain platform. While reducing costs, you can also increase your trust. (3) adjust the commodity structure, grasp the key points, make small profits but quick turnover, and ensure the quality. Adjust the product structure, so that the product structure of our store can better meet the needs of consumers in this community in terms of function, brand and price, improve the average sales volume and benefit per square meter of each category, introduce more star products, quickly eliminate unsalable products, carry out effective promotion, improve the pulling effect of promotion, and make the product display more artistic and attractive, and strive to solve the problem of out-of-stock in stores. When sales go up, the unit cost will naturally come down. At the same time, we must ensure the quality of goods and put an end to counterfeit and shoddy goods. (4) Strengthen communication with customers, take the initiative to improve their image and build brands. Community supermarkets can learn some promotion methods of large supermarkets, such as membership cards, bonus points, daily special sales and so on, and carry out small-scale promotion activities, which should bring tangible benefits to customers, enhance their visibility and reputation among customers, and strengthen their brand building. Take Suzhou Shiwugu Community Supermarket as an example, the fresh part of its characteristic operation has always been fresh every day, and it adheres to the promotion strategy of low price every day to ensure that some profitable foods are put on the shelves every day and week; The shopping environment of community supermarkets is also a place to maintain the attractiveness of consumption. In order to build a brand visual identity system, all the stores in Shiwugu Supermarket can achieve full indoor and outdoor lighting. Interior decoration creates an elegant, comfortable and pleasant shopping atmosphere through different projection of lights, changeable decorative colors and unified sound. There are dozens of stores in Suzhou Shiwugu now, and each store can achieve such a unified and standard shopping environment. (5) Renew management concept and improve management level. Community supermarkets can establish a regular assessment and training mechanism according to their own conditions, train employees in concepts, management policies, management knowledge, service standards and service skills, formulate corresponding assessment standards according to community characteristics, and implement unified reward and punishment standards for family members and ordinary employees, so as to be fair, just and open, so as to improve their own business ability and work enthusiasm, and then provide more high-quality and efficient services for community customers. At the same time, formulate corresponding management requirements such as employee code and strengthen institutionalized management.

Community supermarkets can also strengthen management by introducing systems and equipment. For example, 7 ~ 1 1 in Japan added the function of collecting customer information in the POS system, and analyzed that 7 ~ 1 1 middle-aged men are the most frequent consumers, so the quality was adjusted, and some middle-aged men's goods were added and some women's goods were reduced. In the future, community supermarkets will survive and develop well on the premise of giving full play to their own characteristics and relying on community resources.