The wailing of community convenience stores: Who is the best living scene?

"How the shelves are empty? Don't I want to eat ice cream? "

"Recently out of stock, to sell less and less goods. It will be fine in two days. "

In the evening rush hour, convenience stores should be crowded by rights. However, there is no second customer in the store except the author, and the clerk has been idle and secretly "eats chicken" under the checkout counter. There are also empty shelves and freezers, so the author is deeply suspicious of the clerk's remarks.

Walking out of the store, the message that popped up on the mobile phone wrote, "The full-time split continues, and the 24-hour convenience store enters a new round of reshuffle."

Looking at the sign of "OurHours Full-time" overhead, the author was lost in thought. Full-time brands built in densely populated residential areas are all down and out here Isn't the situation in other convenience stores more painful? On the other hand, there are scenes of Suning, Ali, JD.COM and other major e-commerce companies scrambling to land in the last mile community. Will the convenience store industry set off a wave of "internet plus" innovation? Compared with traditional chain brand convenience stores, which form is the best for the new convenience stores in internet plus?

With these questions, the author began a three-day investigation. After sampling visits to convenience stores such as 7- 1 1, Rosen, Whole Foods and Suning Store, the answers surfaced one by one.

Text: Jiang Mumu (Industry Fengyunhui)

20 1 1 was established full-time and expanded rapidly. It is called "the local convenience store most similar to 7- 1 1" and has layouts in five major regions: southwest, south, central, east and north China. Take Beijing as an example, as of 20 18 1 1, the number of its stores has exceeded 400, ranking first.

36Kr reported that about 90 full-time convenience stores in Beijing have closed since last June165438+1October. Moreover, many stores are caught in the state of "half empty shelves", and full-time news of "looking for a man" is everywhere.

On February 22nd, the official WeChat account of full-time convenience store issued a transfer instruction. The main operator of the new account was Beijing Shanhai Blueprint Commercial Co., Ltd. In addition, Zhang Sheng, director and vice president of Rosen (China) Investment Co., Ltd. also publicly stated that he had taken over 94 full-time convenience stores in East China and Chongqing.

Why do full-time jobs with unlimited scenery completely exist in name only after a few months? This is about the inherent limitations of chain brand convenience stores. Mainly can be divided into two points, high cost and difficult operation.

The cost includes the rent, labor, operation and other expenses of convenience stores. Taking rent as an example, an industry insider told me that the location of convenience stores with chain brands has its unique golden rule, but it still follows the principle of "four plus six MINUS four" in essence. That is to say, according to the four different locations of residential areas, schools, stations and office areas, corresponding store types are opened. An excellent store location must have six characteristics: frequent business activities, high population density and convenient transportation.

For example, the full-time convenience store mentioned at the beginning is located between the north and south areas of Lisanhe and Swan Bay Community in Yacheng, Chaoyang District, Beijing. In the sample, 7- 1 1 Dongbalizhuang No.2 Store is located between Dongli Community of Balizhuang and Laijin Cultural and Creative Industrial Park. The superior geographical location means that the cost of rent will also increase.

Moreover, there is a hidden rule in the convenience store industry that "the lease expires and the rent doubles". China Convenience Store Report (20 18) issued by China Chain Store & Franchise Association shows that the operating cost of convenience store industry is rising rapidly in the past year, with rental cost rising by 18% and labor cost rising by 12%. Rent and labor cost have become two major factors that plague convenience stores.

The typical performance of operational difficulties is that chain brand convenience store enterprises, in order to occupy the market, on the one hand expand direct marketing, on the other hand open to join, but the subsequent capital transfusion and management failed to keep up. The direct cause of the full-time collapse is the break of the capital chain. Hua Fu Holdings, the major shareholder behind it, was caught in a crisis by the user's run in the P2P thunderstorm, and the supplier's payment could not be given in time, which triggered a series of chain reactions such as out-of-stock, out-of-stock and store closure.

The second full-time convenience store visited by the author belongs to franchisees, with an area of about 60 square meters and 6 clerks. It's worse than the first store. According to the clerk, the owner of the store is already planning to lay off employees. Similar to full-time, neighbors and 13 1 convenience stores have successively withdrawn from the convenience store industry.

Back to the theme of this article, compared with the bustling areas such as business districts and office areas, the rental cost of chain-brand convenience stores may be reduced, but we have to face up to some new embarrassment.

The author learned from a number of shop assistants that although the store is located in the community, the customers entering the store are mainly young people. In other words, chain brand convenience stores failed to achieve comprehensive coverage among consumer groups. This is limited by the unique tonality and unified management of chain brands. Whether it is a direct operation or a franchise store, there is little room for flexibility, and it is impossible to adjust the product structure and store style according to the actual situation.

In-store consumption peaks in the morning, middle and evening, that is, the time of going to work and eating coincides. Fresh food, snacks and daily necessities are the best-selling goods in the store. In the actual waiting process, the largest number of customers in chain brand convenience stores is 7- 1 1, and the average number of customers entering the store every month is 700-800. The clerk revealed that the customer's unit price is about 10 yuan, and the average daily turnover is about100000 yuan.

The situation of other chain convenience stores is much worse. For example, the Rosen convenience store, which is located at the subway entrance and adjacent to the community, has only 19 to 20 o'clock in the evening peak, and only 15 customers enter the store, which is far less than the couple's store dozens of meters away.

According to the author's verification, this is actually one of the common embarrassment of chain brand convenience stores in the community scene. With the same storefront area and the same radiation radius, residents nearby are more willing to take care of the business of the poorly decorated mom-and-pop shop than the seemingly tall convenience store chain.

In addition, chain brand convenience stores are mostly open 24 hours a day, requiring staff to work in shifts. There is a 7- 1 1 storefront in the sample, with an area of about 100 square meters. Store staff 10, three shifts. Even a small shop of 20-30 square meters needs at least 4 shop assistants to guard it in shifts. Coupled with the manager and other management personnel, procurement and distribution personnel, labor costs can be imagined.

Users' needs are not met, and the floor effect and human effect of the shop are not ideal. It can be seen that chain brand convenience stores and community scenes are not the best partners.

Although the mom-and-pop shops that won in the last round are more popular with community residents, it is undeniable that the backward business model of such convenience stores has contradicted the background of the current "internet plus" era.

Therefore, Suning, Ali, JD.COM and other e-commerce players have entered the game with high profile, trying to inject fresh blood into the convenience store industry. Among them, Tmall and JD.COM aimed at the mom-and-pop shop. Tmall opened its first Tmall store in August 20 17 through brand authorization. JD。 The convenience store of COM is a franchise. 20 17 Liu decided to open1100,000 convenience stores in the next five years. Suning is different from the first two, and currently adopts a self-operated business model.

So, is the Internet plus convenience store the optimal solution to the community scene? After investigation, the author gave a positive answer to this question.

Take Suning Store as an example. Bian Nong, CEO of Suning FMCG, announced last year that18 will open 1500 offline stores. According to the latest data, as of 20 18, 12 and 3 1, there are more than 4,300 small stores in Suning, covering 70 cities, 20,000 communities and 60 million users. Compared with chain brand convenience stores and mom-and-pop stores, the advantages of Internet plus convenience stores can be divided into front-end and back-end parts.

The difference in the front end reflects the profound perception and understanding of the Internet plus convenience stores on the actual needs of residents in the community scene. Suning Store has made targeted optimization around the positioning of community O2O life service platform, from site selection to interior decoration layout to commodity structure.

The three Suning stores visited by the author, Beijing Shifoying Store, Chaoyang North Road No.2 Store and Ciyun Temple Store, all have business areas of about 100 square meters. It is reported that other Suning stores choose small and medium-sized properties, which can ensure the types of goods in the store on the one hand, and will not waste space on the other hand, thus improving efficiency.

From the perspective of commodity structure, Suning Store is more like a micro-supermarket. In addition to the daily fast-moving consumer goods, fresh food and snack drinks that are common in convenience stores, Suning Store also has fruits, vegetables, meat and eggs, rice, flour, grain and oil, aiming to provide one-stop shopping convenience for nearby residents.

Service is another embodiment of the Internet plus convenience stores taking root in the community scene. In three Suning stores, the author saw the poster of "Warm Heart Station". Provide customers with free services such as charging, WiFi, drinking water, pumping and heating. Moreover, the customer service launched by Suning covers household appliances inspection and cleaning, air conditioning transfer, computer software installation and cleaning.

In addition, with the help of Suning Store, Suning also launched a new project-Suning Post Office, trying to solve the problem of express delivery service for the last 100 meter and provide delivery and collection services for community consumers.

Bian Nong revealed that there will be more new attempts in Suning store in the future, including exploring the boundaries of convenience store formats. At the Suning.cn National Joy Festival conference, the border farmers mentioned "thousands of stores and thousands of faces" when sharing the development direction of Suning stores. This means that in the next refined operation, Suning stores should accurately reach the needs of different users.

For example, in the community scene, for residents and consumers, Suning stores provide more products such as fresh vegetables. Located in CBD, facing white-collar consumers, Suning stores will provide hot coffee, etc. Suning has also joined a 24-hour gym in some stores. These actions refresh consumers' traditional cognition of convenience stores.

Backstage support is the core advantage of internet companies in the melee of convenience store industry. No matter Suning, Ali and JD.COM, they have been deeply involved in the retail industry for a long time, and the resources accumulated before can be transformed into the kinetic energy of convenience store layout now.

For example, in terms of the most basic property, Suning Store has joined hands with a number of real estate developers. According to public information, in 20 18, Suning Store cooperated with Country Garden for more than 300 projects and Evergrande for more than 200 projects, which largely benefited from the good relationship between Suning Group and these real estate developers.

Another example is logistics. Hou Enlong, President of Suning.cn, said that in 20 19, Suning will launch four major products in the logistics field. The first one is "Suning Seconds", which takes 30 minutes to deliver one kilometer around the store and three kilometers 1 hour.

This directly enables front-end users to place orders online, which improves the shopping experience of home delivery. When I spent money in Suning Store, I downloaded the registered member of the client according to the instructions of the clerk, and got a new coupon of 15 yuan. The mobile phone number can be used as a universal membership code online and offline, and the overall experience of point accumulation and use discount is smooth.

In addition to a complete membership system, Suning Store knows how to operate with Internet thinking. After obtaining permission, the clerk will invite customers to the store to enter the WeChat community. "Although it didn't take long to open the store, the first community was full, and now the second one is being expanded." The store manager will update all kinds of preferential information in the group in time to attract customers to spend.

At the same time, the community has also laid the foundation of the community group. So far, there are 15000 similar Suning store communities. The goal set by Suning Store is "50% of online orders". Bian Nong said that the online shipments of small stores and groups are increasing year by year. In 2065438+2009, Suning Store will build a 1 100 pre-warehouse nationwide to ensure the timely delivery of online orders.

Then there is the cold chain. The direct stores and franchise stores of chain brand convenience stores are mostly distributed by the headquarters, and the supporting facilities are complete to varying degrees. And self-built cold chain, warehousing, etc. It needs a lot of investment, which is a great challenge to the strength of the enterprise. And Suning 20 19 will launch cold chain distribution in 170 city, so Suning Store is confident to shout out that it wants to be a community * * * to enjoy the refrigerator * * * to enjoy the kitchen.

Internet plus convenience stores, born for community scenes and guaranteed by abundant resources, point out the direction for the convenience store industry: from pure offline to online and offline integration, from convenience stores to convenience stores, from selling goods to providing services centered on user experience.

During the interview, when the author asked whether he felt the impact of Internet companies, the answer was surprisingly consistent. "I felt it, so we also launched online channels."

On platforms such as Meituan, Hungry, and JD.COM. With the arrival of COM, the author saw that convenience stores such as 7-1/Whole Foods have indeed settled in, and the monthly sales of different stores range from tens to hundreds. However, this is not the point. The key point is that the traditional convenience store's understanding of "internet plus" still stays at the stage of one more online channel. I didn't realize the gap in many aspects such as refined operation, management and infrastructure. What a terrible thing it is.