Whether you are a newcomer to the retail field or have been deeply involved in the retail field for a long time, I hope that through the next 10,000 words of sorting, you can re-look at the future opportunities.

Public opinion is always so "simple" and is seriously tilted towards one side at a certain stage of development. The turning point of the times needs to evolve slowly, but before that, someone will always collide with the south wall.

represents the leader in e-commerce in the United States, Amazon , is not idle either. She invested in Delicious Qiqi for US$20 million, and established an Amazon China Fresh Restaurant in combination with relevant supply chain partners. Consumers can purchase a variety of fresh foods, fruits and even eggs through Delicious Qiqi or Amazon at the same time. Another investor of

Delicious Qiqi is Charoenix Group (which has CP Lotus). From the perspective of supply chain, it is a perfect combination of online and offline. The products it provides have more than 5,000 SKUs, and it has abundant funds to build its own central warehousing and full-process cold chain logistics. It has built 30 transit stations covering all areas of Shanghai, and has opened three distributions a day to improve distribution efficiency.

The opening is just like Jeff Bezos founded Amazon. The ultimate back-end construction was a hit, and since then the Chinese market has started a trend of fresh food e-commerce.

Fresh food supermarket, a high-frequency consumption category, has once again ignited the heat in China. Various fresh food e-commerce companies have successively received a lot of investment, focusing on organic, direct procurement and sales of orchards, brand-oriented and specialized in oranges, vertical operation of fruits and vegetables, or horizontal management of rich and complete agricultural and sideline products, which is very lively.

But the good times were not constant, and the same problem occurred again. In 2016, due to continuous large losses and long-lasting profits, the company stopped operating after a round of financing failure.

's overall investment market began to cool down, and the red envelope subsidy strategy adopted to win traffic officially came to an end. Most other fresh food e-commerce companies also lost their life-sustaining capital, and instantly closed down a large number of bankruptcies, layoffs, acquired, and reduced their business.

For example, the fresh food semi-finished e-commerce "Young Caijun" with a valuation of 200 million yuan has been obtained for two consecutive rounds of financing of tens of millions of yuan. After building a home delivery logistics system and achieving the time limit for delivery within 2 hours in Beijing, the capital party saw the trend of fresh food bankruptcy change suddenly and immediately ended the project liquidation.

On the other hand, after Meituan and Dianping merge, their business will also be reduced. Take delivery, hotel accommodation, movie tickets and other three business items; although Ele.me , which focuses on take delivery, also appeared during this period, it was also charged both fees from merchants and consumers to make up for the delivery costs.

At this point, let’s think about it:

Why most of the innovation needs ended almost in vain, and a small number of surviving companies seem tiptoe and cautious in every step.

However, what is the key problem of O2O?

Capital has come to an end, and the emergence of the capital winter has its hidden worries about the future: the profit model of most O2O of

is not enough to achieve cost recovery. This kind of errand-running service, whether it is business strategy, leadership team, cost control and other aspects of management, will cause huge losses if you are not careful. What needs to overcome in the end is still on the old issue of "human cost and efficiency".A series of problems in

O2O mode are waiting to be solved:

The O2O community store in
• is too small, which is not very interested in consumers due to the high repetition of products; the O2O of
• pure e-commerce has caused too much back-end investment, high management costs, and insufficient income due to the rich products; the direct sales of agricultural products with hot products as the main force have caused greater losses due to low gross profit and high cost; the group purchase and preferential subsidies of service industries such as
• movie tickets can only temporarily stimulate traffic increases, but cannot bring about the increase of loyal consumers...

Until 2017, when Jack Ma was conducting strategic planning with internal partners, he thought of the word "new retail" with a flash of inspiration, which immediately solved all doubts.

The largest share of the overall retail sales of consumer goods is still offline, but the huge traditional retail economy is too outdated to keep up with the pace of the new consumption era. It seems that it is time to change the generation and upgrade.

followed by Alibaba Group CEO O Zhang Yong to carry out a series of business integrations at high speed, as well as a series of major moves such as the group's strategic investment, from the establishment of Tmall Supermarket, investing in Miao Fresh, Yiguo Fresh, and investing in Lianhua Supermarket, as well as the wholly-owned incubation of Hema Fresh Supermarket, which is mainly "eat". This is the "appetizer" of the new retail strategy.

is moving towards the new retail era faster and faster. The investment in offline retail by Tencent and Alibaba can be said to be a "double horse" and are accelerating their layout of heavyweight offline entities, including strategic investment chain supermarkets, department stores chains, etc.

From these measures, we can see that:

• From the perspective of capital strategy, the "new" of new retail is to create a huge new economy through the combination of online and offline;
• From the perspective of business tactics, the "new" of new retail is to find a new optimization method and diversified business strategy. The definition of
• should be considered clearer, but we need to be more specific.

Speaking of diversification, there was an episode during 2017, which was that various unmanned business models appeared one after another, and it was still a craze driven by Amazon.

Amazon has been constantly exploring the O2O combination model. After the new sales model of offline bookstores, it has also launched a new form of Take Go convenience store with great fanfare. The main highlight of

is to let consumers "take it and leave". The innovative "unmanned management" model has attracted great attention, and Alibaba has also opened an unmanned convenience store at a rapid pace as a demonstration.

immediately hit the excitement of thousands of entrepreneurs and capitalists. Many people seem to have suddenly "enlightened" and believe that "unmanned" is a good solution to the previously mentioned personnel cost problem.

So taking advantage of the craze of the word "new retail", entrepreneurs from all walks of life have launched self-service gyms, unmanned convenience stores, unmanned small KTVs, office self-pickup shelves, office building automated meal pickup, and pickup.

Many emerging entrepreneurs and media have promoted the public. Then, before the market became popular, most of them lost their voices in the market at a speed of lightning speed. This inevitably leads to discover several new problems:

may not be the best solution to meet the market, or perhaps, the unmanned model needs to find a better application scenario?

At this point, let’s think about it:

, what is the best way to optimize new retail?

New retail is the trend

Just like in the book "Tough Entrepreneurship", Ben Horowitz said: Many times, the information in making decisions is less than one-tenth of what is needed, but leaders must have the courage to make decisions. Tomorrow looks completely different from today. If you can stick to tomorrow, you may find that what seems impossible today will suddenly appear in front of you.

Assuming history can be repeated, we will go back to the fundamentals and sort it out again. In fact, we will find that the combination of O2O online and offline is a good thing for improving commercial efficiency.

is online and has the information circulation function of quickly browsing products, transparent prices, and timely interaction. It has better advantages in obtaining customer traffic and virtual interaction with consumers at any time. However, the different operating levels of each e-commerce company and the distribution distance across the country have certain restrictions on timeliness and trust;

, offline physical stores have warehousing functions, and have the trust brought by actual experience, as well as the service advantages of providing 30-2-hour delivery to home in a range of 0.5-5 kilometers. The timeliness, better trust, and higher scalability of service projects, are limited by certain natural factors in traffic diversion and operation process transformation. The advantages and limitations of online and offline

are not so significant in the past. Perhaps it is because consumption habits have not yet been developed, or perhaps it is because companies have lost their practices...

Later, with the subsidy war between Uber and Didi Taxi , which lasted for a long time, educating consumers, making mobile payment an indispensable tool for consumers, which is a turning point in consumer change.

If you are "down-to-earth" enough, you will find that the current banks and mobile halls have reduced a lot of people in queues. The daily water, electricity, coal, Internet, cable TV, telephone payment and other projects have been replaced by Alipay and WeChat wallets. Consumers do not need to spend time queuing for payment. As long as they are on the App, they can solve the problem of queuing in business halls, and have also developed the habit of paying on mobile.

Since 2016, consumers’ habits of shopping on Apps have ushered in explosive growth, and mobile payment has extended to offline combinations such as self-service ticket collection and self-service checkout.

, such as Maoyan’s self-service ticket pickup machine, McDonald’s ’s self-service meal ordering machine, etc., as long as consumers make reservations on the mobile terminal, they can directly collect tickets through the machine offline to save the trouble of queueing. From the perspective of usage rate,

has indeed solved the actual pain points, so now you will find that there are more consumers on ticket machines than at the counter, which is the development of consumption habits.

Speaking of self-service checkout, it is the fastest growing application of all self-service equipment. According to data from the London RBR market research agency, self-service checkout machines have reached 10,000 since 2015, and as of 2016, there have been 255,000 units worldwide.

is estimated to reach 400,000 units in 2022, with a rapid growth rate, accelerating the integration of online and offline consumption data and improving the O2O closed loop.

's so-called closed loop is to allow stores to identify, reach and analyze consumer consumption behaviors, and to predict and optimize management of online and offline consumption data. These functions allow a series of problems discovered in the previous O2O model to be solved with the trend.

First of all, you no longer blindly invest in the early stage, but can make predictions through consumption data in advance. For example, the location selection of Hema Fresh is a basis for a comprehensive analysis of the consumption of shopping mall members and the ordering situation of consumers in this area on Tmall Taobao online, and then the basis for determining whether the area is suitable for opening a store.

site selection evolved into intelligence, everything is because of the online and offline data being opened. The evolutionary process of the new retail era is because of the popularity of mobile payments that make O2O feasibility possible.

If this is a key point of change, then the use of unmanned equipment in the entire store is a "heavy and redundant" model. To form a closed loop of data, just focus on the checkout facilities.

Not only that, it also produces a diversified business model through the integration of online and offline member data. After I sorted out many successful cases that have been verified by the market, you can clearly "see" three key trends in the future:

Trend 1: Consumers are willing to compare prices online, select, and place orders online, and then choose to pick up goods in the nearest store

Tmall through Double Eleven and combined with nearly 100,000 stores to open 60 pop-up stores in the business circles of 12 first- and second-tier cities across the country.

Even Nike has participated in the marketing activities of smart stores, mainly because O2O cooperation with Tmall has increased its turnover by 11%. After the news came back to the United States, Nike's stock price once rose by 3%, which is very worthy of entrepreneurs and capitalists taking the consumption trend of new retail seriously.

Judging from the sales situation of Double Eleven in 2017, the "Tao brand" born in e-commerce channels has been "blocked" by physical retail brands, and the women's clothing brand of Tmall Mall has become the world of physical retail store brands.

sales first place is Uniqlo, second place is VERO MODA, third place is ONLY. In addition, the sales of men's clothing and footwear are also fully occupied by offline physical store brands.

Uniqlo Greater China CMO Chief Marketing Officer Wu Pinhui also told the media:

Driver through the Tmall Double Eleven event,Uniqlo has linked online and offline with more than 500 stores in China to provide consumers with a new retail innovation experience of "Tmall ordering and store pickup", with very good results.

This is an example of diversified operation through member data. consumers no longer have consumption barriers due to concerns about excessive store prices and unequal information. They can also check whether the quality of the physical objects is flawed on site, and the problem of attracting customers to the store consumption has been effectively solved. What’s more important is that the chain brand with multiple physical stores is not only more trusted by consumers, but also improves the efficiency of multiple stores in logistics and stocking through online booking by consumers.

Trend 2: The closer the physical store is to the consumer's life circle, it gives consumers more reason to order

In March 2017, FamilyMart Convenience Store announced that it would be held in the Ele.me platform in nine cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan , Suzhou , and Wuxi . From lunch boxes to daily necessities, as long as you spend 20 yuan, you can deliver it by Hummingbird, a subsidiary of Ele.me.

The question is, will consumers be repulsive to pay a 5 yuan delivery fee to take a few minutes less? In fact, the investigation has been conducted before confirmation of implementation.

It is learned that consumers are very willing to order convenience stores near their homes. Many people happily said that they can finally eat the whole family’s lunch box at home. The minimum consumption limit of 20 yuan does not seem to be a threshold, and they are willing to bear the additional delivery fee.

If this may be caused by consumption habits in first- and second-tier cities, then in Hebei Handan , a third-tier city, is enough to prove this trend.

After the local time-honored food forest supermarket and Duodian Dmall fresh food e-commerce conducted O2O integration, the number of orders for online fresh food purchases immediately reached half of the orders for Hema Fresh, which ranks first-tier cities.

In other words, no matter which city it is in, consumers have a practical need for the convenience brought by the O2O model.

delves into the reasons for its consumption driving force, mainly because consumers will calculate the time cost in .

In order to save 10-20 minutes of travel time when walking or taking a ride, I prefer to order and deliver online supermarkets. In addition to saving travel time, I don’t have to spend time to choose one by one. Just scratch my phone to meet the "convenience" effects needed by today’s consumers.

The second focus is that physical stores near home are more reliable for consumers, and the standards of product quality are predictable. Even if there is a problem with the product, you will know where to appeal. This is also the driving force that promotes changes in consumption habits.

, from the perspective of the business level, just verifies that the previous model of fresh food e-commerce investing heavily in warehousing and personnel costs is a route with ineffective input-output benefits. The correct development route of the new retail model of

is based on physical stores. In addition to the income from offline operations, it is also an online ordering distribution warehouse to provide localized life circle services.

data-based connections to the process of stocking, picking up goods, and distribution, which can ensure the timeliness and quality control of delivery, develop the habit of consumers being more willing to purchase with physical stores, and create a virtuous cycle.

Trend 3: Consumers' lifestyle is changing, and life circle services have become a new entrance to super traffic

When the media announced that Alibaba's acquisition of Ele.me for US$9.5 billion spread, it was obvious that one of the routes was to make a comprehensive layout with the three-horse model of "Ele.me + Hema Fresh + Reputation" and the new retail model began to become clear.

However, the more important factor in this layout is to officially enter the traffic competition with the "Meituan + Dada + JD Home Delivery" architecture.

Many people may not have discovered a phenomenon. Meituan’s average daily orders are about 16 million, and Ele.me’s Hummingbird Delivery has an average daily delivery order of 4.5 million. These are all traffic that cannot be underestimated.

In terms of order scale, neither Meituan nor Ele.me can be simply defined by takeaway platforms. They really serve as the traffic entrance to "essential tools for life". The traffic generated by

takesaway business is a big role to drive consumption in all aspects of life.

At present, many consumers spend more money on the local life circle service platform every year than Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com. This is a very clear consumption trend:

local life circle services can provide faster delivery services (compared with e-commerce), and a large number of categories and services are available, which are even more convenient than Taobao. This is a habit development.

In other words, the local life service platform (O2O) and the e-commerce platform (B2C) form a competitive relationship in terms of traffic and usage frequency, amount of money that consumers can spend, etc. The pure e-commerce model of

will become increasingly unsustainable in the future, because traffic will gradually be directed to these local life service platforms that are more in line with convenient needs, which will be a key step in the development of new retail.

In fact, the term "O2O online to offline" to define the development direction of new retail is inevitably too broad. A more specific description should be:

uses the life circle where consumers are located to provide relevant daily necessities and services for online and offline integration (LBS, full name Location Based Services), which is called "localized life circle services" in Chinese.

For many entrepreneurs, it is fortunate that the capacity of the market economy is huge enough. Until now, the coverage density of various localized life circle services and offline retail shops is far from enough to change the overall retail ecology.

So in the future, community properties, convenience stores, various service formats, etc., there will be many new additions, mergers, integrations, innovative models and other news.

In addition, new retail in the future will become quite diversified, and it is difficult to define it from the perspective of a single business model, because many companies have discovered the meaning of "empowerment" of - empowering the ability to improve sales. For example, an offline scenario can be diversified to bring more possible income generation, which is the real core of diversification.

Cafe can be an office, a supermarket can be a restaurant, and one occasion combines two functions. This is the way to generate income through diversification;

In addition, online can expand the online visits to consumers, and promote online consumption offline. The role of adding and multiplying to make new retail a "compound, multi-form" new business model. Although

can already expect the booming development of new retail in the future, looking at the present, the most difficult thing about transformation is often the first step, and how to generate growth is also the most difficult problem, because there are many execution-level problems that need to be solved.

Coping methods for the new retail era

The arrival of the new retail era will cause many drastic changes. Operators who cannot see the trends will feel confused, accompanied by a sense of frustration that does not know how to deal with them.

So, I often hear many people mention a question: "What will happen in the next 5-10 years?"

However, few people will ask this question: "What will not change in the next 5-10 years?" There are two main reasons why

ask this question better:

1. can master future growth strategies, which is definitely something you deserve to manage;
2. 's effective growth strategies must be based on the response of the future ecosystem.

Maybe you are a retail industry for many years, and until now, you may feel that you don’t know how to effectively deal with the drastic changes in the future;

or you are a retailer who intends to start a business in the retail field, and you may not know where the opportunity lies. Often just grasp the essence of retail:

"Details, continuous optimization of details!"

As the proverb says: "The essence of RETAL IS DETAL The essence of retail is details". The strategy of effective growth is to continuously optimize details and improve sales empowerment. This is new retail.

draw an overall architecture diagram, visualize the response methods and list the specific execution directions, so that you can see more clearly the comprehensive considerations that new retail needs to improve in the future: the vitality of

is to improve sales empowerment through data analysis, and the execution is to achieve the optimization of the overall consumption process.

Both are actually the basic essence of retail. How to find opportunities and competitiveness in these links is the most critical issue. So list the architecture to help you understand what kind of tests of "self-optimization":

1. About "Violence Show"

Vitality is an obvious visual stimulation, IPization, online and offline interaction, spacious and bright space, these are the key points of vitality display, with the purpose of enhancing customers' freshness and creating shopping enthusiasm.

, for example, the marketing packaging that became popular once, such as Tmall’s Creation Festival, NetEase’s new domestic shopping platform, Pinduoduo’s group buying and buying model, and Ele.me’s Sangcha pop-up store.

may combine popular IPs, celebrities, KOLs, Internet celebrities, etc., and use e-commerce platforms to link offline operation models, such as the cartoon image of Three Squirrels, the recommendation of Xiaohongshu's shopping experts, the salon discussion of Yanyouji Bookstore, the combination of Li Ning and the Star Wars... etc.

may use the field of high-frequency consumption as a new model to attract attention, such as Hema Fresh fresh seafood cooking on-site, combining various self-service equipment with consumption scenarios... Of course, there are many ways to attract attention and bring traffic. Durex persistently uses self-media copywriting creativity to attract attention, uses various festivals to hold exhibitions, pop-up shop theme parties to attract people to take photos... These are all external visual stimulation and the basis for improving sales empowerment.

The third wave of baby boom in the next decade is the main consumer group of the new generation, and any change in consumption patterns is driven by the consumption habits and preferences of the new generation.

mobile terminal has occupied the attention and time of the new generation of consumers, becoming the main source of information acquisition, and likes to follow things recommended by trendy people or opinion leaders.

Not only that, taking photos and posting to your Moments is to improve your self-image in the social circle. Forwarding content with a clear attitude on social platforms is to help them express their inner thoughts.

You should pay more attention to these situations and reserve relevant personnel early, use the appeal of public relations, media publicity, self-media, etc. to continuously attract traffic, and form a benchmark brand of new retail in the impression of consumers as early as possible. This is the display of vitality.

However, attracting consumers' attention is not enough to support the momentum of long-term business operations. There are four more detailed key goals: new growth, viscosity, activity, and optimization.

1.1 What is new recruitment?

is a project that increases life experience that actively acquires new customers and actively attracts more different ethnic groups.

, for example, provides discounts to allow new consumers to experience it, the reputation building at this stage is very important; bringing friends to join a group is a joy of life, and it will bring about fission effects of new customers;

holds offline experience activities, and the content needs to fully express the call for "improving lifestyle" and obtaining sharing from elites can bring more new customers.

attracts attention online, enhances experience offline, and shares strategically to get rewards, combines the advantages of both online and offline, and generates a fission effect of 1+13, which is a means to reduce customer acquisition costs. This is the purpose of attracting new products.

1.2 What is viscosity?

is to continuously generate interaction to increase the possibility of consumers' attention, attract consumers to develop the habit of continuous attention, and give consumers a deep impression in their memory.

can take these long-term methods: actively provide more services (reminders), actively provide rewards (activity) for members from time to time, and actively tell members that you have helped them "select" a series of limited-edition high-quality products (limited time and limited quantity).

In reality, the further the offline physical store is from consumers, the less frequent it will be visited, the weaker the ability to consume, and even almost forget your existence. Therefore, using home-to-door services, purchasing on behalf of customers, meal delivery, etc., and relying on delivery (or services) to continuously interact with consumers, these are also means to increase viscosity.

1.3 What is active?

mainly uses online marketing to stimulate the desire to buy immediately. Interactive invitations are fully displayed on daily days, holidays and holidays, and special promotional offers of different degrees (or different categories).

, for example, daily check-in points double, points + discounts superimposed promotion, encourage points exchange; free points within a deadline will help remind customers to use it when they expire (mainly the reason for adding reminders).

has a lot of room for operation. Whether online or offline, consumers will come to participate or consume because you often release the sincerity of discounts, or because there are "time restrictions" for discounts.

For example, Hao Child Maternal and Child Products has launched the "Counter Brand Try-on at Home" and "Monthly Delivery" activity in 2,857 chain stores in 153 cities across the country, combined with its Mom Good App.

Consumers can choose the brand's size and style online to deliver it to their homes for try-on. If they don't like it, they can just return it, and there is no charge for any fees. Using products for trial activities not only promotes new recruitment, but also increases viscosity and activity, which is a very good model.

provides different stimulations for each month, weekly, daily, limited time and limited quantity; it provides a series of discount activities and participation fun based on seasons, categories, categories, and different products and different ethnic groups;

member grading discounts, points redemption rate, group buying discounts, bundled shopping discounts..., etc. are all worth your continuous progress because you need to have continuous interaction with members. The main purpose of

is to make consumers feel willing to interact, establish opportunities to talk to consumers, and even invite consumers to come to the store to taste and choose for free, and gradually develop consumption habits.

1.4 What is data analysis?

is a test of how much vitality is produced by summarizing the first three measures. If you were a professional who was previously engaged in "pure e-commerce", you can use the AARRR framework of growth hackers to make analysis and decisions.

uses five major modules of the framework to briefly explain it:

• Acquisition (Acquisition) How do new consumers discover you and how many there are? How many people come in to experience
• Active (Activation)?
• Viscosity (Retention) Is there any old member who will come back to buy it? How many consumers have bought in total?
• Retention How many people are willing to share with other friends after shopping?

Whether it is online e-commerce or offline physical stores, although the operating channels are different, the core logic of operations is actually the same.

This simple thinking module can also divide into more subdivided dimensions and understand each variable:

For example, the calculation method of traditional retail is like this:

profit = number of visitors x transaction amount x gross profit rate

, and the calculation method of new retail is like this:

profit = new and old customers x conversion rate x customer unit price x gross profit rate

means that each module and every cycle, every time node, and consumers of different levels are analyzed in detail.

For example, the number of visitors to new consumers, the actual consumption amount of new consumers, the growth rate of old members, the frequency of visits of old members, the actual consumption amount of old members, the comparison of profits generated by overall consumers... etc. The more detailed the dimension

is, the more likely it is to become the basis of your future competitiveness. Only by continuing analysis will it have a great improvement effect.

Here is enough to let you understand how much room for improvement in traditional retail. I will no longer continue to expand on marketing. In the future, I will focus on this part to let everyone understand what practical applications are available.

2. About "execution in place"

means the process operation from the supply chain to the sales end is meticulous. The goal is to effectively reduce the categories and also increase the amount of consumers' single purchases. Another point is to improve service efficiency and reduce management costs. The advantages of offline stores of

are experience and instant response, but the more products there are, the more difficult it is to manage, and the more management costs will be increased. On the other hand, the more types of products displayed, consumers will feel that they have a richer choice. How should we choose between the two statements of

? There are two types of business models for reference:

Aldi (ALDI) cheap discount store, its success lies in selected products and private brands (90%). The store covers an area of ​​about 500-800 square meters, but only 1,000 SKUs, but the categories that are sufficient to meet consumers' three meals a day and daily life needs are mainly because consumers think that Aldi displays the products in the store, saying that they have selected high-quality products.

, and Aldi expands the display of a single variety on a limited area, which brings convenience to consumers when they take it, and uses a large number of centralized procurement to generate price advantages. The result is that a medium-sized supermarket is 20% cheaper than a Walmart discount store, and the gross profit can still be maintained between 15% and 17%. The overall inventory turnover is only 2 weeks, and the square footage efficiency is very high.

Another case is the Japanese 7-11 convenience store, which implements a strategy of multiple varieties and small inventory. 80% of the order decision-making rights are handed over to the local convenience store clerks. The benefit is that they are more flexible and accurate in dealing with the living habits of each region, meeting the consumption needs of consumers in different regions, and the square footage efficiency is also very high. The

headquarters has established a logistics system for automatic warehouses and automatic distribution belts (called JIT, Just In Time) at the back end. The main purpose is to meet the small quantity and multiple orders of each store, and achieve the operation process of multiple and rapid replenishment.

In fact, Yonghui Supermarket's 1-4th generation stores are similar to 7-11, but Yonghui Supermarket adopts a business model of different store sizes through different areas. It mainly integrates and optimizes the sales categories, inventory quantity, decoration and display in each area.

Moreover, Yonghui headquarters provides incentive mechanisms for every store manager in each supermarket, which is very important for improving services, ordering, replenishment and a series of on-site management work. Which method is best to adopt

? The answer is: It depends on your hard conditions.

Japan 7-11 convenience stores have a large number of stores and are dense, so they are suitable for flexible delivery models; Aldi's store locations are relatively scattered, and compared with convenience stores, there are fewer stores, so it is suitable for adopting the model of reducing the categories of centralized procurement.

, two completely different but feasible practices, but they all have one common similarity:

optimizes the process with data.

Currently, retail companies are facing a big trouble at the information system level, that is, the separation of online and offline systems leads to the inability to connect data, becoming independent information islands, so that data such as business flow, warehousing and logistics, member management, consumption information are completely separated.

However, in order to create a competitive advantage in operations, it is bound to help optimize services and improve efficiency through data integration analysis. This is the key means to achieve the growth of square footage efficiency.

of course has many considerations for the execution process that need to be matched. There are four key links in total:

2.1 Supply chain

conducts sales data analysis of various categories for upstream and downstream integration. The goal is to ensure fresh delivery, sufficient inventory, and generate more efficient procurement and inventory control.

The beginning of this article mentions that the reason why the American fresh food company Webvan and supermarket e-commerce Ocado, as well as the domestic fresh food e-commerce later failed to generate profits was that it caused huge losses due to the lack of upstream and downstream integration of the supply chain.

As long as people engaged in retail can understand that in the procurement process of the supply chain, every time a node (such as large-cap merchants and mid-cap merchants) will increase a large proportion of procurement costs. In addition to marketing expenses, limited profits will not be enough to support the operating costs.

Moreover, when you don’t understand the terminal consumption data, it is difficult to adopt reasonable and effective integration methods in these procurement nodes.

The new retail era will be a highlight in the integration of the supply chain. As mentioned above, which of the two companies, Aldi discount store and 7-11 convenience store, is effective, depends on the hard conditions of the terminal (store). There are several optimization methods:

(1) integrates the upstream and downstream, selects better production areas in advance, and performs more optimized quality control and pre-packaging of the best sales combination. The advantages brought by bulk procurement are cost reduction and can create high-quality self-operated brands. This is one of the manifestations of new retail's improvement in purchasing advantages and profit margins.

For example, Chu Orange, Tiantian Orchard launches Mr. Orange, Nongfu Spring launches 17.5° orange, and Shiganpai, a world star farmer incubated, are also taking the path of single category branding.

These are all bulk procurement of single items, controlling the source, reducing costs and management complexity, and then digesting a large amount of inventory through promotion and multi-channel sales to establish the exclusive status of "category = brand".

In addition, Hema Fresh uses "seafood" as the main product to attack the market, which is also a very wonderful way. Hema Fresh is not just a simple model like "supermarket = food court" that you see in terms of performance. The main core of

is to increase the storage area of ​​fresh food and store more procurement to reduce procurement costs, and to increase the circulation of categories through on-site cooking. Delivery is a plus for expanding consumption circulation and effectively reduce (or control) the cost of consumption. This is the core strategy of upstream and downstream integration.

(2) adopts a distributed system to record customer portraits based on the lifestyles of different regions, and have matching operating processes to achieve flexible batch distribution, intelligent product selection, and more flexible procurement.

Some people may not understand the meaning, so give a brief example:

For example, the residents nearby are more office workers, and they use catering delivery and pre-packaged ingredients as the main products; if there are many newborns nearby, they use daily necessities and non-staple foods as the main products; if it rains tomorrow, they use hot drinks and lunch boxes as the main products, which depends on the observation of local living conditions and flexibly purchase or promotion.

Of course, the replenishment and delivery process also needs to be matched. Using the system to match the optimal delivery route is an important operational calculation in the future. In addition, such as honeycombs and store pickup, they can not only allow consumers to arrange pickup time reasonably, but also reduce delivery costs and optimize delivery processes.

So in the future, whether it is a supermarket or any retail company such as a convenience store, will form a localized life circle in a more intensive way, and even lay out in office and commercial buildings to correspond to consumer needs in different regions.

Some companies that operate services such as hairdressing, massage, education and training will also quickly gather in the form of small business points to form a business district complex to provide more efficient and flexible services.

(3) Comparison of sales forecast data with actual sales situations, and conduct data analysis on different sales situations in all online and offline channels. What is the purpose of this? You need to have an important concept: if

wants to provide consumers with rich choices and the service quality of "have it anytime, take it and leave it", then some of the losses are the inevitable result.

This is a game, you need to examine which is more important, the proportion of loss or the proportion of sales. Take the FamilyMart convenience store as an example. In order to provide consumers with the opportunity to buy lunch boxes at 8 pm, each lunch box on the shelves will still be displayed in a certain number to encourage consumers to purchase it. Until 10 pm, no one will choose the remaining lunch boxes and they must be scrapped. Which of the scrapped losses or sales profits can bring sustainability and better benefits? This is the ability to play.

Simply put, on the one hand, we need to provide fresh and sufficient products, and on the other hand, we must reduce losses. The art of balance between the two is a competitive tool for new retail in the future.

In other words, you need to examine the consumption cycle of each category through more detailed data analysis and continuously compare it to help you make more optimized adjustments in the future.

2.2 Experience

The goal is to use the venue to effectively configure it, and provide a meticulous experience that others cannot replace. The advantage of offline

is the experience. Spacious, comfortable and convenient measures will make consumers feel more trustworthy; the display is not only static placement, but dynamic configuration according to promotional areas such as seasonal needs; some theme space is added to shopping scenarios, and the experience is enhanced through a series of measures such as lighting, sound, scene-based layout, and multimedia to guide customers to choose.

In addition, hardware facilities can also produce thoughtful functions, including quick checkout method for self-service cash registers (convenient), large screens installed on shelves to facilitate consumers to understand product details, charging and hand washing optimization of shared facilities, such as new retail.

2.3 Service Power

The goal is to provide feelings that other brands cannot replace, but the focus is on improving soft service capabilities.

Strengthening the business format of the comprehensive ecosystem is currently the direction that is adopted, such as on-site lectures and experience meetings, the combination of supermarkets and catering, children's playgrounds and children's training to increase the reasons for consumers to actively visit.

also has parking discounts, movie discounts, exclusive customer service services, parent-child activities, and even outdoor activities in the suburbs with community residents. It can enhance the image and promote consumption. It is the most effective model.

offline service has the advantage of timeliness, and solving the current needs of customers also requires new and convenient services. In addition to meal delivery, home repairs (door locks, home appliances, pipelines), financial management, insurance, travel explanations and other home delivery services can also be considered.

In addition, whether to open 24-hour business (or extend business hours), whether to expand the scope of online order delivery, etc. to meet customers' daily needs, is the key to the advantages and disadvantages of new retail competition.

What you need to think about is: What sales can these seemingly "extra measures" drive? Or from the perspective of long-term business operations, in order to improve consumers' better impressions, they can establish brand competitive advantages.

2.4 Process Optimization

means to conduct data detection at each process node for a long time, including details such as goods, logistics, warehousing, membership, procurement, marketing, distribution, consumption, consumption, reputation, etc., and provide a reference mechanism for implementing optimization.Of course, there are also steps to optimize:

is the first step to enter the backend "data" + front-end "member" service:

back-end entry is not just the normal commodity inventory purchase, sales, inventory and return. The key is: the sales cycle and quantity of each SKU, and another key point is: who purchased it must be recorded, which is mentioned earlier. The data needs to be a closed loop to optimize offline.

Therefore, we should do our best to encourage readers to join members and provide benefits to increase the motivation to join members. In addition, offline member discounts, free member bonuses, etc. must be continued. The more members you absorb, the greater the effect will be in the future, even if it is not helpful to profits in the early stage.

Even if you do not join the membership, you must record it at checkout, such as age, men and women. Remind again: the speed of completing the membership scale of

should be as fast as possible and increase efforts.

records the sales cycle and quantity of offline SKUs, which is the best arrangement for online SKUs. It is a relatively advantageous strategy to drive 80% of long-term products through 20% of the main products.

From this point of view, you will find that it will be too late if you don’t speed up the start. And these are just for the preparation for the next stage of optimization.

Secondly, it is to achieve the omni-channel O2O integration of "integration of investment, sales, warehouses and distribution":

For most of the time, these categories with good sales are usually extremely low profits, but this cannot affect your expansion speed. Instead, you must continue to absorb more members and cannot stop!

The weight and volume (or the degree of freshness of food) of different categories of products are different. The packaging of products needs to be standardized, and the process and service will also produce standards. It is even necessary to combine the quantity and packaging of upstream procurement to reduce costs and losses, which is for price competition. The benefits of

are that, first, let consumers predict the standards of the products (services) they buy; second, meet consumers' expectations for delivery (services); third, help you pack and pick up goods during delivery, generate the highest efficiency and reduce the minimum consumption.

One thing to note is that products that conduct online promotions need to have a certain range of volume (or the degree of freshness at the same time). This is for the consideration of picking, packing and other operations. If the volume is strange and cannot be distributed in large quantities at a time, the cost will increase.

In addition, in order to cope with the surge in sales in the future, we must reduce inventory risks and small and diverse forms of play, "standardized packaging + multi-style combination" will be a great model.

For example, if you buy chicken legs and get chicken wings, or buy chicken legs and get duck necks, but whether it is chicken legs, chicken wings, duck necks, etc., they are packaged in a fixed number of grams, which are all methods to increase sales and reduce losses.

is followed by the delivery route, number of personnel, and arrangements for warehouse construction:

This part cannot be fully carried out in a short period of time, and requires a large amount of data support in the early stage at least half a year to perform the best optimization operation.

is why it keeps reminding the closed loop of data, in order to improve the prediction accuracy of sales fluctuations, so as to facilitate dynamic product adjustment or promotional choices. Retail is the details, and many reasons for not being profitable are that the management of this link is not meticulous enough.

Of course, if you are a chain enterprise, you can open outsourcing delivery partially first, and then gradually make internal adjustments, just let employees know what the main purpose of doing this is in order to achieve better results.

talks about so much process optimization, mainly focusing on the optimization of supply chain processes such as how to reduce links, reduce costs (upward integration procurement), and even find new consumer demands through data mining and provide more effective service measures (downward integration process).

has a clear optimization direction, which allows all employees to know what the key goals are and helps generate better benefits when executing. This is the execution in place.

What is new retail? You should have already figured out

in your mind. Do you clearly understand "energy display, execution is in place"? In short, it is continuous optimization in the essence of retail. How many details need to be optimized, how much competitiveness can be generated in the future, and finally achieve a new retail development path of its own.

If you want to summarize from so many established new retail development cases and directions, it makes me think of an interesting question: Are you a disruptor of new retail or an enabler?

The two have completely different development strategies and values ​​for new retail. No matter what category you are operating, "development strategies and values" are an indispensable spiritual pillar for you to lead the team.

disruptors are more like the call to change the world. Although it will cause temporary excitement from the market and capital, and of course unicorns may also appear, at the same time, they also face more uncertain risks.

. For most retail companies, my suggestion is: empowerment, that is, all optimizations are given to improve sales capabilities, and make steady progress and step by step.

The main core is to stand from the perspective of "people-oriented and data-oriented", find better solutions, continuously optimize, and achieve "new" competitiveness over time. Maybe in one of these links, it can bring you explosive growth, which is new retail.

#Columnist#

Xie Keguan, everyone is a product manager columnist. Author of the best-selling book "New Retail Era", Zhihu column: New Retail

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