Will the vegetable stall in front of the house be "played" by the community group buying?
On the one hand, it is questioned by public opinion, and on the other hand, it is favored by capital. What kind of existence is community group buying?
Will it become the next "Didi" and "Eggshell"?
Does the argument that Internet giants enter the community group buying will necessarily be monopolized?
What real anxiety is revealed behind the community group buying controversy?
In the past week, public opinion has continued to pay attention to community group buying.
Related topics with "community group buying" as the key word frequently rushed into hot searches on Weibo. Among them, "will community group buying take away the livelihood of vegetable vendors?" has more than 247 million views.
Compared with the previous ride-hailing battles, takeaway battles, and bicycle battles that competed for traffic entrances, some public opinion worried that the Internet giants would repeat their tricks: first adopt a low-price dumping strategy to occupy the market, and then "hold traffic to make the market" squeeze the middlemen and "sell". The living space of the "grocer" will then deprive the end consumer of the "freedom of buying food."
On the one hand, it is questioned by public opinion, and on the other hand, it is favored by capital. What kind of existence is community group buying?
Will it become the next "Didi" and "Eggshell"?
Does the argument that Internet giants enter the community group buying will necessarily be monopolized?
What real anxiety is revealed behind the community group buying controversy?
With these questions in mind, Xinhua Daily Telegraph reporters visited new and old vegetable markets, residents of grocery shopping, and industry professionals to carry out multi-dimensional analysis and try to uncover the true face of community group buying behind the dispute.
"Community group buying" in reality
"Post-90s" Li Meng is a young mother. She works overtime until 7 o'clock every day. After getting out of the subway, she has to go back and forth 2 kilometers to the market to buy vegetables.
Now that she has a community group purchase, she only needs to place an order from the "group leader" and take home the dishes she ordered in the convenience store at the gate of the community.
"I saved 2 kilometers of round-trip physical strength and time." Li Meng said, the dishes bought by community group are relatively fixed, but she really doesn't want to eat one or two more dishes and walk 2 kilometers a day.
In Li Meng's view, community group buying is very convenient, and richness is what impresses her most about a vegetable market.
"I will go to the vegetable market on the weekend to buy something."
Maigaoqiao Old Street Market is an old vegetable market in the north of Nanjing. It is close to the end of the year and the butcher shop here is extremely busy.
Every morning, the shops are crowded with residents who come to enema. At first glance, they are almost all elderly people, as if the group buying wave in the community has nothing to do with them.
The reporter randomly visited several shops in this vegetable market, and they also said that the business has not yet been impacted by community group buying.
"You have to buy it. Vegetable prices have not fluctuated during this period." Zhang Meng's vegetable shop is at the entrance of the vegetable market. According to her observation, there are many young people in the vegetable market.
"It mainly depends on the time of day. During the day, young people have to go to work and there is no time to go to the vegetable market. There are many young people shopping here after get off work in the evening." Zhang Meng told reporters.
"Community group buying is for people to pick food for you. It's definitely not as good as you pick it yourself." During the interview with the reporter, a delivery person wearing yellow Meituan takeout overalls came to pick food.
At first, the reporter thought he was delivering food to customers. After talking, he realized that he turned out to be a regular customer of this stall, and he would come to buy it two or three times a week.
"Food is the most important thing for the people, and the most important thing is fresh ingredients." Before delivery, Zheng Shiqiang was a restaurant chef. He believed that young people would not particularly care about discounts of a few cents, and even more care about the dishes they bought. rest assured.
At present, he shares a rent with two other people, and usually cooks together with him, and he will buy vegetables and take care of the food.
"Community group buying does not necessarily replace offline vegetable markets, because the consumer groups are different." Zheng Shiqiang said that the group buying group is mostly young people. Some office workers go home at night and want to cook a dish. When they open the refrigerator and find that it is empty, they will Use your mobile phone to place orders and buy food.
If the elderly are not living in the upper floors of the staircase house, the demand for group buying is not urgent.
For them, walking around the vegetable market is a way of leisure and entertainment.
"Many of our stall owners here will also engage in community group buying, selling vegetables in their own shops, and helping customers'run errands' to buy vegetables from other shops." said Wu Dianchang, the person in charge of the Huimin Center in Good Neighborhood, in order to attract and retain customers , Some stall owners will "post money" to purchase for customers.
Good Neighborhood Huimin Vegetable Market is the first "smart vegetable market" in Nanjing.
This farmer’s market, born out of a night market’s food stalls, has now been renovated into a commercial complex. It is a "five-star" vegetable market among local residents and can cover 120,000 people around the "tea, rice, oil and salt".
Advertising banners are hung around the vegetable market, which are uniformly marked with the words "Search the neighborhood vegetable market and save time for life" and some joking words: "Half of the vegetable stir-fry has the disadvantages, and the order is served on the mobile phone." "Grandpa taught me to stew kelp. , I taught my grandfather to buy food." "My grandson is too young to walk away, so he can buy food with his mobile phone."... "These young people like these banners and will come to take photos specially." Wu Dianchang said.
"A month ago, we started to cooperate with Ele.me. We put all the dishes online and digitally transformed the offline vegetable market. Our vegetable market is very popular, and Ele.me will come to promote sales from time to time. "Wu Dianchang said.
He told reporters that this kind of big platform for promotion, the discount is very strong, and it has a big impact on some merchants.
"Some merchants came to complain to me, saying that big platforms are'grabbing' their business. I told them that even if'hungry?' doesn't come, there will be other big platforms in the future. Promotions are only temporary, and the important thing is whether the dishes are good or not. Is the environment of the vegetable market good, is anyone willing to come?" Wu Dianchang said.
"Community group buying" in the capital arena
Community group buying is not a new thing. Its budding originated from community e-commerce.
As early as 2014 and 2015, various community e-commerce services have blossomed everywhere. For example, "Gula e-commerce" that cooperates with sports lottery stores to build a community O2O service platform; and another example is "Gobetter", which aims at the blank of community chain convenience stores in my country. "; There are also real estate companies incubated by real estate companies based on the property, positioning in the smart community service "love to help home."
At this time, capital is also "watching" these new forces that intensively cultivate community traffic.
Enterprise check statistics show that in 2014, the products represented by "Prosperity Optimum", "Love Fresh Bee" and "China Merchants Huimin" started the first in the community group buying "track" investment and financing.
The "injection" of various types of capital ushered in its peak in 2018, with 23 public financing incidents and the disclosed financing amount of 1.67 billion yuan.
Community group buying went viral for a short time around 2018.
However, due to the insufficient order density, the platform has been closed down successively.
Since the epidemic, many users have begun to accept pre-sale community group purchases.
The surge in order density has allowed several major Internet giants to re-see the value and prospects of community group buying, and they have accelerated their deployment, and burned money subsidies followed.
Data from Enterprise Check shows that since this year, there have been 19 public financing incidents of community group buying, which is slightly worse than in 2018; however, the publicly disclosed financing amount was as high as 17.17 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 356.3%, a record high.
Among them, Tongcheng Life backed by Internet giants, Shihui Group, Xingsheng Optimal Group, and Ai Xianfeng received the most financing.
Looking at the investors of the community group buying track in 2020, Alibaba, Tencent, Tongcheng, Didi, and JD.com, these Internet giants are frequently appearing, and a competitive landscape with huge potential and rivalry is taking shape.
"Didi and Meituan have raised the strategic position of community group buying very high, but this does not match the inherent advantages of their main business. They rely on subsidies and have no cost advantage; Jingdong is backward, but warehousing and logistics has advantages; Pinduoduo layout Very early and very quickly, it also has natural advantages in the supply chain of agricultural products; Ali’s fresh food supply chain is mainly connected to the local life division, mainly Hema and Ele. Mo are in the layout. "For the strategic position of community group buying on major platforms, Beijing Analysis of Lei Ying, Assistant Professor of Marketing Department of Guanghua School of Management of University.
Lei Ying believes that "buying food" is just demand, high frequency and price sensitive.
For platforms such as JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Taobao that already have fresh food e-commerce layouts, if you don’t enter the community for group purchases and others do, consumers will not buy online.
For Didi and Meituan, it is more out of the development of new business and revenue sources.
"The current regional characteristics of the community group buying market are obvious, but there is no national leader. Community group buying is very attractive to Internet giants, and giants have laid out to compete for the sinking market traffic entrance." China Securities Research Report: China in 2019 The fresh food retail market reached 5.1 trillion yuan, and the fresh food e-commerce market reached 279.62 billion yuan, with a penetration rate of only 5.48%.
Stimulated by the epidemic, the community group buying market will develop rapidly in 2020. The market size is expected to reach 89 billion yuan or more, accounting for 21.9% of fresh food e-commerce. The epidemic has cultivated the community group buying habits of users and is expected to promote the rapid growth of the community group buying market .
Can neither be killed with a stick nor left alone
The community group buying war involving capital is regarded as the fiercest battle among Internet giants after takeaway, online car-hailing, and bicycle sharing.
Relying on low-cost models such as 5 cents a catty potatoes and 3 cents an egg, Internet giants have crushed the small vegetable vendors in the community.
Some small vegetable vendors have closed their doors, or become offline employees of Internet giants, so that public opinion is beginning to worry that Internet giants are taking away the livelihoods of vegetable vendors.
"I also want to join the community group buying, but there is no such channel, and no one is looking for me." Zhao Wenfeng, a merchant in the Baochuan vegetable market in Nanjing, has 10 acres of land in Banqiao. He goes out early and returns late every day. The price of vegetables sold is a little higher than wholesale vegetables.
She is more welcome to buy and distribute food on behalf of JD.com, but community group purchases that go directly to the source to buy food have too much impact on them.
"Business was not good due to the epidemic in the first half of the year. After the epidemic in the second half of the year, many places have become accustomed to online delivery, and traditional business is still not good." said Sheng Liqin, vice president of Nanjing Farmers Market Association and chairman of Nanjing Lvheng Market Service Co., Ltd. , We also encourage merchants to join community group buying, but the dishes on group buying are so cheap that they can’t compare.
"We urge merchants to bear with it, wait a while, and keep going. After all, burning money will not last long. At the same time, we also encourage merchants to adapt to this change as soon as possible and find a way to survive." Sheng Liqin said.
"E-commerce giants enter the community group buying, more hoping to acquire customers through high-frequency consumption scenarios. Their low-price competition strategy will have an impact on the supply of traditional agricultural products market, which is not conducive to the production and sales of high-quality agricultural products." Sun Tong, chairman of Agricultural Internet, said.
Sun Tong believes that with a large variety of agricultural products, a long supply chain and heavy assets, a monopoly is formed in some areas. After the small vegetable stalls are destroyed, it is possible to increase prices and close the ripeness.
But at present, it is difficult for e-commerce giants to completely control so many categories and form a monopoly.
If you only do one or two categories, there will be no economies of scale, and if the competitiveness is not up to the point, the price war will cease in at most half a year.
On November 10, the State Administration for Market Regulation stated in the "Guidelines for Anti-Monopoly in the Field of Platform Economy (Consultation Draft)" that it is not allowed to "sell goods at a price below cost without a valid reason, and exclude or restrict market competition." ".
However, the guidelines also pointed out that “platform operators may have the following legitimate reasons for selling below cost: (1) to develop other businesses on the platform within a reasonable period; (2) to promote the entry of new products into the market within a reasonable period, etc.".
On December 9, Nanjing Municipal Market Supervision and Administration took the lead in issuing the "Notice of Compliance Operation of E-commerce "Community Group Buying of Vegetables", requiring the "group leader" (person in charge) of group buying of dishes in the community to handle corresponding procedures as appropriate. When market entities register, platform operators shall not implement low-price dumping at prices below cost, crowding out competitors to monopolize the market, and disrupting normal business order.
At the e-commerce “Community Group Buying of Dishes” Compliance Management Forum held by the Bureau on the same day, relevant persons in charge of e-commerce community group purchases such as Alibaba, Meituan, Didi, Suning, etc. have signed the notice, promising to operate in good faith and in accordance with the law. Carry out orderly and healthy competition to create a good market order.
"The seminars are all subsidiaries, and some of them are branches of branch companies. They cannot be the masters and have to listen to the unified command of the headquarters." According to people close to the seminar, the headquarters of platforms such as Meituan and Pinduoduo and even East China The center is not in Nanjing. The notices and symposiums are issued to remind them in time when there are signs of low-price dumping.
The reporter noticed that there is no administrative penalty case for community group buying in Nanjing.
Around mid-December, some suppliers such as Huahaishunda, Weilong, Xiangpiaopiao, etc. issued notices to channel distributors that they are not allowed to operate the community group buying platform without authorization; they are not allowed to sell single products at ultra-low prices.
"The current community group buying war is still in its infancy from a national perspective, but it has entered a stage of fierce competition in Changsha and other places. Why do the giants spend so much money to participate, because everyone has seen that this is the prototype of the future e-commerce model. It’s not just about the 100 billion market.” Xiao Zhilong, senior partner of Tongcheng Life, said that the future e-commerce will have social attributes, and the previous subsidy model for burning money will not work. There must be a complete scenario and contract fulfillment. breakeven.
"Competition in the industry is getting fiercer now." "Happy Little Pig", a community leader in Jianye District, Nanjing, told reporters frankly that the "team leader" is getting worse and worse.
In word-of-mouth consumption scenarios such as communities, the easy money that the platform says is impossible.
"The platform can't guarantee that every batch of goods is good. You have to watch it before you dared to push it. A group of 2,000 yuan can make less than 200 yuan. I can't run it alone and I have to divide it."
"The epidemic has given the community an opportunity for the development of group buying, and its explosive power and potential are being further tapped." Mo Daiqing, a senior analyst at the E-commerce Research Center of Net Economics, also believes that if community group buying wants to break through by cost-effectiveness or delivery services, it will eventually be rewarded. Relying on the scale effect brought by a strong supply chain, it can be said that community group buying is a supply chain business.
Only by serving consumers in all directions and keeping good quality can last long.
Lei Ying pointed out that, unlike the previous online car-hailing and shared bicycles, the advantages and disadvantages of the major platforms in the community group buying business are very different, so they will not completely become a price war like homogenized competition. Later, through the supply chain and warehousing The optimization of logistics will widen the gap in cost advantage.
"The value of the community group buying model itself cannot be completely denied. It must be affirmed." Lei Ying said that community group buying meets consumer needs in some aspects, and capital sees this part of the business potential.
Whether this road works, it might as well give this new Internet business more room for growth.
"The vegetable basket is related to the basic people's livelihood. It is the basic bottom line to avoid artificially causing drastic market fluctuations. At the same time, community group purchases cannot be'killed by one stick' or'let alone'." Tian Boping, a researcher at the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences Say.
What exactly will community group buying bring?
Experts believe that we cannot simply make qualitative judgments. We can neither turn community group buying into a negative case that affects the enthusiasm of capital to invest in people's livelihoods, nor allow capital to expand uncontrollably and leave "a chicken feather in one place."
Tian Boping suggested that relevant departments in various places should adapt to local conditions and use such cases to explore new methods and models for the supervision of such business types.
Focusing on the grassroots communities and centering on the needs of residents, explore the boundaries of government, capital, and society to form an effective model of economic governance.
(Reporter: Pan Ye, Zheng Shengzhu, Zhu Cheng, Yang Shaogong)