The capital blessing policy is good for the adventurous sale station
A number of domestic short-term sale brands have successively obtained tens of millions of financing, and entrepreneurs and capital have accelerated their entry
The original price of edamame chips is 9.9 yuan, the special price is only 1.7 yuan; the recommended retail price of the Internet celebrity sparkling fruit wine is 10.8 yuan, the current price is 3.1 yuan... After the first visit to the temporary special supermarket "good sale", Beijing consumer Xiao Wang showed The results of "Taohuo".
Since the beginning of this year, Tianjin "Shihuibang" and Nanjing "Little Elephant Life" have successively obtained tens of millions of angel round financing.
"Good Sale", which is in the "first echelon" of the industry, has also completed 4 financings within 8 months.
Entrepreneurs and hot money are influx collectively, and temporary sale brands quickly squeeze out with the help of capital.
The industry believes that the epidemic has increased the pressure on channel inventory, the emergence of new fast-moving brands and redundant production capacity provide sufficient sources of supply, young consumers are willing to pursue cost-effectiveness, the successful model of foreign temporary special sales, and the introduction of the Anti-Food Waste Law The favorable policies of the People's Republic of China have allowed entrepreneurs and capital to see market opportunities.
Data shows that the scale of the temporary food market is expected to exceed 30 billion yuan, and the key to brand success lies in the ability of supply chain operations to find products that consumers are satisfied with in terms of quality and price.
Reshaping the value of the supply chain
The advent sale business is on fire.
In March 2021, Tianjin "Shihuibang" completed an angel round of financing of tens of millions of yuan.
In April, Nanjing discount supermarket "Little Elephant Life" announced the completion of a ten million yuan angel round of financing.
The "Good Sale", which is in the "first echelon" of the industry, has completed 4 financings within 8 months.
The influx of hot money into the policy of superimposing the "Anti-Food Waste Law" is good, so that the temporary special sales have become popular.
"I received the first financing at the end of 2020. It is only one or two months before the brand was established." In October 2020, Su Haihui founded Little Elephant Life. Although the financing information was only known to the outside world in April this year, the capital As early as the brand preparation period, he had contact with Su Haihui.
Su Haihui and his colleagues described the ad hoc sale as "dividing the land with local tyrants."
"Local tyrant" refers to brand owners, and "division of land" refers to profiting consumers.
He calculated an account for the Beijing News reporter: Take a certain brand of potato chips as an example, the factory cost 1 yuan, in order to ensure that about 50% of the gross profit will be sold to the first-tier distributors, the first-tier distributors will increase the price by 10 %-15% is sold to secondary distributors, the secondary distributors add more than a dozen points to sell to terminal stores, and the stores add 25%-30% to sell to consumers. The final price of a bag of potato chips is 2 yuan from the ex-factory price It became a retail price of 3.5 yuan.
In Little Elephant Life, the distribution of benefits in the entire supply chain has undergone a fundamental change.
Simply put, it removes middlemen and directly asks upstream factories for products and even production capacity.
In this process, manufacturers and temporary special sales channels have retained more profit margins, and consumers can buy their favorite products at a price of 2-50%.
The same package of potato chips can be sold at 3.5 yuan in traditional supermarkets, and at half price in Xiaoxiang Life.
"The impending sale is so hot, mainly because of the low price." Zhao Li (a pseudonym), an entrepreneur of a temporary sale brand in Beijing, told the Beijing News reporter that after the product shelf life exceeds 1/3 or half, the manufacturer must find a way to clear the stock. This is the main source of the temporary sale.
From the consumer perspective, impending food has been recognized by young people and white-collar groups. They no longer equate "imminent" with "expired", but pursue rational consumption and cost-effectiveness.
From the perspective of the business model, the temporary sale is more of a channel function. Consumers can not only find low-priced temporary products, but also buy discounted products. "In my store, temporary foods The proportion of food is equal to half, and even the positive products will be cheaper than traditional channels."
The epidemic accelerates capital entry
Before founding Little Elephant Life, Su Haihui entered the temporary discount industry as a supplier in 2019, mainly supplying retail terminals such as "good sale" and credit card points malls.
He gradually saw the prospect of C-terminal special sale, "It is indeed a great business opportunity, and it is also the investment target that capital is looking for."
Overseas, the history of ad hoc deals is quite long.
Japan's "Don Quixote" has grown from an 18-square-meter tailgate store to a retail format with more than 700 branches, and its performance has grown continuously for 31 years.
Dollar General (hereinafter referred to as "DG") in the United States, 80% of its merchandise sold at prices below US$5, has also maintained same-store sales growth for 30 years.
Even in China, impending special sales are not a new term, and the ubiquitous imported food discount stores are the embryonic form of this industry.
Why did the always quiet ad hoc sale suddenly break out in China and become the current investment darling?
Both Su Haihui and Zhao Li's answers mentioned the catalysis of the epidemic to this industry.
Zhao Li had four years of experience in the supply chain of chain convenience stores.
When the epidemic broke out in 2020, the traditional supermarket channels experienced long or short closing periods. She noticed that many agents were suppressing goods, especially new brands and small brands with weaker channel bargaining power.
"Traditional supermarkets and convenience stores have access to store management for the shelf life of products. Where can I go for temporary products that I don't need? Temporary special sales have naturally become important channels."
Small brands have no bargaining power to enter the hypermarkets, hoping for new channels to appear; OEMs have low processing fees and hope to directly cooperate with channels; the epidemic has reduced revenue expectations and limited exports, resulting in surplus production capacity in factories... Su Haihui believes that, referring to overseas experience, The impending sale markets in the United States and Japan have shown explosive growth during the economic downturn. Therefore, the epidemic has given many domestic institutions and entrepreneurs an opportunity.
Due to the fact that there is usually no account period for temporary specials, the operator's financial strength is relatively high, and the intervention of capital has accelerated the expansion of the entire industry.
The competitive landscape has not yet been finalized
Compared with traditional imported food discount stores, today's impending special supermarkets tend to be chained and branded, and they are racing around at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Reports show that "Good Sale" tried the wholesale model and online retail in the early stage, and then moved to offline stores in 2019.
At present, "Good Sale" has more than 150 stores across the country. As of the end of 2020, the single-day sales are 1.5 million yuan, and the net profit level can reach 35%.
According to a reporter from the Beijing News, "Good Sale" entered Beijing at the end of 2020 and opened more than 30 stores in more than half a year.
The Haotie Souxiu store in Dongcheng District, Beijing, opened at the end of May this year.
According to the staff of the mall, the shop is booming, “I often see people coming out of the shop with large bags of food.”
The life of the little elephant in the community sinking mode is also expanding rapidly.
According to the official website, as of June 2021, Xiaoxiang Life has opened and will open a total of more than 80 stores, and plans to realize the "Thousand Stores Plan" in 2024.
"We plan to open 150 new stores this year," Su Haihui said.
Su Haihui believes that the domestic temporary sale industry is in the ascendant, and the competitive landscape and industry giants have not been finalized. "Whether there are 100 stores or 10 stores, everyone is on the same starting line."
According to data released by the iiMedia Industry Upgrading Research Center, the total output value of China's snack food industry in 2020 will exceed 3 trillion yuan. Even if calculated at 1% of inventory precipitation, the market size of the temporary food industry will exceed 30 billion yuan, and the market potential is huge.
From the consumer perspective, a considerable number of people in China are still very sensitive to commodity prices.
However, temporary foods are also faced with problems such as unstable supply of goods and less regular hoarding habits, and the order of the industry has not yet been established.
In Su Haihui's view, the future of the temporary sale lies in the channel, not the "immediate period."
Several large-scale ad hoc brands abroad started with ad hoc foods at the initial stage of establishment, and after forming a scale, they reverse customized their own brands upstream.
Judging from the operation of most temporary special supermarkets in China, the proportion of positive foods is not low, and the channel also intends to find new brands with good quality and low prices as sources of supply.
"In the long run, this industry will become more and more concentrated. In the future, whether the brand can be enlarged and completed has little to do with capital. The essence lies in the ability of supply chain operations, whether it can establish competition barriers, and find consumers in quality and price A combination of products that are satisfactory to all above.” Su Haihui said that establishing food safety standards and unified store operation specifications is the only way to go.
Beijing News reporter Guo Tie