The first financial reporter confirmed from relevant parties on January 27 that Huang Xiuhong, the sister of Gome founder Huang Guangyu, has been appointed as the chairman of Gome Electric Appliances, the fortune-telling business of Gome Retail. Vice President of Electrical Appliances.
One year after Huang Guangyu's "return", Gome is still facing the pressure of transformation.
With the decrease in offline traffic, Gome opened flagship stores on e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Pinduoduo to export its home appliance supply chain capabilities and strive to maintain its existing sales scale.
Offline stores are more transformed into display scenes. Gome charges display fees from manufacturers who enter offline stores. Some manufacturers have signed contracts, but some people in the industry think this is still "old thinking".
Gome Retail, which is deepening the strategic transformation of "home.life", no longer only relies on home appliance retail business, but expands to home improvement, logistics, wine and other fields, but home appliance retail is still Gome's "basic market".
And this "basic market" has felt the growing pressure of business model transformation under the background that the epidemic has prompted the increase in the proportion of domestic home appliance online channel sales.
In the first half of 2021, Gome’s retail revenue was 26.04 billion yuan, an increase of 7 billion yuan year-on-year; the comprehensive gross profit margin was 14.25%, an increase of 2.6 percentage points compared with the same period last year; the net profit attributable to the parent was 1.974 billion yuan, and the loss decreased by more than 500 million yuan year-on-year.
During the same period, Gome launched the "Really Happy" APP, with a year-on-year increase of 24.42% in retail GMV (gross transaction), and completed 75,000 live broadcasts.
While increasing the number of online channels, Gome's offline stores intend to transform into offline local life service platforms.
No matter the electrical appliances sold in Gome flagship stores on JD.com and Pinduoduo, or the diversified products sold on the True Happiness APP, they can be displayed in Gome offline stores, provided that a display fee is required.
In this way, Gome's offline stores are not forced to make deals in stores.
"This is in line with normal business logic." A person close to Gome believes that Gome's offline stores provide display platforms and clearly mark prices according to different locations in the store. This is open and transparent, and after customers experience the products, they can Buying through different channels, Gome stores do not require customers to make final transactions in Gome stores.
Sony, BSH, TCL, Konka, Vantage, Wanhe, Macro, etc. have reached strategic cooperation with Gome in 2022.
Gome CEO Wang Bo revealed in December last year that in the first half of 2022, Gome will spend a lot of money to build a new offline scene model "city pavilion"; the store will have three main store types, including city pavilion, city flagship store, boutique store, to enhance the experience function.
However, a senior observer of the home appliance industry told the First Financial Reporter that Gome had charged an "entry fee" to home power plants more than ten or twenty years ago, and now charging a "display fee" is a continuation of the old thinking of the past.
Offline stores are no longer as strong as they were more than a decade ago. Gome charges a display fee for three or four years, and some home power plants do not pay attention.
If the national electrical appliance chain does not adjust its business model and business form, the road will become narrower and narrower.
Compared with ten years ago, housing prices have increased nearly tenfold, and rents have also doubled; however, the flow of people in offline stores may be only one-third of that of ten years ago, making it difficult for offline stores to be profitable.
The observer believes that Huang Xiuhong's appointment as Gome's chairman and Li Juntao as Gome's vice president show that Gome has further strengthened the power of the electrical sector during the difficult transition period of the store.
Huang Xiuhong is Huang Guangyu's younger sister, and she used to be the purchasing director of Gome. She is no stranger to people and things in the home appliance industry.
Li Juntao has been in charge of Gome's procurement business for a long time, and he is very familiar with the heads of mainstream Chinese home appliance companies. He often pats his shoulders and calls him brothers in public.
They took office, which will help Gome to re-consolidate its relationship with the power plant.
This year, the retail channels of home appliances are more scattered.
On January 20, Midea Group and Pinduoduo reached an agreement on annual sales of 10 billion yuan. Midea's Midea, Little Swan, Hualing, Cuckoo, comfee and other brands will all enter the Pinduoduo platform. Both parties will focus on product customization, channel expansion, Cooperation in brand building, digital technology, intelligent manufacturing and other fields.
The chairman and president of Gree Electric Appliances Dong Mingzhu and secretary Meng Yutong pushed the new products of Gree Life Appliances on the video account "Mingzhu Yutong Selection" on Douyin.
Peng Xiandong, general manager of GfK Zhongyikang's home appliance business department, predicted to the first financial reporter that with the saturation of online traffic, retail channels in the next few years will be based on online traditional retail, vertical e-commerce, social e-commerce and other online Channel diversification is the main direction.
"Offline channels will retain certain opportunities at both ends. One end is a large experience store, which integrates the experience of eating, playing and shopping; the other end is the retail end of the low-level market or community."