The community group buying track, which has been low-key for a long time, finally has new developments.
Recently, the news of buying more vegetables as an express collection point spread in the express circle. Buy more vegetables claims to have signed cooperation agreements with express companies such as Zhongtong, Yuantong, Shentong, Yunda, post, Jitu and Baishi Huitong, opened up the signing system, and launched high subsidies to attract collection points.
This measure means buying more vegetables and fighting openly with the rookie post station. According to times finance, the person in charge of a rookie post station has received a notice that "if you use Duoduo system to store in the warehouse, you will face permanent refund." Times finance found that after the frustration of blind expansion, the major community group purchase platforms have reached a fork in the road. Some fell quietly in the competition, and the strong players in the top three also had a new abacus.
Buy more vegetables as a post station and grab a rookie's job?
Enter the express track, buy more vegetables, and continue the old way of high subsidies. Times finance tiktok found that many shopping sites have launched a strong publicity in the social platform such as jowl, post bar, forum and so on.
According to the business promotion personnel of Duoduo post station, if the express network or post station chooses to join Duoduo vegetable collection point, they can enjoy four subsidies, including 3000 yuan settlement subsidy, up to 500 yuan per day package subsidy, free SMS and intelligent voice notification, PDA and printer upon settlement. For the settled platform, the prerequisite for applying to join the collection point of Duoduo post station is that it must become a group purchase site of Duoduo shopping community.
Buy more vegetables and enter the express industry. The veteran player can't sit in the rookie post station. Li Ji, the boss of Jiangsu rookie post station, told times finance that in the past two days, rookie officials will check whether there are outlets connected to the systems of other post stations. Another person in charge of Henan rookie post station disclosed to times finance that the post station system has given a prompt. If it is found that Duoduo system is used for warehousing, it will face permanent refund.
For the strong subsidy of Duoduo post station, Li Ji was not surprised. With the disappearance of the bonus period of rookie post station, he also wanted to rely on the subsidy in the early stage of harvest development of the new platform. "Rookies have more and more rules, such as requiring door-to-door delivery and strict management of outbound parts. If there is an error, they will face a fine."
However, Li Ji's biggest concern is that entering other platforms will affect the total order volume. Under normal circumstances, the quantity of delivery orders of the rookie post station he operates can reach 1000 every day, and 1700 during the promotion period of e-commerce, which is far greater than the 800 orders with the highest reward and subsidy threshold given by Duoduo. If he rashly chooses Duoduo post station, he may "pick up sesame and lose watermelon".
The webmaster who has access to the service point of buying more vegetables and collecting on behalf of others has fed back to times finance and economics that since the trial operation, the number of express mails in the post station is not large, "you can sort out the warehousing volume of a day in two hours".
Buying more vegetables faces not only the resistance of old players, but also the pressure of compliance in the express industry. According to media reports, Duoduo vegetable express collection was suspected of operating without a license and was urgently stopped by many postal administrations. In this regard, relevant people of pinduoduo responded to the media that pinduoduo did not carry out express collection business at all sites of buying more vegetables, but provided "buying more vegetables" collection service system for sites with express business qualification.
"Fortunately, I ran fast and will never join the community group purchase"
The new action of buying more vegetables is the performance of community group buying players seeking new growth points. Last June, major platforms received rectification requirements. Among them, meituan's "one penny second kill" products were required to be taken off the shelves, and other platforms had to reduce subsidies.
This triggered a series of chain reactions: including the decline of platform orders, the decrease of grid warehouse operators' income and the crisis of suppliers' trust in the platform.
The first actively adjusted orange heart is preferred. Affected by the company's main business, orange heart preferred fell into a passive position in the competition of the top three community group buying shortly after didi was punished.
Last September, the scope of services preferred by orange heart contracted in a large area, reducing the previous 9 regions to 3 regions. The embarrassment of orange heart optimization can also be perceived from the latest financial report released by Didi. In the third quarter of 2021, Didi's revenue data fell sharply, and its net loss in the third quarter reached 30.6 billion yuan, of which orange heart preferred lost 20.8 billion yuan.
Earlier, orange heart was once a business that didi had high hopes for. Didi prospectus shows that orange heart's preferred future plan is independent financing and independent listing.
After experiencing the big rise and fall of the platform, Xia Wei, the preferred supplier of orange heart, withdrew from the supply of community group purchase and said that "fortunately, he ran fast and will never invest in community group purchase business again".
"Now there is no advantage in supplying to the platform, the subsidy is greatly reduced, and the price of suppliers is beginning to compete. It has little impact on first-line brands, but fresh suppliers have stricter requirements on performance ability and product quality." Xia Wei confessed to times finance.
Xiao Zhe, the head of a grid warehouse in Hunan, and Shihui regiment launched a long-term separatist war. The change occurred in August last year. Xiao zhe did not receive the delivery fee settled by the platform for two consecutive months. Xiao zhe tried to go to the company's headquarters to claim compensation, but the platform never gave a solution satisfactory to the supplier. Today, Xiao Zhe's grid warehouse is still vacant, and tens of thousands of yuan of arrears have not arrived.
At the same time, Shihui group has also launched a new round of layoffs and capital savings. According to the internal operators, the company revoked the performance award as early as June last year, and the employees who received the optimization notice can only get the salary of the current month without additional compensation.
The reform of community group buying has touched the bottom. Meituan preferred to carry out more refined management, including paying attention to the head's operation of private traffic, requiring the after-sales pick-up to be completed within 3 hours. On the other hand, the head's profit space has been further compressed.
"Meituan requires every head to build a group and maintain user relations. If users do not buy from the head's link, they can't earn a commission even if they choose to pick up the goods at the same place. The Commission of fresh products is as low as 1% - 2%, and the monthly income is only 200-300 yuan." The first head of Shanghai said to times finance and economics.
The money is burned out. Where is the next stop of community group buying?
After experiencing financing, expansion and contraction, community group buying enterprises have to face a cruel transformation period. Many seed players fall into "one chicken feather" under the pressure of funds.
At the beginning of last year, Xingsheng preferred group and Shihui group in the old three groups were favored by capital. The former received more than US $3 billion in strategic financing and the latter received US $750 million in financing.
Xingsheng preferably belongs to a more cautious member of the old three regiments. Although there is no news of business contraction, it is also further seeking profit space. In addition to testing the water in the cosmetics category, Xingsheng preferred to add a new clothing category and launch a large number of women's clothes. The price is concentrated within 200 yuan, covering young users and middle-aged groups. All clothes are mailed by SF.
According to tianyancha app, as early as October 27, 2021, Xingsheng preferred took a 40% stake in Hunan Enyi e-commerce company, whose business scope includes clothing production and sales related businesses.
After the business contraction, orange heart optimization and Shihui group have also made business adjustments to the upstream supply chain layout.
Orange heart is preferred to launch group wholesale (head wholesale) business in the original market, mainly promoting "orange wholesale", providing a transaction matching platform for small shop owners and wholesalers, and charging wholesalers 1% - 2% of the transaction volume as a commission. In September last year, Shihui group also began to layout the group approval, build a new cloud warehouse in Central China, and focus on the head's operation and selection. In the group approval business, the head's resources mastered by the original platform began to layout the commodity wholesale. The platform only needs to wholesale the commodities to the head, and the head will complete the transformation and marketing of subsequent private domain traffic.
Since the business of major platforms has been hit hard, Xiaofeng, the third-party service personnel connecting with suppliers, feels more pressure. Due to the shortage of suppliers, they have to strive for cooperation opportunities with interested suppliers every day. "At present, the rules and systems of meituan preferred platform, buy more vegetables and Xingsheng preferred platform have been clarified, but it is difficult for us to predict who will collapse next."
