What is a warehouse club? Warehouse supermarkets generally refer to those that mainly operate the means of living and screen the sales of popular real goods on the basis of the commodities operated by large-scale comprehensive supermarkets. 1) In terms of site selection, warehouse supermarkets are usually built near the main roads in the urban-rural fringe, avoiding the traffic congestion in the city center and the urban area. 2) In terms of commodities, streamline SKUs.
3) in terms of sales, it is oriented to meet the needs of family batch procurement, and at the same time, the gross profit margin is kept to the lowest, with small profits and quick turnover.
What are the driving forces for the development of China’s warehouse membership stores? 1) China’s middle class is gradually growing, and the number of private cars has further increased. 2) The change of consumption preference will promote the industry to change to a new retail model that meets the needs of stratification and niche.
3) the consumption structure of traditional supermarkets is aging, and the warehousing industry is developing rapidly by seizing the new main force of post-80s, post-90s and post-00s consumption. 4) Consumers’ online consumption and instant consumption habits are gradually formed, which promotes the increase of online business of warehouse stores. 5) The basic national policies encourage the expansion of Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) consumption and the development of new retail formats.
Characteristics of overseas warehousing member stores: strong supply chain + low operating cost + private brand drainage + high-quality after-sales service. By combing the characteristics of leading enterprises of overseas warehouse membership stores, we believe that although Costco, Aldi and Sam have their own characteristics in store operation and establishing consumer stickiness, the core is mainly reflected in the following four aspects: 1) cost: reducing operating costs by reducing purchase prices and enhancing rent bargaining power. 2) Supply chain and selection: whether Aldi’s strict selection model or Sam’s commodity structure adjustment for localized consumer preferences, enterprises have stronger perception and selection ability for consumer preferences, as well as supporting strong supply chain ability, so that consumers can recognize the value of retail channels and realize large-scale sales on selected explosive commodities. 3) In terms of private brands: Costco, Sam and Aldi form differentiation and drainage through the development of private brands Kirkland Signature and membersmark, and Aldi has a high proportion of private brands, which is conducive to improving users’ shopping stickiness and loyalty. 4) Member service and after-sales: Aldi, Sam and Costco have perfect after-sales service system. Sam can quickly return and exchange goods within 14 days on the premise of complete product packaging. Costco has a “return within 90 days if dissatisfied” policy.
The concentration of Chinese market is low and the regional characteristics are obvious. The profit of stores still needs to be run in during the water test period. At present, the overall development of the regional economy of the warehouse membership store is uneven, domestic and foreign enterprises gather together, the concentration is low, and the southeast coast develops rapidly and the competition is fierce. Due to the differences in culture, consumption concept and consumption habits between regions, local enterprises with better understanding of local development characteristics have more competitive advantages than outsiders.
Compared with ordinary supermarkets, warehouse member stores deeply tap consumer value, and the internal virtuous cycle drives the continuous optimization of store model. From the perspective of forming enterprise competitive advantage, we believe that at present, warehouse member stores solve the problems of two types of consumers. 1) for consumers with targeted goods, warehouse member stores provide such consumers with cost-effective offline and online consumption scenarios of one-stop purchase of daily necessities through their keen selection ability and powerful supply chain ability in the background, so as to improve the purchase rate and repurchase rate of consumers. The commodities in the enterprise have a higher dynamic sales rate, and the price negotiation with upstream suppliers is also strengthened; 2) For consumers who have a certain consumption level and pursue quality life at the same time, retailers still need to do a good job in commodity parameter comparison and screening for them. This channel can obtain consumers’ high recognition of the value of the retail platform and fully establish consumers’ trust and loyalty. Enterprises continue to expand their stores to cover more consumers, so as to achieve greater sales scale and form a double virtuous cycle within the enterprise. The store model is expected to be continuously optimized under the positive cycle.
Conclusion: the stability of the business form of warehouse member stores is better than that of other pan category killer businesses and ordinary supermarkets. The offline circulation channels have better circulation efficiency and transaction efficiency. In the business form for household consumption, the possibility of warehouse stores being replaced is low. With the gradual increase of the proportion of the middle class, there is room for long-term development. It is suggested to pay attention to the risk of local supermarket leaders [ Jiajiayue Group Co.Ltd(603708) ] and [ Yonghui Superstores Co.Ltd(601933) ] incoming warehouse stores. Tips: the construction of supply chain fails to meet expectations, emergencies lead to the loss of consumer trust, and the decline of consumption exceeds expectations
