Do membership manufacturers cluster to open stores to become a new fulcrum for the retail industry?

near The topic of "Carrefour and Hema jointly accuse Sam of being suspected of choosing one from the other" made a hot search on Weibo on October 1, bringing the warehouse club back to the public's view.

Membership supermarkets have entered the Chinese market since 1996, and have been in a tepid state. This year, major retail enterprises have entered the market, which is also regarded as the year when the membership stores are concentrated. So, will this become a new fulcrum for the retail industry in the future, or the next "unmanned supermarket" that was once popular and rarely mentioned today?

Membership manufacturers set up stores in clusters

In 1996, the first Sam's Club opened in Shenzhen. At that time, the membership system was relatively new to domestic consumers. After five years of market cultivation, Sam had only opened six member stores in China in 2001. As of September this year, Sam has opened 34 member stores in China.

In 2019, Costco landed in Shanghai. On the day of its opening, 50000 people crowded into its stores and had to suspend its business in the afternoon. Three days after opening, Costco members registered more than 100000. Such a hot situation once again pushed the membership store to the public.

In this regard, the acceleration button was pressed for the layout of membership supermarkets. More and more enterprises entered the membership supermarkets, including Hema, Yonghui, Beijing Hualian, Carrefour and other retail giants, including the local warehouse membership store brand Fudi.

According to the data disclosed by Hema, on October 1, 2020, the first Hema X member store in China opened in Shanghai, and it made a profit within two months. The per customer price reached 1000 yuan, and the maximum daily revenue exceeded 10 million yuan. In April this year, Hou Yi, President of Hema, said that 10 new member stores would be opened this year.

Since May this year, Fudi Club, Hema X Club and Metro PLUS Club have opened stores in Beijing, and Yonghui Supermarket's first warehouse store has also landed in Fuzhou. On September 9, the first warehouse club of Beijing Hualian settled in Lanzhou, and the local warehouse club ushered in the year of outbreak.

Supply chain is the core of competition

On October 22, the day Carrefour's first member store in the Chinese market opened in Pudong, Shanghai, it was suspected of encountering a vendor buyback event, and many popular products were sold out. Subsequently, Carrefour officially issued an apology statement, saying that from the preparation of Carrefour's membership store to its opening, competitors continued to put pressure on some brands.

Carrefour said that the categories affected were mainly toys and baby skin care, which had affected the normal business order. Hema also said that the X Club had encountered a similar situation, and the supermarkets of the two clubs pointed directly at Sam's Club.

Subsequently, Wal Mart, the parent company of Sam's Club, issued a document denying the so-called "one out of two", and emphasized that Sam's Club had always operated legally and in compliance.

From the above disputes, it is easy to see that the supply chain is one of the core competitiveness of the member store, providing members with good quality and low price nature The commodity with price ratio is the basis of its foothold, and in the final analysis, it is still the channel dispute.

Homogeneity restricts development

However, with the sharp increase in the number of warehouse member store brands, the homogenization phenomenon has become increasingly obvious.

Croissants, Swiss rolls, sirloin steaks and so on were the first brand products that became popular in Sam's, and many warehouse clubs have launched similar products at present, such as cassava and Swiss rolls, which are also popular online products of Fudi.

From the perspective of SKUs (i.e. inventory units), Costco and Sam both maintain about 4000 SKUs. At present, Hema X has more than 3000 SKUs and adds new products month by month, while Metro SKUs are between 10000 and 20000. However, there is a high overlap of goods in major warehouse member stores.

In May this year, Fudi, a local member store located in the East Fourth Ring Road of Beijing, became an "online celebrity" store because of its avocado green exterior wall.

Ms. Su, a Sam member, told the reporter that after she received the seven day free membership of fudi on the small program, she went there with the attitude of exploring the store. Upon arrival, I found that the interior decoration of fudi was very good, and the price was not very different from Sam's, because Xi I'm used to shopping in Sam, and I won't change the membership store easily.

Wang Di, who also received the free experience card, told the reporter that some of Fudi's products lack their own characteristics, and their selections are not as distinctive as Sam's. Among them, the fruit and vegetable area is the most attractive. Not only the decoration has a sense of design, but also some unusual dishes in Beijing, such as Houttuynia cordata and pea sprouts. The packaging is not big, and small families can digest it. "But everything you want to buy is available in the supermarket outside your home. There is no need to apply for a card even if it is a few yuan cheaper. It is not worth making a special trip to purchase."

The reporter saw that the annual fee of ordinary members in each major club was about 300 yuan. Among them, the annual fees of fudi members are divided into 365 yuan and 680 yuan; Sam is also divided into 260 yuan and 680 yuan. The annual membership fee of Hema X Club is 258 yuan, and that of Costco is 299 yuan.

For most consumers, choosing a membership store can meet their daily needs. How to bring higher prices to paying members when there is no significant advantage in member prices nature Goods with price ratio and differentiation are also important competitiveness to attract consumers to pay for membership.

Differentiation needs continuous iteration

Cai Jianjun, a senior expert in Nomura Comprehensive Research TMT industry, told the reporter of China Consumer Daily that homogenization is inevitable under the circumstances of increasingly mature industry and increasingly fierce competition, and the essence of retail is ultimately products, prices and services. The membership model is a means of differentiated competition, but as more and more enterprises imitate it, it will become homogeneous. The so-called differentiation should be an iterative process.

Cai Jianjun believed that differentiation should ultimately fall on speed, innovation and monopolization of resources. The Carrefour event is actually an attempt by all parties to compete for exclusive resources. Differentiated competition needs good nature The creation of ecological and industrial healthy ecological environment requires the establishment of market rules, and more importantly, the joint creation of enterprises.

The reporter learned that in Sam, Carrefour, Hema and other warehouse member stores, private brand has become one of the important models. Public data shows that in December 2020, Sam's own brand sales accounted for 30% and are still increasing; The proportion of Hema's own brands will reach 20% in 2020, and Carrefour's member stores also said that there are 20% of their own brands and deeply customized products.

Zhang Qing, the chief procurement officer of Sam's Club in China, once said that when there were many alternative options for a product in the market and Sam could not make more differentiation in price and quality, he would choose to take it off the shelf because it could no longer provide members with differentiated member value.

Cai Jianjun believes that whether the membership model meets the top is determined by the supply and demand relationship. The demand is no longer there, and the store is saturated, so it will naturally meet the top. Homogeneity will restrict the demand space.

Is warehouse member the future of hypermarket

With the increasingly fierce competition in hypermarkets, more and more traditional retail enterprises have begun to lay out warehouse membership stores. Is this path feasible?

Zheng Zhong, a commercial real estate analyst at Shell Research Institute, said in an interview with China Consumer Daily that as an imported product, the membership based warehouse supermarket is prone to acclimatization when landing in the domestic market. Consumers located in the first and second tier cities in China benefit from the development of e-commerce. Most consumers do not have the rigid demand for regular and large quantities of physical purchases. Supermarket formats are more as a supplement to the demand for the "last mile".

Zheng Zhong believes that the good reputation of Costco and Sam's Club is more due to their relatively mature supply chain and a large number of exclusive products forming strong customer loyalty nature 。 If local enterprises choose to enter the field of warehousing supermarkets, they need to differentiate their product lines from overseas brand competitors, and make full use of big data technology to improve customers' shopping experience.

Lai Yang, member of the expert committee of the China Federation of Commerce, told the reporter of the China Consumer Daily that it is not scientific for many supermarkets to transform into member stores nature Lack of systematic strategic planning. Blind entry will lead to a large amount of early investment has not yet reached the payback period, while consumers have tried other purchase channels, especially online purchase of ice fresh products.

According to Lai Yang's analysis, Sam's Club currently performs well in supermarkets, mainly because in the process of consumption upgrading, consumers' purchase of fresh food has shifted from the past pursuit of price to the pursuit of high quality goods nature Price ratio, so consumers will buy high-quality imported chilled beef steak, baking products, etc. in the member store. "In fact, the improvement of Sam's Club's performance is due to the contradiction between the inadequate development of fresh food supermarkets and the upgrading of consumption nature Growth. "

Zheng Zhong said that the merger or acquisition of Carrefour, Metro and other old brand foreign supermarkets by Chinese enterprises in succession is actually a sign of the transformation of traditional supermarkets nature Case. Suning, Wumart and Yonghui are all reforming their own products in the new retail direction, integrating online and offline resources, improving the shopping experience, and all have offline delivery functions. In the first and second tier cities with the most developed e-commerce, the traditional offline supermarket in the true sense has basically disappeared, and the whole industry is moving towards online and experiential.

"With the increasing proportion of fresh food stores in the community fresh food supermarkets in the future, the diversion of member stores will be more obvious. And a large number of standardized and high-quality fresh food online, especially the supply of fresh ice products and consumers' purchase Xi It is also used to have a great impact on the sales of such products in the member stores, so in the future the member stores will face the difficulties faced by the hypermarkets today. " Lai Yang believes that big supermarkets should transform into 2000 flat Square meters, or even smaller fresh food supermarket system, which is mainly fresh food, is far away from the community near Instead of building large-scale warehouse clubs.

key word: Membership based supermarket Warehouse Club Retail industry Homogeneous competition