Source: Securities Times
Author: Wang Xiaowei
"Move the mountain" against the "killing horses", Sam and Hema's commercial war are in full swing.Hema has selected nearly 100 products a few days ago, "cut a knife" to Sam's price, and hit the price by regularly updating the "moving mountain".And Sam also quickly "killed horses", launching a lower price for explosive products to form a market gravity.The two sides fought fiercely, the smell of gunpowder was full and continuously upgraded.
Around 1995, foreign troops such as Carrefour, Metro, Wal -Mart, and bee lotus have entered the Chinese market. Local retail companies represented by Jiayue and Backgammonia have begun germination. Now they have grown into A -share listed companies.EssenceThe member system was also buried at the time, and it grew up for more than 20 years.At present, whether it is JD Plus, Vipshop Super VIP, or Metro, Sam, Hema and other giants, they have gone to the successor. Although the connotation is different and the models are different, the membership competition continues to intensify.
During a specific stage, the member mode is indeed a good model.A major feature is that in recent years, the revenue of Yonghui Supermarket, Zhongbai Group, Renrenle, Backgammon and other chain supermarket revenue have declined and net profit losses have been achieved.Prepare expansion.The core point of this contrast is that the membership model is mainly for the consumption upgrade of middle -class people, which is stronger to increase cost -effective and differentiated products. Therefore, the price war usually does not become the main competitive method and competition strategy of the industry.
So why did Hema Sam appear in the price war?One of the reasons is that this model requires the support of a specific number of members to achieve operation, while the consumer groups above the urban middle class are relatively stable.Competitive overlay market ceiling is limited, and the member model can easily lead to the rapid saturation of the territory market.Similar to other industrial logic, in the advent of the stock era, industry participants are more inclined to adopt a price war competitive strategy.
Jumping out of the "price war", this competition can also be understood as a test of Hema's business model.In terms of digitalization, Hema can use Ali to build a certain advantage, but the chassis of the supermarket is retail. The industry is used to referring to the retail profit model as "bending down and picking steel". It can be seen that the essence is a kind of bitter difference.For a long time, Hema builds the path of commodity power more like the "net red model". On the one hand, the profit margin is high, and on the other hand, it does not rely entirely to win.This model requires high -frequency "cultural empowerment" and sales stimulus.In the context of the entire consumer market trend and rationality, the overall price of prices and the movement of gross profit margin should also be a trend.
In fact, the competition of the super -member member model is far from the level of price war, but a comprehensive business model, supply chain system, and membership ecology. In particular, high value -added products and services need to be provided to amplify membershipValue and can continue to maintain this advantage.For newly entered young people, these moats are still difficult to establish in the short term.
Based on this, many people in the retail circle regard "Hema is the only competitor in China in China" as a joke.Just as Hema founder and CEO Hou Yi responded, "Hema has been working hard, constantly innovating and changing, and learning from the international retail predecessors." Some market interpretation is an open mind; but from the perspective of the industrial ecology,As a retail recruit with only 8 years of history, for Hema, supplementing shortcomings is also a required course.
The return of the consumer market is rational, the membership store model is fierce, and the net profit and cash flow pressure test the head platform ... The greater change in the retail industry may be displayed in front of the market more in the future.
