During the epidemic period, community group buying became a high-frequency word in the mouth of consumers. According to the white paper of Shanghai leaders compiled by wow group buying platform in Shanghai, there are about 130000 guaranteed supply leaders and more than 650000 improved leaders in Shanghai, bringing more diversified materials to the residents With the sufficient supply of various platforms, the tide of community group buying gradually recedes. When life is fully restored to its daily state, where will the group buying community and the "leaders" behind it go
Reading Guide: many community group buying groups in the community have now become residents' chat groups and information sharing groups.
Author | first finance luhanzhi Wang Hai
▲ the group leader is counting materials, and the interviewees provide
The tide is receding and the group buying is coming to an end
Compared with the long delayed express delivery, many residents have obtained living materials through community group purchase during the closure and control period. For residents, the commodities purchased by group may not fully meet the demand, but it is an effective way in case of tight transportation capacity.
Ni Hua, who lives in Jing'an District, Shanghai, told China business news that at the initial stage of the closure, he and several young people initiated the community group purchase in the community. The initial purpose was to "eat". Considering the quality of goods, after-sales service, pricing and other issues, young people who temporarily become leaders only consider launching group purchases of goods from guarantee supply enterprises such as Guangming. At that time, the fresh food merchants near the community were not considered by the young leaders because they did not have the qualification to guarantee supply.
In terms of nature, the group purchase initiated by such leaders is not for the purpose of profit, and is called "conscientious leader" by residents. Nihua said, "regular suppliers, including Sam, Guangming and Golden Arowana, will not have hidden rules in terms of commission. For example, we have organized a group purchase of Golden Arowana before. We placed a total order of 80 barrels of oil, 46 bottles of sesame oil and 160 bags of yeast, with a total price of about 8700 yuan. The official gave the head a commission of 2.86 yuan."
▲ the figure is a screenshot of the Commission provided by Ni Hua
By the middle and late April, with the recovery of transportation capacity of platforms such as HEMA and taoxianda, many residents in the community had been able to obtain materials through e-commerce platforms, and the leader's willingness to organize community group purchase began to decline. "It takes time and energy to launch a community group purchase. All kinds of statistics and communication work basically take a day. Everyone has their own work."
With the retreat of the "heads of conscience", other community group purchases with profit-making purposes have sprung up. For example, the owners of restaurants and milk shops near the community began to pull groups to initiate group buying, and some community residents also began to initiate profitable group buying.
In addition, many e-commerce platforms also launched community group purchase services in May. Nihua said, "some residents of our community have applied for the head of HEMA and dingdong. After the opening, the residents of the community can place a group purchase order on a separate page, and the full 15 copies can be delivered and distributed by the head."
With the epidemic situation under control, the residents' access to materials in the middle and late May has become more convenient and diversified, and community group buying has gradually faded out of daily life. Previously, in order to ensure the regularity of community group buying, the group buying initiated by the head of the group needs to be reviewed by the neighborhood committee. Nihua said that "the review team will hardly pass the group buying application since May 26. Before, group buying was to solve the immediate need, but there are restrictions on group buying, such as the amount of money that must be bundled or reached. Sometimes consumers will buy goods they don't like. Once the retail is open, people won't choose group buying."
On June 1, Shanghai officially restored living order, and residents were free to go in and out of the community to buy materials. The heads who had not increased the price or had a very low commission would no longer organize group buying. Residents described such heads as "retired after success". Many group buying groups in the community have now become residents' chat groups and information sharing groups.
"After the epidemic subsides, a large number of regiments will be disbanded and gradually lose their vitality." Lincong, the person in charge of Fujian Funiu supply chain Co., Ltd., told the first financial reporter that the temporary head of the group wanted to return to his normal work and life.
In order to make profits, some leaders are still insisting
In addition to the "retired" group leaders, the group leaders with the purpose of making profits are still insisting on opening the group.
In the middle and late April, there were several group leaders who made profits in Ni Hua's community. Many group purchase prices initiated by such leaders were on the high side.
One of the leaders, Li Ming, launched a group purchase of bread of a certain brand at the end of April, with a price of 99 yuan. Then another resident contacted the bread supplier. The supplier said that the purchase price of bread to the head was 72 yuan, and the group purchase price was 99 yuan, that is, the head could make a net profit of 27 yuan per order. Residents in the community said that more than 130 pieces of the 99 yuan bread group purchase were finally sold. The group purchase income of Li Ming, the head of the group, exceeded 3500 yuan.
In addition to bread, the above-mentioned group leader also initiated a number of group purchases of pork, wonton, zongzi, etc. during the period of community closure, and the profits were very high, which caused dissatisfaction of some community residents, but some community residents continued to place orders.
There are not a few community group purchases that earn a difference in price, which has also attracted the attention of regulatory authorities. On May 13, according to the official official account issued by Shanghai, the Shanghai municipal market supervision department continued to crack down on illegal acts in accordance with the law while strengthening the warnings to the community group purchase organizers and operators, and has handled a number of cases to effectively maintain the market price order and protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
The group leader who made a lot of profits through community group buying did not quit community group buying after the life order returned to normal in June. On the contrary, he continued to publish various commodity links in his group buying group.
In terms of commodity classification, at present, the group leader has launched more daily necessities than the previous fresh commodities. For example, in June, Li Ming launched a Thai herbal cream, priced at 29.9 yuan for three bottles. Residents of the community said to first finance, "in JD On such platforms, the price of this herbal cream is 25 yuan three bottles, which is expensive for the head of the group. "
Nowadays, the sales volume of group buying has declined compared with that during the epidemic period, and the head of the group also continues to release links. In this regard, nihua said, "these leaders are now more like sales on a commission basis than community group buying, because there is no requirement for the number of pieces of these goods in a group, and now they are all delivered by express, without the need for the leader to distribute them. The mode is different from community group buying. Moreover, fast group buying is in wechat or pinduoduo Businesses use it more. "
During the period of sealing and control, the quick group program commonly used in community group buying still plays a role in maintaining the stickiness of consumers. Another resident told first finance, "if the head of the group opens a new group purchase, Kuai Tuan will push the group purchase to all users who have bought the head's things before, or to people nearby."
For the follow-up development of the group leader, Jiangting, a resident of the community, believes that the dilution of community group buying is inevitable. "Group buying itself is a spontaneous behavior, because everyone needs it. For consumers, the cost of group buying is much higher than that of retail. Consumers need to hand over their money to a stranger, and they are not sure how long they need to wait to receive the goods. There is no way to guarantee after-sales service. If they think in a normal consumer mentality, consumers are bound to prefer to shop online or supermarkets rather than through strangers. Now everyone can buy it When it comes to materials, group buying will be reduced. In the future, if a certain commodity has a quantitative threshold, or there is an obvious group purchase discount, we will consider group purchase. "
Having tasted the sweetness, the supplier tried to continue
During the epidemic period, many e-commerce platforms have opened up new community group purchase businesses. For example, in April this year, HEMA launched the "mobile supermarket", which adopted the community rotation system. Through cooperation with the head of the team, the property management department and the neighborhood committee, the community collectively purchased goods in high demand, meeting the daily life needs of the whole community at one time and improving the distribution efficiency.
After the outbreak, HEMA will retain the "mobile supermarket" mode created during the outbreak, and increase community group purchase and storage, and add two services: community olai store. Among them, the community group purchase and storage service is a group purchase of large packaged goods to the community once a week, led by HEMA x member store. In addition, HEMA will also cover more community outlets. On the premise of ensuring the shelf life and quality of commodities, the prices of various commodities are half to one third of those of HEMA stores.
Community group purchase also shortens the distance between e-commerce platforms and community communities. During the epidemic, pinduoduo launched the "community order collection" function in an emergency when some communities could not find residents as leaders. Users with common needs in the same community can directly form groups online, whether they are in the same wechat group or not. After the group is formed, they can wait for the goods to be received. Those groups that fail to meet the deadline will be automatically cancelled and refunded. In order to form a group as soon as possible, participating users will forward pinduoduo links in various community groups to encourage more people to buy together.
During the epidemic period, as more residents focused on "eating", the service platform focusing on catering also had new ideas. During the closure period in Shanghai, meituan launched the community group meal mode to supplement the traditional takeout mode, providing more than 400000 group meals to about 9000 communities. In Beijing, meituan has increased its rider capacity to 30% and provided long-distance delivery services in view of the ban on eating out and dining in the hall since the May holiday. The launch of the city wide take out service has driven a surge in demand for high customer unit prices and long-distance orders.
Pan Helin, CO director and researcher of the digital economy and financial innovation research center of the International United Business School of Zhejiang University, told China first finance and economics that the advantage of community group buying in daily conditions lies in its cost performance. During the epidemic, its advantage lies in its ability to find sources of goods. The goal for brands or suppliers to enter the community group buying field is to obtain more opinion leaders, seek a breakthrough in the social circle through leaders, and penetrate the social e-commerce business into the community, because interpersonal relationships can be realized for e-commerce.
For example, after the full resumption of work, some brands still launch preferential activities for the community to increase user stickiness. Nihua said, "during the epidemic period, the brand side has accumulated some community resources. Although it does not open community group buying now, it will launch preferential activities for the community. For example, recently, Lele tea communicated with the head who previously initiated milk tea group buying, and asked the head to forward the activity that 10 people can get vouchers."
With the gradual recovery of social and economic activities, Lin Cong said that the group purchase with small scale, poor quality and many after-sales problems will gradually withdraw, and the boutique group will quickly emerge; The brand side will pay more attention to the construction of the group purchase market, Zhihu "Planting grass" such as Tiktok, xiaohongshu, etc. should introduce the "head" mode.
For the community group purchase, ensuring supply, enhancing transport capacity and shortening the delivery time are all problems that need to be solved. Before the epidemic, most of the commodities purchased by community groups were delivered to the pick-up points at a certain distance from consumers, and door-to-door delivery services were not provided.
Lin Cong believes that in order to do a good job in community group buying, the competition is service. When the epidemic situation disappears, social forces such as takeout, flash delivery, couriers and express cabinets can be used to fill this missing link.
*Nihua, Li Ming and Jiang Ting are pseudonyms in the text