What is the development trend of community group buying in 2021?

my country’s retail industry is in the new retail stage, and community group buying is an emerging business format born in this stage. Community group buying has developed rapidly in recent years. From the initial prototype in 2014 to the outbreak in 2017, and then to the industry reshuffle in 2019, it ushered in a second climax under the catalysis of the epidemic. Internet giants entered the market one after another to share the cake, and the market quickly saturation. In the process of development, its disadvantages have gradually emerged. At present, consumers in the market are becoming more rational, and the popularity of community group buying is gradually cooling down.

Major listed companies in the community group buying industry: Liqun (601366), Great Eastern (600327), BBK (002251), Zhongbai Group (000759), Supply and Marketing Group (000564), etc.

The core data of this article: the development history of the retail industry, the development history of community group buying, the advantages and disadvantages of community group buying, the main players of community group buying, and the development suggestions of community group buying

1. Community group buying is a new retail format

Up to now, China's retail industry has mainly gone through four stages, namely the Daling Beast stage when physical retail scale expanded; the online retail stage when e-commerce exploded; and the low-profit stage of e-commerce when online retail dividends dissipated. And the current online + offline new retail stage. During the evolution of these stages, community group buying emerged as a new business operation in the new retail stage. Its core model is online ordering + offline pickup, which is mainly distributed in various communities. It is an evolution based on tradition. emerging retail models. Its rapid development has posed a great threat to supermarkets and farmers' markets.

2. Development history of community group buying

The reason why community group buying can develop so fast is mainly due to the formation of social software (mainly WeChat and QQ) in the general environment. It provides a convenient environment for information flow among residents.

In 2014, there were group leaders in Changsha, Wuhan and other places who collected orders through WeChat and QQ groups and then concentrated on placing orders with suppliers to obtain lower procurement costs. This was the prototype of community group buying. ;

Subsequently, "You, Me, You" (merged with Shihuituan in August 2019) was established in Changsha, marking the birth of community group buying. At this time, the operating model was still based on QQ and WeChat groups;

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Between 2017 and 2018, community group buying exploded with the support of capital. At this time, players in the industry transformed their operating models from WeChat groups to small programs, making the business model more mature and operations more standardized;

< p>Due to the rapid development in 2019-2020, many shortcomings were exposed. Most companies faced bankruptcy or mergers due to supply chain breaks and declining passenger flow. Many smaller platforms with less mature models were eliminated by the times;

At the beginning of 2020, the emergence of the epidemic caused a passive resurgence of this business. Community group buying ushered in explosive growth. Internet giants entered the market one after another, and even focused on developing community group buying as a separate business. Among them, the most representative Some of them include Alibaba, Pinduoduo, Meituan, etc.

3. Internet giants deploy community group buying situations

Internet giants choose to join the community group buying competition mainly because the core of community group buying is essentially to speed up the circulation of transaction information to speed up efficiency and provide Convenience, Internet companies’ own technology has advantages in this aspect, and the company’s own traffic base is enough to support the activity of the platform. The layout is similar, mainly selling residents’ daily necessities such as vegetables, meat, and rice at relatively favorable prices. With grain and oil, etc., the entry methods are also divided into investment or self-construction, and most companies choose self-construction. The specific layout is as follows:

4. Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Enterprises' Layout of Community Group Buying

The successive layouts of Internet giants have helped community group buying enter the second round of climax, which has become a major trend in this period. major players.

The reason why community group buying platforms can develop so rapidly with the support of Internet companies is mainly because community group buying platforms can cover the needs of most consumers through consumer coverage, and have low opening thresholds. The acquaintance effect has advantages such as fast monetization of traffic, but many disadvantages have been exposed in its development process. For example, many platforms currently engage in vicious price competition in the market in order to compete for customer flow. Many platforms themselves have too many types and are not highly identifiable. At the same time, as consumers have more comparable choices, the market becomes more rational, and the development of the platform is limited.

5. Community group buying development suggestions

Currently, many community group buying platforms prefer to seize the market through price wars, but most platforms do not have clear enough product logic to support this. It will be difficult to develop in the long term in an increasingly rational market environment. In response to these pain points, community group buying platforms should start from improving themselves, do a good job in quality control of the platform, optimize core supply chain links, and make the overall operation process more efficient, thereby improving competitiveness.

——For more industry-related data, please refer to the "Analysis Report on Business Model Innovation and Investment Strategic Planning of China's Community Group Buying Industry" by the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute