However, the market is constantly changing, and a large scale does not necessarily mean you have the right to speak. Only by adjusting your mindset, finding a way of life that suits you, and not blindly pursuing scale and not lebanon whatsapp number data 5 million about "killing" others, can you make your business last longer.
Inspur New Consumption: The discount business has been developed in Japan for a long time, and many domestic retail companies are also learning from Japan. What stage is China's discount retail at now, and what are the similarities and differences with the Japanese market?
Zhang Sheng: In China, we like to divide discount formats into two categories: soft discounts and hard discounts.
Soft discounts are mainly aimed at products with a short shelf life. Japan is particularly prominent in this regard, and Don Quijote is a typical example.
I have said in the past few years that with China's development and overcapacity, soft discounts will have huge room for growth in the future.
However, the biggest difficulty of soft discounts is how to ensure the stability and security of the supply chain. Many soft discount companies are responsible for procurement by their founders, which is necessary in the early stages. However, when the scale is expanded, a standardized procurement mechanism must be formed to prevent risks caused by human problems. There is still a long way to go in China in this regard.
Hard discounts can be simply understood as private brands and the buyer system. Take three Japanese companies as examples: Business Supermarket, MUJI and UNIQLO. The three companies have different discount strategies.
Business supermarkets adopt a route that combines private brands with customization, but this model also has limitations. If they find large factories to do OEM, when sales reach a scale that may affect large brands, they may be cautious or restricted by large factories. And if they find small factories to produce, it is difficult to guarantee product quality and stable supply.
Therefore, when the proportion of private brands is too high, it is difficult to achieve a huge scale. 70% of Japanese companies that have private brands are restricted in scale.
MUJI has taken a unique path through design differentiation. Although this has brought clear pressure to the products and brands of large manufacturers, they are able to follow this path because they do have unique design concepts.
As for Uniqlo's route, it is more difficult for domestic companies to learn because it relied on the help of the chamber of commerce to buy out some distinctive upstream raw materials and develop distinctive products.
Inspur New Consumption: Retailers need to find their own niche and think clearly about what they can do, but it is impossible to do everything well at the same time. There are many excellent examples worth learning from. In your opinion, who can our Chinese discount companies learn from at this stage?
Zhang Sheng: There is nothing wrong in learning from excellent experiences, but the key is to think clearly about which path to choose.
In the hard discount model, if all private brands and customization are adopted, scale expansion will inevitably encounter bottlenecks. The proportion of Sam's own brands in China is only 30%, and too high a proportion may squeeze the space of big brands.
