Is the hot membership shop a wind or a tiger?

The turning point of the member store appeared in 2019. Costco entered China with a high profile. On the day of opening, a large number of products such as Maotai and LVs lower than the market price caused crazy grabbing. The traffic was congested around the store, and the people in the store were suspended in the afternoon. 37 days of opening, Costco attracted 200,000 members, with a membership fee of nearly 60 million yuan. According to data from the new retail expert Bao Yuezhong, in 2020, the annual sales of Shanghai Costco single store reached 2.4 billion yuan.

By 2020, the first Chinese brand's storage member, Hema X member store announced that it entered the national replication stage, and opened 6 X member shops in 7 months. Almost at the same time, a nest of FUDI, Beijing Huarian, and Yonghui entered the air outlet of members' supermarkets, and accelerating the expansion of stores to occupy the market is a top priority. The Sam Member Store is planned to open a 40-45 member store by the end of 2022; the Costco plans to open a store in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Nanjing, Shenzhen and other cities within two years. New first -tier cities expand 100 member stores.

For a while, players at home and abroad broke out in the first year of China's retail industry. Different from the traditional hypermarket, the target group of membership store supermarkets is a middle-class family. According to the "2021 New Middle School Crowd Insight Report", China's new middle-class population has 200 million, and it can support a family in accordance with 200,000-300,000 members to support a family. For paid membership stores, the total demand for membership in China is 60-80. Obviously, the growth rate of the various member stores obviously exceeds the actual demand of the market.

01 Traditional hypermarket transformation member super super

In 1995, Carrefour's first store opened in Beijing. The following year, Wal -Mart also entered the mainland market. At this time, it was the rapid development of China's reform and opening up economy. For consumers who were accustomed to small shops on the street, the appearance of hypermarkets was a novel existence, and it quickly ushered in a high time.

In 2006, the number of stores in Carrefour exceeded 100. During the peak of 2010, there were 249 stores in Carrefour mainland, and Wal -Mart was about 225. However, after a few years of fluttering the store, with the rise of e -commerce, Tmall, JD.com, Suning and other e -commerce platforms have more choices. The rent cost is difficult to compete with the price of the e -commerce platform and the types of commodities, and soon ushered in the tide of closed stores.

But on the other side, since 2016, Wal -Mart has closed more than 100 stores in China. Since the beginning of this year, Wal -Mart has successively closed more than 10 stores in Guangzhou, Xiamen, Nanchang, Chongqing and other cities. The closure of Jining Store represents it withdrawn from the Shandong market.

And Carrefour's life was not good, because of losses for years, he was acquired by Suning Tesco in 2019. South Korea's Lotte Mart and British Tesco have also withdrawn from the Chinese market one after another, and traditional hypermarkets have fallen into a period of development.

On the contrary, with the upgrading of consumption, the number of members in members has risen sharply. Taking the Sam membership store as an example, according to the statistics of NetEase numbers, Sam's first 1 million paid members in China took 21 years, the second 1 million, 4 years, and the third 1 million, only the use 9 months. In 2021, Sam China paid more than 4 million. Even if it was calculated based on the cost of 260 yuan/year, a membership fee was at least 1 billion yuan.

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In contrast, the traditional hypermarket looks a lot loyal. According to Carrefour's Chinese financial data, its operating profit in 2018 was 412 million yuan, a decrease of nearly 61%compared to 1.044 billion yuan in 2017. Yonghui Supermarket, with a loss of 3.944 billion yuan in 2021, operating profit decreased by 319.78%year -on -year.

On the one hand, the e -commerce squeezed in the gaps for survival, and on the other hand, the outbreak of the paid member store was growing. The balance of the traditional hypermarket began to tilt from the paid member store. Hema Xiansheng launched the Hema X member store, intending to build the Chinese member store; Carrefour plans to upgrade 200 traditional hypermarkets to 100 member stores within 3 years; Yonghui has launched super species to upgrade the supermarket hypermarket into a member store Essence

The three key drivers of the rise of warehousing members in the United States: the expansion of the middle class, the improvement of urbanization, and the development of the city's peripheral commercial circle. With the development of the economy, domestic member stores have blossomed everywhere. It can be seen that the development of the warehousing member store model has become increasingly mature in China, and transformation to member stores has become a wind out of the traditional businessmen.

02 Overseas chain membership store localization

There is a saying in the retailer super industry: fresh and profitable, daily use of performance, home appliances profit. However, membership stores are essentially different from traditional vendors. Its income is mainly composed of member fees and product sales. Member fees are core income, and membership renewal rates are equally important as new users.

Whether it is a Sam member shop or Costco, the renewal rate of members abroad can reach more than 90%, but the re -engraving foreign model to China will inevitably encounter water and water dissatisfaction.

The remote packaging and store location are the characteristics of overseas member stores. This is completely contrary to the consumption habits that Chinese consumers like fresh vegetables and have been solved nearby. Therefore, in 1995, when Costco opened up the Taiwan market, the Taiwanese did not pay for the "member storage chain supermarket". The most difficult time, more employees in the supermarket than consumers. In this way, Costco's first store in Taiwan has lost 5 years in a row. Some people have suggested during this period, can they cancel the member system? Can you not adhere to low -cost and high -quality products that are not fresh enough? Can you attract more people through advertising? Both were rejected. Eventually, through the community, conducting trial eating, exploring community operations, etc., and won the Taiwan market with the reputation. 27 years later, there were 13 Costco in Taiwan.

In the words of Lei Jun, "entering Costco, no need to pick or look at the price, as long as you close your eyes to buy, this is a belief." Low price and high quality are one of the secrets of Costco's operation. The cost performance is applied to Xiaomi mobile phone.

In terms of drainage, although Costco did not advertise, it attracted a large number of members through various combination of fists. Cheap products can not only be a roasted chicken of $ 4.99, but also the market price of more than 2,500 yuan, but the members only need 1499 yuan Moutai wine. Although it looks like a sale of money, it has attracted more members. Costco Shanghai In the first store, 200,000 members were attracted in two months.

In addition, consumers can purchase low -priced gasoline and insurance through member cards (because of qualification problems, gas stations, medical peripheral services in China), and hidden discount products, etc., which also attracted a large number of membership cards and renewal fees Essence It turns out that this method is also effective. Costco's global membership renewal rate has remained more than 80%for many years.

Costco also has a strong bargaining ability, and this ability comes from the confidence of its own brand. In 1992, Costco launched its own brand Kirkland. When it believes that the price of a brand is not cheap enough, one is to let the brand get off to find a replacement brand, and the other is to entrust suppliers to produce Costco's own brand products. For example, in 2003, Coca -Cola wanted to increase the price, and Costco turned around and put it on Pepsi. Because of the large procurement and the use of a strong supply chain system, Costco has a strong bargaining ability.

Relying on the ultimate cost performance, Costco has achieved a market value of $ 250 billion, and is the second largest retailer in the United States after Wal -Mart.

Another member model, the pioneer of the Sam member store, with the strong supply chain resources and logistics resources of the parent company Wal -Mart, in various countries, there are local retailers and suppliers, and they also have mature and stable cooperation in the sea transportation of global transnational trade. Logistics providers have reduced costs.

When cooperating with suppliers, the Sam member store also gave the supplier's sense of security. According to a dry goods buyer from the Sam Member Store, as long as the supplier is produced in accordance with the standards of the Sam Member Store, all the "package sales" will be acquired to ensure that the supplier is afraid of the wolf and the tiger when investing in the investment.

In terms of explosive products, the Sam member store emphasizes the differentiated competition of people without me. Through the insights and accumulated data of massive membership needs, the direction, taste and specifications of new products are determined and defined. For example, the Sam membership shop has introduced two 21 years of Scotch whiskey. It optimized according to the taste of liquor that Chinese people like, and the result was quickly sold out. Therefore, many brands and suppliers are willing to put new products on Sam.

Summarizing the business model of Costco and Sam membership stores, a common point will be found to adhere to high -quality and low prices. Through product differentiation, more members are attracted. Behind this is to reduce costs and risks through various links. Large -scale procurement, differentiated competition, and optimizing the supply chain layout are important starting points.

03 Before the benchmark overseas chain member store

Domestic membership supermarkets are mainly divided into two categories: one is a global player represented by Costco and Sam, and the other is localized players represented by Yonghui, Hema, and Fudi.

Different from the traditional member supermarket, Yonghui's members are free, mainly using the wholesale price brought by large packaging, the upgrade and exploration of existing backward supermarket hypermarkets, focusing on "cheap". Returning to the hypermarket is essentially to get more customer sources through the differentiated competition of other paid membership stores.

Among the local members of the member store, the opposite of Yonghui is Hema. Hou Yi, the founder of Hema, has made it clear: "The members who are not charged are worthless, but I will not let you lose it." Therefore, the Hema X member At the beginning of the store opening, the positioning was to reference the Costco model from various aspects. Member fees were an important part of the Hema X member store.

Hou Yi once sent such a paragraph in the circle of friends, "Weak enterprises need to surpass the giants, to copy, fuck, super ', learn business models, learn to operate processes, and finally surpass it." This also shows that the Hema X member store Ambition, drawing is not the purpose, and catching up is the result of the ultimate want.

Unlike Sam and Costco, Hema X member shop and FUDI highlight the localization characteristics. In order to meet the preferences of Chinese consumers for fresh freshness, there will be fresh ingredients in the store. At the same time, it will develop regional foods that are in line with local residents according to the tastes of various places, such as Hema Shanghai X Member Shop, Fudi Beijing Store's Book, Dectives, and vegetarian balls. These are not available in Sam and Costco. In terms of site selection, Sam and Costco are more inclined to master autonomy and emphasize independence, while Hema X member shop and Fudi are matrix -type play. The target customer base is not limited to the middle class of the car family. Tendering urban centers and business subjects, they can drain each other. In the short term, they can gather a large number of consumers for stores and expand market capacity. Of course, because the Hema X member store takes the fresh business as the barriers, it emphasizes the timeliness of the product.

In terms of expansion speed, the Hema X member shop is also obviously faster than Sam and Costco. Generally speaking, membership stores are the products of high -end consumption and niche groups, but Hema X member stores have 7 stores for more than a year. Compared with Costco, they have opened two stores for more than two years. The Hema X member store has different insights on the local market. A set of data can be seen why Hema X member shop is so anxious to expand the store.

In 2020 Hema launched X member, and has accumulated more than 500,000 members. Paid members are generally high viscosity. Even if they go to the store 2 times a month, the passenger flow of the hypermarket has a serious decline. Revenue.

Two or three hundred yuan in exchange fees in exchange for more stable and reliable and quality products and services. For many people in first -tier and second -tier cities, it is no longer a high threshold, so the potential user groups of membership stores are also accelerating and expanding. There will be market opportunities.

The "member system+selection+storage" model of senior overseas giants, but it is also different from the strategy of Sam and Costco's small and refined. "The speed of Hema copied homework seems to be faster than doing homework."

04 Is a member business super or a tiger mouth?

The created air outlet comes quickly. When the giants are collectively poured into a track, they often mean that there are not many opportunities to leave the market. The fierce internal rolls, often everyone does not make money.

In 2016, Wumi launched Wumi Shangjia. It would be 150 yuan in membership to become a member. One year later, it announced that it was closed. Wumi Shangjia also replaced the brand name. In 2017, Yonghui launched super species to position high-end members. However, from 2017 to 2019, he lost 270 million yuan, 945 million yuan and 1.29 billion yuan respectively. Due to the loss of years, the super species was no longer the core business of the group.

Hema is the same situation. Hema Xiansheng, Hema X member, and Hema neighborhood are considered to be Hema's "three -car carriage". From the end of 2021, Hema has closed some Hema neighborhood stores in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Suzhou and other cities. After 6 years of establishment, Hema's strategy has always been fast. He tried more than ten kinds of new retail formats including Hema X Member Shop, Hema neighborhood, and Hema Xiaoma Station to Hema Xiaoma. It is not difficult to see that Hema is also looking for a profit anchor point, but it is not fast, and there is no clear profitable direction.

In 2021, in an interview, Hou Yi changed his saying that he would not pursue profit for the time being, and changed his mouth "It is always a shame to be a business without making money." Earlier this year, Hema proposed the common development of online and offline, and a strategy of making comprehensive profitability from a single store's profitability, but whether it can turn losses into profits is still an unknown answer.

Grapefruit partnership Peng Cheng once commented on Hema: "Hema is a company that didn't think about what he was doing and did not exercise his particularly strong ability." In fact, not only Hema, the current member stores are exploring it stage.

On the one hand, there is a tide of closing shops in membership stores, and on the other hand, it is an eager expansion. Each family is exploring the new growth path, but obviously, the scale of the scale of burning money is not a long -term plan. Lei Jun said, "Standing on the wind, pigs can fly." Whether the member shop is a wind or a tiger mouth, it takes time to prove it, but at the moment, the profit problem is the core issue in front of the local member shop.

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