According to common sense, Fat Donglai should open a supermarket in a fourth-tier city like Xuchang, which should be of good quality and low price, right? But if you go to Fat Donglai, you will find that this is not the case at all. Many of the goods from Fat Donglai are very high-end, and they are not cheap. I bought a Japanese White Lovers chocolate biscuit in Fat Donglai, which is a very high-end biscuit, which is not available in supermarkets in small places, and a box is more than 100 yuan. Some of Fat Donglai's fruits are also very high-end, I have bought red and purple raspberries, a small box of palms, more than 30 yuan.
As you know, Fat Donglai only opened stores in Xuchang and Xinxiang in Henan, and there are only more than ten stores in total. Friends who are familiar with Henan know that Xuchang and Xinxiang are third-tier or fourth-tier cities, the scale of the city is not large, and the consumption level of the people is not high.
I used to live in Beijing, and the consumption level of Beijing residents was relatively high, but even so, things like the price I just mentioned would not be sold in ordinary supermarkets in Beijing, only in some high-end supermarkets. Then it's very strange, who is Fat Donglai selling these things to? As a supermarket in a third- or fourth-tier city, why does it want to buy this kind of product?
As for the answer to this question, I'll sell it first.
When I go to Fat Donglai, I pay special attention to these high-end products and find that these products actually don't sell well. The reason is very simple, the salary of ordinary people in Xuchang is generally 3,000 to 5,000 yuan a month, who will spend 30 yuan to buy a box of fruit? As for the aforementioned white lover, the packaging is very ordinary, there is not even a plastic film on the outside, who would spend more than 100 yuan to buy such biscuits?
What should I do if it doesn't sell well? Just discount or buy one get one free. In fact, this is also normal, the purchased goods are not easy to sell, the merchant sells it at a discount, loses some money, and will not enter next time. But Fat Donglai is very strange, if it is not good to sell, it will also enter, and if it can't be sold, it will continue to be discounted. So when you go shopping around Fat Donglai, you can always find these high-end goods on the shelves. For example, I went to a shop in Fat Donglai a few days ago, and I found that there are large bottles of chrysanthemum authentic sake in the wine area, this kind of product is actually very niche, everyone in small cities does not know about this brand, and few people buy it.
To be honest, I didn't understand Fat Donglai's approach at first. According to the conventional business ideas, supermarkets pay great attention to the turnover of products, and products that are not easy to sell and lose money must be optimized. Why does Fat Donglai have to sell these money-losing goods? At the time, my explanation was that these products could help Fat Dong to decorate the façade and make it look like a high-end supermarket. It's like a department store, if there is a Hermes store on the first floor, the grade of this mall will be raised all of a sudden.
The reason for just decorating the façade is not enough, and later, I saw his explanation of this matter in a speech by Yu Donglai, the boss of Fat Donglai.
Just looking at these goods, it is true that you lose money, so why sell these things at a loss? There are two reasons: first, good things have good quality, as an employee of Fat Donglai, to understand what is the world's top products, what is the high quality of life, employees rely on these products to open their eyes, mentality and state will change. Second, good products can guide consumption, consumers do not buy today, tomorrow will not buy, but may buy the day after tomorrow. Even if he buys it because he buys it because he buys it one get one free, he can feel how good a quality product really is.
According to the purchasing director of Fat Donglai, there will be two types of products on the shelves of Fat Donglai: one is called leading goods, and the other is called functional goods. To put it simply, a leading product is a product that is a little higher than the current customer's consumption level and can lead the customer's future consumption trend; A functional product is a product that can meet a certain needs of customers and is within the customer's consumption budget. In Fat Donglai, leading products account for 20%, and functional products account for 80%. Many of these 20% of leading products are losing money.
If you lose money, you have to do it, this is not the gross profit margin of this product, but the big account. Some people say that if you put Fat Donglai in Beijing, Shanghai, or even the United States and Europe, you won't feel that this is a small supermarket at all. Why? Not because of how luxurious the decoration of Fat Donglai is, but because of the structure of Fat Donglai's goods.
Speaking of which, if we have been the boss, we must worry about 20% of the leading products, what will happen to this? is still the same reason, Fat Donglai prepared a sum of money in advance, this is called commodity pre-loss, as long as the loss of money is within a certain range, it is controllable, there is no risk.
What's more, who says that leading products must lose money? High-end products are actually high gross profits, you sell a bottle of Coke to earn 2 dimes, but you sell a box of white lovers, you can make at least 20 yuan. Fat Donglai is not stupid, it is also testing, white lovers are not easy to sell, right, I can't change Ferrero; The raspberry for 30 yuan is not easy to sell, so I will try it for Thai Golden Pillow Durian. These 20% of the leading products are actually the test field of Fat Donglai's new products. Once you find a product that sells well and is of high quality, the loss is quickly made up.
Moreover, now that new consumer groups are rising, many young people are pursuing high-quality products and are not sensitive to them. This group of people is the most high-quality customer group. That's why I often say that Fat Donglai is actually laying the foundation for the future. When other supermarkets are still considering good quality and low price, Fat Donglai has begun to do business in the segmented market. This threw off competitors a few streets.