Today, Hema once again appeared on the Weibo hot search list, and the related entry is Hema was exposed to be closed for liquidation
According to the "Bad Reviews"** article, the news of Hema withdrawal and closure of cabinets in various places has been coming out in a steady stream recently. Some netizens found that no one delivered the Hema goods they bought. The date of the delivery is not fresh, the variety has decreased, the favorite apple juice has been removed from the shelves, and the chicken that I often buy is out of stock. "There are also people on the Internet who posted that the Hema shelves were emptied, and there was no one **, and there were no customers** in the store.
Subsequently, Hema responded to this, saying that due to the expiration of the property contract and other reasons, 6-7 stores were closed in the first half of the year to replace the tail department stores, and 70 new stores were planned to be opened this year.
In the past two years, Hema has made some strategic adjustments, which has also attracted the attention of the first company, and the problems behind this still need attention.
Hema responded to the withdrawal
There are changes about Freshippo, and they are actually noticed on the user side. Mr. Xu, who lives in Beijing, said that he only went to the Hema at the bottom of Dongba Jinyu Jiapin Mall once last week, and he really felt like he was going to be yellow: "It's very unpopular, I used to make seafood fast, this time, I can't wait for you to do it with him." If you want to do it, say it's very slow today, at least 40 minutes. It is clear that there is no 1 table, and the rhetoric is that the online order is exploded, and there is no time to do it. ”
Ms. Liu, who is also in Beijing, pointed out that the Hema line is still in normal use, but the Hema that visited the International Trade Center last month "The environment and service attitude inside are really not as good as before." ”
In February this year, some netizens raised the question "Is Hema going to close the store and run away" on social platforms. The netizen said that he went two or three times this week, and every time the shelves were like being ransacked, and the goods were either messy or empty. There are many times that the online capacity is insufficient, but many products have been reduced in price on a large scale, are you planning to clear the warehouse and sell it?
In the comment area, netizens have different evaluations of Freshippo, some people think that the fresh vegetables of Hema are not very good, and some people say that Shanghai's Hema is very good. There are also people who regret it very much:"Hema don't go out of business""What should I do if the hema is poured, I'm going to buy fresh meat dishes, desserts and snacks. ”
Today, after the topic of Hema being exposed to the closure of goods became popular, Hema official Weibo issued a message in response: Due to the expiration of the property contract and the recession of individual shopping malls, in the first half of this year, Hema Fresh carried out the replacement of tail department stores normally, closed 6-7 stores nationwide, and looked for better properties nearby to undertake consumer demand. At the same time, more than 360 stores are operating normally. This year, Hema Fresh plans to open 70 new stores, and the number of Hema Fresh stores is expected to exceed 400 within the year.
Regarding the mention in the report that "the apple juice I love to drink has been taken off the shelves", Hema also explained in the comment area: Red heart apples only bear fruit from November to February of the following year, and this year the orchard is almost round, but it is still not enough. "This year, we will be stocking up to make sure that everyone can drink it whenever they want. ”
It is difficult to go from luxury to frugality
As a new retail sample of Alibaba, Hema has been running wildly. According to the Huatai ** research report, Hema opened its first store in China in Shanghai, with a turnover of about 2 in the year of opening in 2016500 million yuan, with a ping effect of nearly 560,000 yuan, much higher than the industry 1An average of 50,000 yuan. Immediately after that, Hema entered a period of frantic running, with only 25 stores at the end of 2017, and increased to 149 stores a year later.
However, this pace did not last forever. In 2019, Hema ushered in the first closure of its store after 3 years. According to ** reports, in order to break the situation, Hema has tried at least 10 new formats in 3 years, including the Hema station in the front warehouse model, the Hema mini in the small store model, etc., but all of them have been in vain.
After the crazy expansion of many e-commerce, many platforms have experienced strategic contraction. For Freshippo, it also has to consider strategic adjustment and cost reduction and efficiency increase. In August 2023, Hema launched a campaign against Sam"The price of moving mountains"。
In October 2023, Hema announced the launch of the discount reform, and more than 5,000 products in offline stores were reduced in price, and they were also set up"Offline exclusive rates"Zone. According to industry disclosures, Hema is hoping to pass"Offline exclusive rates"Bring more traffic to the store, thereby reducing operating costs and enhancing competitiveness.
In Freshippo's view, "discounting" is not to sell cheap goods, but to sell good goods cheaply through the construction of vertical chains, and finally realize "commodity quality goes up and goods go down". However, the discount has sparked complaints. Mainly concentrated in: first, different prices online and offline, only offline discounts, online to maintain the original price; Two, many products are reduced in price and are cheaper than x membership discounts; Third, the discount is chaotic, and there are different discounts on the discount price tag.
In December 2023, Hema made adjustments to the membership system, temporarily not supporting the opening or renewal of Hema members, and the membership rights that have not expired before can be used normally. Some analysts believe that the cancellation of the membership model or the choice to further promote the optimization of the ** system is also related to the rise of new consumption patterns.
According to the data disclosed by Freshippo, the paid membership business, which was launched in 2019, has 3 million members, which can contribute 5$8.8 billion in revenue. The cancellation of membership means that Hema gives up this part of its revenue, which shows its determination to carry out the low price to the end.
In 2024, Hema has made another attempt to reduce costs and increase efficiency. From January 1, 2024, a packaging fee of 1 yuan will be charged for each Hema online order. The discount change has put Hema on the cusp, but the increase in packaging fees of 1 yuan still makes Hema encounter the most turbulent situation. Previously, because of the packaging fee of 1 yuan, Yonghui, Sam, and Hema were successively sent to the hot search.
Since then, Hema has made strategic adjustments. Since February 18, 81 Hema fresh products in the three pilot cities of Beijing, Nanjing and Changsha have implemented the same price online and offline. However, at the same time as the general decline of goods, the free shipping threshold will be adjusted to 99 yuan, and 6 yuan freight will be charged if it is insufficient. Previously, the free shipping threshold in Beijing was 49 yuan, and in Nanjing and Changsha it was 39 yuan.
Although Hema also announced price reductions for a number of products in the three pilot cities, compared with the previous ones"A handful of green onions is free"Today's additional packaging fee of 1 yuan and the increase in the free shipping threshold in three cities will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among some consumers.
Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting and an expert in retail e-commerce, pointed out that the strategy and positioning logic of Hema belong to the common "high and low" strategy in the industry. Position the mid-to-high-end first, and then civilian. At present, the goal of Hema is very clear, that is, to become a national-level new retail format and e-commerce platform that combines online and offline with the widest range of people.
The battle for discounting
Behind the change in strategy, Ali's attitude towards Hema has also been changing. In May 2023, Alibaba confirmed in its financial report that it had officially launched its listing plan.
On November 16, 2023, Alibaba disclosed in its financial report that Hema had suspended its listing, and Hema has not disclosed plans to restart listing since then.
At the recent Alibaba earnings conference, Tsai Chongxin, chairman of the board of directors of Alibaba Group, responded to questions about the IPOs of Hema and Cainiao, saying that the current market conditions are not suitable and cannot truly reflect the intrinsic value of the business. "In the future, we will continue to create value through separate financing for different businesses. However, given the current challenging market environment, we are not in a hurry to do so. ”
In the same period, Alibaba's financial report shows that it includes Freshippo, Sun Art Retail, Yintai and other businesses"All others"Revenue 4702.3 billion yuan, down 7% year-on-year, with a net loss of 317.2 billion yuan, an increase of 87% year-on-year.
The urgency to make money weighs on Hema. In the internal letter for two consecutive years, Hou Yi, the founder of Hema Xiansheng, mentioned"Profit"The number of times has increased significantly. However, from the perspective of the industry environment, the vigorous business war continues, in addition to the frontal docking with Wal-Mart, Hema is also facing competitive pressure from Dingdong, JD.com, Meituan and other aspects.
It is worth noting that in addition to the discount reform of Freshippo, Yonghui, Wumart, Wal-Mart, RT-Mart, etc. are also exploring this road. The essence of discounting is to ask for profits from the upstream and downstream of the chain. Previously, Cui Lili, a professor at the Department of Digital Economy of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and director of the Digital Business Research Center, pointed out that the cost of the chain requires the participation of core enterprises in the entire chain, and reasonable benefit distribution and resource allocation are the lever points to shake the optimization of the chain.
According to Zhu Danpeng, an analyst in China's food industry, the transformation of Hema discount is not easy. Zhu Danpeng told ** that the key problem is that Hema was originally positioned as a high-end, and for loyal fans of the brand, it may not meet previous expectations. "With the positioning of Freshippo, the original hardware investment and store cost are not low, and it is a bit difficult to knock down the **. The vertical ** chain can not be created overnight, and there must be a scale effect behind the low price and high quality (private brand). ”
It is foreseeable that consumers will continue to feel the fierce competition and benefits of discounting, but it remains to be seen who will break out.
Synthesized from China Business News, City Boundary, etc.