Is the fresh electricity dealer a gimmick or a chewing head?

Is it only a gimmick to have a fresh electricity dealer? Especially for the most common in China, the individual farmers, e-commerce can make their fresh go farther? There is actually a third way, that is, booking, or order farming. This may be a useful way for a family farm's online business.

Wen/Zhang Shule

Originally published in The June issue of the innovation age

Gege, chairman of the online supermarket No. 1th, said in an interview with the Daily economic news reporter, "to be a real online supermarket, if there is no fresh, it is certainly imperfect." Consumers have been accustomed to order in shop No. 1th, but each month or to go to the supermarket one or two times, because the line is lack of fresh products. ”

Despite the certainty, but also embodies the grand dream of E-commerce-so that the people's basic necessities can be realized online. Admittedly, clothing shoes and hats all kinds of online shopping, out of the net to buy a variety of tickets, not to mention the home needs of building materials and decoration, even the house, online purchase or buy is not wishful thought, but only this to eat, only to achieve a little.

Fresh electricity dealers, so far countless electric dealers kill will go in, but still rosy dream.

Buying fresh on the internet

Not long ago, a certified micro-blog called "Henan farmers buy soil chicken," the Netizen letters asked: "Just read your" hands ferocious ", through the network marketing tools and E-commerce platform for sales of goods are full of longing, can guide how to sell the chicken on the Internet? ”

For such a question, I can only report to the helpless answer.

The reality is that nowadays it is fashionable to do fresh business on the Internet.

The admission of a shop is a bit late, Taobao, the cat first discovered this gold mine, and began to sink to the rural market, push fresh products. Alibaba data shows that 2012, the National farmers in Taobao opened the number of stores has more than 1.3 million. Under this general trend, Jingdong and Amazon also opened the platform of fresh electricity business, and widely absorbed customers.

The advocates of the most fresh electric dealers boast of companies such as Zhengda and Cofco, have also dabbled in the field of fresh electricity, so that shun Fung such express enterprises are also lonely, in its electric business platform Shun Fung optimization in large dozen fresh brand, a good fire scene.

Can carefully observe these fresh electricity business, but it is not difficult to find, in the network marketing spread of the sound, the real fresh products are very few, and business is quite deserted.

"The same is food, raw this thing is no more than nuts and biscuits, it has different specifications of the shelf life, and can not achieve a high quality of unity." "A consumer told the author:" Fresh products, I still walk a few more steps, go to the supermarket or the market to see the real goods better, online pictures and prices, although the temptation, but the goods on the board is not easy to do. ”

Consumers ' minds bare the plight of fresh electricity dealers.

When the fresh electricity dealer was buzzing about the internet, a "waiting alone" practitioners with a "fresh electricity business is not a false proposition" of the post to the high fever poured a basin of cold water, in a large number of fresh electricity dealers difficult to standardize, many cold chain problems, production areas will lead to complex category problems, Consumers ' nit-picking will make it impossible for customer service to stop. Throw such a sentence "It otaku, have free time, go to the supermarket, 90% of all the merchandise can be self-employed, only fresh, most supermarkets are outsourced, not unwilling to do, but supermarkets do not do, understand what meaning?" ”

If the supermarket can't solve the problem, can the electric trader solve it? But the data showed that fresh products accounted for more than 20% per cent of the sales of traditional retailers, compared with 50% and 30% per cent of food and non-food items respectively. This again let the electric trader can't stop.

To be or not to be, to be the most fatal problem in the life of a fresh electric dealer.

Can the profession solve the problem?

In the industry's view, there are currently 2 mainstream models of fresh electricity suppliers.

The first is the traditional electric business model, which is represented by the large platform of the medium grain and Beijing East. This type of mode is divided into two types of business, a class is pure, that is, do not plant, feed any products, the products are sold from other brands and farms, the typical representative is Shun Fung optimization, the original life. The other is "own farm", that is, the enterprise itself in a region contracted farm, grow fruits and vegetables in person, keep chickens, ducks and sheep, and then sell directly to consumers through the way they build their own web site, so the products they sell are mostly their products, and of course they will integrate a small number of other farm or brand products to enrich their products.

This mode regardless of where the product originates, facing the market is the whole country or local city, but the mode of operation are traditional electric business type, that is, and buy clothes, books are not very different, just in the logistics and distribution has more attention. But careful study is not difficult to find that many of the trickery on the platform of the raw and fresh are suspected, a large number of local specialties filled with nuts and vacuum packaging are at best food rather than fresh, while real live chicken ducks are almost impossible to find, namely, soil eggs, which are relatively easy to maintain and easily standardized products, It's a hot sell.

"At present, most of the fresh electricity business, the most so, can not find the solution to the inherent problems of the model before, only the electric dealers and a gimmick, without any chewing head." said the industry.

Another model looks beautiful, but the industry has also pointed out that this is not a pure electricity dealer. Its representative is the wing FAI supermarket's "Half the Sky" website for the "family member home matching" mode, and the focus is on members. Yong-Hui supermarket vice President Honghai has deliberately stressed to the media, not all consumers can order, only Yong-Hui supermarket members can get distribution.

Its website information shows that the distribution products by Wing FAI Group's Yong-Hui Modern Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., has not yet involved in Third-party product procurement.

As the first of the mainland to introduce fresh agricultural products into the modern supermarket circulation enterprises, Yong-hui existing direct production costs and warehousing logistics losses are at a lower level. In the entire offline retail industry will be fresh as the drainage of the time, Yong-hui's fresh accounted for 46%, while the gross margin can reach 12.95%. For the store has been online under the fresh sales of Yong-Hui supermarket, its biggest advantage is to know the various needs of fresh, but also precisely so, its fresh on the wading is more limited to trial and error above.

Although in the industry's view, Yong-FAI supermarket to do fresh electricity business has three advantages: first, the brand advantage, in many cities have stores, the second is the procurement advantage, many other fresh electricity manufacturers do not have the source of direct mining, resulting in the cost of raw and fresh goods is not high; third, technical advantages, fresh technology content is very high, after picking, processing, transport, Storage and packaging require a high level of technical content. But the pace of Yong-hui is still very small.

According to half the Sky Web site, the Yong-Hui supermarket currently available in the Fresh goods package plan, only fine meal (a), select meal (b), vegetarian regimen (a), vegetarian regimen (b) 4 packages, the unit price from the lowest 338 yuan to the maximum of 1188 yuan, the distribution time is fixed for every Tuesday and Friday. The scarcity of its species can be seen, and, unlike other business online payments on online transactions, wing FAI's half of the sky is just a show on the web, paid or through offline.

Even Yong-Fai has a wealth of fresh experience in the enterprise, there are too many problems to be solved, this can only gradually explore, there are close to half the sky website people said.

Booking Economy for small farms

Is it only a gimmick to have a fresh electricity dealer? Especially for the most common in China, the individual farmers, e-commerce can make their fresh go farther?

There is actually a third way.

As the "Henan Farmers buy chicken" Weibo Netizen questioned, I found that in fact, many individual farmers are already looking for their own model-booking.

This type of industry was originally from the United States, which is called CSA (Community Support Agriculture), and our approach is not entirely in this way, let's call "order Agriculture".

At present in Shanghai, Beijing and other first-tier cities, there are many small-scale farm operators are trying such a way, for example, last month in Shanghai Chongming Two advocates of natural planting in the summer of the farmers to book the watermelon, 100 kg starting, 5 yuan/kg, the distribution costs in addition to calculate (or to the designated location from the mention), Consumers need to pay a certain amount of deposit in advance, when the watermelon matures and then distribution to consumers.

Such operators are limited by size, and did not invest heavily in the establishment of electricity business platform, mostly rely on Taobao's C store for sale. The biggest selling point of this type of business is the commitment of the operator to plant in the most natural way, do not hit pesticides, no fertilizer, no growth, etc., so you trust the product before you need to understand and trust the operator, but at the same time you also need to bear the corresponding planting risk, that is, regardless of the future weather is drought is flood, the watermelon you need to take all the orders.

Even some local governments have begun a useful attempt, according to media reports, in early April, Zhejiang Suichang County government led the organization of 3,000 farmers raised soil pork on the cost, in the 15th, 16th for the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai area for sale. "Want to let the boss last name eat health assured pork, at the same time also hope to take this activity Suichang Pig brand, and summed up the birth of fresh Food Network sales experience." Suichang County Deputy County Magistrate Ye Zhaohui said, from the purchase record, the soil pork is very popular, just 10 minutes to sell 1000 kg. However, in order to ensure fresh meat, this time buy soil pork is not in stock, but according to the orders of the quantitative slaughter, and from 18th on the day of slaughter, cutting packaging, the day of delivery. The cost of gathering, said the soil will be in accordance with the order of payment orders shipped, only 24-hour express delivery to the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai area.

At the same time, some group buying site also began to actively action, in the local life service, for local farmers sell fresh products to facilitate, attract customers, fresh electricity business road around the monopoly of large websites, but become wide many ...