Durian, sweeping robots and other goods sold to the rural market, villagers met into the town's newly opened chain supermarket, community group purchase sinking rural seize the market... Recently, the reporter visited the rural consumer market in Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Handan and other places and found that there were many new pictures in the rural consumer market.
So, what is the potential of the rural consumer market, what are its characteristics, and how to develop it?
Scene upgrade: can visit the supermarket can buy group
Commodity area, rich goods, clean environment, bright lights.
At 13 o 'clock on October 10, the reporter walked into the Guyue store of Chenghui chain supermarket in Pingshan County and found that the supermarket with a business area of more than 400 square meters, from the store layout to the business model, is very similar to the large supermarket in the city.
"When it just opened, it was hot, with sales exceeding 230,000 yuan in 5 days!" Recalling the scene more than four months ago, supermarket operator Commercial Wenjun is still very excited, "the door is people and cars, half the street is blocked, inside the checkout line from this end to that end."
Guyue Town is located in the northwest of Pingshan, a mountainous area, 40 to 50 minutes from the county seat by car. Chenghui supermarket chain Guyue store opened in the town government located in Zhongguyue village.
"It may be nothing for city people, but we never had a big supermarket of this size in our town." Shang Wenjun said that at the beginning, some elderly people entering the supermarket did not know how to buy things, could not distinguish the entrance and exit of the supermarket, and did not know that the checkout had to go to the cashier, "Some took things directly from the entrance and went to the street."
But now, "going to the supermarket" has become commonplace for villagers.
Luo Fei, a villager in Zhongguyue Village, came to the cashier with two items - a bag of fresh pipa legs for 9.9 yuan /500g and a bucket of Fanta with a 2L price tag of 6.5 yuan.
"That comes to 40.1 yuan. Are there any members?" The clerk asked.
Luo Fei then reported the phone number, and took the phone to scan the code to pay.
"Close to home, the environment is good, things are not expensive and guaranteed, and points can be worth money." I come here almost every day." Luo Fei said that many people in the village regard the supermarket as a place where "nothing can be walked around", and people from nearby villages are willing to come to the town.
Recently, the reporter visited the rural consumer market in Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Handan and other places and found that from chain supermarkets, online shopping, to community group buying, instant retail, some new consumption scenarios are becoming more and more common in the rural market.
At the same time, some small mom-and-pop supermarkets in the countryside are somewhat deserted.
At 4 PM on October 13, Wangdong, the owner of Wangdong Supermarket in Xigaokan Village, Luanzhou City, sat in a corner and took a nap.
"There are usually few people except in the morning and evening, and some things are hard to sell." Speaking of the recent business situation, Wang Dong said, "mainly rely on vegetables and fruits, I have to go to the stock at 4:30 in the morning, and close at 8 or 9 in the evening, the couple busy all day, after the rent, electricity costs, can make money but not much."
"Young people go out to work, and there are few people on the streets during the day." "No one wants the bad stuff, and customers are too expensive to buy the good stuff." ... In Zhengding and Quzhou, there are also many operators of mom-and-pop shops that say so.
"In the past, rural residents' daily shopping mainly relied on mom-and-pop shops and family workshops in the village, but such commercial entities were too small and weak to form a large-scale commercial system, with single product categories, chaotic brands, and insufficient consumption supply." Ma Yanli, director of the New Rural Development Research Center of Hebei University of Economics and Business, analyzed that with the strengthening of rural transportation, logistics, warehousing and other commercial infrastructure construction, the digital and chain business model began to extend to the countryside, bringing better supplies to rural residents, and naturally more popular in the market.
The emergence of new consumption scenarios in the rural market not only provides rural residents with more daily consumption choices, but also brings new opportunities to the original business individuals.
On the afternoon of October 9, Beijia Village, Zhengding Town, Zhengding County, opened at the entrance of the Dongdong fruit and vegetable supermarket along the main street in the village, and placed a lot of goods, including an alpaca wool toy more than 1 meter high.
"The store usually does not sell this kind of goods, this is a few days ago the community group purchase of goods, toys plus 4 bags of toilet paper, set price of more than 100 yuan, a total of seven or eight singles." Store owner Zhang Xiaodong said.
Dongdong fruit and vegetable supermarket store is not big, a room with 3 rows of shelves, mainly selling some fruits and vegetables, condiments and so on. At the same time, Zhang Xiaodong is also the head of three community group-buying platforms, and promotes various commodities of the community group-buying platform to nearly 1,000 users in the village through wechat groups every day. "I can make more money from group buying than from selling things in the store."
Wang Linjun (a pseudonym) runs a supermarket not far from Dongdong fruit and vegetable supermarket, and his shop is also a postal express collection point. "There are more than 100 orders a day, both big and small. Now both young and old people love online shopping."
Ma Yanli believes that supporting the rich upgrading of rural consumption scenes is the huge potential of the rural consumer market.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics data, from January to August 2023, China's rural retail sales of consumer goods 3,985.5 billion yuan, an increase of 7.6%, higher than the urban growth rate of 0.7 percentage points.
Category upgrade: Durian, sweeping robot, 85-inch TV down the village into the town
"I didn't expect durians to sell so well here." Operating data provided by the headquarters show that since the opening of the Guyue store of Chenghui supermarket in Pingshan County, more than 200 kilograms of durians have been sold, with sales of more than 10,000 yuan. "When doing activities, durian prices can be as low as 19.9 yuan per catty, in our wechat group, many customers buy." Shang Wenjun said.
At present, the daily turnover of Chenghui supermarket chain Guyue store is about 6,000 yuan, and the daily turnover of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday this year is between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan. The actual business situation is better than expected. "Especially fresh food is selling well. Now people are more and more willing to eat, you see our supermarket, put fresh, cooked food shelves in the most inside, but also consider relying on these goods to drain."
Get the clothes feel good quality, she turned around in the store, spent 20 yuan to buy 1 kg of grapes.
"Buy some food while you're at it." "The children have all married and gone out. My wife and I have an income from odd jobs. We don't do much calculation on food and drink."
"The change of season to buy clothes, this morning there is a collection in the village, I also spent 30 yuan to buy a sweater, cheap, usually wear not distressed." "She said.
Buy 10 yuan, 30 yuan a piece of clothing, but also buy 20 yuan a kilogram of grapes, this consumption choice is very representative of the current consumption characteristics of most rural residents.
There is a statistical index in economics, Engel coefficient, refers to the proportion of food consumption expenditure in total consumption expenditure, is an important indicator used internationally to measure the living standards of residents.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in 2022, the Engel coefficient of urban residents and rural residents will be 29.5 percent and 33 percent.
"At present, the Engel coefficient of rural residents is still high, but it is gradually declining in the long run, showing that the rural consumption structure is upgrading." "Starting with food, rural residents are also becoming more willing to spend money, which reflects the change in their consumption concept, and the duality of urban and rural consumption habits is beginning to break," Ma said.
On the afternoon of October 14, several customers were choosing goods at the home appliance store on the first floor of Quyangqiao Store in Zhengding Ruitian Building.
Air conditioning, refrigerator, washing machine, Midea, Hisense, Philips... Home appliance store accounts for half of the first floor area, an area of nearly 1000 square meters, display of home appliance brands, all kinds. Wang Qinghua, the person in charge of the store, said that the store is mainly for rural consumers in Quyangqiao and surrounding towns, and the sales of home appliances this year have been close to 8 million yuan, higher than the same period in 2019, and the annual sales are expected to exceed 10 million yuan. "In particular, the government has organized several home appliance subsidies to promote consumption, and the promotion effect is obvious."
"Our store's selection and customer price are no different from county stores." Wang Qinghua said that home appliances are durable consumer goods, and rural consumers also value quality when purchasing home appliances and are willing to spend more money. "Since the beginning of this year, consumers' shopping behavior does seem more cautious, and they will compare prices repeatedly through different channels. But even so, some high-end collections sell well in our store. For example, TVS with large 85-inch screens sell well, especially well-known domestic brands, which are most popular with consumers."
Not only the sales of traditional large electrical appliances have risen steadily, but the sales of some new categories are also increasing. In recent months, sweeping robots and floor washing machines priced at 2,000 yuan to 3,000 yuan can sell about 10 units each month in Quyangqiao Store. "Now people's living standards are generally raised, some rural families are also very well decorated, such as sweeping robots this' fashionable 'electrical appliances, we did not sell much before, but now people are starting to come to the store to find goods." "Wang Qinghua said.
"The consumption upgrade of rural residents has brought huge incremental space to the rural consumption market." Ma Yanli said that rural consumption is changing from traditional subsistence consumption to development-oriented consumption, and quality and personalized consumption have become the new pursuit of more and more farmers. To further activate the rural consumption market, it is necessary to grasp the changes in market demand in a timely manner, and constantly adjust the market supply, not only to ensure that the general demand is met, but also to guide the advance demand in a timely manner, and to promote the development of a sound rural consumption system at multiple levels.
Channel upgrading: The construction of circulation system to speed up the shortcomings
At 5:30 am every day, the first inbound logistics vehicle will arrive at the county logistics Express Center transfer station in Pingshan. Workers will one express package unloaded to the conveyor belt, automatic sorting equipment starts to operate, the express into the ring sorting platform, the equipment automatically identifies the number segment, the express automatically sorted to the corresponding partition, a few hours later, these express will be transported to different rural delivery points, and finally reach the hands of consumers.
To promote the construction of rural logistics system, Pingshan integrated Zhongtong, Yunda, Jitu, Shentong, YTO five express companies at the end of last year, created Pingshan fearless Logistics Co., LTD., and established a county-level logistics express center, forming a "county-level center, township station, village station" logistics networking mode.
"Our operating efficiency has been improved, and it is convenient for people to send and receive express deliveries. Now we're handling more than 30 percent more waybills than we used to." "Said Yan Qin, manager of Dauntless Logistics.
It is understood that Hebei accelerated the construction of the county commercial system, the county, township, village commercial network system and rural logistics distribution "three points and one line" as the focus, proposed that by 2025, each county (city) to build at least 1 county-level logistics distribution center, to carry out warehousing, sorting, transit, distribution and other open services.
A county-level logistics express center in Zhengding is also under construction, undertaken by Hebei Langmai Supply Chain Management Co., LTD. Langmai has built a cloud warehouse of 36,000 square meters in Zhengding and has many years of operating experience in e-commerce logistics. Relying on its own channel and warehousing and logistics advantages, the company also involved in the field of community group buying, the development of Yanzhaoxing community group buying brand.
At 6:00 a.m. on October 11, a logistics car carrying more than 13,000 pounds of iron green onions entered the e-commerce Yuncang of Langmai Company, and these green onions were divided into more than 1,300 copies by a bundle of 4.5-5 pounds and two bundles. After inspection and sorting in the warehouse, the scallions will be loaded onto three logistics vehicles, which will travel according to one county line and two rural lines, about seven or eight hours later, these scallions will all be delivered to Yan Zhaoline in the hands of 124 heads of Zhengding.
"This batch of green onions are purchased from the hands of farmers in Hu village, Quyang Bridge Town, and the community group-buying model has a price advantage, and the price of each green onion is only 11.8 yuan, which is significantly lower than the average price of about 3 yuan per catty in the current market." As soon as the scallions opened, they sold out quickly." Lang Mai company general manager Zhao Zhen introduced.
At the beginning of its operation, Yanzhaohang mainly focused on the urban and county markets, but from last year to the first half of this year, Yanzhaohang's business was also affected by the overall contraction of market demand, so Zhao Zhen set his sights on the rural market.
"We found that the rural market actually has its own unique advantages in developing community group-buying." "Compared with traditional offline shopping, community group buying can provide more abundant and cost-effective products for price-sensitive rural consumers," Zhao said. Compared with ordinary online shopping, community group buying is more suitable for the economic environment of rural acquaintances, and the existence of leaders makes rural consumers more likely to accept this new model."
"However, community groups buy into the countryside, but only if the logistics link is successful." Zhao Zhen stressed.
The cloud warehouse will be upgraded to a county-level logistics express center, and a number of automated sorting equipment will be put into use, greatly improving the company's logistics service capabilities. "It's good news not just for our own business, but for the county's e-commerce companies." Zhao Zhen said.
If the online channels are smooth, how should the offline channels be further expanded to the countryside?
"Delivery vehicles come every day, and fresh products can be put on the shelves early in the morning. The company's unified distribution of goods can ensure quality and keep costs down." Shang Wenjun said that his shop is doing well, mainly thanks to the supply support provided by the headquarters.
"Pingshan has jurisdiction over a total of 23 towns, 717 administrative villages, last June, we learned through the investigation that the county has a township trade center, township market 23, village level convenience stores 364." It can be said that the rural distribution system does have shortcomings." Xu Ning, a member of the Party group of Pingshan County Development and Reform Bureau, introduced that since last year, Pingshan has made every effort to promote the county's commercial construction, relying on Pingshan County Chenghui Trading Co., Ltd. to build a business complex in 23 townships in the county.
Chenghui business and township operators to adopt new (merger and acquisition), joint-stock, dividend system, service cultivation and other cooperation models, by Chenghui business to provide unified service management, goods distribution.
The opening of the branch has enlarged the original supply chain advantages of Chenghui trade, and also made Chenghui trade achieve an increase in income. "The company's revenue is expected to grow 60 percent this year." Cheng Hui business general manager Wang Xuelong said.
In August this year, the "Three-year Action Plan for County Commerce (2023-2025)" jointly issued by the Ministry of Commerce and other nine departments proposed to speed up the shortcomings of rural commercial facilities, improve the county and rural logistics distribution system, and guide the transformation and upgrading of commercial circulation enterprises, with the main line of supply chain, logistics distribution, sinking of goods and services, and agricultural products. We will promote the high-quality development of county commerce.
"To further smooth the two-way circulation channels is a key part of promoting the virtuous cycle of increasing farmers' income and improving consumption quality, and better meeting the revitalization of rural industries and the production and living needs of rural residents." Ma Yanli said. (Hebei Daily Reporter Chang Fangyuan)
