2020-11-28
Affected by the epidemic, which category is the most injured? First and foremost is aquatic products.
Since the detection of the new crown virus in many batches of imported aquatic products such as salmon and Ecuadorian white shrimp in June this year, related categories have been forced to be removed from the shelves for the needs of epidemic prevention and control, and consumers have also reduced their purchases of seafood and frozen products. Supermarket aquatic product sales have been severely affected.
"Third Eye on Retail" learned that aquatic product sales in many supermarkets have plummeted after June. The sales of salmon and white shrimp in BBK supermarket have dropped by 60% this year, and the sales of frozen products have dropped by 28% since June; the frozen products of Rainbow Supermarket have also decreased by 30% in the past two months; Jiahui Supermarket has sold the original 20 kinds of imported seafood There are only 6 types left.
Aquatic products are the most "entangled" category in supermarket operations. On the one hand, it is one of the categories with the highest growth rate among various supermarket commodities. Under the general trend of consumption upgrade, it has shown a trend of rapid growth year after year; on the other hand, its sales proportion is very low, and most supermarket aquatic products account for The ratio is less than 3%, coupled with its high operating difficulty, high loss, and thin profit, it is considered a very "tasteless" category. In addition, the epidemic has made the sales of aquatic products even worse.
So, what role does aquatic products play in each category in the supermarket? How do supermarket operators view aquatic products? What is the future development potential of aquatic products?
"Third Eye on Retailing" interviewed several retail professionals and came up with several basic judgments:
First, despite the short-term impact of the epidemic on aquatic product sales, the trend of aquatic product growth will not change;
Second, aquatic products play a role in the differentiation of supermarket products, improve customer experience, and enhance customer stickiness. It is a strategic category;
Third, through joint ventures to self-operate, expand online channels, on-site aquatic product processing and sales, etc., can open up the situation for supermarket aquatic product management.
Epidemic breaks growth
But the development momentum remains unchanged
"Hema Xiansheng introduced king crabs, Boston lobsters, bread crabs and other large seafood that originally only appeared in high-end hotels into the supermarket, filling up the gap in the market and allowing supermarkets to see another possibility of aquatic operations."
Around 2017, Hema Xiansheng's successful operation in the seafood category allowed the supermarket industry to see the growth potential of aquatic products, and the long-neglected aquatic product business was therefore valued.
As far as the specific development situation is concerned, the supermarket aquatic product sales have maintained a good growth trend before June this year. An insider of BBK said: "Bamboo’s aquatic product sales have increased from 1% to 3%, and sales have increased from 90 million yuan to 400 million yuan. From the perspective of category growth, the growth rate of aquatic products last year was The supermarket ranks first among all categories."
Similarly, before June, Jiahui Supermarket’s aquatic product sales could increase by 30% year-on-year. However, after June, aquatic products sales in supermarkets generally declined due to the epidemic, and the original growth trend was interrupted.
First of all, in terms of consumer demand, with the improvement of the public's concept of healthy life, the demand for aquatic products continues to increase.
The current consumption of aquatic products in my country is relatively low, and there is still a lot of room for growth compared with other categories and other countries. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2018, the per capita consumption of aquatic products in my country was only 11.4 kg, which was lower than the per capita consumption of pork, which reached 22.8 kg. According to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the per capita consumption of aquatic products in South Korea, Japan, Norway and other countries is around 50 kilograms, and the figure for the United States and Canada is also around 20 kilograms.
Secondly, as far as the regional market is concerned, with the development of logistics technology and the advancement of aquaculture technology, the problem of easy loss and difficult transportation of aquatic products has begun to be overcome, and the consumption of aquatic products originally limited to coastal areas has begun to rapidly expand inland.
"In the past, it was difficult for the inland population to access seafood, but now the mature breeding technology and the improvement of related equipment allow them to eat fresh seafood at a lower price. Now you can eat Boston lobster at any time in Xinjiang, but before This is difficult to achieve." Ni Zhenyu said.
For aquatic products, we are currently in the process of opening new markets and cultivating consumer habits in inland areas. This process also means that aquatic products have a huge incremental market.
Finally, as far as the commodity structure of supermarkets is concerned, the development of aquatic products is also very necessary. The development of vegetables, fruits, and meat in fresh products is quite mature, and it is difficult for retailers to find competitive advantages and room for growth in these categories. However, the current level of standardization of aquatic product management in domestic supermarkets is low, and the operating conditions are very different. Therefore, this category is the key for supermarkets to create differentiation, enhance competitiveness and serve the growth of supermarket performance.
aquatic dilemma
High professional requirements, difficult to purchase and sell
Compared with other categories, the aquatic product category has great potential for development. However, because aquatic product management involves multiple types of products, multiple links and high requirements for product freshness, its operating difficulty is much higher than other categories.
Just like this, aquatic products have extremely high professional requirements for operation and management. A person in charge of aquatic products management in a supermarket said, “For the same batch of products placed in different stores, some can achieve 20% gross profit, and some lose 20%. The difference is due to the level of store management. s difference."
From an overall point of view, the domestic supermarkets’ aquatic product operations are immature, with a small proportion, high losses, and low profits that most supermarkets need to face. The reasons are directly related to the several links involved in aquatic product operations.
First, in the procurement process, aquatic product procurement involves the activity and freshness of the product, which requires a strong ability to identify. However, at present, there is a shortage of professionals in aquatic product procurement, and product procurement is often done by non-professionals, and the quality of the products in the procurement can not be guaranteed. In this case, the problem of excessive consumption is difficult to avoid.
Second, when it comes to temporary maintenance of equipment, companies go to two extremes. On the one hand, some companies are unwilling to invest heavily in equipment. For fish ponds that originally cost tens of thousands of yuan to make, they usually choose to reduce the cost to 1,000 yuan, ignoring the role of fish ponds in ensuring product survival and saving labor costs.
On the other hand, some companies will enter the misunderstanding of "only buying the expensive and not the right". An insider said: "Some companies spend more than 400,000 yuan to customize fish ponds, but only half a year later, the fish ponds have problems. They just lack professional recognition capabilities."
Third, in the conservation process, aquatic products involve many categories, and there are no clear and unified indicators for the breeding and storage process. For example, the same product has different requirements for water temperature, water pressure, and salinity in different time periods. For different aquatic products, the requirements for the above elements are different. Therefore, aquatic operations are professional in breeding. Very demanding.
A professional pointed out: “Many companies are unwilling to learn aquaculture technology. Even after learning, it is often difficult to adhere to standardized operations. This situation will increase product loss and weaken product profitability.”
Fourth, in terms of management, activity and freshness are the most important factors that determine the price of aquatic products. "If the price of fresh live fish is 10 yuan, but the price will generally become 3 yuan after death, this loss is quite large." An industry insider said. Therefore, this requires that the supermarket aquatic products sell at a price based on quality. Through flexible pricing, it is ensured that the product will be sold at the best time, which is an important guarantee for the profitability of aquatic products.
In terms of operation, supermarkets also need to ensure that the product positioning is accurate. A practitioner said: "When the product positioning does not match the spending power of surrounding consumers, it is difficult for the product to be sold, and the loss is naturally unavoidable. However, there are still many companies making such mistakes."
Managerial thinking changes
Professional talent training, consumer demand insight
From the perspective of the whole process of aquatic product management, many problems can be attributed to the lack of attention of the operators and the shortage of professional talents. From the perspective of "people", solving the problem of "people" has become a breakthrough method for supermarket aquatic products management.
From the perspective of the operator, aquatic products with a small proportion, low profit and difficult management are easily overlooked. When unable to make money and fail to show development potential, supermarket operators are usually unwilling to invest in aquatic products. Contrary to this, aquatic product management needs professional talents and equipment as the support to achieve development. Supermarket aquatic product management also falls into a vicious circle of no investment and return.
In this case, only the operator can break the cycle by getting out of the misunderstanding of seeing the return and investing capital.
From the perspective of professionals, aquatic product management is highly professional and there is a large demand for professionals. However, due to the high intensity of aquatic operations, the high turnover rate, and the lack of professional talent training institutions, the entire industry is facing a shortage of professional talents.
"At present, many of our stores lack professional breeding talents. Even if my salary can reach 10,000 yuan, it is still difficult to recruit suitable people." said a person in charge of aquatic products business in a supermarket.
Professional talents are the key to determining the success or failure of aquatic operations. Therefore, the current enterprises need to face the high cost of talent training and the high rate of professional talents to be discharged urgently.
In response to the above problems, many supermarkets have established a relatively complete talent training mechanism, and improve the professional level of employees by regularly organizing employee training, conducting online courses, and visiting stores by professional lecturers. On the other hand, supermarkets are also introducing and retaining talents through high salaries and partner systems.
In addition, the precise grasp of consumer demand is related to the long-term development of aquatic products. Insight into consumer preferences and grasping changes in consumer consumption habits is also a key step in supermarket aquatic product management.
The epidemic has cultivated consumers' online consumption habits, so online has become an increase in supermarket aquatic product operations. It is understood that Rainbow Supermarket launched its own mini program last year. It currently has 24 million members, and its online sales accounted for 10%.
A person in charge of BBK said: "Some time ago we launched an online promotion. Usually, we can sell hundreds of bass in the next area, and the area with the best online performance sold 5,000. This is a very Big increment."
In response to the current consumers' pursuit of new products and service quality, some supermarkets have also begun to adjust their operations.
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