Screenshot from the movie "Darkest Hour"
Dawn
In recent years, with the acceleration of the pace of life, concepts such as "buying goods while lying down at home", "one-stop solution for decoration", and "moving in with your bag" have become deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Coupled with the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, large-scale shopping malls across the country have Some home building materials stores suffered heavy losses in 2020.
On the one hand, due to the interception of decoration demand through various channels, fewer and fewer consumers directly and independently go to home building materials stores to purchase materials; on the other hand, the epidemic has caused offline work to be unable to proceed smoothly, and many home building materials stores have Operations in the first half of 2020 almost came to a standstill. Subsequently, merchants who were unable to make ends meet began to withdraw stores and close their doors. Although some large chain home building materials stores introduced rent-free and rent-reduced policies accordingly, it was ultimately a drop in the bucket for merchants.
"Survive", "hold on", "get through" and other tragic words have become the mantra of home building materials dealers. In their view, store sales alone can no longer support operating costs. Not closing stores is just to preserve the brand's image and status in the market. To achieve actual sales performance, they can only find another way out.
The first half of 2021 is about to end. What is the current situation of home building materials stores?
Relevant statistics show that from January to April 2021, the cumulative sales of home building materials stores above designated size nationwide were 285.50 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 95.49%. As soon as this data came out, it not only revealed the signal of market recovery, but also allowed thousands of merchants who share prosperity and loss with home building materials stores to see the light of day.
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Virtual Real
Have home and building materials stores successfully survived the “darkest hour”?
In fact, the so-called market recovery is mainly due to macroeconomic recovery and the release of upstream market demand. At the macroeconomic level, in the first quarter of 2021, the GDP was 24.931 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.3%, and the per capita consumption expenditure of national residents was 5,978 yuan, a nominal increase of 17.6%; at the upstream real estate market level, commercial housing from January to April 2021 The average monthly transaction volume was approximately 34.81 million square meters, and the scale of commercial residential transactions in key cities reached the highest level in the same period in the past five years.
The recovery effect of the macro environment and the upstream market has been transmitted to the downstream industries. Home and building materials stores once ushered in the peak sales season, but it is too early to start celebrating that "winter is over and warm spring has arrived."
Currently, the supply chain changes in the decoration market guided by consumer demand and consumer trends are still ongoing. Manufacturers have directly become material suppliers to large real estate companies and decoration companies. The "Internet + home decoration" model has gradually matured, and the scale of decoration companies has begun to show. Those who control resources have separated from home building materials stores and established independent studios and integrated platforms. Home building materials stores Lack of passenger flow is still an unavoidable problem. More than one ceramic tile dealer revealed to a reporter from China Ceramics Network: "Only manufacturers and manufacturers have the strength to compete in the B-end market. If dealers are not strong enough, they can only serve as individual customers, and these individual customers also rely on their own connections and resources. If you go digging, you can’t just sit in the store and wait.”
The lack of customer flow means that it becomes difficult to attract investment. The increasing profit pressure of home building materials stores will undoubtedly be grafted on to the merchants stationed in home building materials stores. In the national ceramic tile market survey of China Ceramics Network's "Tao Xing China", the dealers interviewed complained about store expenses and costs from time to time, and they complained even more when comparing expenditures and effects.
“The monthly rent is tens of thousands, which can be supported when the passenger flow is large, but now it is really unbearable.”
“The large stores in high-end stores look glamorous, but after investing nearly one million in a year, six to seven million are lost. Business people are not fools.”
“Nowadays, home building materials stores no longer sell goods, but have become a display of brands and products. From rent to labor costs, the benefits generated are no longer equal.”
……
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Grey Dark
No matter whether home building materials stores and merchants get along harmoniously or not, one thing is unquestionable, that is, the relationship between the two is mutual prosperity and loss. Home building materials stores will shrink in size and influence, which will affect the business of the merchants who enter them; merchants will have difficulty doing business, and fewer and fewer brands will choose to enter home building materials stores. In this "karma" cycle, any non-positive move by any party will lead to the destruction of the "ecosystem".
Recently, there has been an uproar in Douyin and WeChat Moments - "A home building materials store in Hubei increased rent, and merchants collectively went out of business to protest!", which is still being fermented on social platforms. It is understood that the trigger of this incident was that the home building materials store increased the pool coefficient from 1.16 to 1.56. The merchants who entered the store could not accept such a large adjustment, so they collectively turned off the lights in protest.
The building is still the original building, why has the area of the shared area increased? Industry insiders analyze: Due to the impact of the epidemic and the impact of the Internet on physical stores, it is currently difficult for offline stores to do business, and merchants are already complaining. If shopping malls directly increase rents now, it will inevitably cause strong resentment and protests from merchants. As a result, some places have resorted to the "little cleverness" of increasing rents in disguise. The unit price of rent remains unchanged and does not increase, and the area of shared spaces is expanded to allow businesses to pay more rent every month.
There is another piece of news that also reflects the plight of home building materials stores. A few days ago, a TV station in Zhengzhou, Henan Province exposed a large-scale home building materials store with an area of 180,000 square meters. The merchant said that it had been renovated for two years but has not yet opened. It is understood that the home building materials store was originally scheduled to open at the end of 2019. Now the staff has been laid off and the relevant person in charge has lost contact. At present, there are about 150 brands in this home building materials store, and most of the merchants have renovated their stores, resulting in a total loss of about 40 to 50 million yuan.
"Stable happiness" is no longer available, and the lives of home building materials dealers have become gloomy.
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Survival
China Ceramics Network found in its market survey that home building materials stores in most cities are saturated or even oversupplied, but there are always new home building materials stores under construction. This phenomenon is particularly common in first-tier cities and provincial capital cities. There may be a dozen or even dozens of home building materials stores in urban areas alone. In such a fierce competition, the survival and development of home building materials stores are more dependent on the sustainable "renewal" of merchants in the mall. As mentioned above, it is really undesirable to harm merchants in order to protect themselves.
So what is the correct way for a home building materials store to survive? Some people in the industry expressed their views: "First, ensure cash flow and survive first; second, do a good job in marketing orientation and develop new models to allow merchants to live better; third, continue to improve digital management levels and provide One-stop overall solution allows stores and merchants to survive longer. ”
For home building materials stores with good living conditions, continuously optimizing the categories and brand structure in the store is an important measure to further enhance the store's brand value. Taking Hangzhou Ouyada Home Furnishing as an example, it analyzes the category market demand through data and carries out proactive category adjustment and brand optimization. At the same time, it introduces mainstream first-line brands in the market, steadily increases the proportion of Class A brands in the mall, and continuously optimizes the category and brand resources in the mall. . This method has been followed by more home building materials stores.
Market size, influence, reputation, management, strength of established brands and other factors all determine the competitiveness and status of a home building materials store. This is exactly why some cities have countless home building materials stores, but there is always one. The reason why two leading stores are so hard to find.
NetNetwork with pictures, nothing to do with text
Nowadays, simply and crudely conquering the territory of home building materials stores has become a thing of the past. Only by improving your quality of life and "surviving" your opponents can you survive in the future market competition.
(Author: Hong Xiaochun)
