Consumption upgrade: boutique supermarket is now self-service checkout counter

In recent years, as the overall industry downturn in hypermarkets continues to deepen, many hypermarkets have already begun to transform and seek new ways. Compared with the transformation of traditional department stores to shopping malls, the speed of generations seems to be faster. The “small but fine” boutique supermarkets have become a new choice. Not only retail giants such as Carrefour and China Resources Vanguard have entered the market, even Suning, and even some housing companies have begun to get involved. Why do the charm of a boutique supermarket come from?

Turn to "small but fine"

Recently, Suning Tesco launched the first “SU FRESH Su Xiansheng” boutique supermarket in Xuzhou. With the offline, the citizens can place an order in Sushengsheng APP. The three-hour flash service can be enjoyed within 3 kilometers, which is convenient and quick. According to the relevant person in charge, the “SU FRESH Su Xiansheng” store will be opened in other cities across the country. It is reported that Su Xiansheng has a new decoration style and display standards, creating a very comfortable and enjoyable shopping environment. In the store, you can buy imported fruits and vegetables, milk, meat, Argentine red shrimp, flowers, etc. to meet the quality needs of consumers.

The comfortable environment and high-end goods are the main features of the boutique supermarket. The reporter is currently visiting the blt boutique supermarket located in Beijing World Trade Center. It is reported that the blt boutique supermarket is owned by China Resources Vanguard Ole', which is positioned as a high-end supermarket to meet the needs of fashionable white-collar workers. As soon as the reporter walked into the supermarket, he found that his environment was completely different from that of an ordinary life supermarket. He was very quiet and had fewer people. The main products are mainly imported goods, and the products in the fresh-keeping area are mostly small packages, which are placed on art and beauty, and are more like quiet artworks than ordinary fruits and vegetables.

Of course, advanced goods and the environment mean a lot of price. The reporter interviewed several consumers randomly. The white-collar workers who work nearby said that they would buy some imported daily necessities in the blt boutique supermarket. "The price is similar to the Haitao products with taxes and fees, and it is more convenient." It means that the decoration and decoration are a little burdensome. "It looks like it is very expensive. I feel so embarrassed to come in, too 'high on the'."

However, the positioning of the sense of distance can not stop the pace of blt expansion. Currently in the country, blt has entered more than 10 key cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Xi'an, Chengdu, Foshan, etc., with 23 stores and bltexpress1. Fu Yuning, chairman of China Resources Group, once said that China Resources Vanguard is currently adjusting its structure and will increase the layout of high-end brand supermarkets this year.

Of course, the layout of boutique supermarkets is not limited to China Resources Vanguard. The Bravo YH exquisite supermarkets that Yonghui Supermarket has focused on in recent years are also the leaders in the industry. However, compared with blt, Bravo YH is more "grounded". The reporter visited several Bravo YH Beijing stores and found that the proportion of imported goods in the category of goods was not as high as 60% of blt, but the work on the layout of the store was more effortal. In addition to the ordinary commodity division, the "health· Organic Living Hall." The sales strategy of selling both imported and bulk pickles has made the Bravo YH customers more crowded and involved in a wider age group. It is reported that in the first quarter of this year, Yonghui's 22 new stores were all presented in the refined supermarket format Bravo YH, which fully demonstrated its expansion ambition.

In addition, a number of retail companies including Carrefour and Rainbow have also turned their attention to the boutique supermarket format. A number of preparatory work has been carried out in the near future. In the next few years, boutique supermarkets will become the focus of these retail giants. .

Carrefour said in the near future that the company has opened 17 “Yijiafu” convenience supermarkets in Shanghai. It plans to open 40 stores before the end of this year and enter other cities. Recently, Tianhong has passed the “Independent Development of the Company”. The “Proposal for Experiential Digital Supermarket Format” decided to independently develop the supermarket format and positioned it as a mid-to-high-end new experiential digital supermarket. At the beginning of this year, the first supermarket of Tianhong’s new supermarket brand sp@ce was officially opened in Shenzhen, featuring “city life”. Supermarket".

In addition, there has also been a phenomenon of cross-border opening of boutique supermarkets in the near future. For example, the high-end supermarkets of Badiao created by Shenzhen Guanlan Lake Group and Shanghai Dingrong Real Estate have built their own boutique supermarket “Sunshine Super Sunshine Super” in Jiading Sun Moonlight Shopping Center. The self-owned brand “Cool Boutique Supermarket” opened at the Sun Moon Plaza in Hainan at the beginning of this year.

Competing for a new battlefield

Similar to the very popular convenience store format in the retail industry this year, domestic boutique supermarkets are currently in the early stages of development. So far, no high-end supermarket in the domestic market has been able to dominate the country or form a good chain profit model. However, a number of high-end boutique supermarkets that are accelerating operations have emerged in the industry, and they are accelerating their expansion.

It can be seen from the first quarter financial report released by retail enterprises that in the first quarter of the newly opened supermarket format, the number of traditional hypermarkets and boutique supermarkets is similar, with 27 hypermarkets and 24 boutique supermarkets. The 22 new stores opened by Yonghui are all Bravo YH. Each of AEON and PARKn's opened a new store, all of which are boutique supermarkets. The AEON subsidiary Meisi 佰le new store is located in Foshan, Guangdong, and the top 100 TASTE store is opened in Guangzhou Baiyunkai. De Plaza·Yun Shang. Ole's and blt's two boutique supermarkets of China Resources Vanguard have not opened new stores in the first quarter, but Ole's settled in Guangzhou Zhujiang New Town Tianhui IGC in the first quarter and is expected to open in the second half of the year. In addition, there are many companies whose financial reports include boutique supermarkets as one of the priorities for future development.

The favor of many retail companies has made the boutique supermarket format a newcomer to the industry. Some insiders pointed out that the popularity of boutique supermarkets is mainly due to the upgrade of consumer demand, coupled with cost, market segmentation and other factors. The disadvantages of traditional hypermarkets occupying high cost, high pattern, and uneven quality have been unable to adapt to the iteration of the consumer market, and development has been frequently blocked. The high-quality supermarkets have low rental costs, high-end brands, high quality, and differences. Obvious advantages, more able to cater to the needs of today's consumers, but also more in line with the shopping malls' demand for investment, thus gaining huge room for development, which has become a breakthrough in the transformation and upgrading of traditional hypermarkets. Today, newly opened shopping malls are mostly equipped with medium and high-end boutiques, while traditional large supermarkets are more often in the form of independent stores.

At the same time, because of its small format and strong flexibility, the boutique supermarket has become a “test field” for many retail companies to explore. New technologies and new strategies can be first placed in boutique supermarkets. For example, Bravo YH has adopted a self-service checkout counter in large quantities, which is convenient for customers and saves labor costs. However, according to the reporter's field visit, many Bravo YH's self-service checkout users are few, but the opposite is still the long queue next to the artificial cashier. It seems to be seen whether the new technology represents a better experience for customers.

Due to the many advantages of boutique supermarkets, most traditional supermarket enterprises have developed boutique supermarkets and even developed boutique supermarkets. However, will boutique supermarkets become the pillars of profitability of these companies? Lai Yang, executive vice president of the Beijing Business Economics Association, said that boutique supermarkets selling high-end and imported products are not the daily consumption needs of mainstream consumers. Even if the profit margin is high, the impact on overall revenue is limited. Taking Hualian Comprehensive as an example, the data shows that in 2016, the sales revenue of its boutique supermarkets was 1.324 billion yuan, accounting for about 10% of the overall revenue. At the same time, the impact of cross-border e-commerce on the sales of key categories of imported products in boutique supermarkets cannot be ignored.

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