Author | Lemon Editor | Jin Nian

On June 8, after the revelry of major e-commerce, Box Horse announced that it would open two stores in Beijing and Shanghai, preparing to replicate the success of the first store in Shanghai last year and officially enter the warehouse member store.

Warehouse-style member stores originated in the Netherlands in the last century, and then developed in the United States and other places, characterized by large quantity and low price, mainly facing middle-class families. Among them, well-known retail brands such as Costco and Sam have accumulated a large number of loyal members around the world and have hundreds of stores.

The huge potential of China market attracts foreign retailers to enter. Sam opened his first branch in China 25 years ago, but this format is obviously not to the appetite of domestic consumers, and people can't understand why they have to pay in advance to buy things in shopping malls. Sam has been patient in paving the way for warehouse members, and has never given up after more than 21 years of hard work.

In fact, local retail enterprises have also considered warehouse-type member stores, and some enterprises have started to try them since 2115. Perhaps the rapid development of e-commerce at that time led to the weakness of offline retail industry, or perhaps most consumers' consumption level was insufficient, which eventually led to their dismal exit.

with the continuous improvement and upgrading of domestic consumption level, the e-commerce track has basically been finalized, and major retail enterprises have begun to consider the possibility of warehousing member stores.

In 2119, Costco, a retail giant, settled in Shanghai, which drove many retail enterprises to be ready to move. Yonghui, Carrefour and fudi all began to lay out plans to seize the market, and Boxma Xiansheng even directly shouted the slogan of bidding for Costco and Sam.

The concept of new retail was put forward by Ma Yun as early as 2116. In recent years, it has been heated to attract players from all walks of life to join the battle. Box Ma Xiansheng is the result of Ali's interpretation of new retail.

The freshness of fresh food is always the most concerned thing for consumers. In 2121 alone, Box Horse was named by the relevant departments for food safety issues many times. In May this year, Box Horse was named again for food safety issues.

The main product of Box Horse is fresh food. If the food safety problem cannot be completely solved, every complaint will be an obstacle to the future development of Box Horse.

In addition to food safety issues, the X member launched by Box Horse in recent years has also caused a lot of controversy. Different from other brand membership systems, Box Horse adopts the mode of first enjoying and then deducting fees. When the rights and interests enjoyed by members in the first year are less than 218 yuan, they will be deducted according to the part they have enjoyed. If they exceed 218 yuan, they will only be deducted 218 yuan.

this fee deduction mode became "free in the first year" in the mouth of front-line staff, but the specific fee deduction rules were not further explained, which led many consumers to complain about this, saying that they were induced by the clerk to open a "free" membership card, but the membership fee was deducted in the second year. The original purpose of X membership is to improve consumer stickiness, but the problem of "induced card handling" has attracted Bosnia and Herzegovina to Box Horse.

The after-sales service of Box Horse has also been frequently complained. Many consumers said that the after-sales service of Box Horse was either indifferent or prevaricated, which could not solve the problem at all.

On a third-party complaint platform, we can see that there are as many as 1,263 complaints from Boxma Xiansheng, most of which involve product quality, inexplicable deduction of membership fees, etc., and the data of "replied" and "completed" are all 1, and they are listed on the blacklist of the fresh food section of the platform.

The fresh e-commerce track is playing in full swing, and the reputation of Boxma Xiansheng is obviously not as good as that of other brands, but it is still full of confidence, not because of the moat, but because of the idea of leaning against a big tree to enjoy the cool.

The most striking feature of fresh e-commerce is burning money. Every e-commerce company engaged in fresh food business can't avoid burning money, but Box Horse has been relying on Ali's traffic and absorbing Ali's funds from the beginning.

the biggest difference between fresh e-commerce and other e-commerce is "fresh", which has strict requirements on transportation speed and loss degree in transportation, and this requirement requires enterprises to invest a lot of money in the early stage to establish transportation networks and open up supply chains, especially cold chain transportation, which must be fully built. It is not unreasonable to say that it burns money.

Although Box Horse is backed by Ali and has sufficient funds, profit is still an eternal topic. Compared with other fresh e-commerce, Box Horse's goal is more clear, and the target consumer group is people who have certain spending power and have certain needs for quality of life. The take-away food delivered to the door has raised the appetite, and it is difficult for consumers to spend a long time in physical stores, which means that the main position of Box Horse is in first-and second-tier cities, which is followed by rent pressure.

In order to camp around consumers, Box Horse has to open its store near the business district. The greater the traffic, the more expensive the rent. At the same time, it shoulders the heavy responsibilities of warehouse, processing, catering, etc. Thousands of square meters are only standard, and with the cost of decoration, the upfront cost of a store may need tens of millions.

The 3 km limit set by Box Horse also requires the density of shops. Originally, getting through the supply chain in the early stage was the biggest cost, but in the later stage, if it is operated on a large scale, the cost can be diluted theoretically. However, if the 3-kilometer limit is added, it is required that the box horse must increase the density of stores to cover consumers of sufficient scale. In other words, it is hopeless to reduce marginal costs by scale, and it is difficult for a store to achieve profitability in the short term.

In order to alleviate this pressure, Boxma Xiansheng launched Yunchao in 2118, hoping to make up for the shortage of offline through online, so that the order can only be placed today and delivered the next day. There are too many platforms that can satisfy the next-day delivery of online orders. Even Tmall Supermarket, which is also from Ali, can satisfy it. The biggest feature of Box Horse has disappeared in Yunchao.

In order to find a moat that suits him, Box Horse began to study its own brand. All the international retail giants are absent from the track of their own brands. From Wal-Mart to Japan's largest retailer Rong Chain Group, their own brands are regarded as the moat of retailers.

suppliers don't have to share a piece of cake, so the cost of their own brands is greatly reduced, and the selling price of goods can be reduced by 11% under the condition of constant gross profit margin. Low price and high quality can strengthen consumer stickiness, and retailers are more emboldened when talking about the prices of other commodities with suppliers, forming a virtuous circle. Even so, its own brand has not become a moat for box horses.

The big seafood featured by Box Horse in its early days made many consumers have an inherent impression on Box Horse, but instead suppressed the bright spot of its own products newly developed in the later period. Most consumers' impression of Box Horse is still stuck in Box Horse's big seafood, and they have no loyalty to Box Horse brand.

Box Horse still lacks a moat.

whether the warehouse member store is in the domestic market or the blue ocean, the whole track is still in its infancy. The target consumer group of member stores is the middle class, which has a certain demand for quality of life and is not sensitive to price. However, most domestic consumers are still accustomed to shopping around, brand loyalty is very low, and member stores are a bit acclimatized in the domestic market. Cost-effectiveness is always the first choice standard for consumers.

It seems a little hasty for Box Horse to directly challenge international retail giants such as Costco and Sam. Costco and Sam have hundreds of stores all over the world, and the global supply chain is basically open, and the procurement channels accumulated for many years are also very strong. The biggest reliance of Box Horse is only Ali.

Nowadays, Box Horse is facing an international giant that has already formed. In the warehouse member store industry, Box Horse is only a new student. Box Horse hopes to increase the proportion of fresh products to shake consumers' reputation and create its own characteristics. However, the procurement, transportation and storage of fresh products are all problems, and consumers are paying more and more attention to food safety. Whether the quality control of Box Horse can complete the task has become a new problem.

Costco and Sam's success in the United States can't be replicated. Foreign families have a large population. At the same time, the vast land and sparse population make most families used to drive to do centralized shopping on weekends, and many families also have a special storage room to hoard materials. Costco and Sam both adopt wholesale system, and the biggest feature is large quantity and low price.

domestic consumers have not developed the habit of warehouse shopping. For domestic consumers, small families are the mainstream, and small and piecemeal shopping habits are difficult for small families to digest.

China's shopping channels are very diverse, which also causes domestic consumers to be generally sensitive to prices and have low loyalty to brands. At the same time, online e-commerce is relatively mature, and offline warehouse member stores are not attractive to users.

the biggest feature of member stores is that they only provide services for members. If members don't depend on offline, is it necessary to have a membership-based physical store?

localization combined with online and offline efforts may really win this battle. Box Horse hopes to rely on its own understanding of domestic living habits, make efforts in packaging specifications and product selection, and try to create a product category system that is more suitable for the domestic market.

3,111 SKUs are not too many. The SKUs of Sam member stores are around 4,111, and Costco is around 3,511. Moreover, Box Horse has increased the proportion of fresh products, leading to further compression of other product categories, which means that Box Horse X member stores are still not separated from the "selling vegetables" business, and it is really inappropriate to bid for Costco and Sam, which are the main daily necessities.

At present, the format of warehouse membership is still unknown. The step of "Box Horse" is to test the water, but it is even more groping. The success of one or two companies can't explain any problems. It will take time to tell us whether this retail model can really adapt to the domestic market.