The floor 1 1- 12 of one of Renmin North Road is one of the three offices of Xiaozi living in Guangzhou. Chen Kaixin's office covers an area of about 100 square meter. He is wearing a shirt that is neither old nor new, sitting casually on the sofa in the office, feeling a little tired. After graduating from technical secondary school in 2005, Chen Kaixin came to Guangzhou with a woven bag from his hometown. At the age of 25, Chen Kaixin turned such a humble business into a Guangzhou store brand "Xiaozi Life", and now has thousands of chain stores with annual sales exceeding one billion.
On May 28th, 2009, Xiaozi, who lives in Guangdong, announced that it had received an investment of RMB-0/billion from Hong Kong Tianyi Group. In the materials provided to the media, Xiaozi Life described this investment as "the largest single commercial financing in China's beauty industry to date" and announced that it plans to land in the A-share market in 20 16.
/kloc-women whose monthly income is less than 3,000 yuan from March to August are their target consumer groups. How much market share can this group support?
Chen Kaixin told reporters that the scale of petty-bourgeois life today is not mysterious. For chain enterprises, the troika of brand, training and logistics should "play well". The latter two items also serve the brand. "Brand is the management of consumers, logistics is the management of goods, and training is the management of stores. Chain companies can do this, and your brand will do. " He believes that brand is the key to petty bourgeoisie life: "Only by doing a good job (brand) can we make money to support our families. If I can't do it well, I won't even have to eat. "
Occupy the market by joining.
13-26, women whose income is less than 3,000 yuan are the target consumers of petty bourgeoisie life, among which 18-22 women are the core consumers, and the customer price is around 20 yuan. Chen Kai said that women in this age group are more willing to spend tens of dollars on cheap fashion shops.
"It doesn't hurt to buy it, and it's not a pity to lose it. This is what petty bourgeoisie life has to do. "
Chen Kai said that it is difficult to describe the market scale of this industry in detail, but he feels that there are still many people with no money and many vendors in the society, which represents the huge demand of the whole market. Unlike cosmetics, facing numerous brand competitions: "So, I can play the greatest value in it."
Wei Xin, the founder of ——TEENIX, a consulting agency specializing in women's marketing, has been a marketing consultant for petty bourgeoisie since 2004. He recalled that Chen Kaixin was still in Foshan in 2005. At that time, he set up about 12 underwear direct stores and three chain stores in Guangzhou. Wei Xin feels that this industry has an immeasurable market because there are vendors everywhere.
At the beginning of cooperation with Xiaozi Life, Wei Xin led the team to do market research in cities such as North China, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Changsha and Qingdao for three months. Finally, it is found that the whole store market is very scattered, all of them are self-employed, and no enterprise regards it as a cause or brand to operate.
Wei Xin remembers that there was a store in Guangzhou at that time, and he didn't see the power of economies of scale brought by chain operation. One store after another does direct selling, and only 50 stores were opened in five or six years. At that time, there were already chain stores, first of all, the ownership structure was scattered, and shareholders' opinions were often inconsistent; Secondly, it is not focused enough. Many operators think that a small business like a shop can only be rich and secure, so after earning some money to a certain scale, they turn to catering, clothing and other industries.
In this industry background, Wei Xin said that the first "grand strategy" of petty bourgeoisie life is to develop franchise stores on a large scale from 2009. "Instead of pursuing the profit of a single store, we only pursue the number and popularity of stores, which plays a vital role in the development of petty bourgeoisie life." Xiaozi lived in a year or so, from the original 12 direct stores to the scale of 200 franchise stores.
More than 90% of petty bourgeoisie life is franchise stores. Chen Kaixin believes that there are different forms of chain operation. Only by developing franchisees can urban brands like Xiaozi Life occupy the market. "And the benefits of single-store operation will be higher, and franchisees will be responsible for their own profits and losses and have a stronger sense of responsibility."
"In the store industry, our scale is now larger than the sum of the second, third and fourth places, and we are now a well-deserved industry leader." Chen Kai said.
In 2009, Xiaozi Life established a joint-stock company. Wei Xin told me that the petty bourgeoisie lived in this year and realized that it was necessary to sink the channel by developing agents: "It is not enough to do the channel only through the head office. Agents can get through local shops, contacts, teams and other resources, and they are deeper than us. " At that time, Xiaozi Life organized a special training camp for Love in the City, selected high-quality agents and gave them a city to operate. After developing a number of agents, the number of petty-bourgeois shops in this year has reached thousands.
The channel sank to the third-and fourth-tier cities.
Petty bourgeois life is devoted to the two ends of the "smile curve", one end is product design, and the other end is channels and services. The production links are handed over to domestic factories for processing. Xiaozi Life has hundreds of suppliers, one in Hongkong and the other in major cities in China.
"The reason why we take the light asset model is because the technical content of the store is not high and the added value is low. We only focus on the core links-products, channels and services, and use the core strength in the core part. " Chen Kai said.
Chen Kaixin told me that "cheap chain+fast fashion" is the business model of petty bourgeoisie life. The so-called fast fashion, explained by Fu Qinglin, director of petty bourgeoisie life brand, is scale, speed, design and price. Xiaozi Life has teams of buyers in some major countries and regions in Asia, Europe and America, always paying attention to the latest trends in the world, with the aim of keeping the shop design of Xiaozi Life always at the forefront of the latest and most popular trends. Its large-scale design team develops tens of thousands of new stores every year.
The fastest time for peers to launch new products is 12 days, but petty bourgeoisie life has shortened this time period to one week. "This has consolidated and attracted a large number of new and old customers. Every week, some old customers come to the store to see what new products are coming this week. "
In addition to the product design mentioned above, another force point of petty bourgeoisie life is the channel. In South China, Central China and Southwest China, the channels of petty bourgeoisie life are very strong and deep.
Fu Qinglin said that although the chain operation of petty bourgeoisie life takes the route of encircling cities from rural areas, it can open one or two stores in small towns with a population of 30,000 to 40,000, but it does not mean that its market space is only concentrated in third-and fourth-tier cities.
"You see, in a first-tier city like Guangzhou, there are many villages in the city and the growing soil for this business; In addition to the first-tier cities, in addition to the core business district, there are also second, third and fourth-tier business districts, and you can always see some stalls. This is the vitality of this business. "
According to our investigation, in a place like Dahua Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai, to open a 40-square-meter petty bourgeoisie life franchise store, in addition to the rent and storefront decoration expenses, it will cost about 6,543,800 yuan+0.4 million yuan. The expenses include the brand equity premium and performance bond of 6.5438+0.98 million yuan (first-tier cities) paid to the head office, and the brand management fee and decoration deposit of 3,000 yuan in 300 yuan every month. A 40-square-meter franchise store needs 46,000 yuan for the first purchase, and the rest is working capital.
Shopping malls, supermarkets, commercial streets, pedestrian streets, industrial areas, universities and residential areas are all the main addresses where petty bourgeoisie life suggests franchisees to open stores. The specific location and location of the store must also be approved.
"Our cash flow has been very good." Fu Qinglin said, "Because franchisees need to make money first." If the goods are damaged in logistics, it will take more logistics and time to return them because the price of a single product is cheap. The solution to the petty bourgeoisie life is to take 1% of the total amount of goods as compensation.
In 20 10 year, Xiaozi's life investment was150,000 yuan, and the ERP management system was first introduced in the industry. Chen Kai said that the reason for spending so much money is simple: "Chain enterprises like McDonald's and KFC have simple front desk but strong back office. With this system online, we can clearly know what sells well and what doesn't. This is very helpful for us to do product design and research and development. "
A few years ago, in the terminal display, Wei Xin found that petty bourgeoisie life had many fatal injuries. Commodities are placed in confusion and even piled up like mountains; There is no clear business classification logo and price logo in the store display, and the selling points of many commodities are not prominent; There are no samples of rings, necklaces, perfumes and cosmetics that need to be tried on, and most of them are wrapped in packaging shells. To this end, Xiaozi Life immediately formulated a series of exhibition standards and processes, and set up a special exhibition department. In addition to training, the store manager assessment mechanism has also been established.
"The essence of the retail industry lies in the different retail methods, and the terminal is the last link in realizing the value of products. Shopping in the store is impulsive, and there are few planners in advance. They often go into shops and browse before deciding what to buy. Petty bourgeoisie life is aimed at female consumer groups and should pay more attention to female sensory experience. " Wei Xin said.
Make a good brand and let agents make money.
Whether it is an agent or a franchisee, the most realistic appeal is whether you can make money. Fu Qinglin told me that about 70% to 80% of the storefronts where petty bourgeoisie lives are profitable.
The 27-year-old general manager is the general agent of Xiaozi Life Insurance in Nanning, Guangxi. On June 5438+065438+ 10, 2009, she first opened a 28-square-meter direct store on the first floor of a shopping mall in Nanning with 200,000 yuan, earning 20,000 yuan every month. The next year, she opened five stores in one breath. The third store invested 350,000 yuan and sold 200,000 goods every month, with a gross profit of 60,000 yuan.
In the second half of 20 10, by chance, General Manager Lu met in Nanning. Chen Kaixin thought she was quick to open a shop, suggested that she be the general agent in Shenzhen, and gave some preferential terms. Therefore, from 20 1 1, households began to develop franchisees. A year later, she managed more than 10 franchise stores in Nanning. She estimated that she could have a gross profit of about 5 million.
The profit of the agent depends on the sales of the franchisee's goods. General manager Lu said: "I can get a 5% rebate at the headquarters." She divided Nanning into five regions to develop franchisees. Every district, town and even village can open stores, but the distance between each store should not be close to 500 meters.
The agent's main job is to help franchisees choose sites, open stores and train. Manager Lu said that she didn't have much experience at first, but she never lacked franchisees. They all took the initiative to contact. She said that the threshold for doing this business is not high and the capital turnover is fast: "Petty bourgeoisie life launches new products every week, and the reuse rate of funds is much higher than that of clothing. Small shops have no inventory and are generally not affected by the season and can be sold at any time. "
When I mentioned it again, Chen Kaixin said in a casual tone, just like the ERP management system was introduced at that time: "Nothing, because all these things have to be done, but I did it earlier. In fact, everything an entrepreneur does smacks of gambling. Of course, there are reasonable ingredients in it. This is the way to be a company. No matter how much money it is, as long as it feels valuable, sometimes you have to invest in borrowing money. "
20 1 1, Xiaozi Life spent 50 million yuan on advertising, titled 20 12 Hunan Satellite TV's talent show and China School Flower Contest. Their audience group and the target consumer group of petty bourgeoisie life are the same, both born after 80 s and 90 s Petty bourgeoisie shops all over the country have become the designated registration points for these two activities.
"We are changing from a product brand to a channel brand." Fu Qinglin said that, like Watsons, Gome and Suning, brands such as L 'Oreal, Lan Xiu, Avon and Dream Cosmetics have also settled in petty bourgeoisie. "They account for about 20% of our products, and we will introduce more brands in the future."
In addition, Xiaozi Life has built a "media" by itself. LCD TV is installed in every petty bourgeoisie lifestyle shop to broadcast the contents related to the petty bourgeoisie lifestyle brand, but with the further construction of the channel brand in the future, my father thinks that "it will become an advertising resource for customers, just like a small focus."
Xiaozi Life also launched a shopping sharing community "Xiaozi e-purchase" similar to Beauty Theory and Mushroom Street. There are not only the latest products of petty bourgeoisie life, but also the cosmetics collocation shared by young female users in the form of pictures, and they have also made their own electronic magazines. After the acquisition of Tianyi Group, Xiaozi Life will develop e-commerce and supplement offline channels. Relying on the powerful power of terminal channels, its stores can develop into e-commerce logistics distribution points, which is also one of the biggest advantages of petty bourgeoisie living in e-commerce.