/ Chaowen News/August 31, 2022 Guangzhou -- Due to the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, there has been little news about the opening of member stores this year. "Store decoration and personnel deployment are all affected by the epidemic."
However, this quiet is only on the surface, from the action of each member store brand, continue to open a store is still a big development strategy. Sam, Madron, Hema continue to open stores, Costco in the country to take land... Among them, the pace of expansion of Metro, which entered the market late last year, is more striking. Metro was the first to open a new member store in Beijing earlier this year and will open another in November, bringing its total number of paying member stores to 23. Not only that, it passed the 3 million paying members mark two years after its launch.
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< P > Metro's paid-Plus program was launched earlier than the paid-member stores, which were launched last November.
Data shows that Metro started to introduce a paid membership program, or PLUS membership, in 13 stores in May 2020, with a membership fee of 199 yuan per year. On November 18 of the same year, Metro PLUS member program officially launched in 11 cities such as Beijing, Wuhan, Shenyang and Xi 'an. So far, PLUS members, a new paid member program, has covered all Metro shopping malls in 60 cities across the country, marking Metro's comprehensive layout of the paid member track.Today, Metro's paid membership system, which it has nurtured for two years, has 3m members. And its member stores only in the national layout of a year, opened 22.
On November 24, 2021, Metro announced to upgrade its brand strategy, comprehensively layout its member stores, and upgrade the operation mode from mainly serving B-end customers to serving both B-end customers and C-end members. On November 27th of the same year, Metro opened 16 member stores in eight cities including Beijing, Chengdu, Nanjing, Qingdao, Dalian, Wuxi, Changchun and Changzhou, catching up with the leading player camp of the member store circuit.
Although the epidemic spread in China this year, many enterprises have been affected by the speed of opening a store, but Metro has run out of the acceleration of opening a store. Metro opened its Haidian Sijiqing store in Beijing earlier this year, and other new stores are on the way. "The Fengtai Dacheng Road store, which will open in November, is our second new member store in Beijing this year. By then, Beijing will have five Metro member stores." Metro said."Run fast but run well"
Entered the game late, but fast development. Can Metro's supply chain and member services keep up with the pace of development?
"Run fast and run well." Chen Zhiyu, deputy chief executive officer of Metro China, said that Metro was able to ensure service quality on the basis of rapid expansion of stores, mainly because of its more efficient operation in the member store business model. "Our Metro member store operation philosophy is more extreme, that is to use the advantages of serving B-side business members, so that more new generation of middle-income families can enjoy high-quality services."
On the one hand, Metro uses a larger terminal operating base to spread costs. "Up to now, Metro has more than 100 stores in more than 60 cities and has more than 20 million members, of whom 3 million are paying members. "The larger store footprint and larger membership base allows Metro to spread costs evenly and gain a lower cost advantage."
On the other hand, Metro has the advantage of B-end procurement scale, which makes it a large bargaining space. "From its entry into the Chinese market in 1996, Metro's corporate business is now well established in the market. Metro is a long-term partner of more than 80 percent of the international five-star hotel chains in China, and also serves business customers such as five-star hotels, international kindergartens and foreign companies." Chen Zhiyu bluntly said that the large-scale purchasing advantage established by the stable commercial customer base could enable Metro to gain greater bargaining power and space in the procurement supply chain, and obtain lower commodity prices for C-end members.
Like many member stores, direct sourcing is an important part of it, allowing Metro to eliminate intermediate distribution costs. "Metro establishes direct procurement cooperation with manufacturers of multiple products, and establishes logistics channels from the origin to the stores, eliminating the intermediate circulation links, so that the logistics cost of goods is lower." Chen Zhiyu said.
It is noteworthy that Metro has also made considerable efforts in its own products, which are the focus of the competition among paid-member stores. "At present, the proportion of private brands, goods and imported goods in Metro member stores has reached more than 40 percent." Chen Zhiyu said that Metro's own brands "Meizhen" and "Yike" respectively focus on high-end quality and extreme cost performance. "The brand of Yike originates from the enterprise customers we serve. The enterprise customers' purchasing demand has two characteristics, one is large quantity, the other is good quality. So you can see that the quality of Metro's Ikea products is reliable and cost-effective."
Instead of the "serious face" Metro used to serve business members, "Maizhen" has captured the hearts of many young consumers. Co-created with big brands, the product design with high-end quality and high appearance level, both inside and outside repair, with its own attributes of "Internet celebrity" and "social currency", many young consumers are willing to pay for it.
It is understood that at present, Metro's private brand almost covers all categories except household appliances, cosmetics and other very individual categories, including food, drink and wear, and is still in continuous development and update, the proportion of private brand products will continue to increase.
"Self-owned goods have always been an important means to reduce the cost of warehouse member stores. Metro's higher proportion of self-owned goods can enable it to intervene from the production link of goods. While ensuring higher quality, it removes the premium cost of third-party brands and benefits consumers more." Chen Zhiyu said.
Efficiency and cost is the key to break out of the competition
The speed of opening of Metro member stores is no doubt, this year in Beijing alone, Metro will open two stores. Opening 22 stores across the country in just one year is a testament to Metro's ambition and speed in its membership layout.
Not only is Metro continuing to expand its stores, but so are members of the club circuit: Sam's Club will open another store this year on the south side of Xihongmen Lihui Center in Daxing, Beijing, which will be the fourth Sam's store in Beijing. Sam's Club has said it expects to expand to 40 to 45 stores open or under construction in China by the end of 2022. Costco is taking land all over the country, although its official website only Minhang store in Shanghai and Suzhou store in Jiangsu province, but the news of its land is constantly coming, involving Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other cities, shop confidence can not be underestimated. Hema X opened its seventh member store in Nanjing at the beginning of this year, and other stores are also in preparation.
< /p>For the current fierce competition in the member store circuit, last year to join the new player Metro is not afraid. "In any business circuit, in the early stages of market development, the growth dividend goes to the business model pioneer and innovator." Chen Zhiyu said, "In the long run, on the same business model track, who can have higher operational efficiency and cost control ability, who can run further on the track." (Article/China Business Daily)
