Which internet plus beef and mutton industry platform is stronger?
New Silk Road:
Using Xilingol League mutton as the entry point to build a grassland-characteristic platform
"The abalone and hairy crabs of the south can be sold to the north, so why can't such delicious mutton from the north be sold to the south?" A casual remark from a friend became the source of inspiration for Shen Yongqiang's second venture.
New thinking in a new era, and new thinking gave birth to the "New Silk Road." Having founded Haoteng Animal Husbandry in the past, now, using internet tools, as the specific operator of Xilingol League New Silk Road E-Commerce Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "New Silk Road"), Shen Yongqiang wants to sell Xilingol League mutton across the country and build an e-commerce platform similar to JD.com.
Building an e-commerce platform, mainly selling Xilingol League mutton
Once, a group of friends from the south came to Inner Mongolia for an inspection, and Shen Yongqiang hosted them with mutton. During the meal, a friend asked Shen Yongqiang a question: "The abalone and hairy crabs of the south can be sold to the north, so why can't such delicious mutton from the north be sold to the south?" A single remark awakened the dreamer, and the friend's words stirred Shen Yongqiang's heart.
After visiting a large number of customers, Shen Yongqiang found that the southern market indeed had demand for Inner Mongolian grassland sheep. He further analyzed and believed that, first, Xilingol League mutton is a nationally recognized product and a scarce resource. Second, it is being branded under government leadership through a traceability system, just like Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, possessing government endorsement and brand genes.
With the market and brand in place, how to connect with the client side? On this point, Shen Yongqiang hit it off immediately with Ma Yunfeng, the current chairman of New Silk Road. The two were respectively responsible for project operations and platform technology. At that time, they both thought of using the internet, but not simply selling products online. Instead, they wanted to build a vertical e-commerce platform centered on and extending from Xilingol League mutton, in which Xilingol League mutton was merely one hit product built by the platform. Besides mutton, this platform also has some ethnic handicrafts, highland oats, chive flowers and other grassland derivative products, bringing together many brands.
Shen Yongqiang introduced that the New Silk Road platform currently has more than 40 kinds of mutton products, but mainly rough cuts. In the future, they will launch finely cut products with fixed specifications, such as single-serving minced mutton, mutton slices and mutton cubes.
"We first started from Haoteng Animal Husbandry to build a benchmark of close cooperation, and then bring more than 80 meat enterprises in Inner Mongolia into the New Silk Road system." Haoteng Animal Husbandry is an enterprise founded by Shen Yongqiang in 2013. He said that at present, the New Silk Road platform has been recognized by many enterprises, but in order to control the source of products well, the entry threshold will be raised in the early stage, preferring quality over quantity.
One card, one code at the terminal, customized production of products
At present, New Silk Road uses its own logistics in the Beijing area, and SF Express and EMS for the periphery, connecting trunk lines to urban distribution. In the future, it will also build sub-warehouses in various places, "break through Inner Mongolia and cross the Yangtze River," to become a nationwide platform.
In addition, with the help of cooperation with China National Petroleum Corporation and China Mobile, Shen Yongqiang has already pushed New Silk Road's products across the country. In particular, its flagship product, Xilingol League mutton, can also be customized according to customer needs.
It is understood that China National Petroleum Corporation has about 30,000 outlets nationwide and possesses a strong physical network system. Shen Yongqiang placed Xilingol League mutton gift cards at CNPC terminals just like hairy crab gift cards, which broke the problem of crowded sales venues and also saved the trouble of transferring and replenishing goods. "One card, one code is enough. There is no need to place products. Consumers can scan the code to make a purchase and have grassland sheep from the Xilingol place of origin delivered to their homes."
The customized service emphasized by Shen Yongqiang is also realized through cards. This kind of card is divided into three types and has the effect of selling products and promoting the New Silk Road platform. The first is an empty card; after registration and activation, one can become a member to consume products and can follow New Silk Road. The second is a gift package card with a fixed recharge amount; customers in different regions either scan a QR code or enter the website page through other methods on the card to customize products. The third is a high-end card, with recharge amounts of 1,000 yuan, 2,000 yuan, 3,000 yuan and so on. Taking mutton as an example, after customers buy the card, they can purchase 6 times or 12 times a year, and New Silk Road is responsible for packaging and delivery. In this way, they can enjoy the freshest mutton slaughtered in the same period on the grassland.
Compared with ordinary consumption behavior, the membership system better reflects the service characteristics of New Silk Road. "For mutton truly from the Xilingol grassland, the fresh products of the first slaughter season, we will notify members. In addition, according to customer needs, we can ship customized products anytime and anywhere, flexibly customizing product specifications." Shen Yongqiang emphasized that grassland-characteristic mutton takes only seven days to reach the consumer's dining table, ensuring the freshness of the product, which is different from online shopping platforms such as Tmall. The membership route, on the one hand, controls the product, and on the other hand, improves customer stickiness through frequency-based delivery.
Production by stages, promotion through secondary sales
Haoteng Animal Husbandry is one of the many upstream suppliers of New Silk Road. With mutton sales as its core business, the company's initial sales reached 10 million yuan in 2013, achieved 40 million yuan in 2014, and exceeded 100 million yuan by 2015. As the person in charge, Shen Yongqiang spent two years opening up Haoteng Animal Husbandry's industrial chain, changed the traditional production method, and achieved balanced purchase and slaughter in all four seasons, thereby ensuring New Silk Road's upstream source.
First, Shen Yongqiang ensured the source of sheep through an alliance between herders and enterprises. It is understood that in Xilingol, August to November each year is the slaughter season. Once the season ends, there are no fresh products, and what remains are all frozen products. Therefore, the procurement orders of some catering enterprises usually begin and end at this time. After achieving balanced production in all four seasons, Haoteng Animal Husbandry positioned its products as high-end, and part of the profits would be counted for the herders, in turn driving their enthusiasm for breeding.
Second, change the production method. Balanced marketing in all four seasons can ensure slaughtering only when customers need it, keeping the meat fresh. Shen Yongqiang gave an example: from Xilinhot to Beijing, slaughtering is completed at 8 o'clock in the morning, the truck departs at night, and it can arrive the next day, which can be said to be departure at night and arrival in the morning. At the same time, he set up a cutting center in Beijing and carried out delivery according to orders within the city, so products can be delivered to customers within 24 hours, which is very attractive to customers.
In addition, catering customers can also purchase by stages. "As a catering enterprise, in addition to fresh ingredients, if mutton is purchased by stages, then when the menu is adjusted later, raw materials can be flexibly and quickly exchanged through the procurement process." Shen Yongqiang explained that this helps downstream catering users reduce the pressure of inventory, capital and product transformation.
Now, Haoteng Animal Husbandry has more than 100 catering customers in Beijing, which is another important port for the promotion of the New Silk Road platform. For catering terminals, Shen Yongqiang established a two-level micro-distribution. After consumers taste mutton in a restaurant, they scan the code in the store to enter the New Silk Road platform to buy, and the New Silk Road information port will know through which catering terminal the consumer entered the purchasing channel, and then distribute the corresponding profit to the catering enterprise.
If a restaurant has an average of 200 people consuming there every day, then 100 restaurants would mean 20,000 people know about New Silk Road, and this group is very accurately positioned. On the other hand, the offline tasting process is also an experience process. "Even if 10,000 people a day pay attention and consume on the New Silk Road platform, that would be 3.6 million people a year."
At present, this model is mainly concentrated in the Beijing market. After it matures, it will move south to Shanghai and Shenzhen. "In the future, through the distribution of interests in the industrial chain, we will reasonably enhance the interests of all links: production, processing, sales, herders, customers and consumers." Shen Yongqiang added. Reporter Di Zhenzhen / Text
Cattle and Sheep Commune:
Taking beef and mutton as the core, becoming the industry's "JD.com"
Liu Xiaoxi, who bid farewell to real estate and stepped into the beef and mutton industry, boldly grafted the internet onto this traditional industry, and Beijing Cattle and Sheep Commune Technology Development Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as "Cattle and Sheep Commune") was born. With new concepts and a new team, he wants to do things others have not done or have not done well enough, that is: use the internet to build the first high-end beef and mutton brand.
However, Liu Xiaoxi's ambition does not stop there. In the future, he wants to develop Cattle and Sheep Commune from a product brand into a platform brand, becoming the "JD.com" of the beef and mutton industry.
Secondary processing, fixed-quantity packaged "idiot products"
Through market research, Cattle and Sheep Commune has its own uniqueness in product development, design and positioning. In addition to selecting raw materials from the place of origin, product cutting and packaging are also more refined and convenient.
Liu Xiaoxi said that B2C products must be convenient and quick, and beef and mutton must be further processed and cut to create "idiot products." "Everyone sells rib racks, a whole piece of product, and it is inconvenient for customers to handle after buying it home because they do not have large knives. But with Cattle and Sheep Commune's pre-cut products, even a single woman who buys it home knows how to eat it." He gave an example: the lamb leg bought from the market is generally a whole leg, while Cattle and Sheep Commune's lamb leg has undergone secondary processing, trimmed or cut into pieces, so that consumers do not need to use a knife again after buying it home.
On the other hand, China has a vast territory, and the food cultures of the east, west, south and north differ greatly. "For example, Cantonese people eat meat without seasoning, pursuing the original taste and original ecology; while people in the southwest mainly eat seasonings, and what they value is not the essence of the ingredient. Apart from refined cutting, recipes and ingredients must also provide consumers with diversified choices."
Liu Xiaoxi analyzed that making food is like running a restaurant: it is hard to please all tastes. It is necessary to understand the dietary needs of consumers in different places, and at the same time increase the supply of original-flavor products, because original flavor leaves room for consumers to develop later, so it sells relatively well. He further added that there are many ways to eat beef and mutton and many recipes and ingredients, and different parts need to be treated differently. The QR code of each product of Cattle and Sheep Commune has corresponding methods and ways of eating.
In addition, all product packaging of Cattle and Sheep Commune is standardized by fixed quantity. In this regard, Liu Xiaoxi gave an example and analyzed that the weight of a lamb leg ranges from 1 kg to 3 kg, making it very inconvenient for consumers to place orders, while all categories of Cattle and Sheep Commune have achieved standardization, setting the packaging of cut meat at fixed quantities of 500g, 650g or 1kg, which facilitates online ordering and also makes logistics management more convenient. Taking lamb leg again as an example, it is very difficult for the warehouse to pick out two lamb legs of exactly the same weight, usually taking a plus-or-minus value, while Cattle and Sheep Commune ensures that the accuracy of product weight can reach 99%.
Internet plus physical stores, online and offline efforts together
In terms of operating model, Cattle and Sheep Commune is positioned as a three-dimensional operating model combining e-commerce with regional physical franchising, with online and offline efforts simultaneously.
"Relying on e-commerce promotion to drive physical franchising, and then relying on regional physical franchising to improve logistics and distribution, forming a virtuous cycle of sustainable development." Liu Xiaoxi introduced that Cattle and Sheep Commune's marketing is divided into two parts. One is the e-commerce operations department, responsible for online and offline promotion. Offline, due to logistics constraints, it mainly relies on franchisees and agents to set up points across the country. The other is ground group buying and direct sales. The gift series in various regions performs relatively prominently at the end of the year.
According to Liu Xiaoxi's observation, many domestic enterprises are trying high-end categories of beef and mutton, but they mainly do marketing in stores and do not attach enough importance to e-commerce. Cattle and Sheep Commune mainly relies on internet ordering, with express delivery companies and cold storage as logistics centers, striving for fresh delivery within 8 hours.
Therefore, during the trial operation period, Cattle and Sheep Commune attached great importance to the construction of the logistics system to ensure that products are delivered safely and quickly to customers. At present, the Beijing area of Cattle and Sheep Commune is delivered by Black Dog Express, basically achieving delivery within 8 hours, while out-of-town areas are mainly delivered through SF Express. In addition, Cattle and Sheep Commune is also negotiating cooperation with JD.com Mall, hoping to entrust JD Logistics system with all-round designated delivery.
Like many domestic beef and mutton processors, the biggest threshold faced by fresh and frozen food e-commerce is logistics. In view of this, Cattle and Sheep Commune chose a nationwide agent system, aiming to rely on local supermarkets and community convenience stores to draw local goods and deliver them directly. In areas where there are temporarily no franchisees offline, sub-warehouses are established and developed through self-operation. At present, although logistics costs have accounted for 10%-15% of Cattle and Sheep Commune's operating costs, Liu Xiaoxi chooses for the enterprise itself to absorb them and give profits to consumers.
Online, Cattle and Sheep Commune has made full use of major platforms. It began cooperation with Yiguo Fresh in Shanghai, and its products have also been launched on mainstream online shopping platforms such as JD.com Mall, Meituan and Yihaodian. Liu Xiaoxi said that at present, Cattle and Sheep Commune's task is to make products well and make traffic bigger and stronger.
Building a platform, becoming the "JD.com" of the beef and mutton industry
"We are not just trying to build a regional brand or the number one brand, but to create a high-quality brand of domestic beef and mutton, build a globally professional and top-tier high-end beef and mutton product, and use an online and offline three-dimensional operating model to deliver safe, pure and green high-end beef and mutton products to consumers." Liu Xiaoxi introduced that in the early stage of development, Cattle and Sheep Commune only produced fresh and frozen products. In the near future, the company will continue to develop new varieties, work on semi-finished and ready-to-eat beef and mutton foods, and improve the product structure system.
"It cannot simply be called a goal. I think the future is more of a dream." When asked what the company's future goal is, Liu Xiaoxi said this. And his dream is to build Cattle and Sheep Commune into a platform-level brand in the future, not just a commodity brand.
Liu Xiaoxi analyzed that at present, domestic internet platforms related to beef and mutton are all in their initial stage. Assuming the future is a period of great development with "a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending," then Cattle and Sheep Commune should strive to achieve "if it does not cry out, it will astonish everyone with a single cry." Having participated in the Shanghai Meat Industry Expo, he became even more firm in his judgment and will.
"At that Shanghai exhibition, I saw a scene of 'thousands of troops and horses squeezing across a single-plank bridge.' The beef and mutton products of the various merchants in the Inner Mongolia exhibition group were largely the same, all promoting the place of origin and that leaders had visited. When asked what their selling point was, 90% would answer - meat source. What Cattle and Sheep Commune wants to do in the future is a platform mall, focusing on beef and mutton and their derivatives." Specifically, "just as you go to JD.com to buy electrical appliances and go to Haidilao to eat hot pot, in the future, when buying beef and mutton, go to Cattle and Sheep Commune."
Previously, Liu Xiaoxi had participated in an international exhibition, and he set his booth in the international exhibition area in order to integrate into the international atmosphere as soon as possible. "In the future, our own products may account for a very small share. The world's top beef and mutton, dairy, cooked foods and so on will all be online. Consumers no longer need to worry about illegal border crossing and smuggling. Cattle and Sheep Commune should have everything. In the future, Cattle and Sheep Commune's relationship with peer enterprises will not be competition but integration, providing them with a better platform."