Chain operation, a new business operation mode and organization form, has developed for more than 20 years since it was introduced into China in the early 1990s. Although it started late, it has developed rapidly.
1、 The emergence of chain operation and its development in China
Chain operation originated in the United States. It has a history of more than 140 years since the establishment of the first chain store "Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company" in 1859. In industrial development
The chain operation has achieved general success. Since the 1960s, some emerging industrial countries and regions have also introduced chain operation. In the 1970s and 1980s, chain business was accompanied by electronics
Computer technology has been developed unprecedentedly in Japan and synchronized with the economic development in Asia. It has been rapidly popularized in Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other countries and regions, thus making commodities
A revolution occurred in the field of circulation, which promoted the development and modernization of the circulation industry and economic development. There are three main forms of chain operation in foreign countries: regular chain, voluntary chain and franchise chain.
Compared with foreign countries, China's chain operation started late. Since the reform and opening up, China's economy has developed rapidly, the degree of socialization of production has gradually improved, and the market scale has continued to expand. Since the late 1980s, chain operation has quietly started in China. In the 1990s, chain operation has risen in large and medium-sized cities and coastal open areas. Chain companies such as "Meiyijia" in Dongguan, Guangdong, "Xifu" in Beijing, and "Lianhua" and "Hualian" in Shanghai have formed a certain scale. In addition, after entering the 21st century, Baoding, Hebei Province, has witnessed the rise of Sanyao Shihui, a newly emerging food market, and Minhang, Shanghai, has witnessed the rapid rise of chain supermarkets such as hospitable stores. The number of chain operations in China is growing rapidly, with a wide geographical distribution and a large number of business structures. Direct chain operations are the main business, and the ownership forms are diversified. In terms of the business structure, we focus on the development of convenience stores, supermarkets and other professional stores and warehouse stores with the purpose of "facilitating, benefiting and serving the people".
2、 Main problems in chain operation in China
The development of chain operation in China is short. Compared with the mature chain operation in foreign countries, the chain operation in China has many irregularities, problems and contradictions.
（1） Not paying attention to creating and maintaining a good corporate image and brand
A good corporate image and brand is the key to the success of chain operation. Many successful chain enterprises in the world, such as Wal Mart, McDonald's and Carrefour, attach great importance to maintaining their own image and brands. However, at present, many chain enterprises in China do not pay enough attention to this, and many of their practices in work are not conducive to the cultivation and maintenance of the overall image of enterprises. This is mainly reflected in three aspects: First, many chain enterprise headquarters often only sell brands, but let themselves go in business; Second, each branch is just a cover, in fact, the management is different; Third, the headquarters of chain enterprises did not pay attention to standardized unified training, resulting in uneven service items and service levels of each branch, which seriously affected the overall image of chain enterprises.
（2） The traditional management system seriously restricts the development of chain operation
China's current administrative system of fragmentation is very unfavorable to the development of chain operation. As the shackles of the old administrative system have not been completely lifted, the chain operation has developed across industries and regions
It's not easy. The development of many chain enterprises is mainly confined to the "shell" of their own industries and regions. Cross industry and cross regional chain operations are still rare, which cannot be based on the nature of chain
It is difficult to form a reasonable layout and scale for unified management. This kind of artificial blockade, in the final analysis, is the interest rigidity of the division of regions, departments and industries. Competent departments of various regions and industries
They often go their own way and implement chain operation within regions or departments, which leads to repeated investment and is extremely unreasonable economically from the perspective of society as a whole. For example, some lives closely related to residents' daily life
There will be no big difference in the varieties of chain stores for necessities, but if each region and department only think about their own interests, rush forward blindly, and chain stores blindly, it may cause all chain stores to
Without sufficient market share, each chain enterprise will open its own shop. It is difficult for each chain enterprise to have greater strength to expand its scale. Although chain stores are everywhere, they are difficult to achieve the economic benefits they should have
Benefit.
（3） Chain operation enterprises neglect quality management, resulting in weak goodwill and lack of business competitiveness
The quality of chain stores includes three aspects: commodity quality, shopping environment quality and service quality. At present, the quality management level of the chain stores that operate food and daily necessities in China
Compared with commercial enterprises in developed countries, large retail stores are still far behind. Many chain stores in China have long turnover periods for some kinds of food to varying degrees,
When the goods exceed the warranty period, fake and inferior goods and "three no goods" often appear. There are also some problems with the shopping environment and service quality. Generally, the shopping environment of chain stores in commercial areas is relatively good
Some stores in residential areas have poor appearance. Some shops rent counters for raw meat and vegetables, which are poor in hygiene and management, affecting the overall image. Hygienic status order of non prepackaged food
People are worried. The entrance and exit design, package access procedures, supervision measures for customers' theft, settlement and error rate, and provision of special services for customers are not completely scientific and reasonable
It is convenient and considerate, or some of them are poorly done. The level of quality management is directly related to the goodwill, corporate image, customer attraction, sales volume and economic benefits of enterprises,
And then determine the competitiveness and healthy development of enterprises.
（4） Chain operation enterprises have few stores and lack economies of scale
From the perspective of international chain operation, the starting scale of international chain operation is generally more than 10 stores. Nowadays, the large chain enterprises in the world are often
Large organization system. For example, Wal Mart in the United States had more than 4000 chain stores in various forms by 2002, with sales reaching 244.5 billion dollars. The scale benefit generated by the huge scale operation,
It is the important reason why a number of large chain enterprises in foreign countries have been thriving. From the situation in China, chain enterprises need more than 15 stores to have economies of scale. However, most domestic chain enterprises are large
There are more than 10 stores. In this way, because there are too few stores, the cost reduction and price advantage brought by centralized purchase cannot be realized, and the commodity adjustment between stores is also difficult, which will inevitably affect
The realization of scale benefit.
The reason for too few chain stores is that at present, China's enterprises have relatively little self owned funds, it is difficult for enterprises to obtain loans, and the cost of setting up stores is too high. No of funds
Enough, which makes it difficult for enterprises to further expand their scale and expand the market, resulting in a dilemma of "no benefit without scale, no capital without scale".
（5） Low degree of standardization
Generally speaking, chain operation must achieve unified market, unified distribution, unified store logo, unified business strategy, unified service specification, unified advertising and unified sales price. These series
The first purpose is to facilitate the standardization of shop name, shop appearance, goods and services, the specialization of procurement, distribution, sales, decision-making and operation, the purchase and sale of goods, information processing, advertising, staff training
Management specification consistency. However, due to the lack of authoritative theoretical guidance in this field and blind advance in practice, our country has engaged in forced chain stores of the "matchmaking" style, or has only tried to make a false name, without paying attention to the essence
As a result, there are generally problems of low standardization and poor standardization. Many chain enterprises cannot purchase goods uniformly, have no independent distribution center and service mode, and even some chain enterprises
There is no economic and business relationship between the industry headquarters and branches. As a result, of course, it is impossible to obtain the advantages of large batch and low price that are unique to chain operation, let alone to achieve intensification and standardization
Chemical operation.
（6） Backward construction of distribution center severely restricts the development of chain operation
The distribution center of chain enterprises is the core of chain operation. Distribution is the central link of chain operation, which is connected with manufacturers at one end and stores at the other end, and is in a central and hub position. Theoretically,
Each chain store does not have a warehouse, and the unified distribution center supplies the products according to the daily sales varieties. At present, the construction of distribution center of chain enterprises in China lags behind in the following aspects: (1) the unified distribution rate is not high; （2
）Small distribution scale; (3) The distribution technology is backward and inefficient. Most chain enterprises have a low level of mechanization and limited computer applications, which are mainly characterized by electromechanical integration and paperless
Distribution automation and modernization are far from the same. Some stores can not even purchase goods in a centralized way, and their operations are quite decentralized; Most stores do not have independent distribution centers, or the existing distribution centers are difficult to transport efficiently
Make; The construction of machine delivery center and information system lags behind, which has become a bottleneck restricting the development of chain enterprises. Hardware problems such as low distribution efficiency and low automation of warehouse management in distribution centers are still common
Exists.
（7） Weak management foundation
The outstanding problem in this aspect is that the operation is not standardized, there are too few professionals who really understand the chain operation, and the management level is backward. The lack of talents has become a major obstacle to the development of China's chain industry
In the chain stores that have been developed in China, except for some Sino foreign joint ventures and some large companies, most of them are not standardized, which seriously restricts the development of chain operation. this
Some problems are mainly manifested as follows: unreasonable organizational setup and division of functions, lack of scientific; The lack of professional talents and the low quality of personnel in some enterprises make the rules and regulations formulated exist
The greater lack of rationality, lack of scientific; The lack of professional talents and the low quality of personnel in some enterprises make the rules and regulations formulated have great defects and the management level cannot keep up
Although other enterprises have a high starting point, due to the uneven level of employees, the company's system cannot be truly implemented, the company's development strategy and business methods are lack of communication, and employees
The development of chain operation is not enough; The commodity structure is unreasonable, the positioning is not accurate, the commodity grade, shopping environment, display methods are the same, and there is a lack of innovation; The operation is inflexible and inefficient.
3、 The Development Trend of Supermarkets in China
After becoming a member of WTO, China's supermarkets will face fierce international competition from Wal Mart, Carrefour, Metro and other international retail giants while coping with domestic competition. Based on the analysis of the development history of foreign supermarkets and the current situation of supermarkets in China, we can see that under the background of globalization, the latest trends and trends in the development of supermarkets in China are mainly shown in the following aspects:
（1） Diversification of business types
At present, the types of supermarket business in China have gradually differentiated into different types, including supermarkets, large supermarkets, warehousing malls and convenience stores. The business area of the comprehensive supermarket is 2000-5000 square meters, mainly serving customers in specific residential areas, with the goal of becoming the "first shopping site" in the region; The business area of the hypermarket is more than 10000 square meters, which is sold at a low price, with complete business varieties and sufficient auxiliary area; The business area of the convenience supermarket is generally less than 1000 square meters, mainly engaged in food and daily necessities.
In addition, the types of chain supermarkets in China are constantly innovating. In addition to the comprehensive supermarkets dominated by food and small department stores, specialized supermarkets such as furniture supermarkets, daily necessities supermarkets, home appliances supermarkets, computer supermarkets, building materials supermarkets, and cultural supermarkets have also emerged.
It is expected that the future business types will be further subdivided into: fresh food supermarket as the main business type of basic life satisfaction; Take the large-scale comprehensive supermarket as the main business type of consumer demand satisfaction; Take warehouse type shopping malls as small stores, and group procurement as the main business type of satisfaction; Take convenience stores as the main business type of service satisfaction; Take professional and exclusive stores as the main business form to meet differentiated individual needs.
（2） Scale operation
With the development of the supermarket industry, the operation scale of the supermarket is showing a rising trend. This rising trend is mainly manifested in two aspects: on the one hand, the overall scale of supermarket chain companies has risen sharply; On the other hand, the single store area of the supermarket is also expanding.
It is an important secret for supermarket to develop and win by chain operation. As a small profit but quick turnover supermarket, it is necessary to highlight the scale benefit, and the important way to realize the scale benefit of supermarket is to actively carry out chain operation. Since franchise chain operation was adopted by some large supermarket chains, the scale of supermarkets has expanded rapidly.
With the continuous improvement of our people's living standard, supermarkets with high efficiency, large-scale and comfortable shopping environment are getting more and more consumers' favor. Chain supermarkets have become the mainstream business form of our commercial retail industry. The number of international large chain stores can reach 3000-5000, which are all over the world, and the procurement scope is almost global. For example, Carrefour and Wal Mart, which entered China only five years ago, have already ranked the third and ninth in the national commercial retail enterprise rankings in 1999. In 2001, Wal Mart, Carrefour and Metro decided to continue to expand the number of stores throughout China. Chain supermarkets are rapidly spreading to large and medium-sized cities, and the number of new stores is increasing rapidly. The report shows that in 2008, the sales volume and the number of stores in the chain industry continued to increase by more than 20%. Among them, the sales growth of chain supermarkets, department stores, convenience stores, home appliances, pharmacies and other businesses has increased, while the average growth of 10% of all businesses has been driven by the extension of new stores. At the same time, the sales scale of the "Top 100 Chain Stores in China" reached 1199.9 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 18.4%, which is the first time that the growth rate of the "Top 100 Chain Stores" is lower than 21.6% of the total retail sales of consumer goods since the statistics, and the growth rate of the sales scale continues to slow down (2003-2007: 45%, 39%, 42%, 25%, 21%). The total number of "Top 100 Chain Stores" reached 120775, with a year-on-year growth of 10.6%, the lowest growth rate in 10 years. All these indicate that chain supermarkets have become the mainstream of China's commercial retail industry.
（3） Differentiation of market positioning
In foreign countries, the characteristics of different types of stores are very distinct, especially in terms of price. The differences among convenience stores, food supermarkets, home clubs and hypermarkets are also obvious and will not be confused with each other. Both Kmart and Wal Mart are hypermarkets, but they rarely fight a price war. Instead, they attract customers by providing distinctive products.
Many large supermarkets in China are breaking through the traditional pattern of focusing on food, with increasingly diversified business varieties and more reasonable food structure than before. In the future, the development of China's supermarkets will also constantly clarify the market positioning of various supermarket formats, and the situation of thousands of troops walking on the single wooden bridge will be gone. The role of market orientation will be strengthened in all supermarket enterprises. When the mature supermarket enterprises further expand their business scale, they will continue to subdivide the market and find the right market position. Chain supermarkets in residential areas should focus on "fresh", add new products, eliminate unsalable products and develop green products. The convenience store is small in space and has no advantage in price. We should work hard on the word "convenience".