Observation of the survival state of the Chinese furniture market

The overall decline of the Chinese furniture market has lasted for nearly two years, and so far no signs of improvement have been seen. "Shuffle" also voices one after another, in addition to those who were affected dealers, and manufacturers, as well as strong hypermarkets.

No longer a strong store?

Since the beginning of this year, some hypermarkets have taken the initiative to lower rents or introduced preferential policies through measures such as disguised rebates.

In Shenyang, a major town in the Northeast, four stores were closed in November 2011. Although no hypermarkets were closed this year, some obvious changes have taken place. For example, the first store in Shenyang, Shenyang, has launched a preferential policy of “10% discount on annual rent” since August; the third store in Shenyang, Shenyang, is rent-free from June to September this year. If the situation in September is not good, it will continue Preferential policies were introduced; Red Star Macalline Dadong Store used to have a volume of 200,000 square meters. It was adjusted this year and 1/3 of the area was cut off. Qumei and other brands have already withdrawn.

According to analysis by industry insiders, the reason why Shenyang Sandian has introduced a four-month rent-free preferential policy is mainly due to its insufficient business atmosphere, inaccurate brand structure, and excessive marketing methods. And after the adjusted Red Star Macalline Dadong store, whether the investment is full, many dealers are skeptical of the wait-and-see attitude.

Similarly, in Hefei, Kunming, Guangzhou, Shanghai, some well-known chain stores have also introduced different levels of preferential policies for rent reduction.

According to Wan Ping, chairman of Hefei Wanjiamei Co., Ltd., "Hefei Red Star Macalline (one store) rent was reduced by 15% in 2013 (that is, from September this year to September next year); the sixth space is rent-free for 4 months; Red Star Beauty Kailong (Second Store) has just opened and rent-free for 2 months. "

Li Junming, general manager of Kunming Hong Kong Capital, revealed that "Some of Kunming's hypermarkets are the owners' initiative to reduce rents, most of them are 20% off, and some are 30% off."

According to a senior dealer in Guangzhou, Guangzhou Jisheng Weibang (Pazhou Store) has a 40% discount in rent for the whole year.

A Shanghai-based dealer who asked not to be named reported: "At present, Shanghai hypermarkets have clearly reduced rents. Generally, they do more implicitly, and some preferential policies are disguised, such as engaging in event rebates."

Why have always been tough supermarkets take the initiative to reduce rents? An executive who resigned from a well-known chain store broke a line in his reflection, "there is no more market than a cattle store."

In fact, the store's initiative to reduce rents has also been recognized by dealers to a certain extent.

Wan Ping said: "This can temporarily solve some problems, at least this time can be extended for a longer period of time, everyone is struggling."

Li Junming believes that "the hypermarket's initiative to reduce rents is wise and can stabilize the market. With such a subsidy, the key is to give merchants a sense of stability. The first is the impetus for the upcoming morale of the peak season, and the second is that the store cares about the merchant The profit and loss, the willingness to take some responsibility for the impetus, under such a push and pull, the dealer can still accept or be willing to persist for a period of time. Without these two forces, some dealers may give up completely. "

Can the pattern of strength and weakness change ?

Once upon a time, the high profile and strength of hypermarkets became an industry feature.

"In 2010, I felt that the model of the third store in Shenyang was not suitable for the development of dealers, because it would make us unable to control the cost of costs, so I grinded back and forth with them a lot. I, sealed my shop, scared me, and said that I wanted to be fire-checked. I was billed every day, unlike corporate behavior. Maybe the landlord did this. Later, I also used many means, including bundling. It ’s better than the third shop. The third shop has renovated the first shop and the third shop in order to attract investment. In fact, it is not to upgrade, but to tie the three shops with bad business. ”A well-known distributor in Shenyang still The memory is still fresh.

Can the past strength of hypermarkets be changed in the face of the current crisis? Although we have seen some stores start to try to lower their posture, reduce rents or introduce preferential policies on a small scale, can deep-rooted concepts change?

Taking Kunming as an example, this year's largest local store of 20,000 square meters has a particularly small passenger flow, and there is a serious phenomenon of 100% loss of money to merchants. Even in this case, the store is still unwilling to sacrifice some of the benefits to the merchants. As a result, the merchants inside brewed some countermeasures and some disputes occurred. To this end, on the eve of the Dongguan exhibition in September, Li Junming, who had just been elected as the president of the new Home Business Association, had no time to watch the exhibition and hurried back to Kunming for mediation.

"I was going to talk about them on behalf of them, but as a result, I did not talk about something that is of substantial help to everyone." Li Junming was quite helpless about this. This also further shows the weak position of the seller group. Before the strong sales scene, they still lack the right to speak.

"Generally speaking, the contract signed by the store and the merchant is annual. From the spirit of the contract, it is our business to lose money or not. However, before signing the contract, the merchant is not even qualified to review the contract content and terms. Negotiations. In fact, the merchants originally expected that in the most difficult time, the store could sacrifice some revenue subsidies to them. Now it seems that the differences are relatively large. "

He also made an estimate of the future development of this incident. "Even in September and October, no merchants believe that they can achieve the same month. It is desperate. I estimate that this will lead to a large-scale withdrawal of stores. 10 A batch will be withdrawn after the month, and a large area of ​​stores will be withdrawn after the Spring Festival. "

He also emphasized that in this round of trends, if some hypermarkets cannot see the situation clearly and there is a large-scale withdrawal of stores, the vitality will definitely be hurt, and it is unlikely that it will be filled by supplementing investment in the future.

Where is the way out?

For hypermarkets, 2012 was also a difficult period full of hardships. The retreat of the Red Star Guangzhou Pazhou store, the "crash" of the Tianjin store, and the "bulk closure" of the Beijing store that attracted the attention of CCTV ... all made a sensation. We also see that in addition to market conditions, the crises they face are still being weakened.

Wu Haiming, chairman of Shanghai New Aristocratic Home Furnishing, believes that small dealers must hold a group and open large stores, so that they have more say in front of factories and shopping malls.

Fang Qi, chairman of Shenyang Gutong Jinjia Home Furnishing Chain, put the focus of future channel development on cultivating his own brand and building independent stores. For the cooperation with the store, he believes that multiple factors need to be combined-for the case where the store can make money and the dealer can make money, the dealer can cooperate; for the store to make money, the dealer can not survive, the dealer can not cooperate; Dealers should resolutely abandon stores that are ridiculously high in rents; dealers should also resolutely give up on stores that are not well integrated.

From the perspective of the store, behaviors such as rent reductions or disguised subsidies have heralded a change. But what should this transformation include? You know, it is not enough to just lower the original high head a little.

In this regard, Fang Qi, who began to call for "market changes" as early as the beginning of the year, believes that stores should also change their sublease model. "Short-term subletting is possible. The long-term subletting model is not suitable for economic laws, especially for the actual situation in the furniture industry. Since the property is not owned by hypermarkets, hypermarkets are also under pressure to increase operating costs. Rent is also painful for dealers. "

Of course, it is not limited to this. Apart from behavior, how to strengthen service awareness is a long-term project.

"The decline in sales is still a big problem. To be honest, many dealers are desperate and have withdrawn from the industry. I always think that this is not just a matter for dealers, but also related to the survival of the store, and the lips are cold." Wan Ping said.

The night before dawn is the darkest, and this night seems to last a long time. In the middle of it, dealers need change, and hypermarkets also need change.