In recent years, there have been more and more chain convenience stores in China. In the context of the continuous increase in the proportion of online retail, convenience stores have become one of the fast-growing industries in the field of physical retail.
The "2022 China Convenience Store Development Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") jointly released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association and KPMG shows that the sales of China's convenience store industry have maintained a rapid growth of more than 10% for three consecutive years. In 2021, the sales of convenience stores nationwide reached 349.2 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 17.7%, of which the sales of brand chain convenience stores reached 305 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%.
Since the beginning of 2020, the offline retail industry, especially large supermarkets, has been hit hard by the pandemic. According to data from the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, in 2021, the overall operating performance of China's top 100 supermarket companies is not very optimistic, and the sales scale is on the decline, of which 62 companies have fewer sales. At the same time, the convenience store industry has entered a rising period. From 2019 to 2020, the sales growth rate of the convenience store industry increased from 13% to 16% and further increased to 17.7% in 2021, which is much higher than that of large supermarkets, small supermarkets and other formats.
The "Report" shows that from 2019 to 2021, the proportion of community-based convenience stores in various convenience stores has soared from 30.4% to 58.7%, and more than half of the convenience stores have opened community group purchase businesses.
Integrated multiple online and offline advantages
Compared with other physical retail industries such as large supermarkets, medium and small supermarkets, why has the convenience store industry achieved a contrarian rise?
For offline channels, since the outbreak of the pandemic, convenience stores have played an important role in the supply of materials for people's livelihood by virtue of their dense offline outlets, mature supply chain and the advantages of "small, many, flexible, and near".
For online channels, the increasingly active instant retail format has also given the convenience store industry more competitive advantages.
According to expert analysis, it is a major advantage of various life service outlets such as convenience stores to meet the needs of consumers through the chain network throughout parks, communities and universities.
Source: People's Daily