First, the characteristics of the development of multinational retail enterprises in China
1. The expansion of commercial formats is mainly based on large supermarkets.
When multinational retail enterprises enter the China market, they will generally avoid the format mode of department stores that have entered the mature stage at home and abroad, and mainly focus on the most growing new formats in the world, such as large-scale comprehensive supermarkets, warehouse-type shopping malls, large-scale home building materials specialty stores and convenience stores, among which large-scale comprehensive supermarkets occupy the dominant position. At present, the proportion of foreign capital in large-scale comprehensive supermarkets in China has exceeded 60%.
2. The trend of sole proprietorship is obvious
After 2005, the China government lifted the equity restrictions on foreign-funded retail enterprises, and the way for foreign-funded retail enterprises to enter the China market is more and more similar to the international market. Sole proprietorship and M&A will become the dominant ways for foreign retail enterprises to enter the China market in the future. Metro and other enterprises that entered the China market through domestic cooperation have recovered their shares and implemented more flexible and independent sole proprietorship.
3. Regional expansion is transferred to the central and western regions and small and medium-sized cities.
The markets of multinational retail enterprises in China are generally concentrated in the eastern coastal areas and big cities. However, the data show that the central and western regions and small and medium-sized cities are developing faster than the eastern and big cities. This shows that the attraction of eastern regions and big cities to multinational retail enterprises tends to be stable, and the central and western regions (especially the western regions) and small and medium-sized cities are increasingly valued by foreign retail enterprises.
Second, the competitive advantage analysis of domestic and foreign retail enterprises
1. Grasp the consumer culture
In the marketing channel, retail enterprises have the most frequent and direct contact with consumers. The retail enterprises in China have been operating for many years and have a profound local cultural foundation, so they can really understand the consumption cultural orientation and changing trend of China consumers. For example, the characteristics of savings preference formed on the basis of China people's tradition of thrift have typical China characteristics. China has a vast territory, and different customs have formed different consumption habits, thus forming different consumption characteristics. For example, the diet in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is sweet, while that in Sichuan and Hunan is spicy, which is also instant noodles. Lianhua Supermarket mainly distributes dried bamboo shoots, old ducks, fresh shrimps, fish plates and other light flavors in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, while beef with sauerkraut and beef with hot and sour taste are the main products in Chengdu, Changsha and other cities. It takes a certain process for multinational retail enterprises to adapt to these consumption cultures and habits.
2. Localization of human resources
The top managers of retail chain enterprises in China know more about China market and China consumers than foreign managers, and have more experience in handling market information. At present, large multinational retail enterprises are actively promoting localization, but they still invest a lot of energy in China market research. China has low labor cost and smooth communication between superiors and subordinates. However, the labor costs of multinational retail enterprises such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour remain high, and their top employees are basically foreigners sent by the headquarters, while China people are basically middle and low-level managers. Due to the differences in cultural background, mode of thinking and working methods between superiors and subordinates, the income gap is also very different, which will inevitably lead to a lack of understanding between superiors and subordinates and lead to communication obstacles.
3. Enterprise scale effect
Most chain stores in China expand the chain scale by direct investment from the head office to establish direct stores. However, the establishment of branches requires huge funds, and the lack of funds makes the scale of domestic retail enterprises generally small. At present, the average number of chain stores in China is below 10, accounting for more than half, with only 2-3 stores, which is far from the internationally recognized minimum standard of 14 stores for profit. In addition, most international retail giants adopt centralized procurement policies to improve their negotiation ability with suppliers, reduce procurement costs, maximize channel costs and profits, and effectively prevent commercial bribery and standardize procurement behavior. The disadvantage of small scale leads to the high procurement cost of retail enterprises in China and affects their competitiveness.
4. Management level and competitiveness
Standardization and standardization are the core of chain operation, but most retail enterprises in China have not yet formed a perfect and standardized management system. Management only pays attention to marketing and price war, but ignores the research and management of market and marketing strategy, resulting in lack of long-term planning, unclear development strategy, chaotic management and low efficiency. In addition, the distribution center is not perfect, and it is difficult to enjoy the price concessions brought by unified large-scale distribution. China's retail enterprises have outdated chain management concepts, lack of their own operating characteristics, imperfect operating functions, blind expansion of some chain supermarkets and convenience stores, and disorderly establishment of shop outlets, resulting in uneconomical scale. The lack of retail talents is also one of the reasons why China's retail industry is not competitive. After China's entry into WTO, many world-renowned retail groups entered China at low cost, which put forward higher requirements for China's retail chain industry.
Third, China retail enterprises should adopt coping strategies
1. Adopt differentiated competition strategy.
Competitive advantage is the core of a successful marketing strategy, Michael? Porter combined his competitive strategies and put forward four general strategies: cost leadership, differentiation, cost focus and difference focus. Compared with most domestic retail enterprises, multinational retail groups have three advantages in cost strategy: first, they have regional or even global group-scale purchasing advantages; Second, it has abundant funds to support its long-term loss-making business strategy of competing for market share; Third, its advanced management technology and efficient operation system save costs. At present, some local retail enterprises in China pursue scale too much in the development process, which leads to high management costs and fails to form scale effect. China retail enterprises should adopt differentiated competition strategy to compete with foreign retail enterprises, including spatial format differentiation strategy, positioning differentiation strategy and regional differentiation strategy;
(1) business form differentiation strategy
Multi-national retailers' large-scale integrated supermarkets have dominated the China market, but the advantages of other formats are not obvious. Therefore, for the retail enterprises in China, there is still a lot of room for development of business models such as department stores, supermarkets, boutique stores, specialty stores and convenience stores. Taking the department store industry as an example, a survey shows that the sales of supermarkets in Shanghai in 2006 decreased by 8.9% compared with the same period of last year, while the sales of department stores increased by 13. 1% compared with the same period of last year. In Guangzhou, Baiguang, Tianhe City Department Store, Guangzhou Friendship and Guangzhou Wangfujing Department Store occupy almost 90% of the department store market. Therefore, in the department store format, as long as we find the theme and positioning that conform to our own characteristics, we can gain a competitive advantage. In addition to single format operation, Chinese retail enterprises can also reasonably combine formats, avoid risks, penetrate the market, enjoy the supply chain and gain more market share. Retailers in China should not only imitate multinational retail enterprises, but also deeply study the innovation of formats that meet the needs of local consumers in China and develop new formats that meet the needs of local consumers and the national conditions of China. Only in this way can we truly gain a competitive advantage in the competition with foreign retailers through the differentiation of business formats.
(2) Positioning differentiation strategy
At present, some retail enterprises in China tend to have the same position in the competition with foreign retail enterprises. With the entry of Carrefour and Wal-Mart, the retail industry in China has shown a trend of "scale" and the blind development of large supermarkets has led to fierce competition and market saturation in big cities. Retail enterprises in China are facing the problem of repositioning and transformation to meet different market demands. While developing large-scale supermarkets, Shanghai Lianhua has achieved good benefits by transforming traditional supermarkets in a large proportion. For example, Shanghai Lianhua transformed the standard supermarkets of 1 1,000 square meters, 1 1,500 square meters and 3,000 square meters into fresh supermarkets, food fortified supermarkets and community stores respectively. China's retail enterprises should do a good job in market segmentation, define the target customer groups, and implement the positioning differentiation strategy according to consumers' demand preferences. Microscopically, this differentiation can be reflected in products, prices, convenience, services and so on.
(3) regional differentiation strategy
Although multinational retail enterprises tend to shift to the central and western regions and small and medium-sized cities in layout strategy, China has a vast market area, and it is impossible for multinational retail enterprises to reach every corner of China market. The problem of localization will also make multinational retail enterprises face an adaptation period, which provides space for local retail enterprises to develop. China's local retail industry is born and raised locally. Familiar with the local market environment and domestic commercial laws and regulations, know China's worldly wisdom, and have localized public relations means, which are more in line with local consumption demand in products and closer to local consumption habits in services. Therefore, it is the core of the regional differentiation strategy of local retail enterprises in the future to choose the market gap and expand rapidly in cities where foreign capital cannot enter quickly.