Qumei distributor's broken capital chain triggered industry agency model crisis

Qumei furniture dealers exposed the broken capital chain

A small incident that happened to Chongqing dealers, but let Beijing-based Qumei furniture into a crisis, and quickly spread in the home industry , people even start to wonder: What is wrong with furniture dealers?

A message that started in trade rumors after the National Day of: Qu Mei Furniture door closed 5 stores in Chongqing 3, the affected customers nearly 80, involving an amount of about 1.2 million yuan ......

The problem this time was that Liang Haipeng, a distributor of Qumei Furniture in Chongqing. Due to the withdrawal of the original shareholder, the capital chain was broken, resulting in no money to pay the Qumei furniture headquarters. The consumer did not produce the furniture in time after the deposit Unable to pick up the goods, the dealers ’stores in the major stores had to be closed one after another.

It is reported that Liang Haipeng cooperated with another shareholder two years ago to obtain the distribution right of Qumei Furniture Chongqing. Due to the good brand, new products, and good sales of Qumei Furniture, the operation is quite normal. Only in the case of the project did the capital chain break. Ouyang, the business manager of Qumei Furniture ’s Beijing headquarters, revealed that in early September this year, Qumei Furniture ’s headquarters had discovered that the distributors had not paid the goods due, and then interrupted the supply to Chongqing. Later, he learned that Liang Haipeng had financial difficulties. He had given him hundreds of thousands of yuan in financial support, but he still could not help him through the difficulties.

The distribution model to help home furnishing companies grow bigger and stronger quickly. With the break of the capital chain of Qumei Furniture's Chongqing distributors, consumers have no goods to mention and become the focus of industry attention. As a distributor who mainly deals with manufacturers only after dealing with operating pressure or unexpected events, it appears to be quite fragile and even chooses to run away. This has brought both economic and brand adverse effects to manufacturers. Especially under the trend of tightening real estate regulation, dealers whose business is not too good will make more and more manufacturers face a crisis. How to effectively control and control has become a problem that must be dealt with.

Dealer's awkward position in home management

Qumei Furniture ’s Chongqing distributor ’s capital chain broke, resulting in the inability to place orders with manufacturers and consumers unable to pick up deposits. It was just a case of the business model of the home furnishing industry. However, it reflects the awkward position of the dealer in the home business.

Distribution is a model adopted by many industries. A factory produces products and develops channels to the whole country and even the world. It is limited to countries, provinces, cities and other regions. There are one or several authorized dealers. As an independent legal entity, the dealers establish special stores in local stores or in Establish independent stores on the street to sell products to consumers. For the manufacturer, the dealer is the customer who sells the product; for the store, the dealer is the customer who rents the booth; for the consumer, the dealer is the agent or bond that buys the product from the manufacturer.

As an indispensable intermediate link in product sales, the dealer's situation is often not so good: For a strong manufacturer, the dealer is just a trading partner, one more and one less, it doesn't matter if you don't do it; others will do it; For the store, you are just the owner of the rental stall. If you do n’t rent someone else, you will rent it. If you rent it, you do n’t sell the brand. Others can rent the brand. For consumers, you sell the brand today. Just find you, tomorrow you will not sell this brand, there is no need to care about you.

The word "buying and selling" runs through the whole process of the dealer's operation. It is a sales relationship with the manufacturer, and the manufacturer will be allowed to pick up the goods at the wholesale price; it is a sales relationship with the store. If you pay the rent, you will be provided with a place to open a specialty store. Buying and selling relationships, collecting consumer payments, and then picking up the goods at the wholesale price to earn the difference. It is precisely related to "buying and selling" that causes problems in dealers, which may affect manufacturers, consumers and stores, forming a chain reaction.

Distributors stir home industry reshuffle

"2012 is a reshuffle period for the furniture industry . First, a batch of dealers, then a batch of stores, and finally a batch of factories are washed away." Zhang Zhaohua, the chairman of Fu Shijie Furniture, who was born from a dealer, did this earlier this year prediction. After more than half a year of market baptism, his prediction is gradually becoming a reality.

In Beijing, there are many brand stores such as House of Actuality, Red Star Macalline, Jimei, Chengchengcheng, Lanjinglijia, etc. These stores were hard to find in the past, and the brands are all excellent. In order to find one in one store At the stalls, the leaders of the manufacturers even visited the capital in person, asking for acquaintances, relationships, and gifts. Today, in the various activities carried out in the store, the figure of the CEO has rarely been seen. In some brand stores, we sometimes see booths surrounded by canvases that are “decorating, so stay tuned”. When we go in, we ca n’t see any decoration trends. In fact, most of them are the vacancies left after the brand is withdrawn. , Have not had time to find other brands to make up. As for the news of the transformation of the Bafanglong lighting market and the closure of the Dongfangyuan Lishuiqiao store, people in the home furnishing industry exclaimed: The real shuffle is here!

The dealer is much dead, the store will not be able to operate, and the goods of the manufacturer will lose the sales channel. Distributors in an awkward situation stood at the forefront of the home industry shuffle and acted as warriors and martyrs.

Home dealers' operating risks increase

Problems with dealers in Chongqing will not cause a huge blow to Qumei Furniture's operating system and brand building. On the contrary, drawing lessons from this incident, Qumei may also gain new opportunities for development by strengthening the management of dealers. However, for most home furnishing companies, neither the strength, the brand or the ability to handle the crisis can be compared with Qumei Furniture. In the face of the dealer's defection or failure, they may only sigh.

It is understood that with the exception of a few manufacturers that use direct sales, 90% of the manufacturers in the furniture industry adopt the dealer model, and they are the heroes that help the home furnishing companies grow rapidly. Every year, many furniture manufacturers find distributors at the Dongguan Furniture Fair and Guangzhou Furniture Expo . Through their opening of specialty stores across the country, they use their excellent local distribution capabilities to quickly increase sales without having to invest capital, The labor cost can concentrate on expanding production and perfecting product types.

In the face of market crisis, dealers have also become a shield and umbrella for home furnishing companies. A manager of a furniture company revealed to reporters that, in 2012, when the market was in a slump, distributors across the country were able to ride through the difficulties together with them. "We have 300 specialty stores across the country. In the past, the dealers made a lot of money. Even if a company loses 100,000 yuan a year, it is not a big deal. But if the money is borne by the manufacturer, it is 30 million yuan. Liquidity is basically lost, and the market has no way to do it! "

However, in 2012, the real estate regulation is still not loose, the home industry shuffle will speed up, which is first reflected in the dealers. Jia Hongzhang said that in addition to the initial store opening expenses, the main expenses of daily operations of the dealers include two aspects: one is booth rent, and the other is staff salaries. When the sales are optimistic, these two aspects are not a problem. The rent can be paid on time, and the staff income is also very stable; but once the sales are not up, the problem comes: the gross profit is not enough to pay the rent, and the commission is based on sales. The calculated salary of the personnel is not guaranteed. This will cause two problems: one is that the rent cannot be paid, and the store cannot let you operate, which will clear you off; the other is that the employee's income is too small, and they will change jobs or change jobs. The final result is only one: the dealer closes and closes.

Avoiding dealer risks becomes an industry issue

Dealers collapsed, stores lost tenants, manufacturers lost terminals, and consumers lost shopping channels. If all dealers of a certain brand in a city were finished, the after-sales service crisis of previously sold products would be triggered. The shuffled dominoes were overthrown.

Dealer reshuffling means that the traditional business model of the home furnishing industry, which uses traditional agents to expand channels and increase sales, is facing an unprecedented crisis test. How to avoid the risks of dealers has become a subject in front of practitioners in the home furnishing industry.

Facing the crisis of distributors, Qumei Furniture made a solution after several days of investigation and verification: customers who have paid a deposit can directly send the balance to the manufacturer ’s account to pick up the goods, and at the same time, several stores All the samples are liquidated to ensure that consumers who request refunds can get the money smoothly. In an interview with reporters, Zhao Ruihai, chairman of Qumei Furniture, said that such an incident has never occurred in Qumei Furniture ’s business for more than 20 years. This incident is purely a case and was caused by the dealer ’s personal factors. At the same time, he promised “will never Let consumers suffer losses ".

However, the Qumei furniture distributor incident not only sounded the alarm for the industry, but also mentioned the prevention of dealer risks on the agenda. Industry insiders remind manufacturers to strengthen the control of distributors and pay close attention to distributors' dynamics. Once the signs are found to be wrong, they should immediately take measures, or manufacturers directly take over, or replace distributors. At the same time, as consumers should also be vigilant, buy furniture as much as possible to choose large-scale stores with credibility protection, remember not to covet small deals with dealers to "sign private orders", private transactions, must sign an order with the store sales contract, the store can be guaranteed Consumers ’legitimate rights and interests, if the dealer defected, then the store is responsible to meet the pickup or refund requirements.