Facing the scale of trillion-level industries, it is even more necessary to win in stability.
Text/Shanshan Xu
In just two years, the pandemic has dramatically changed people's payment habits and even the way they travel. The capricious changes in the epidemic have hit traditional industries such as tourism and catering hard, and some companies have been forced to withdraw from the market, while others have sought to accelerate digital transformation and actively help themselves.
"The proportion of consumers booking and accessing car maintenance services online has increased significantly in the past two years." Zeng Hongwei, director and general manager of Shanghai Fuchuang Industrial Development Co., Ltd., pointed out that the acceleration of the digitalization process is also reflected in the maintenance industry of the automotive aftermarket.
Source: China Port Network
According to the Ministry of Public Security, the number of motor vehicles in the mainland will reach 395 million in 2021, of which 302 million are cars. As car ownership continues to grow, consumption upgrades have prompted car owners to be more willing to accept high-quality standard services, and the maintenance industry has grown rapidly in recent years.
According to the data of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, the scale of the mainland automobile maintenance market will reach 1.6 trillion yuan by 2026, with a compound growth rate of 4.15% from 2021 to 2026. In the face of this potential Red Sea market, new retail enterprises represented by Fuchuang have challenged traditional 4S stores and individual auto repair plants.
"The digital age is about being faster"
"In the Internet era, the digital age, it is to be faster, only faster." Zeng Hongwei said that market demand changes too fast, and the speed of consumption upgrading is also very fast. Correspondingly, competitors are also very fast to launch products and iterations, and Fuchuang must be faster.
In 2021, the second year of its establishment, Fuchuang set itself a goal - to break the situation and further create a new retail model that reaches consumers online and offline full links, and the progress of achieving the goals is as follows:
The number of stores nationwide will reach 39,000 by the end of 2021, including more than 400 franchised stores and more than 1,700 brand certified stores;
It has initially formed an eight-point support system for the franchise system, covering brand image, site selection and construction, marketing, digital system support, supply chain support, operation support and even personnel training. Based on these efforts, Fuchuang's new retail business last year achieved 10 times rapid growth compared with the initial stage of 2020;
Last year, the number of online registered users increased by nearly 5 times year-on-year, and customer satisfaction exceeded 99%;
The fourth self-operated store of Shanghai Zhoupu Mobil No. 1 Car Maintenance opened a few days ago
This year, Fuchuang has put the target tone on improving efficiency. According to Zhao Jie, executive deputy general manager of Fuchuang, the company is building a data middle platform through the R&D center to fully understand consumer behavior and consumption data, and better design systems and design services.
In addition to consumer touchpoints, Fuchuang will also use the Smart Store system to empower stores. Compared with individual auto repair plants and mom-and-pop stores, the intelligent store system can more directly and accurately match the needs of consumers, and store owners can also manage user data online, understand the status of warehousing and logistics, and report the demand for marketing materials, thereby driving user demand.
As an important part of the realization of the above goals, Fuchuang will continue to expand its service categories this year, while focusing on cost reduction and efficiency improvement of the whole chain of the supply chain. In 2021, Fuchuang dealers will double in the construction of urban warehouses, with a total of more than 300 urban warehouses across the country, covering oil, accessories and maintenance products. In addition, the Kunshan Parts Center Warehouse was officially put into operation in July last year, which greatly improved the efficiency of service supply.
When the special service for new energy vehicles is launched
Unlike the rapid development of China's auto market, the service market has lagged behind in the past decade or so. Although the current scale has begun to emerge, the industry as a whole still has the characteristics of scattered, chaotic and small. With the continuous advancement of the "new four modernizations" of automobiles, the automotive aftermarket is ushering in a new stage of development and opportunities.
Looking forward to the next decade, Fuchuang will continue to adhere to the new retail model that combines online and offline, expanding the number of service stores to more than 50,000 and more than 4,000 franchised stores, an increase of more than 10 times compared with 2021.
However, as Zeng Hongwei said, the establishment of store standardization is not an easy task, and any process from implementation to standard implementation is not achieved overnight. But challenges are opportunities, and walking past is infinite scenery.
Image source: Baidu
At the same time, she also mentioned that the maintenance service of new energy vehicles in the future is also the direction of Fuchuang's attention. It is reported that Fuchuang has planned to start the development of new energy vehicle service projects this year.
In terms of general-purpose projects such as automobile beauty, filming and other needs, Fuchuang will continue to develop technology on the basis of the original, which can be extended to new energy vehicles; it is also researching and developing special new energy vehicles to service projects.
In addition, new energy vehicle manufacturers, especially new car manufacturing forces, are different from traditional car companies in providing services in the entire aftermarket. Therefore, Fuchuang will explore how to cooperate with new energy vehicle companies to provide vehicle maintenance services.
However, at this stage, the fuel vehicle business will still be the focus of Fuchuang's next business. From the perspective of the entire market share, the domestic passenger car market at the end of last year exceeded 300 million, of which more than 7.8 million new energy vehicles, accounting for 2.6%, more than 90% of the market protagonist is still fuel vehicles.
In Zeng Hongwei's view, "doing a good job in the current business is still the top priority of Fuchuang.". From the perspective of the long-term goal, Fuchuang will be committed to building Mobil 1 Car Maintenance into the most popular and trusted car maintenance brand in the Chinese market.