Author | Gary
Source | Auto Service World (ID: asworld168)
Since the beginning of this year, the changes of upstream car companies are not only in the sales side of new cars, but also in the after-sales strategy, especially in the layout of independent after-sales, new variables have also emerged.
Take a look at a few recent moves.
DPCA and JD Car Maintenance have reached a strategic cooperation, the former not only authorizes the original parts of the latter, but also guides its service outlets to join JD Car Maintenance.
SAIC Volkswagen chose to cooperate with Tmall Car Maintenance, involving original service and parts authorization, original construction standard training, system integration and other projects.
On the side of Tuhu Car Maintenance, it first cooperated with Volkswagen FAW Engine Plant to obtain the authorization of original parts, and then cooperated with Dongfeng Southern Group, which is a state-owned holding enterprise of Dongfeng Motor Group, which not only directly supplies original parts to Tuhu, but also plans to open the first batch of 13 Tuhu factory stores.
Cats, tigers and dogs have entered the authorization system of upstream car companies, breaking the authorization barriers of original parts; On the other hand, it can also be said that the layout of independent after-sales by car companies has entered the 2.0 stage.
The 1.0 phase began with SAIC and its car enjoyment, relying on the two-pronged approach of auto service chain and auto parts supply chain, car companies have established independent after-sales brands, but still maintain the closed nature of original parts.
The 2.0 stage has emerged this year, and car companies have begun to embrace national chains such as cats, tigers and dogs, and gradually open up original parts and original service standards.
From 1.0 to 2.0, the strategic shift of car companies will inevitably have traces, which will not only have an impact on the original car company-4S system, but also have an impact on independent after-sales auto service stores.
1. The layout of independent after-sales 1.0 stage of car companies: three paths, the road is bumpy
In 2014, SAIC launched Chexiang.com, which is positioned on the O2O platform and relies on SAIC's brands and dealers to provide customers with one-stop solutions, including automobile sales and after-sales services.
At that time, SAIC's internal positioning for the car sharing network was to open up the "seeing, selecting, buying, using, and selling" of automobiles, and the core was the "buying" of new car sales, and then extending to the "use" of maintenance and the "sale" of second-hand cars.
However, new car e-commerce has never been able to run through the Chinese market.
Therefore, in 2015, SAIC launched the Chexiangjia project, focusing on the offline store service scene and laying out the auto service chain in a direct way, which opened the prelude to the independent after-sales layout of car companies.
Subsequently, BAIC Good Cultivation, SAIC General Motors Workshop, Ford Quick Lane, DPCA Sunshine Craftsman, PSA European Maintenance, Chery Auto Beijian, etc., and the independent after-sales systems of car companies have announced their own plans and goals one after another.
This can be regarded as the 1.0 stage of independent after-sales layout of car companies.
After sorting it out, there are three main paths for car companies in the 1.0 stage to enter the game.
The first path is to take the auto service chain as the main body, and then build the second accessories brand, and Chexiangjia is the representative.
In September 2015, Chexiangjia was officially launched, and in two years, 1,100 Chexiangjia directly operated stores in more than 100 cities across the country have been developed.
In this process, Chexiang Group launched the second accessories brand Chexiangpei as a supply chain support for store expansion.
First, there is an auto service chain, and then there is an auto parts system, which has the advantage that the front-end demand can stimulate the back-end supply, and will not cause a surplus of the supply side; However, the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the lack of supply efficiency, which will lead to inefficient services on the demand side.
Therefore, the subsequent car companies first start from the auto parts supply chain and differentiate the second and third paths.
The second path is to build a second accessories brand and expand the auto service chain on this basis, and SAIC-GM Workshop is the representative.
In 2016, SAIC-GM acquired the parts brand ACDelco and integrated and launched a new brand Decor, which became the second parts brand in addition to the original parts. It wasn't until 2018 that SAIC-GM officially released the car workshop.
The advantage of this approach is that by building its own auto parts supply chain system, it can form a cooperative relationship with auto service stores in the market, rather than becoming a hostile relationship with directly operated stores from the beginning.
The third path, the acquisition of auto parts chains, by auto parts to promote the development of auto service chains, Stellantis (formerly PSA) European maintenance is representative.
In 2016, PSA started European maintenance, and then successively invested in and controlled regional auto parts chains, including Shanghai Jianxin, Shandong Youpei Auto Chain, Fujian Longxinda Auto Parts Chain, etc., and integrated into an auto parts supply chain platform.
On this basis, European maintenance relies on regional auto parts chains to develop offline franchised auto service stores, with higher resource utilization and lower capital costs.
In addition to the three paths, there are direct sales, trusteeship, franchise and other modes of auto service chains, as well as regional divisions such as first- and second-tier cities and third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities; The second accessory brand involves the difference of whether to launch its own brand.
However, regardless of the differences, in the 1.0 stage, the original intention of car companies to lay out independent after-sales is mainly to supplement and improve the limitations of the 4S system in after-sales.
The first development of the auto parts supply chain system can alleviate the contradiction between the 4S system and the independent after-sales system within the group to a certain extent.
After all, the second accessories brand has not broken the closed system of original parts, and still continues the original advantages of 4S stores to ensure the independence of the car company-4S system.
However, judging from the results, no car company's independent after-sales layout has achieved the original goal, and it can even be described as unsuccessful:
Chexiangjia significantly reduced the scale of offline stores around 2020; Good cultivation transformed into a new energy business, and gradually sold the back track after the launch of the Jihu Operation; The lathe workshop has been in a state of stagnation in expansion; Quick Lane, Daisheng Car Service, etc. directly withdrew from the Chinese market.
The main reasons for this lie in several points.
First, the auto service chain model of car companies has gone through too much trial and error in the early stage, wasting a certain window period, and then the decision-making and adjustment speed is relatively slow.
Second, the second parts brand is still limited by the front-end car brand, and it is difficult to develop into a complete and scale advantage system.
The third is the rise of Internet auto service chains such as cats, tigers and dogs, relying on capital and scale, fighting price wars, squeezing the space of independent after-sales auto service chains of car companies.
More essentially, the core of car companies still lies in the research and development, manufacturing and sales of new cars, and the independent after-sales system is only a project within the car company, and the attention is not high. It is unknown how much support and patience car companies are willing to provide.
Second, the layout of car companies independent after-sales 2.0 stage: open the original parts, group cats, tigers and dogs
Time has come to this year, and the independent after-sales strategy of car companies has undergone qualitative changes.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, SAIC Volkswagen, FAW-Volkswagen Engine Plant, Dongfeng Dongfeng Automobile (a state-owned holding enterprise under Dongfeng Motor Group), these car companies or enterprises owned by car companies, have cooperated with cats, tigers and dogs.
Combing through these collaborations, we will find several characteristics and commonalities.
First, the first to take action is SAIC, FAW, Dongfeng, Volkswagen, Peugeot Citroen, etc., covering old state-owned enterprises and international head car companies, undoubtedly releasing a signal of "big brother taking the lead".
Second, in each cooperation, it involves the authorization of original parts and original services, breaking the closed nature of the original car company-4S system.
Although there have been different forms of original parts authorization models before, this is the first time that upstream car companies have opened up to the general public, which is equivalent to an official announcement.
Third, it is the preferred partner of car companies, which is invariably designated as cats, tigers and dogs, and is interested in its national layout, store scale, supply chain system and other standardized capabilities, which are convenient for business development.
Furthermore, car companies have even begun to guide their store outlets to join Cats, Tigers and Dogs, which can be regarded as a recognition of the feasibility of the current car chain model.
It can be said that the old state-owned enterprises and international head car companies have opened the 2.0 stage of independent after-sales layout of car companies.
At this stage, car companies no longer strongly promote the second parts brand, but directly open the original parts to independent after-sales; At the same time, car companies no longer expand their auto service chain brands, but adopt a cooperative model.
This kind of transformation may be described as huddle for warmth.
On the one hand, the sales of fuel vehicles are declining, and car companies are caught in the competition of price wars, and the price inversion of new cars has become the norm; At the same time, with the average age of vehicles in China approaching 7 years, more and more fuel vehicles are out of warranty, and a large number of car owners are flowing from 4S stores to the independent aftermarket.
If the early layout of independent after-sales by car companies is a supplement to the 4S system, then the layout of independent after-sales is now a must.
In the case that the implementation of its own auto service auto parts brand is not smooth, it is natural to choose the existing mature brand and system.
On the other hand, the front-end new car sales have been blocked, which has magnified the after-sales disadvantages of 4S stores, such as low network density, poor timeliness, and low cost performance. The experience of dealer groups such as Pangda and Guanghui proves that the 4S system is in jeopardy.
Today, there are more than 300 million fuel vehicles in the Chinese market, they have a large number of after-sales service needs, the future of the 4S system is uncertain, and car companies also need to do a good job of plan B to ensure that the after-sales demand of their own brand fuel vehicles is guaranteed in the future.
At the same time, the above-mentioned status quo is not just a problem faced by one car company, but covers all car companies.
Therefore, the 2.0 stage of independent after-sales layout of car companies is only a beginning.
Not surprisingly, there will be more car companies to follow suit, and the cooperation model may be different, but one thing is certain: the attitude of car companies will become more and more open.
3. Car companies have moved from closed to open, and the end of the 4S system? Is 400,000 auto service stores a blessing or a curse?
As the saying goes, the hustle and bustle of the world is all for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit.
The change in the independent after-sales strategy of car companies reflects the reorganization of the interest chain between upstream car companies, midstream dealers, and downstream independent after-sales stores.
The dealer-4S system has existed in the Chinese market for more than 20 years, and its early prosperity mainly comes from the new car sales dividend, with more than 20 million fuel vehicles sold every year, making the new car market remain in short supply.
In this case, the dealer-4S system helps upstream car companies sell cars, and car companies naturally have to maintain the after-sales interests of the 4S system and enclose the original parts, original services and other items in their own systems.
Then, once the fulcrum of new car sales is leveraged, the whole system will face subversion.
Taking Guanghui, which has recently been delisted at face value, as an example, in response to the decline in revenue and profit, Guanghui said in the financial report: mainly due to the slow recovery of automobile consumption during the reporting period, the decline in vehicle profitability due to the impact of the industry price war, and the traditional fuel vehicles were squeezed by the new energy vehicle market, and the revenue scale declined but the cost was relatively rigid, resulting in a sharp decline in net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies.
It can be seen that new car sales are already a bottle of poison for the dealer-4S system, and even sometimes the price is inverted, and the more new cars are sold, the more losses will be.
Of course, this process is also inseparable from the impact of new energy, as well as the change of new energy vehicle companies at the channel level, prompting many traditional car companies to abandon the dealer model.
Therefore, SAIC Volkswagen, Dongfeng, Dongfeng Shenlong and other car companies to independent after-sales open original parts and other projects, can be said to be the result of the general trend of the market, the trend is difficult to resist, the result is not easy to change, may further accelerate the end of the 4S system.
From the perspective of 400,000 auto service stores, is it a blessing or a curse for car companies to move from closed to open?
On the macro level, the after-sales proportion of the 4S system has dropped from 70% at the earliest to 65% in the middle, and now it may only be about 60%, and it is further declining.
The market share of independent after-sales is slowly growing.
However, what needs to be considered is whether the distribution behind the market share growth is decentralized or centralized. Is it evenly distributed to each store, or is it concentrated in a subset of stores?
At this stage, the answer is centralized.
On the one hand, when car companies choose independent after-sales partners, they aim at the head auto service chain at the beginning, indicating that the head enterprises are now responding to the general trend by reporting group heating, which is an inevitable choice for large-scale and intensive.
On the other hand, among individual stores, the phenomenon of differentiation is also becoming more and more obvious: the characteristic single stores that have established a moat continue to grow, and the single stores that lack differentiation capabilities have suffered a decline.
Therefore, even if the dealer-4S system continues to decline and continuously release after-sales share, for 400,000 auto service stores, it will not be the result of waiting for car owners to come to the door.
The layout of independent after-sales service of car companies has entered the 2.0 stage, which proves that the huge car companies are also constantly adjusting and optimizing their strategies, and if they do not think about change, they can only be eliminated.
This principle is the same for 400,000 auto service stores.