New E-Commerce Of Functional Snacks Becomes A New Outlet Of Leisure Food

      With the traditional e-commerce dividends fading away, the leisure snack industry has ushered in new opportunities and challenges. Recently, three squirrels (300783. SZ) and liangpin shop (603719. SH) and other leisure snack enterprises have published semi annual reports, revealing the trend changes worthy of attention.

The data showed that in the first half of the year, the revenue of three squirrels was 5.26 billion yuan, a slight increase of 0.17% over the same period of last year; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 352 million yuan, up 87.32% year on year. Through the third-party e-commerce platform, the revenue was 3.621 billion yuan, accounting for 70% of the main revenue.

In the first half of this year, the revenue of liangpin shop was 4.421 billion yuan, up 22.45% year on year. The net profit attributable to the parent company was 192 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 19.29%. Among them, online revenue accounted for 51.58%, an increase of 19.34% over the same period; Offline revenue accounted for 48.42%, an increase of 23.58% over the same period.

On August 18, Zhu danpeng, an analyst of China's food industry, said in an interview with the 21st century economic reporter that demand orientation has become an important direction for the development of leisure food industry. "As the main force of leisure food consumption, the personalized and differentiated needs of the new generation should be paid attention to by relevant enterprises."

New e-commerce

Since the launch of Taobao Mall in 2008, brand dividends of e-commerce channels in China have gradually emerged, and leisure food enterprises such as liangpin shop and laiyifen have begun to expand their online layout. From 2013 to 2016, the rise of food e-commerce has created three leisure snack brands such as squirrels.

However, with the decline of the growth rate of traditional e-commerce channels such as Taobao and Jingdong, the growth of leisure food e-commerce market has slowed down since 2016. According to the data, the year-on-year growth rate of the industry decreased to 34.42% in 2018, and slightly increased in 2020 due to the impact of the epidemic. However, compared with the overall level of the e-commerce industry, there is still room for further growth.

Behind the fading of traditional e-commerce dividends is the rise of new e-commerce. In recent years, the social e-commerce represented by pinduoduo, the live e-commerce represented by shuoyin and Kuaishou, and the community group buying represented by meituan shopping have risen rapidly, opening up new channels and broad development space for the online development of leisure food.

According to the semi annual report of three squirrels, from January to June this year, the proportion of the revenue of new e-commerce businesses such as pinduoduo and shuoyin to the total revenue on the line increased to nearly 10%. When the goods have not been fully matched, the revenue of pinduoduo channel of three squirrels increased by 360% year-on-year, and the revenue of live e-commerce such as shuoyin and Kuaishou increased by 1000%. In 2021, the sales volume of live broadcast service of three squirrels on tremolo platform reached 182 million yuan. In terms of community group purchase, three squirrels settled in meituan optimization, buy more vegetables, orange heart optimization and other platforms, with business covering more than 700 cities, achieving a year-on-year growth of more than 300%.

In the first half of the year, liangpin store achieved a revenue of 399 million yuan in non platform e-commerce businesses such as social e-commerce and community e-commerce. In the circulation channel, liangpin shop has settled in new retail platforms such as retail link and jingxitong, and has reached cooperative relations with Wal Mart, HEMA Xiansheng and Yonghui supermarkets.

However, due to the characteristics of random consumption of instant snack food, traditional offline channels still occupy a dominant position. According to Frost & Sullivan data, the offline channel sales scale of leisure food in 2020 will exceed 1060 billion yuan, accounting for 82%.

Liangpin store said in the semi annual report that the company's online revenue increased by 19.34% year-on-year in the first half of the year, while the offline revenue increased by 23.58% year-on-year, and the growth rate of offline revenue was higher than that of online revenue. The trend of online and offline integration of the industry is further highlighted. Even the three squirrels who started with e-commerce are also actively deploying offline channels. According to the data, from January to June this year, the offline revenue of three squirrels accounted for 30%, an increase of 9% over the same period.

In this regard, Zhu danpeng judged that with the slowing down of online growth, the increasing cost of customer acquisition, and the continuous fading of traffic dividends, the online and offline channels will be further integrated in the future. With the help of new e-commerce models such as social e-commerce and live e-commerce, it has become an inevitable trend for the development of leisure food enterprises.

Expanding functional snacks

With the continuous improvement of China's national income, the consumption mode gradually develops from the survival type to the enjoyment type. Consumers' demand for leisure food has also developed from pure taste to diversification. Personalized consumption demand emerges in endlessly, and market segmentation has become a significant trend.

Prior to this, liangpin store has accelerated the creation of multi brand matrix for multiple market segments, and successively launched sub brands such as children's snack brand "xiaoshixian", fitness snack brand "liangpin Feiyang", and "tbreak", a tea break brand for office people. In June last year, three squirrels also launched a new brand "Xiaolu Lanlan", which focuses on children's snacks. According to the financial report, in the first half of 2021, the brand achieved an omni channel revenue of 201 million yuan.

At the same time, affected by the epidemic situation, consumers pay more attention to health, and the trend of healthy leisure food is also increasingly significant. Low sugar and low calorie, high-quality raw materials and health functions have become new consumer demands. Consumers pay more attention to the ingredients, efficacy and ingredients of products when purchasing leisure snacks, which promotes the healthy development of leisure food industry.

Specifically, consumers mainly focus on food substitute shaping, protein supplement, beauty and skin care, nourishing spirit and sleep, burning fat and shaping, soothing and invigorating intestines and helping digestion. This trend has also given birth to a series of functional food brands, such as sugar free daily black Qiao, wonderlab, fit8 with high-quality protein and probiotics, and puffx, a soft candy product.

As early as 2019, Zhu danpeng paid attention to the change of consumer preference for leisure snacks to functional type. He believes that at present, consumers pay most attention to weight management, appearance management and health management. Based on this, consumers will pay more attention to the efficacy of leisure food in the future, and the industry will enter the era of functionalization.

Take nuts as an example. 21st century economic reporter noticed that probiotic nuts have been launched since last year, including qiqia, laiyifen and baicaowei. According to the financial report, in the first half of this year, liangpin store developed 39 reserve products from the direction of drug and food homology, probiotics, intestinal health, etc., focusing on the differentiated needs of women and children; At the same time, 13 technological innovation projects have been launched with no burden and quality improvement as the guidance.

With the transformation and upgrading of the industry, the future leisure food will not only be "leisure", but also expand to health and other functions. Zhu danpeng believes that whether leisure food enterprises can accurately grasp the core needs of consumers and make targeted strategic adjustments has become a crucial step in the future development of enterprises.