What is the future direction of urban flower wholesalers? And what are the implications for florists?

With the rapid development of online platforms and logistics, "direct delivery from flower base" and "direct delivery from import" have gradually become one of the criteria for customers to select flowers. As a city wholesaler once sandwiched between the retail terminal and the source wholesaler, it is gradually becoming dispensable and is facing the danger of elimination step by step.

On August 25th, hosted by Su Yong of "Flower Shop Owner Insider", more than ten guests from various fields in the industry were invited to break down the dilemma of urban wholesalers and provide strategies for the future development of the industry.

Content source: Chestnut Business Card

1. Han Weidong, head of Lanzhou Lemanford Florist Management Company

I used to be a city wholesaler. In fact, this industry has its advantages. I think the city wholesaler is a very important existence to support our industry.

Flowers are an occasional and instant product, so florists, including online channels, may not always be able to satisfy their customers, including the normal consumption of flowers in the city mainly coming from city wholesalers. I think urban wholesalers need to understand what their peers are doing and understand the future trends. The future of the flower industry wholesalers may exist in a different way. Our industry is actually changing all the time, and many of the flower supermarkets in the south are probably new products evolved from urban wholesalers.

Through a comparison of many users, many customers on the c-side value the price advantage of city wholesalers. Especially in Doonan e-commerce, this piece is very popular, so why do not the city wholesalers do this direction? Our customers are around. If we occupy part of the online market and then serve the city's florists, I believe that the city wholesalers will always survive in the middle of this industry chain.

2.Li Yibing Founder of Xi'an Royal Flowers, a senior city wholesaler

City wholesalers are definitely needed, and they can do even better in the future with the complete emergence of local markets. Because city wholesalers are not only selling flowers from various origins but also concentrating all flowers from nearby origins, they can do one-stop shopping for local florists, and with the rise of flower markets around the world, city wholesalers can do more extensive sales.

Of course, all products that now reach the field vertically will be weakened circulation links. Some origins of direct sales forms will have some impact on the city wholesalers. In fact, the local wholesalers should also be able to do a little product upgrading or some adjustments to diversify their own products and also their own sales model diversification. City wholesalers also play a basic role in large-scale logistics and small-scale logistics. Local wholesalers have local advantages, whether from the purchase of products, product quality control, or price. The network will more or less have some impact on the city's wholesalers, but more to promote the development of urban wholesalers' upgrade. Now the city wholesalers can only say that the quantification will not be reduced, but profits will be slightly thinner.

3. Nightwolf Director of Self-Media Floral

What is the impact on the florist if all the city wholesalers are cancelled?

Without florist wholesalers, there are temporary orders and unexpected orders you can not solve. If you rely on long-distance flower delivery, it is not very realistic. Of course, there will be people who will build some transit warehouses, but this will involve the variety category, which is difficult to do enough, so this time, the secondary city wholesalers will have the value of existence.

From a human point of view, I often take goods from the city wholesaler. We belong to a relationship between friends. When there is an Internet platform and I say that his goods are cheap, that for me is not very attractive because we all know that cheap is often the most expensive, and even cheap words will have some risk. We want to reduce the cost of trial and error at this time. I take the goods from the hands of secondary wholesalers. They may be slightly more expensive than some platforms, but the quality is assured, at the same time, I can effectively complete the order.

If someone replaces the so-called city wholesalers in the future, this is basically unrealistic because it involves capital, manpower, and technology. Even if we enter the 6G or 7G era, perhaps the Internet will be very convenient, and perhaps the city transit warehouse in various places will solve the 3 km short-distance delivery, but the city wholesalers are also undergoing a subtle transformation. In the past, many people would go to the second-hand wholesalers to get the goods on site, but now it may be solved through WeChat or small programs, online and offline. We will continue to try to use new ways to effectively solve the current customer problems. Urban wholesalers are also changing. In addition to fresh cut flowers, fruits and vegetables are also plants, and belong to high-frequency consumer products. If someone wants to get rid of the city wholesalers, at least from the fruits and vegetables, it will take a lot of capital and manpower.

So, in the future, urban wholesalers will always exist and be better and more effective and faster. The only difference between now and then will be the form of existence or expression and service attitude.

4. Beautiful sister, founder of the Shenzhen Hua Yu family

It is very important for us to establish a friendly relationship with wholesalers. I am a retailer. Now there are many mature suppliers, who do we sell to after we get the goods? What is the effect? What is the plan? What is the prospect? We need a very clear idea.

Many florists need to improve the standardization of their products, so we call for the use of florist management tools and some more marketing. Retail flowers sell well, wholesale will also sell well. In fact, we have to thank these network platforms for the flower market's opening up, so that everyone can more clearly understand that flowers are not a luxury. Any occasion needs flowers.

5. Huang Weiping, General Manager of Kunming Gexin Flower

I think urban wholesalers are not scarce, which is inevitable, but also redundant, because urban wholesalers may be upgraded to service providers in the future.

Why do you say that urban wholesalers are redundant?

First, because of the rise of the Internet platform over the years, the transparency of information technology to all the city florists and wholesalers' bosses, even the white ones, brought a lot of information. Because of the transparency of information technology, there is competition between shippers, as well as competition between local wholesalers. These factors lead to it being more selective and convenient for local florists to buy goods.

The second is that the development of logistics in recent years has made it easier for florists to ship and to place orders for shopping more conveniently. Florists are more sensitive to the price. There is also a choice, so all the platforms and shippers in the WeChat group of offers can be sensitive to the price.

Third, on the basis of the Internet, a variety of platforms can rise to drive the entire Doonan flower trading volume.

6. Guo Jiansheng Senior wholesaler Pingyang Flower City in charge

City wholesalers must exist, but those who do not work hard will definitely be eliminated. First of all, city wholesalers can solve the urgent needs of florists in a short period of time, and we have city wholesalers in the city to serve their respective areas.

Secondly, I think city wholesalers should continue to forge ahead and constantly provide better services to florists and customers, so as to better survive. The existence of city wholesalers should continue to learn and improve themselves, in addition to better unity with the industry through mutual communication.

7.Cai Rongfei, the owner of Yinchuan Rongfei Floral Art

I think the business of wholesalers should be better than our retail business. Only those who upgrade their concept, quality, and service, and learn a lot can be the only ones. I think the wholesalers in our city are very united.

The 3-year epidemic has had an impact on various industries, including the retail industry, and weddings have been gradually subdivided among florists. Customers today have many options, including purchasing directly from an e-commerce site. Then the florist's business should be more segmented. Consider your strengths and services in the local city as a starting point. We should now serve what.

While the city wholesalers' online and offline capabilities combined are actually very good, many florists are still dependent on the city wholesalers for steady customers. In contrast, the florist, in the case of a sinking market, has been hit rather more.