The term distribution is a concept that we have introduced from the West, and in Western economics, the meaning of distribution is the establishment of sales channels, which means that the products are sold to consumers through certain channels. From this point of view, any kind of sales we can call it called distribution. Because the product must be distributed through a certain way in order to reach the hands of consumers, as a modern enterprise, in order to stay in the market competition, we must study all the distribution methods. From the history of the development of distribution, distribution has three basic forms: wholesale, retail and direct sales.
1, wholesale has always been a powerful weapon in the development of enterprise scale, it refers to the enterprise will be a planned product will be sold to a number of sales units, departments, outlets, can also be a one-time sales of a large number of products to a particular consumer.
2, there are two forms of retail: store sales and store sales. Store sales refers to the sale of products to consumers through a variety of retail stores.
3, no store sales is what we usually call direct marketing, as one of the most traditional distribution methods, the 21st century direct marketing has tended to be combined with experience marketing. To the customer's subjective experience as the core of sales experience marketing in the field of direct marketing close to the consumer has a very large space for growth.
The evolution of the three basic distribution methods of wholesale, retail and direct marketing, while proposing new topics for distribution research, also provides new ideas for companies to change the traditional distribution methods. Until now, the agency system, chain, direct marketing, direct marketing and experience marketing combined with the modern enterprise distribution method is still the mainstream distribution mode of the enterprises compete to practice.
A, agent, chain and franchise
Agent behavior as one of the mainstream distribution model a long time ago, but as a system, the agency system is a highly developed product of the commodity economy. Usually what we call an agent of business affairs is called a business agent, which is a profitable business activity in which the agent acts for the agent and receives a commission for the business affairs. Business agent is a bridge connecting the producer and the market, it can help the producer to open the market quickly, save costs and improve efficiency. In today's business of speed, the agent is undoubtedly the fastest effective way to achieve product coverage.
According to the size of the agent's agency authority, the agent is divided into exclusive agent, general agent and general agent.
1, the exclusive agent is the principal to give the agent in a market (may be geographic, product, consumer groups, etc. to distinguish) franchise agent. Geographically divided exclusive agent means that the agent in a region has the exclusive right to represent, the sales affairs of this region by its responsibility.
2, general agent refers to the agent does not enjoy the franchise, that is to say, the manufacturer does not grant the agent in a certain area, the exclusive agency on the product, the agent does not have an agent between the regional division, all agents can collect orders for the manufacturer, does not matter, "the agent across the region," in this case, the manufacturer can be direct sales in various places, wholesale products, and therefore is also called multi-agent.
3, the so-called general agent refers to the principal in the designated area and a certain period of time to set up full powers of the agent. General agent agent of a manufacturer of a product in a certain area of sales affairs, while it has the right to designate sub-agents, the right to deal with some of the affairs on behalf of the manufacturer, so the general agent must be the exclusive agent. But the exclusive agent is not necessarily the general agent, the exclusive agent does not necessarily have the power to appoint sub-agents. The advantage of using the agency system is that you can use the agents to expand the market, the disadvantage is that the agent level increases, easy to cause mismanagement.
Two, chain management is one of the most popular business model in the 21st century, which consists of a number of stores in the same industry in order to *** with the purchase of goods and other ways to connect, *** enjoy the economies of scale of a form of business. Chain management is divided into three types: formal chain, free chain and franchise.
1, formal chain, also known as direct chain, is a single capital directly operating a certain number of stores in the organization.
2, free chain, also known as voluntary chain, is by the independent retail stores **** with the joint, unified purchase, unified sales strategy, unified use of logistics and information facilities, thus forming a chain of organizations, which is a form of commercial small businesses to unite against the big capital.
3, franchising is originated in the United States of America's distribution methods, and the formal chain sales of products or services are different, franchising sales is the franchise, the essence of its features is the transfer of intellectual property rights and operations. At present, the vast majority of the world's chain enterprises are operated by franchising.
Three, direct marketing into the age of experience marketing
Direct marketing is the producer of products sold directly to consumers in the distribution method. In this sense, direct marketing is one of the oldest sales methods, so far there have been thousands of years of history, it can be said that since there are commodities and exchange of direct marketing. Modern direct selling has a broad and narrow sense, the broad sense of direct selling refers to no store sales, narrow sense direct selling refers to direct sales. Some authoritative scholars in the international arena have categorized non-store sales into four major groups, namely, direct marketing, direct sales, vending and purchasing services. What we usually call direct marketing mainly refers to the narrow sense of direct marketing, that is, direct sales.
From the history of economic development at home and abroad, the progress and evolution of the distribution model has undergone a long process. Regardless of any historical period, in the ever-changing new economy, the distribution model does not have a certain rule, and there is no one distribution method can be based on the evergreen. This requires that enterprises should be based on market changes, timely adjustments, improve their own distribution methods, improve the existing distribution methods, and even have some innovation. China is now entering the era of rapid development of the market economy, the future market competition, distribution model competition will be one of the very important part.