ChengXin YouXuan, Community Group Buying Platform Owned by Didi, Restarts Operations in Lanzhou
Jiemian News reported on August 18 that several sources were saying that ChengXin YouXuan, a community group buying platform owned by Didi, has resumed its operations in Lanzhou, Gansu province.
ChengXin YouXuan’s WeChat mini program shows that the goods provided by it in Lanzhou market are not much different from the previous community group buying categories, and most of them are for daily-use with lower prices, such as grains, oils, seasonings, vegetables and fruits, etc. Fresh groceries account for a small proportion of the products available, with the overall SKU (stock-keeping unit) at about 300. Package Deliver & Pick up Station is still small shops, adopting a “pre-sale + pick up by yourself the next day” model.
A few months ago, ChengXin YouXuan withdrew its positions all over the country. After withdrawing from Sichuan and Chongqing markets in March this year, it was reported that its stores went offline completely and some production and research personnel had been let go.
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However, after giving up the customer-oriented business, according to a report by LatePost in November 2021, Zeng Chenting, the person in charge of ChengXin YouXuan, said internally that they would “forget the old model and go all in a new model” and transform itself to a wholesale business. In March 2022, the aforementioned wholesale business “Cheng Zhang Gui” APP was launched, covering Henan, Hebei, Yunnan, Fujian, Guangdong and other places. In fact, the company’s resumption of operations in Lanzhou is also related to the development of the wholesale business.
In Lanzhou, ChengXin YouXuan cooperates with Lanzhou Tiebang Logistics, a well-known local logistics company. A person in charge of Lanzhou Tiebang Logistics responded exclusively to Jiemian News, saying that in June this year, ChengXin YouXuan had sought them out and hoped to reach a working agreement on the “Cheng Zhang Gui” project, but the person in charge wanted to test the community group buying instead of the wholesale project, and both parties reached an agreement on this.
According to public information, Lanzhou Tiebang Logistics Co., Ltd. was established as early as 2006. It is a large-scale local warehousing and distribution center, and its business scope includes warehousing, distribution services, rail-road combined transportation, third-party logistics, LTL transportation, integrated supply chain management services and international multimodal transportation.
Although the overall business model is the same as before, ChengXin YouXuan’s operation route in Lanzhou is an agency model to reduce risks. In addition to authorized brands and systems, Tiebang Logistics is responsible for procurement, head recruitment, performance and management, while ChengXin will handle the turnover.
