Recently, the Meituan Flash Sale [Flash Sale Living Room] special column invited Chen Xiaodong, head of pet food business of Nestlé Purina Greater China, and Shiro, the founder of Pet Industry Home, as guests to discuss Purina’s business in China. There were on-site conversations on related topics such as market goals, views and plans for instant retail channels, and how to create business growth engines through instant retail.

< p>Chen Xiaodong said in an interview: "Instant retail will become the growth engine of Purina's business." Pet industry observers believe that instant retail platforms represented by Meituan flash sales are also becoming a breakthrough for major brands and pet retailers. On the boundary between online and offline, efficient synergies that continue to penetrate more diversified markets, relying on online digital capabilities and capillary-level offline channels, the imagination of real-time retail is constantly expanding. Shiro: What do you think of the development of China’s pet food market? Does Nestlé have long-term goals and plans for pet revenue in Greater China in five years or longer? Mr. Chen Xiaodong: The Chinese market itself is already the largest market in the world in terms of the number of pets. In terms of pet consumption, it is also the second largest pet market in the world. The pet business has actually become Nestlé’s second largest business unit in the global market and has maintained rapid growth. Nestlé’s development positioning for the pet category in the Chinese market in the next few years is actually very clear, and it is to become the growth engine for the entire Greater China region. Shiro: When and why did Purina decide to invest in just-in-time retail? Mr. Chen Xiaodong: The main consumer base of pets may gradually change from those born in the 60s and 70s to those born in the 80s, 85s, 90s, and 95s. This generation of consumers grew up in a completely digital era and enjoys many digital dividends, so they have strong online consumption habits. The epidemic in the past three years has also accelerated the shift of user consumption to online, and the requirements for convenient and fast consumption are getting higher and higher. Against this background, we also referred to the development methods of many related categories. Until 2022, we really began to believe that instant retail must be a core growth point in the future. So we started to form a team, plan categories, communicate with customers for cooperation, etc. Finally, with the support and empowerment of our cooperative customers, especially Meituan Flash Sale, the largest instant retail platform, we also made good progress in the instant retail track. results. Shiro: What role or positioning does the instant retail channel play in brand sales growth? How is Purina performing in the just-in-time retail channel? Mr. Chen Xiaodong: In fact, whether instant retail can be done well depends on the real needs of consumers. Especially for pet food, we have realized that consumers generally require more convenient and faster purchases. And with this demand, just-in-time retail can play an important role in brand sales growth. Purina officially entered the real-time retail field last year and achieved more than three-digit growth last year, especially in Meituan’s flash sales. I am also honored to work with Meituan Flash Sale to gain a certain market share of the pet category in the real-time retail track. Through this year of cooperation, Purina believes that there will be healthier development in the future. We also hope that in the next few years, Purina can become a leading brand focusing on scientific nutrition in the Chinese pet market. Shiro: Delivering heavy items to your home can be done by far-field e-commerce or by instant retail. How do you see each playing different roles in the future? Mr. Chen Xiaodong: Actually, I think pets have natural real-time retail attributes, but for various reasons, consumers are not mature enough to buy daily necessities such as rice, flour, grains and oils. Therefore, for instant retail channels, cultivating consumers' minds should be the first priority. Let more consumers know that instant retail already has a very good service system that can meet users' fast, convenient and assured purchasing needs. . After consumers mature mentally, they can create customized service solutions for the pain points existing online and offline in instant retail. By solving these problems, instant retail will play a very important role as a growth engine in future business. Shiro: It is very important to make users want what they want. In terms of co-building consumer minds, what kind of exploration are Purina and Meituan doing? Mr. Chen Xiaodong: When it comes to co-building consumers’ minds, we still need to go back to the basics. First, we must solve the problem from the perspective of purchase. Both of us have been promoting the promotion of store products and the coverage of offline stores.

The second is to deepen consumers’ perception through superimposed services. In April this year, during the Pet Novice Season IP event launched by Meituan, we teamed up with Meituan to launch a pet feeding service for new pet users. Instruction manuals and basic pet nutrition knowledge class services. To help users not only buy pet food and pet supplies, but also get useful solutions in terms of services, thereby further strengthening consumers' minds.

< p>Shiro: In terms of channels, the biggest feature of the instant retail track is that it is completed by “local offline stores + instant delivery”. Localized pet stores are also Purina’s customer base. In the cooperation between Purina and Meituan, how will it help offline stores? How can they participate? Mr. Chen Xiaodong: The pet category is still dominated by professional channels offline. Compared with traditional retail supermarkets, pet stores and pet hospitals are actually widely distributed, and the degree of chaining is very low. The overall market pattern is dominated by small and scattered stores. Online operations may be a completely new field for them. Based on this feature, Purina also made some attempts with Meituan last year: first, it launched a function for convenient product uploading to make it easier for stores to launch Purina products; second, to increase store participation enthusiasm, we also cooperated with Meituan City The partners of the website have set up a lot of practical reward mechanisms to encourage real online operations in stores; third, the key is to be able to sell. This aspect is achieved by building around some scenes. For example, we will handle traditional nodes such as "11.11" and 618. We are also working with Meituan to explore scenarios that meet the characteristics of real-time retail channels, such as newbies raising pets and raising pets during the travel season. The needs in different scenarios are different, and we will provide corresponding products and activities in a timely manner. In this year’s Meituan Pet Beginner’s Season event, Purina’s various product lines also achieved growth of more than 110%. Shiro: Focusing on the category level, based on the cooperation with Meituan’s flash sale, which categories are Purina’s best-selling products in the real-time retail track, and which categories have more opportunities? In response to the current new channel layout, does Purina have plans to adjust its product structure, or introduce and launch new product lines to cover the market? Mr. Chen Xiaodong: Instant retail does have specific needs for products. For example, pet food includes dry food, wet food and snacks, as well as cat litter. This type of product has great room for development in instant retail. In the next step, Purina will regard daily food, professional care series and cat litter series as key opportunity categories. In April this year, Purina introduced the world's leading cat staple wet food cans to China. This product will also use instant retail as a key channel, and will make long-term and large-scale samples, etc., so that consumers can know and buy this product through instant retail channels. Shiro: How does Purina view the prospect of just-in-time retail? Will it increase investment in the real-time retail track? Mr. Chen Xiaodong: We still need to promote the development of instant retail around three dimensions, which are what we just mentioned: buy it, know it, and sell it. In terms of purchasing and knowing, Purina will work with Meituan to carry out online and offline promotion activities. For example, offline promotion in communities and other scenarios, and online through joint store activities, platform live broadcasts, etc., let more consumers understand real-time retail and cultivate consumer thinking. In addition to what I just mentioned, we must also focus on creating an exclusive scene for real-time retail in the pet category. At the same time, ensure that the instant retail platform can not only provide good products, but also provide good services. Through dual support and empowerment of products and services, users can get a better service experience. If the service experience is good, of course users will be more dependent and business will get better and better.