An article to understand the solution of gas station industry chain
I. Market Scale of Gas Stations
By the end of 2018, there were 322 million motor vehicles and 403 million motorists in China. In this huge ecological chain of automobile consumption, refueling is an indispensable link of automobile consumption. As the last link in the circulation of refined oil market, there are about 110,000 gas stations in China, and about 80% of gasoline and diesel oil go from gas stations to end users every year. China's refined oil trade has already exceeded 10 trillion yuan, and the annual petrol trading scale in the petrol market has reached 3 trillion yuan, but more than 70% of the market profits are divided by state-owned enterprises and foreign oil companies. Although the number of gas stations in private enterprises also accounts for half of the country, due to the lack of brand, lack of long-term stability of upstream suppliers, service quality and other constraints, the market share is low. Private gas stations can compete with state-owned PetroChina and Sinopec only by improving service mode, improving service quality and providing diversified operation.
2. Reducing the cost of gas stations is the key
The operation of any enterprise requires low cost operation, especially the gas station, which involves the upstream and downstream industrial chain of the enterprise. Private gas stations lack the competitiveness of state-owned gas stations, and most of the oil depots and oil sources are in the hands of state-owned enterprises, which leads to higher oil production costs and simpler channels for private gas stations. At the same time, at the sales side, private gas stations are less competitive than state-owned and foreign-funded ones in terms of brand, service capacity, geographical location and distribution of gas stations, resulting in sales. End-to-end marketing costs are also higher. This "double high" leads to higher cost and lower relative profit of private gas stations.
The way users pay at petrol stations is in addition to the commonly used WeChat, Alipay and credit cards, as well as third party / fourth party customers who own their own accounts (such as drops, truck groups, logistics companies), payment companies (such as wing payments, wallets, etc.), automobile manufacturers (such as BMW), etc. When users with their own accounts use the funds in their accounts to refuel, gas stations need to dock these accounts, and financial costs will increase with the increase of accounts. According to a large oil company, for every additional payment method, more than four financial personnel will be added.
If private gas stations want to reduce operating costs, they need to break through the upstream and downstream industrial chain, integrate internal management of enterprises, integrate non-commercial resources, so that all transactions are in one system, through the system to purchase, cooperate with the surrounding, user marketing and payment and settlement, etc. On the one hand, it can increase the information circulation of enterprises, speed up the flow of funds and strengthen the financing capacity of enterprises. On the other hand, it can improve the quality of service, cash collection efficiency, financial efficiency and reduce human costs. In the marketing side, users can also be fine-tuned management, the preferences to the preferential users.
3. Customer Operation is the Core of Gas Station Operation
Shell has done an analysis of the anxious points of a user in a gas station, and found that there are more than 20 anxious points for users from entering the gas station to leaving the gas station, including how to choose the gas island, payment, membership activities, points exchange, invoicing and so on. The most anxious thing for users is queuing, queuing for gas, queuing for payment and queuing for invoicing. For users, the gas station is not the end of the user, it is only a point that the user needs to serve through, refueling only solves one of the user's needs, he also needs services and experience. Then from which aspects should the gas station do user operation:
(1). User Identification and User Respect
The system automatically identifies users and understands their consumption preferences, so that users can enjoy the service provided by the gas station from the beginning, solve the user's anxiety points, and improve the user experience and service quality.
(2). User Activities
After mobile payment, users will automatically pay attention to the public number of the gas station, and then guide users to become members of the gas station through marketing guidance, such as registration, coupon delivery, points and so on. Let each inbound user become a member of the gas station, through the system for the gas station customers, and then conduct operational guidance and user analysis. According to the actual situation, gas stations can make marketing for users, such as activating new users, increasing the unit price of customers, increasing the frequency of users'consumption, and recovering lost users. At the same time, it can also provide some warm-hearted services for users, such as Valentine's Day to give female users roses, Mid-Autumn Festival to give mooncakes, so that users can feel the care of the gas station, which is more effective than direct price reduction marketing means.
(3). Maintenance of User Relations
Customers are the most important resources of gas stations, and all profits come directly or indirectly from customers. The focus of all the work of gas stations is on the needs and preferences of customers. Gas stations should start from customer service, establish customer loyalty, so that gas stations not only provide users with gas service, but also make users have preferences for brands out of high trust in gas products and services. The key to its success lies in the fact that enterprises have specific advantages that others can not replace in products and services, so as to establish true brand loyalty. For example, at a gas station of an oil company in Henan Province, a car broke down when it arrived here one day. The owner of the gas station asked for help. When the owner of the gas station knew the situation, he quickly helped him to find out the reasons and solve them in time. This move moved the owner very much.
4. Shift of Gas Station from Single Service to Comprehensive Service
In traditional gas stations, especially private gas stations, all of them provide single service for customers. Nowadays, consumers are diversified, and a single service can not meet the needs of consumers. In the past, we mainly paid for the value of the product itself, but now we pay more for added value. In addition to caring about product functions, we also care about service experience and whether it brings spiritual satisfaction to customers. In order to improve the competitiveness of oil stations, it is necessary to integrate different industries, from providing single gas service to providing comprehensive services.
The service object of the gas station is the owner. Besides the refueling, washing, repairing and maintenance of the car itself, the owner's consumption ecology also includes the driver's consumption ecology, such as buying bottles of water, drawing paper and special snacks by the way. If the gas station beside the high-speed/provincial road can provide rest, catering, maintenance and other services, it will make profits diversified. This not only improves the sales volume, but also improves the loyalty of users, which is conducive to the long-term development of the oil station. At the same time, through the cooperation of different industries and the integration of resources, it can also bring new passengers to the gas station, so as to improve the competitiveness of the gas station.
5. Joint operation is the future trend of gas stations
When we talk about private gas stations, many people are impressed by poor oil products, poor image, poor service and so on. In fact, the root is that private gas stations have no brand, or the brand influence of private gas stations is too weak. People choose state-owned gas stations such as PetroChina and Sinopec. In fact, they choose the brand and credit of state-owned gas stations. Subconsciously, they think that the quality of oil products in state-owned gas stations is good and the service is guaranteed.
Private gas stations want to compete with state-owned gas stations in the region and even in the whole country. On the one hand, they need regional resource integration, unified image and service standards of joint operation, specialized information management, and refined user operation to build strong regional or national brands. On the other hand, unified management and channels are needed to reduce the operating costs of each gas station, and to shape the credit and operational strength of private gas stations through service and specialized operation such as trusteeship and franchise of gas stations.
