The dead are like the dead. The passage of time is not only impressive, but also brings changes.

This is the face, this is the emotion, this is the aftermarket business.

Truth is the daughter of time. Looking back at the length and dimension of a period of time, we can see the opportunity and truth behind the change.

01 enabling VS fusion

In 2017, I still remember the hottest term in the industry -- enabling. The term comes from the S2b concept proposed by zeng Ming in May 2017, which was further developed into S2b2c. "S stands for a large supply platform, which will better empower more small b's to help them better serve their customers."

Under the large subsidiary of fu neng, we have found small b on the alliance platform, supply chain platform and Internet platform, and tried to transform the offline line with our own standardized system.

The motivation behind enabling is that the platform promises a more efficient, profitable and futuer business model to offline small b. The logic behind enabling is system, data, management, traffic, and profitable projects.

Taking maintenance stores as an example, the franchising platform outputs management standards and various projects to maintenance stores; Supply chain platform outputs digital system and online purchasing channel to maintenance stores; The Internet platform outputs traffic to the maintenance store.

At this time, the platform stands in a higher dimension and the repair shop plays a role that needs to be saved.

What was the result?

In 2019, talk of fu can seems a bit awkward. In the past few years, the offline small b has experienced the empowerment of various modes such as joining, alliance and certification, etc., but the business has not been improved substantially, and it is still facing a general decline in traffic.

Repair stores now understand that they are post-market traffic portals and service ports that are a contested role. The platform also understands the repair shop understands.

In 2019, the major platforms avoid talking about empowerment, the new word is convergence.

Take jd for example. At the end of 2017, when jd released its unlimitedservice strategy, it was still talking about enabling and subverting, "helping them do business from the aspects of operation management, maintenance skills and parts procurement of repair stores."

In 2019, at the year-end summit of AC cars, the theme of qingyan, the head of automotive business of jingdong mall's life service business group, changed to "from openness to integration", "under the premise of understanding the operating difficulties of all offline enterprises, help the post-market with data, system, flow and other capabilities".

Similarly, during the round table forum, COO li yi of xinkangzhong also mentioned the concept of integration when asked about taking sides. In his view, the auto aftermarket does not stand in line, but cooperation and integration. "Integration is not the same as taking sides, which is a very independent individual feeling, while the chain is partial to integration to a certain extent, and everyone is rushing five or even ten years of cooperation to go."

The change from enabling to merging means that the platform has gone from being high up, back to being at the same level as little b below. Under the downward trend of the environment, the roles are more pragmatic.

02 maintenance financing VS supply chain financing

Perhaps the most intuitive way to look at business changes in the automotive aftermarket comes from capital.

In 2017, maintenance projects were popular for financing.

According to the incomplete statistics of AC automobile, more than 10 maintenance chains completed financing in 2017, including: car enjoy home, car maintenance, car hair hair, car superman, car maintenance, harmony car, thousand pigeon car service, Fix Auto master plate jet, German master, hi self-cultivation car and so on. Niukas and jingdian automobile entered the new third board in that year.

In comparison, the financing situation of auto parts supply chain platform in 2017 was paled by comparison, with only kangzhong, batulu, qizhong automotive service and kai si completing the financing, including the insurance sector's che tong yun.

In 2019, auto parts supply chain project is the new hot topic under the cold winter of capital.

Xinkangzhong, baturu, qizhong automotive service, kai si, chetong cloud continue to complete financing, most of the enterprises get the dollar capital. Latecomers such as three heads and six arms, good auto parts, a b c d financing capacity is very strong.

In addition to the national chain platform, regional auto parts chain is also in the force. Heqi, which focuses on the Beijing market, and pensda, which started in sichuan, have both raised funds for the first time. In the market segment, data-driven and logistics-driven to find a piece also won the favor of capital.

By contrast, in 2019, there will be a lot of silent maintenance chains. The enterprises that have completed financing include cluster chepao, daemang, tufu and baishun, among which the last three are players of subdivided track.

With the gradual stability of mobile Internet entrepreneurship, investors gradually turn their attention to the 2B business of industrial Internet. The market capacity of auto parts is huge, but there are few players with core ability, which have potential explosive ability. Compared with the four major U.S. auto parts chains, investors see an opportunity in this area.

In addition, kangzhong received the investment from ali in 2018 and achieved initial success, which also had a positive impact on the whole industry.

On the contrary, in the field of maintenance chain, it is more difficult to standardize in management and finance. In terms of scale, there are very few companies with hundreds of stores, which cannot compare with the hundreds of stores in the auto parts supply chain. More importantly, the maintenance terminal is in the first line of the industry, which directly reflects the current market situation. However, the current situation is that most maintenance stores are facing a decline in performance and the financial data is not good.

In the next few years, with the increasing size of the channel, the power of "matching" will be more and more powerful under the "modification and integration".

Expanding scale VS improving internal skills

In 2017, the giants march in with big capital and resources. At that stage, scaling up was a priority for the giants, and the rate of expansion of the 1,000 repair networks was not unusual.

In addition to the giants, regional chains are also committed to network expansion, extending their tentacles from prefecture-level cities to county-level markets, with the intention of covering a larger market through network.

At that time, the owner of the car frequency is still very high, the price of accessories is not so transparent, maintenance is still a considerable profit business. With capital still betting on maintenance chains, some companies want to use scale to attract capital's attention.

In 2019, the pace of maintenance chain network layout has slowed down, with only a few new stores opening this year in AC's 2019 top 100 list.

Several main reasons can not be ignored, the first, the industry into the stock market, maintenance business has indeed become bad; Second, there are not that many quality stores on the market for maintenance chains to buy; Third, it is increasingly expensive to keep a store.

Instead, the practice has become the industry consensus. On the one hand, reduce operating costs by increasing revenue and reducing expenditure; On the other hand, by improving the quality of service to retain customers.

The whole industry has moved from extensive development in the past to refined operation. Under the background of more and more convergence of services, those who can show their characteristics and provide high-quality services will stand out in the stage of elimination and integration.

04 first-tier market VS sinking market

In 2017, the vision of the big platforms will focus on the first-tier markets, and they will devote their efforts to the capital cities of the provinces, Shanghai, guangzhou and shenzhen.

At that time, it was an era of expanding scale and branding. The Internet was still intended to disrupt the industry. The system and data were slowly penetrating into the market.

When capital markets are not too cold, high costs in the first tier do not seem so scary.

In 2019, sinking markets will be taken seriously. From the new car sales field of the automobile to the countryside, to the major auto parts supply chain platform sinking, to part of the chain of 100 to expand the county-level market.

In the field of e-commerce, pinduoduo is one of the representatives of the sinking market, and the competition of the sinking market of the auto aftermarket has just begun. Whoever can conquer this market in a more reasonable way will win new traffic and new business. Of course, the human relationship in sinking markets is more complex, regional characteristics are obvious, and some regional leaders may stand out.

Environmental storm VS business filing

At the policy level, environmental storms were certainly the most noticeable in 2017. According to several reports by AC automotive, many repair stores across the country have been rectified or even closed due to eia problems.

It has become common practice to ban repair shops that do not have auto repair qualifications, do not have environmental assessment procedures, fail to regulate hazardous waste management, and have facilities that do not comply with technical specifications.

For many years accustomed to the "dirty" repair industry, finally ushered in the most serious impact. After the environmental storm, the whole industry gradually realized the importance of image and specification, and to some extent, it upgraded itself.

In 2019, after a reshuffle of environmental storms, fewer repair stores were closed because of the eia, but there were other changes in policy.

In July 2019, the ministry of transport made public, "the ministry of transport on modifying the decision of the regulation on administration of motor vehicle maintenance", this is the last year by the state council "about to cancel a batch of administrative licensing matters concerning decision", involves the cancellation of motor vehicle maintenance business license subsequent decision to change the maintenance enterprises "business license" to "run for the record.

Under the new regulation, the maintenance enterprise saves the tedious examination and approval procedures and time, and can focus more energy on the operation; For maintenance chains, it simplifies the conditions for expansion.

In general, the openness of the automotive aftermarket is becoming more and more open, more market-oriented competition and more in line with the law of commercial development.

From 2017 to 2019, we can better see the nature behind the changes by comparing the time dimension and the changes under comparison. After the automobile market from closed to open, and then usher in reshuffle and integration, is the reality that can not be ignored.

Winter has come, the New Year and the next spring is not far away.