You’ve seen daigou for luxury goods, cosmetics, medicine, action figures, and regional exclusive merch, but have you seen daigou for supermarkets? Pangdonglai (胖东来, sometimes DL), unquestionably the hottest retail brand and supermarket chain in China right now, is facing that problem. Quick note, “daigou” (代购) means resellers and those who buy on behalf of others.
The Xuchang-based viral supermarket chain was earlier reported to have forecasted earnings of over 15 billion RMB (2.06 billion USD) which is over 40% growth year-on-year (YoY) this year. However, it currently only has 13 locations, all within the proximity of its native province of Henan. With its viral popularity and overwhelming positive reviews and trust towards products from its private brand DL, it is only natural that daigou for DL products has become a problem for Pangdonglai.
Daigou has been a problem for Pangdonglai for a while but as Double 11 and Double 12 arrived, it has been more than it can handle. From livestream daigou pretending to be the official Pangdonglai account to blatant livestreaming and recording in stores, daigou have persisted under different guises even after platforms banned the use of the “Pangdonglai” name by livestreams. With the high demand for DL products, such as its black soybean brewed soy sauce which sells out immediately after each restock, Pangdonglai decided that it had to take action. On 16 December, the brand announced its measures to control daigou activities, such as membership identity checks and limiting the number of certain items.
Outside of Henan, Pangdonglai has been transforming other supermarket chains in its image. Yonghui Superstores (永辉) has just opened its 23rd Pangdonglai-ised store while BBG (步步高, also Better Life and Hyper-Mart) recently announced that it had closed most of its unprofitable shops with only 27 left during its transformation under the guidance of Pangdonglai. On the same day, Yonghui responded to Pangdonglai’s new anti-daigou policy with its own measures of limiting the number of DL-branded items a customer can buy to avoid shortages.
Pangdonglai’s popularity and people’s trust towards it were shown when people rushed to the supermarket after the sanitary pad scandal broke. With platforms like Lark collaborating with the brand for marketing, Pangdonglai is a national sensation. However, being highly localised in Henan makes the brand inaccessible to most in China. If Pangdonglai can solve the availability issue with either its own online outlet or with partners such as Yonghui and BBG, daigou will be hard to eliminate.
