After achieving annual sales of 1 billion yuan, WANG Zhengqi of "Mo Xiaoxian" said he wanted to change his way of life.

Recently, conversations between Moxiaoxian's distributors and founder Wang Zhengqi often start with questions: "Have you stepped back and stopped caring about sales? Do you know how difficult our business is?"

Facing the changes in the consumer environment and the innovation of retail channels, the problems distributors encounter are just a microcosm of these changes.

This convenient instant food brand, established in 2017, entered the market with self - heating hot pots and has since broken through in both e - commerce and offline channels. From 2020 to 2022, it completed a Series A financing of tens of millions of yuan, and Series B and B+ financings in the hundreds of millions. In 2022, its sales exceeded 1 billion yuan.

However, in interviews, Wang Zhengqi repeatedly emphasized a change: the Chinese retail industry has entered the quality era. "Moxiaoxian achieved its growth from 0 to 1 and from 1 to 10 through category dividends and channel expansion dividends. Now, channel - driven growth has reached its limit, and future growth will rely on product - driven development."

This year, Wang Zhengqi's role in the company has shifted from focusing on sales to leading product R & D. He has read classic retail - related books such as The Simplest Way, Category Management, and The King of Space - to - Sales Ratio over and over again. He has also spent a lot of time communicating with channel partners, suppliers, and outstanding companies across the country.

In the past year, they completed a "most serious" new product development and a reshaping of the team and organization. The newly launched curry series is Moxiaoxian's answer after these changes and perhaps the starting point for the turning of the fate's wheel in the new stage.

The environment of the new consumer market has changed constantly, and the pursuit of profit has long been a consensus among practical people. Besides shutting down unprofitable businesses and channels, how to "increase revenue" in line with the trend of the times is the question for the future.

Moxiaoxian's changes are just one example. Through it, we can see the profound changes taking place in the Chinese channel system and what it means for a brand in this system to shift from marketing/channel - driven to product - driven.

Moxiaoxian's chicken curry rice product

01 A New Product Launch after 9 Months

In November 2024, Wang Zhengqi and his team decided on the business focus for the next year: "First, do a good job in promoting the curry flavor in China."

Curry has always been more closely associated with the consumption habits of Southeast Asia, India and other regions. However, today, the acceptance of this flavor in the Chinese market is also worthy of attention. It is reported that there are more than 2 million curry - related notes on the Xiaohongshu platform. As a flavor label, "sweet with a hint of spiciness" curry has deeply integrated into the lifestyles of young people. In addition, in 2024, there were as many as 6.98 million Chinese tourists visiting Japan, which further promoted the popularization and acceptance of Japanese curry culture.

In the field of convenient instant food, no brand has yet established a dominant position in curry - flavored products. The increasing national acceptance and the lack of a representative player present a differentiated opportunity for Moxiaoxian. If it can create a highly differentiated and high - quality curry product, it will fire the "first shot" of "product - driven" development.

However, in practice, it is not easy to create a "high - profile" product. "If we are going to do it, we should cooperate with the top people and the most recognized brands in the industry," Wang Zhengqi said.

Moxiaoxian's latest curry series was jointly developed by the team and the century - old Japanese food company House Foods. House Foods' Bailemu curry has a 74.7% share in the Chinese family market and has become a synonym for "curry" to some extent. In addition, the product R & D also received support from Ajinomoto, which used its "deliciousness architecture technology" to further enhance the flavor level.

A detail is that during the R & D process of Moxiaoxian's new curry products, both teams once said about a product that "the problem is that it's too amazing at first bite." - How to structure the flavor profile, what the first bite should taste like, how to gradually enhance the flavor so that the last bite is also delicious, etc. These seemingly minor issues actually have a profound impact on the consumer experience and repurchase rate, and only with repurchases can there be continuous business. "They are very serious about the taste and will pay attention to how long each element lingers on the taste buds," Wang Zhengqi said.

Take Moxiaoxian's newly launched "Japanese black chocolate beef curry udon noodles" as an example. In terms of flavor hierarchy, the taste is not very strong at the first bite, but as the curry flavor gradually fades, other flavors, including black chocolate, will gradually emerge.

It is reported that Moxiaoxian's new curry series mainly includes products such as "Japanese chicken curry udon noodles", "Japanese black chocolate beef curry udon noodles", and "Japanese chicken curry rice". In the early sample tests, the products received the highest praise rates in the scenarios of single - person meals and families traveling with children. This also confirms the current market demand for convenient instant food. A more convenient way of consumption and a more secure and high - quality formula are the key points to attract consumers.

The curry series products jointly developed by Moxiaoxian and House Foods

Wang Zhengqi told 36Kr that it took more than 9 months from the first exchange between the Moxiaoxian team and House Foods at its Japanese headquarters to the concept building, formula R & D, result evaluation, and pre - launch preparations.

Behind this "serious and complex" new product launch is Moxiaoxian's "self - subversion". In the past "from 1 to 10" stage, the company achieved rapid growth through the new consumer wave and offline channel expansion, but the excellence of the products themselves was somewhat "neglected". Under the ODM model, the brand's role was more like a "seller", and the product formula was not in its hands. Coupled with the major changes in the channel system, "In 2025, we really need to enter the stage of product - driven performance growth," Wang Zhengqi emphasized again.

For Moxiaoxian at present, the curry flavor series is of "strategic" significance and is a new starting point for the company to enter the product - driven stage. A more professional product team and a more targeted channel layout are testing the brand's ability to survive the business cycle.

"Now in the consumer goods industry, you either have to be differentiated or have a cost advantage. There is no other way," Wang Zhengqi believes. "In fact, you must also have a cost advantage while being differentiated."

When talking about the future product expansion direction, "unique value" has become the key point that Wang Zhengqi emphasized repeatedly. He said, "We will definitely strengthen the curry flavor. Besides Japanese curry, we also hope to jointly create a differentiated curry with Chinese flavor with House Foods." Beyond curry, the development of more global characteristic flavors, as well as traditional Chinese time - honored brands and intangible cultural heritage foods, will be the paths that Moxiaoxian will take.

02 N Channels, N Product Assortments

The word "channel" is a key term surrounding Wang Zhengqi and Moxiaoxian.

In the past, Moxiaoxian's rapid growth was attributed to its channel capabilities. Wang Zhengqi admitted, "In the process from 0 to 1 billion in sales, we benefited from channel - driven development. We started from e - commerce and then expanded to offline channels, developed distributors in provincial capitals, prefecture - level cities, and core county - level cities across the country, and stocked our products in as many channels as possible." For him, who has a retail background, this was also his "comfort zone" in his career.

Now, Moxiaoxian's changes are also due to the transformation of channels. Since the second half of 2024, "channels can no longer drive growth," Wang Zhengqi said. Many important channels are in the process of product aging, market crisis, and adjustment. "Many channels are declining, and the development of new channels is also different from the past."

The reason is that the Chinese retail channel system has become fragmented. Warehouse membership stores represented by Sam's Club and Costco target the middle - class, traditional hypermarkets undergoing major adjustments want to attract white - collar workers, and hard - discount players such as snack discount stores, Aldi, and Hema NB aim at "low prices". The segmentation of the population, demand, and supply is becoming more and more refined. Standard products are facing a more competitive environment, and the resulting "price war" is squeezing the living space of traditional distributors.

"In the past, we used one product assortment for the Chinese market. Now, each major channel hopes to cooperate with leading brands to jointly create and plan products," Wang Zhengqi said from his personal experience.

In short, excellent channels and excellent suppliers need each other. Only those who can provide consumers with products with better packaging, better quality, and better concepts can appear on the shelves, and supermarket promotion resources are also clearly tilted towards products with uniqueness and differentiation.

In the past, Wang Zhengqi's management focus at Moxiaoxian was on marketing. Now, to develop a major channel, "it's not just about sales. It requires a complete system covering product, R & D, sales, and marketing." Since the second half of 2024, he has recruited a senior executive to be in charge of marketing, and he has stepped back to manage product and R & D, spending 70% of his time with the product team. In the same year, Moxiaoxian's self - built factory was officially put into operation.

Moxiaoxian's self - built factory was put into operation in 2024

Meeting with suppliers and channel partners and communicating with them have been Wang Zhengqi's main external activities this year. "We are constantly learning and refining how to create a good product assortment for excellent channels we cooperate with." Next, Moxiaoxian also hopes to customize a product assortment for distributors to help them build a differentiated competitive advantage in the channel melee.

03 "There are really great opportunities in China today. We need to change ourselves."

"The overall upgrade of the retail industry is the biggest opportunity at present." Facing the comprehensive reconstruction of the channel system, Wang Zhengqi's attitude is to embrace change. "Many people say there are no opportunities this year, but I say it's not that there are no opportunities. We need to make great changes to ourselves because the market for mass - market consumer goods in China is already saturated."

Focusing on a certain group of people and developing high - quality products for them is the main line of self - transformation for the current retail channels. For downstream brand manufacturers, to participate in this process and seize growth opportunities in the changes, they need to help the channels with their products. "Excellent retailers need the cooperation and service of brands, and this is actually an opportunity at the end of the supply chain."

In the product - driven stage, the biggest challenge Wang Zhengqi faces is the establishment of the product team and the iteration of their cognition. Now, his thinking about building the product team is clear. Team members should either have experience in developing products for excellent channels such as Sam's Club, Hema, and Aldi and understand what kind of products the channels need, or have chef experience and know how to restore the flavors of convenient instant food.

"I've faced great challenges this year and also grown rapidly," Wang Zhengqi said. Although there are still many issues to be studied, when Wang Zhengqi visited some partners recently, they would tell him that "Moxiaoxian has really changed" - "You used to just sell self - heating rice, but now we find that your understanding and planning of products are becoming clearer and clearer."

Going back to the question from the distributor at the beginning, Wang Zhengqi's answer was, "Even if I were in charge of sales this year, I couldn't help much. I can only tell you how to select products, how to pay attention to store inventory and sales, and we need to create a differentiated product assortment for distributors to help them make money. But this can't be rushed. Moxiaoxian will create more value for distributors next year."

For every player in the retail ecosystem, a new era is beginning. "We have to change to have a future and truly rely on our products and organizational capabilities," Wang Zhengqi said.