Baijiu: B2B Is a Red Sea, B2C Holds the Future

The article argues that the baijiu industry’s decades‑long reliance on a B2B‑centric sales model—heavy distributor incentives, bulk stocking, and channel rebates—has created a “red sea” where sales growth is merely inventory movement rather than genuine consumer demand.

Evidence includes the industry‑wide practice of treating stockpiling as sales, the recent correction of Wuliangye’s 2025 revenue figures, and the overall instability of growth as market conditions fluctuate, leading to price inversion and brand vulnerability.

Meanwhile, younger consumers (born in the 80s, 90s, and 00s) are shifting away from traditional group‑buying and business‑gift consumption toward personal taste, cultural relevance, and diversified occasions such as casual drinking and home collection, demanding brands that understand individual preferences.

Digital transformation is presented as the sole hard lever to break this deadlock. The three foundational steps are: (1) converting consumers into identifiable IDs, (2) turning sales signals into observable data (e.g., terminal, batch, opening‑bottle metrics), and (3) converting brand value into computable assets (scene tags, flavor preferences, LTV).

Case studies illustrate the shift: Maotai’s iMaotai platform replaces traditional distribution with an online direct‑to‑consumer channel, integrates offline and online touchpoints, and leverages user operations to build mass‑consumer mindshare; Fenjiu adopts scenario‑based marketing, co‑creation, and content‑driven “grass‑planting” to appeal to younger buyers.

The author predicts 2026 will be the “break‑through year” for baijiu’s B2C transformation, asserting that brands that reorient from “selling to channels” to “creating value for users” will secure stable growth, price control, and loyal fan bases.