Wuhan "Cangxiaoer" has attracted attention by developing a national warehouse map, and JD Cainiao Didi has come to him for help

On a large display screen, in a map of China's warehouse distribution, about half of the cities are lit with yellow lights. The data below the screen constantly scrolls and displays rental transaction data in real-time

On a large display screen, in a map of China's warehouse distribution, about half of the cities are lit with yellow lights. The data below the screen constantly scrolls and displays rental transaction data in real-time. This is a warehouse building big data platform developed by Wuhan Cangxiaoer Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Cangxiaoer").

Cang Xiaoer, founded by Luo Yong in the Jinyi 2035 Industrial Park in Jiang'an District, specializes in digital services for industrial and logistics real estate leasing and sales transactions, with business covering 310 cities across the country.

This year is the eighth year that 38 year old Luo Yong has led Cang Xiaoer through. I hope Cang Xiaoer can deeply cultivate in the industry, gradually solve industry pain points, drive industry transformation, and improve the efficiency of warehouse and factory rental and sales transactions through technical, model, and professional training.

The difficulty of finding a warehouse has led him to find a new entrepreneurial track

Luo Yong, founder of Wuhan Cangxiaoer Technology Co., Ltd., introduced the company's research and development of a warehouse building big data platform. Photographed by Wang Liting, a journalist from Changjiang Daily

After graduating from university in 2010, Luo Yong joined a well-known leisure snack retail chain enterprise in Shanghai. Luo Yong, who studied logistics management, participated in the company's national logistics center location planning and layout. At that time, there were almost no intermediaries engaged in warehouse and factory leasing. I could only search for owner resources online, seek help from local friends to recommend, and after contacting them, I went to visit every house on site.

Luo Yong recalled that during the dog days in those days, he and his colleagues came to Wuhan to choose a location. Due to their unfamiliarity with the layout of the logistics park, the two of them walked on the Third Ring Road for two full days under the scorching sun, traveling all over the logistics parks in Huangjinkou, Hanyang and Wujiashan, Dongxihu, before finding a suitable warehouse. This traditional way of finding warehouses is like blind people groping for elephants and looking for needles in a haystack.

Two years later, Luo Yong applied to a company in Wuhan to be responsible for the logistics sector business, and founded the well-known Wuzhou Online Supply Chain Management Alliance in the industry at that time to carry out warehousing and logistics industry forum activities. Through the event, Luo Yong made many friends in the industry and gradually gained insight into the pain points of the traditional warehouse leasing industry.

There are actually many idle warehouses in the market, but each intermediary has limited warehouse resources. After connecting with the intermediary, enterprises still need to go to each house on site for inspection and comparison, resulting in problems such as long leasing cycles and inaccurate matching. "Luo Yong told Changjiang Daily reporters that due to information asymmetry between the supply and demand sides, it is difficult for enterprises to find warehouses and the warehouse party to rent them out, which is both time-consuming and laborious.

If a digital platform is established to gather more warehouse and factory resources, the choice space for enterprises will be greater. By intelligently analyzing and evaluating data, a location plan that meets the hardware needs of customers can be quickly provided. "Luo Yong made the decision to resign and start a business.

In 2015, Luo Yong invested all his savings in research and development, aiming to create a digital map that collects information on all warehouse and factory resources in the country. The warehouse searched on map navigation software only has location information, but the specific situation is unknown. The map we built covers various information such as warehouse hardware, rent, and surrounding facilities, and users can grasp the situation through the platform

After more than half a year, Luo Yong and his partners developed the "Warehouse Search Map" platform, hoping that users can easily find suitable warehouses online with their fingers.

At that time, there were only two of them in the startup company, and the platform was still in the development process. However, it was valued at 10 million yuan by an investment institution in Guangdong.

Accurate matching and customization save enterprises 7.2 million yuan

The Cang Xiaoer site selection consultant client is also equipped with a 360 degree panoramic video of the warehouse. Photographed by Wang Liting, a journalist from Changjiang Daily

In May 2016, a friend of Luo Yong rented a warehouse in a certain place for two months, and the warehouse was flooded due to rainstorm, resulting in a loss of millions of yuan.

My friend's painful experience made Luo Yong realize that users not only expect us to provide accurate and efficient site selection solutions, but also hope to help them reduce various risks. From then on, Luo Yong also included natural disasters such as floods and typhoons in the consideration of helping clients select locations.

The location planning plan is not only about matching hardware requirements, but also needs to comprehensively consider multiple factors to ultimately form a location solution. Cang Xiaoer can provide a full body portrait of the warehouse from the perspectives of hardware, supporting facilities, rent, and property management. Users can accurately select and match the warehouse by checking their needs on the platform. Business consultants will also help companies consider transportation efficiency and costs, owner credit, fire protection, industrial agglomeration, and other factors.

In 2020, the head of an e-commerce company in Shanghai contacted Luo Yong. The warehouse rented by the company was facing demolition and the company needed to find a suitable warehouse as soon as possible. At first, we wanted to continue looking for warehouses in Shanghai, but there were relatively few warehouses that met the company's hardware needs, and the rent exceeded expectations. "The company leader said that even if we found a warehouse with matching hardware conditions in Shanghai, the company still faced the problem of high express transit costs and inability to keep up with time efficiency.

After discussing with Luo Yong, the company leader shifted their focus to the surrounding cities of Shanghai. After understanding the distribution center location, store commitment time, and relocation cost budget that the enterprise's express delivery needs to deliver, Luo Yong locked the location in areas such as Kunshan, Jiangsu.

Luo Yong also inputted the hardware requirements for the warehouse area and floor height planned by the enterprise into the warehouse second location consultant platform system. After calculation and analysis, a foreign-funded enterprise industrial park in Kunshan was finally selected. It only took 7 days from matching requirements to determining the park.

This location is not only close to the transfer center of the express delivery, but also has logistics costs and timeliness comparable to the original warehouse in Shanghai. The rent is also cheaper than the previous warehouse, "said the enterprise manager. The warehouse selected by the warehouse assistant has saved the company more than 2.4 million yuan in rent per year, and the three-year contract has saved the company 7.2 million yuan.

Reducing supply chain costs and time costs for enterprises is the core value of Cang Xiaoer, "said Luo Yong. Cang Xiaoer saves an average of 5% to 25% of rental costs for enterprises. In terms of saving time and cost, it used to take companies one to two months to find a warehouse. Now, by using a warehouse manager, data can be "run errands" instead of "run errands", and the warehouse can be found in a week. Previously, Cang Xiao'er had an hour to help customers find suitable warehouse service cases.

Luo Yong said that in the future, the platform will also calculate the best layout points in the country based on customer order distribution, order volume, etc., to achieve the optimal solution for logistics efficiency and cost.

16000 landlords proactively come to their doorstep

The company's cultural wall is covered with well-known corporate icons, which are customers who have provided contracted site selection services by Cang Xiao'er. Photographed by Wang Liting, a journalist from Changjiang Daily

JD, Cainiao, Didi, Meituan, Vanke, Suning... The cultural walls of the company are covered with well-known enterprise icons, all of which are customers who have provided contracted site selection services by Cang Xiao'er. Obtaining the favor of well-known enterprises is based on the company's warehouse resource big data platform, and the platform foundation is derived from years of data resource accumulation

Luo Yong introduced that in the early stages of entrepreneurship, the platform relied entirely on employees to contact the logistics industry park by phone to obtain warehouse resources. After searching for the investment hotline of the warehouse online, we contacted each other and checked the warehouse information with the landlord one by one. Due to the lack of awareness of social division of labor and collaboration among many landlords, as well as a lack of trust in intermediary platforms, they often "get a bad rap".

With the increase in business volume, the influence of Cang Xiaoer has gradually expanded, and large real estate owners from all over the country have come to seek cooperation. Luo Yong told reporters that as of October 2023, the warehouse factory resources of Cang Xiaoer have spread to 310 cities and covered 23100 logistics industrial parks. Luo Yong said that 70% or nearly 16000 of the parks were voluntarily visited by landlords. More than 40000 enterprises have settled on the platform, and the online warehouse area has exceeded 710 million square meters. At present, in the field of industrial logistics and real estate in China, Cang Xiaoer has become the leading digital trading service platform in the country with a real housing volume.

The reporter opened the warehouse seller rental transaction client and randomly clicked on a warehouse to see that the page not only displays basic information such as warehouse rental area and time, but also records building information such as building structure, floor height, unloading platform, platform type, and is equipped with highlights such as traffic conditions around the warehouse and industry suitability. In addition, the Cang Xiaoer site selection consultant client is also equipped with 360 degree panoramic videos of the warehouse, landlord credit and other information.

It is understood that through the continuous development and improvement of the platform by the team, more than 300 versions have been updated and iterated, and a site selection consulting client and a rental trading client for both supply and demand parties have been built, with a total investment of over 40 million yuan in research and development costs. Continuous high investment in research and development has once made the company's cash flow tight, but using platform advantages to shape the company's core competitiveness is my long-term pursuit. "Luo Yong said that when encountering financial difficulties, the Jiang'an District Science and Technology Bureau and street staff sent financial policies to their doorstep, and the park also helped connect with investment and financing institutions.

(Reporter Wang Liting from Changjiang Daily, Correspondent Zhang Mingjin)

Editor: Zhang Jing

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