Geli Electric's Channel Reform and Wang Ziru's Departure

Geli Electric's channel reform project leader, Wang Ziru, was exposed to have left the company. The news has gradually faded. So far, Geli has remained silent, and Wang Ziru himself has not made a statement.

However, when the dealers learned that he had left, some expressed regret, while others applauded. Before the departure turmoil, Wang Ziru vigorously promoted the channel reform. He announced that the digital system built by 1000 people and implemented in the front line. What is the real feedback?

A system developed by thousands of people has caused us many obstacles

In early August this year, at the 2025 Geli Electric (Guangfo) New Marketing Strategy Summit, Wang Ziru, the project leader of Geli Electric's digital channel reform, once announced that Geli Electric's investment in new retail was unprecedented, and the reform determination was unwavering. For this reason, the company had组建 a research and development team of over a thousand people and built a digital new marketing system to connect the whole链路 such as dealer procurement, warehouse logistics, terminal sales, and after-sales service.

Unfortunately, just after Wang Ziru宣讲ed these achievements, the news of his departure also spread. So far, neither Geli nor Wang Ziru has responded to this, but some insiders revealed that the documents that previously required Wang Ziru's approval have now been replaced by other people.

So, what is the real effect of the series of digital channel reforms promoted by Wang Ziru?

A dealer in Henan Province summarized to Sina Technology: Learned people never consider practicability when doing things. The dealer disclosed that for the purpose of combating parallel imports, in the process of Geli's reform, a unique password was set for each air conditioner, and workers were required to decode it twice when installing and enter the password to report and wait for feedback. However, this operation makes the air conditioner that originally took 1 hour to install now take more time, increasing the time cost of air conditioner installation.

When the feedback person is not there, the installer of the air conditioner can only wait. Isn't it creating trouble for no trouble? In the opinion of this dealer, Wang Ziru's biggest failure lies in: Ignoring the complexity of the program. The installers are all ordinary workers and can't control those systems, which eventually leads to many obstacles.

Over time, the workers began to install selectively. If a store sold both Geli and Midea air conditioners, the installers would definitely rush to install Midea first because the operation is not that complicated, and this seems to have become the norm. The final result is that the boss is also not willing to actively promote Geli air conditioners because the installers are not willing to install, and it is more troublesome to coordinate after being sold out.

The dealer said straightforwardly, His (Wang Ziru's) departure is beneficial to our front-line sales and sales.

At the same time, a dealer from Chifeng, Inner Mongolia also had deep feelings. The original intention of the reform is definitely good, for the convenience of taking goods, timely transparency, and reduction of intermediate links, but it is not the case in actual operation. The front-line work has been smooth, and suddenly many people reflect that they can't adapt and don't understand.

In his opinion, the more transparent the price is and the more Geli controls, the less profit the dealers will have, which will eventually be reflected on the service side, and the service quality will decrease instead.

The results he led have played a negative role.

The self-developed system left by Wang Ziru has more aftermath.

At present, some small dealers have begun to give up purchasing from Geli's own system due to the rigid and inhumane design of the self-developed ordering system and instead turn to bulk ordering directly from channels such as JD.com through group buying.

A dealer of Geli Electric in Shanxi Province who is well-versed in e-commerce operation said to Sina Technology, Geli's self-developed digital ordering system is not as good as placing an order on the e-commerce platform due to reasons such as purchase quantity restrictions and complicated return approval. He gave an example that in Geli's current self-developed online ordering system, 20 sets of equipment need to be purchased to be exempt from freight. If an order is placed wrongly and a refund is required, it has to go through layers of approval, and the procedure is very cumbersome.

The dealer said, This system actually doesn't have much use. It is only used for placing orders and shipping, and everyone also needs a deposit of 5000 yuan, which is completely not in line with the market logic. Although the price on the e-commerce platform is slightly higher, but by sharing orders with others, it can basically be leveled. Like Wang Ziru's system, although there are some discounts, the freight has increased, and there is no price advantage at all in the end.

He commented that the system led by Wang Ziru has instead played a negative role.

In the reform, the stability of dealers is crucial.

Judging from the words of at least four dealer personnel, Geli's digital channel reform has not been recognized by them.

Previously, Wang Ziru once called on dealers to recognize the general trend and not just focus on immediate interests in a public speech. But the dealers all laughed: Many of us are struggling on the breakeven line. Not focusing on immediate interests? Maybe we won't be able to survive the next year.

In fact, not only Wang Ziru's reform is unpopular, but also at the Geli Electric level. Under the authorization of Dong Mingzhu, the entire channel reform of Geli Electric has also offended the company's veteran dealers. In 2022, Xu Zifa, the general agent of Geli Hebei distribution, led the team to switch to Philips completely due to a rift with Geli, which is the best example.

In the communication with Sina Technology, Ding Shaojiang, the chief analyst of GKURC Product Economics Think Tank, said, Any enterprise promoting channel reform is not a simple thing because it involves the dynamic adjustment of the company's operation strategy, channel strategy, and dealer interests. This kind of adjustment will inevitably bring pain and shock to dealers. From this perspective, any change or reform has both a positive side and a vibrating side.

In his opinion, even so, enterprises also need to balance the interests of all parties when conducting channel reform. First of all, a very important goal of channel reform is definitely to make the enterprise interests and overall value increase. The development of the enterprise after the reform cannot be slower or worse than before. Secondly, the interests of the channels should still be stabilized to a certain extent on the whole, so that the interests of the channels can be guaranteed to a certain degree, especially for large enterprises, the stability of the channels is also very important. Finally, it is also beneficial to the interests of consumers. Through channel reform, it is necessary to ensure that consumers can obtain products more quickly and conveniently, and at the same time do a good job in pre-sale, in-sale, and after-sale services.

To do a good job in balancing the interests of these three parties, this tests the landing ability of the entire channel strategy. Ding Shaojiang said.

This article's original title is Why Do Some Dealers Applaud After Wang Ziru Is Rumored to Have Left?