In the hardware industry, Ruijing Mall has become a much-discussed existence.
It can cover 220,000 hardware stores, with a penetration rate of over 20%, and has a unique development model behind it.
This platform, launched in 2015, connects upstream hardware and electrical machinery manufacturers and downstream scattered hardware stores, using the Internet to transform the traditional inefficient industry.
There are about 1 million hardware retail stores across the country. They have long relied on the traditional model of visiting wholesale markets and calling agents to find agents. The process is cumbersome and costly.
Ruiguo Mall has been targeting this “sinking market that has not been fully digitized” since its establishment, focusing on serving small and medium-sized hardware stores, avoiding platform competition with Zhenkunxing and other platforms that directly serve large enterprises.
By aggregating dispersed demands, the platform achieves centralized procurement and reduces purchase costs.
By 2025, its business will cover more than 220,000 retail hardware stores across the country, with a penetration rate of more than 20%, which is equivalent to one in every five hardware stores using it to purchase goods.
There are many SKUs and complex specifications for mechanical and electrical hardware products. Traditional procurement relies on the experience of the boss, and it is difficult to go online.
Ruijing Mall has solved this pain point through two major measures.
On the one hand, it has accumulated a massive SKU database, covering 26 categories such as power tools, lithium battery tools, consumables and accessories, and providing approximately 3.4 million products.
On the other hand, the algorithm recommends adapted products, and the platform automatically matches hardware store owners with the accessories they need based on historical orders, search records and store portraits.
The boss only needs to describe “what machine needs to be repaired”, and the system can recommend corresponding products, greatly lowering the purchase threshold.
More importantly, the platform has built its own warehousing and distribution network, with an intelligent warehousing center of more than 100,000 square meters, covering key areas such as East China, Central China, and South China.
This allows most orders to be “ordered the first day and delivered the next day”, solving the timeliness pain points of hardware stores fearing shortages and waiting for goods, and shifting inventory pressure from the terminal to the platform.
Although Ruijing Mall has extensive coverage and rapid revenue growth, with revenue reaching 1.12 billion yuan in the first nine months of 2025, it still faces severe challenges.
From 2023 to the first nine months of 2025, the company’s net losses accumulated to more than 1.9 billion yuan.
High logistics costs and marketing expenses are the main reasons. The proportion of sales and marketing expenses in total revenue in 2023 was close to 60%.
In addition, the risk of customer concentration cannot be ignored. The revenue share of the top five customers has soared from 15.2% in 2023 to 45.2% in the first nine months of 2025.
This means that nearly half of its revenue relies on a few large customers, and its bargaining power is limited. Once customers are lost, revenue may fall sharply.
The story of Ruijing Mall is a microcosm of the industrial Internet’s deep penetration into subdivisions. Opportunities and challenges coexist. It is worth waiting and seeing whether it can overcome difficulties and continue to shine in the hardware market in the future.
