:: Free chain: also known as voluntary chain or free alliance. Japan defines it as that many retailers scattered all over the country not only maintain their independence, but also form a permanent chain relationship, so that businesses such as buying goods are assimilated to achieve the purpose of * * * enjoying economies of scale. Its distinctive feature is that each chain member has legal person status, maintains independent accounting, is responsible for its own profits and losses, operates independently, and pays the joining fee and guiding fee to the headquarters. Chain headquarters make use of the scale advantage to organize commodity procurement in a unified way, coordinate all aspects, provide useful information for all members, and reduce the operating costs of all chain members.
* Franchise chain: also known as contract chain, contract chain and franchise chain. Chinese mainland defines it as: Franchising refers to trademarks (including service trademarks), trade names, products, patents and proprietary technologies, business models, etc. granted by franchisees. The franchisee is awarded in the form of franchise contract, and the franchisee engages in business activities under a unified business model according to the provisions of the contract, and pays the corresponding expenses to the franchisee. Franchisees do not have the qualification of legal person, but they maintain independent operation and accounting, and are highly unified in business content, service mode and appearance decoration. Franchisees have nothing to do with each other, but only with the headquarters, but the external image of franchisees' unified operation must be formed under the rules of the contract in order to achieve the scale benefits of joint operation.