Is it a short-term phenomenon or a new business model?

In response to the epidemic, the "home economy" has become even hotter (China Online)

Our reporter Peng Xunwen

Work in the "cloud", buy vegetables and fruits and use mobile phones to place orders ... Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, most people "home" at home, causing a certain impact on the catering, tourism and other industries, but at the same time, online shopping, catering "Online economy" or "home economy" such as takeaway, fresh delivery, remote office, etc. is even more popular, and many companies grab the online market.

People in the industry believe that the sudden emergence of the “housing economy” has propped up the “half the sky” of domestic Spring Festival consumption this year and injected new vitality into the economic development, but more attention needs to be paid to the long-term impact of the epidemic on the online industry.

Online "grab food", "cloud" office

A few days ago, a large living hall reopened more than 100 meters away from Beijing's Ms. Zhang's house. Vegetables, fruits, meats, spices and other daily necessities were available there, but Ms. Zhang chose to stay at home. Daily necessities and fresh produce are placed on the Internet platform.

"It's mainly because people are afraid to gather and cause infections. In addition, the online platform is also very convenient." Ms. Zhang said that there are many online platforms engaged in fresh distribution, but the prices are moderate and the service quality is not much. "The Internet platforms with better evaluations sell vegetables at different times, and have to set an alarm clock in order to 'grab food'."

Recently, the reporter saw in a large supermarket in Beijing that the atmosphere was different from the lively atmosphere in the past. Now the storage counter is busy: supermarket staff packs and packs the goods according to online orders. goods.

At Hema Xiansheng Shilibao Store, Chaoyang Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, a bag of dishes was neatly packed together, and dozens of delivery staff quickly put it in the delivery box and sent it to the customer's door of the order. Li Heping, general manager of Beijing Hema, said that due to the epidemic, people ’s demand for online vegetable sales surged far beyond Hema's service capabilities. For this reason, Hema urgently deployed manpower to temporarily “share employees” with other companies. With the resumption of work and production, "shared employees" will return to their original jobs, and a large number of vacancies will appear.

Hema expects that the demand for Hema jobs nationwide this year will reach 30,000. Subsequently, Suning and Carrefour launched a 10,000-person recruitment plan to cope with the shortage of platform employees.

During home epidemic prevention, "everything can be purchased online" has become a trend. In addition to the sharp increase in fresh products, the categories of pet life, game equipment and fitness training are also popular. Mobile games, live broadcast, online shopping and other mobile-based industries have grown, and new changes have taken place in the new retail industry. In addition, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things and other new-generation information technologies are effectively applied to e-commerce, promoting online 3D shopping, physical store self-checkout, and unmanned supermarkets open 24 hours, etc., which can better meet people Personalized consumption needs.

With the resumption of work around the country, "cloud office" and "cloud conference" have become a new fashion. "Now I'm used to working from home." Every morning at 9 am, Wang Jun, who works in a company in Beijing, reads documents shared by colleagues through online office software. When they encountered issues that needed to be discussed, they also initiated a live broadcast of the meeting. Many companies use shared documents to allow employees to report health status and order information online, improving work efficiency. In order to support the resumption of work and production, the Shanghai Economic and Information Commission has issued a notice to support telecommunications operators to provide cloud-based office services such as cloud video conferencing for SMEs for free for more than 6 months. Information system solution providers are encouraged to provide enterprises with Integrated information solutions, and support the cultivation of new business models such as e-commerce, online consulting, unmanned distribution, and health.

"The" housing economy "is the product of the impact of the epidemic." Yao Yudong, deputy general manager and chief economist of Dacheng Fund, believes that while the "housing economy" is hot, more attention should be paid to the long-term impact of the epidemic on related industries, such as Changes in business models and consumption habits.

Follow-up operations are key

During the SARS epidemic prevention in 2003, e-commerce such as Ali and Jingdong grew and became part of people's lives. Under the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, people's "home life" has cultivated and strengthened the consumption habit of the "home economy", and the "home economy" such as fresh food distribution may usher in a new "airport."

Government departments and industry organizations at all levels have recently introduced targeted support policies. The 10 "warm enterprise" measures launched by the Torch Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology on February 6 proposed that relevant departments be encouraged to appropriately reduce or reduce the rents of office leases, experiments, scientific research and production premises for technology-based SMEs. The Chengdu New Economy Enterprise Club recently released the first batch of "Chengdu New Economy Enterprise Epidemic Prevention and Control Ability List", which selected a group of products and services that are applicable to various scenarios in the context of combating epidemics, including home leisure, home entertainment, home office, and home learning .

However, after the epidemic, how can the "housing economy" avoid "a flash in the pan"? There are many issues that need to be addressed.

For example, some customers said after experiencing online grocery shopping that many platforms currently have problems with interface designs that do not meet customer buying habits, delivery products and ordering dishes, and poor quality.

The industry believes that the current popularity of fresh food distribution is related to the suspension of store operations during the epidemic prevention period. After the epidemic is over, how fresh food e-commerce can retain users and increase "stickiness" can really embrace the "spring" of the industry and test the platform's subsequent operational capabilities.