Can online grocery shopping continue to be popular (economic focus)
Core reading
Affected by the epidemic, buying food online has become a new choice for many people. All kinds of online grocery shopping platforms have ushered in an all-round test of the supply chain, logistics, distribution and other aspects while the business volume has surged. In the future, in order to retain customers, it is necessary to further improve digital operations and continuous innovation capabilities.
"It's not the alarm clock that wakes me up every day, but the desire for fresh vegetables." After the outbreak, many people at home chose to stay away from the vegetable market temporarily, "embracing" the Internet, so "online shopping" became a supply The main choice of necessities of life. This has caused the business of various grocery shopping platforms to rise against the trend, and the number of users, orders, sales, etc. have hit new highs.
All kinds of grocery shopping platforms ushered in an all-round test of the supply chain, logistics, manpower, and distribution while ushering in the growth of business volume, which exposed many shortcomings and forced companies to upgrade themselves. Nowadays, as citizens' lives gradually return to normal, the vegetable market with "smoke" has gained popularity, can the online grocery shopping business continue to be popular? How should relevant platforms retain users?
Platform business volume continues to grow
Affected by the epidemic, not only young people, even some uncles and aunts who used to buy food only to go to the food market began to exchange "grocers" in the circle of friends. Several cellphone shopping apps were installed on their phones to compare prices and varieties , Quality and distribution efficiency.
Aunt Ye, who lives in Haidian, Beijing, used to go to the vegetable market and supermarket to buy food for her family. During the epidemic, she did not go out shopping for more than two months. She prepared food for her family by eating food online. "Hama, daily fresh and more, my daughter downloaded several mobile apps for me. I found that the dishes delivered were not worse than the carefully selected ones. I applied for after-sales service when it was not satisfactory. , Can basically solve it for me. "
Now, as the epidemic prevention and control situation improves, Aunt Ye will also pick fresh vegetables at the vegetable shop at the door of the community. "Now go to the restaurant when you can go out. When you don't want to go out, you can use your mobile phone to place an order. I haven't deleted the downloaded apps!"
"During the epidemic, at most we achieved a transaction volume of about 4 times year-on-year." Wang Jun, partner and chief financial officer of Youxian Daily, said: "In addition, the epidemic has brought a wave of concentrated user habits, we It is found that as long as the user buys 3 orders, it will be very stable. The data in March shows that the order rate of shopping carts for fruits and vegetables, meat and aquatic products, packaged foods, daily necessities and other categories have increased significantly, and the monthly consumption amount of users has increased year-on-year 51%, the unit price of paid-in customers has recently remained at around RMB 100. "
Data from Hema shows that the flow of Hema APP continues to grow, with online orders increasing by 290% compared with the same period last year; offline consumption is 2.3 times that of the same period last year. Not only has professional fresh e-commerce become "sweets", some traditional supermarkets have also used their own online shopping platforms, enterprise APPs and customer bases, as well as third-party platforms to expand the online retail of vegetables and other daily necessities to achieve offline customer diversion To online, the number of clicks and orders has also doubled.
Is it a tuyere or a watershed?
In the eyes of many people, fresh e-commerce has ushered in a great development. However, whether this is an air outlet or a watershed depends on whether these platforms can cope with the various problems exposed during the epidemic. "The shortcomings in the supply chain and distribution are the reasons why many e-commerce companies have been eliminated by the market before. This is still the current" big boss ". If it is solved, it is an opportunity, it cannot be solved, it is a difficult situation, and it will be washed away by the waves Wash off. "The report from Ai Media Consulting showed.
In Wang Jun's view, the supply-side capabilities of fresh e-commerce are challenged due to the "blowout" on the demand side. "Early contradictions mainly focused on the grouping of goods. Affected by the epidemic, many farmers were inconvenient to collect vegetables in the field, and some vegetables were unsaleable in the field. Later, there was a shortage of packaging personnel and delivery personnel in the warehouse, and the safety of these personnel. Security, emotional grooming, and service quality assurance are all problems for the industry in the past. "
Supply chain and distribution problems have become a common "pain point" for many grocery shopping platforms during the epidemic. The person in charge of the relevant department of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce introduced that during the epidemic, Beijing guided more than 20 large vegetable retail enterprises and more than 10 vegetable through-vehicle enterprises to implement the "point-to-point" monitoring replenishment guarantee mechanism and the community vegetable emergency guarantee mechanism. Full coverage of vegetable monitoring, supply, and replenishment of 280 secondary markets and more than 9,000 retail stores in the city. In the early stage of the epidemic, in order to ensure supply, many fresh e-commerce adopts the practice of purchasing personnel stationed in the place of origin. At the same time, creatively utilize the spare labor in industries such as catering and tourism in a "shared employee" manner.
In order to solve the distribution problem, more than 6,000 pick-up stations have been established nationwide from February 10 to April 20, and more than 3,700 have been established in Beijing. According to the relevant person in charge at many points, at present, the pick-up station has become a community network of supermarkets reaching the city, and it assumes the important function of users shopping in stores, homes, and communities. "At present, taking Beijing as an example, the proportion of online orders arriving by consumers has reached more than 60%, and the delivery station has doubled the efficiency of online order delivery in supermarkets."
How do users stay?
At present, people's lives are gradually returning to normal. Will online grocery shopping become the norm? How does the platform retain growing users?
Many experts believe that although the popularity, user quantity and business volume of the grocery shopping platform have increased significantly during the epidemic, and the user group has penetrated from young users to middle-aged and elderly users, can the platform maintain a good supply chain system, distribution efficiency, and food after the epidemic Quality is of utmost importance, otherwise the users attracted during this time will eventually return to the offline shopping that makes them more used to it.
Lai Yang, a member of the Expert Committee of the China Chamber of Commerce and a researcher at the Beijing Institute of Finance and Trade, said: "Whether online or offline, companies must be aware of the value of operating products to consumers and continue to build their own appeal so that they can accumulate more More loyal consumers. "
For many grocery shopping platforms, the epidemic has tested every aspect of their capabilities. After the supply chain and distribution have stood the test, they need to consider how to retain the growing users. Wang Jun said: "Overall, the epidemic first tested the company's accumulated organizational capabilities in the past, such as quickly fighting the" encounter war "to organize goods and distribution; the second stage is the" position war ", which will challenge the company's digitalization Operational ability, that is, how to further innovate while providing continuous and efficient services. "
As various industries continue to resume production, many grocery shopping platforms have begun to use live broadcast tools to develop sales. "Beijing alone, more than one live broadcast has brought Da Dong Roast Duck 160,000 yuan in sales. For different series of brand products, the live broadcast will match the senior consultant or marketing manager of the business line, with a professional product interpretation. Targeted recommendations, accurate reach, and higher sales. "The relevant person in charge of many points introduced that in more than a month, more than one point and the major supermarkets carried out 51 games at an average daily rate. Live broadcast, covering a total of 660,000 consumers.
In Laiyang's view, "Although e-commerce delivers goods directly to home, many links in the actual operation are still staff-intensive. For example, although the entire supply chain uses intelligent warehouses and intelligent logistics systems, many chains still require personnel. Participation, especially the last mile of distribution. "Therefore, Lai Yang suggested using automation technology in the development of e-commerce, such as products entering intelligent warehouses through automatic logistics, automatic distribution and delivery by automatic decomposition system, and then distribution by drones Goods, etc. "In the future e-commerce process, as the proportion of traditional personnel needs is further reduced, companies will have better coping capabilities in the event of emergencies."
Wei Wei