China News Agency, Shanghai, August 9th. Title: Liang Changlin, founder of Dingdong Maicai: Digital technology strung up the fresh food e-commerce industry chain

  Author Li Qiuying

  Fresh food e-commerce has always been a popular e-commerce track, and it is also the most difficult track. Liang Changlin, the founder of Dingdong Shopping, said with a smile in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency, "Selling vegetables is actually a high-tech industry."

  In early 2020, the new crown pneumonia epidemic gave fresh food e-commerce companies that had suffered a cold winter an opportunity. During the epidemic, demand for online fresh food transactions showed a blowout growth, and fresh food e-commerce "dead trees in spring". Shanghai's local companies "Ding Dong Buying Grocery" were even more popular during the epidemic.

  As a latecomer to fresh food e-commerce, Dingdong Maicai was officially launched in May 2017. In 2019, the total revenue was 5 billion yuan (RMB, the same below). With the outbreak of the epidemic, only orders in February 2020 Monthly revenue exceeds 1.2 billion yuan.

  However, during the epidemic, the "rejuvenation" of fresh food e-commerce is industry-wide and large-scale. How the track will develop in the future has also drawn a question mark in the hearts of everyone. Many industry insiders believe: "The future of China's fresh food e-commerce is in the improvement of the industrial chain, the balance of supply and demand, and the blessing of digital technology..."

  In Liang Changlin’s view, the current technological development is indeed the core competitiveness of an enterprise. "The whole process of digitalization and order forecasting system; the traceability process of a lettuce, the route planning of the cycling brother... These all require The blessing of digitization and artificial intelligence technology."

  Fresh food e-commerce has been criticized by many investors and professionals on the issue of attrition rate. "Digitalization has solved this problem well. We will prepare the front warehouse and recommend various types according to user habits. , It is a win-win for users and us."

  Speaking of this, Liang Changlin gave an example: "Today a user wants to eat spinach, but the warehouse is gone, the system will recommend other leafy greens based on the inventory and the user's daily habits.'Forecast + recommendation', it's good It solved the original loss problem."

  Behind the rapid development of fresh food e-commerce during the epidemic is the accelerated growth of middle-aged and elderly customers. The proactive training provided by children, relatives, friends, and volunteers who live at home has quickly made middle-aged and elderly customers become masters of "grabbing food". In the eyes of middle-aged and elderly people, the products are fresh, affordable, and convenient to buy. The key to consumption.

  Fu Yifu, a senior researcher at the Suning Financial Research Institute, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency that for consumers, after the epidemic, everyone will pay more attention to the quality and safety of fresh products.

  In Liang Changlin's view, "high quality" and "high repurchase rate" are also important development directions for fresh food e-commerce in the future. "Users can even know where a small onion was produced and when it was picked off so that it can be eaten. Don't worry."

  Why choose Shanghai? For the mass service industry, Shanghai's rapid economic and cultural development and residents' demand for quality of life are the soil for its growth.

  At that time, Liang Changlin also took a fancy to Shanghai. This year is his 18th year of starting a business in Shanghai. After retiring from the army in 2002, he chose to come to Shanghai from his hometown of Anhui.

  During this epidemic, Liang Changlin also personally felt the tolerance and openness of Shanghai. “The 28,000 square meters of cold storage took only 3 days to be officially used from the field. This is simply impossible in normal times.”

  The housing problem of the workers also stumped the veteran at the time, "There are so many workers, there is no community near the warehouse where they agree to move in. In the end, the relevant leaders provide us with guarantees, which solves the problem of accommodation..."

  Today, Shanghai is building the "City of Fresh Food E-commerce." Liu Min, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, said that Shanghai supports encouraging the healthy and rapid development of new models such as fresh food e-commerce and community e-commerce, speeding up the construction of the "Internet + life service industry" innovation pilot zone, and promoting the formation of an e-commerce ecosystem in the life service industry Circle to meet the needs of multi-level and diversified consumption.

  Shanghai’s support for the online economy also made Liang Changlin very excited. “In the future, Shanghai will take the construction of front-end warehouses and cold chains as part of the new infrastructure. I believe that at that time everyone will pay more attention to the safety and quality of fresh food, and the industry will also Enter a state of healthy market competition." (End)