As of June this year, the number of online food delivery users in China has reached 469 million
Takeaway consumption: buy more, sell it hot (online China)
At the Cross Street store of BBK Supermarket in Yongding District, Zhangjiajie City, Hunan Province, delivery staff are lining up to pick up the goods ordered by the citizens.
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Chen Sihan
From three meals a day to fresh vegetables, from daily necessities to medicines and sundries, nowadays takeaway services cover many aspects of people's lives.
According to the 48th "Statistical Report on China's Internet Development Status" recently released by the China Internet Network Information Center, as of June 2021, the number of online food delivery users in China reached 469 million, an increase of 49.76 million from December 2020. The growth rate is the most obvious in applications.
As China's economy stabilizes and improves and the supervision of the food delivery industry is further strengthened, the digital level of the food delivery industry continues to increase, new consumption trends are highlighted, and the industry coverage is more diverse and diversified.
"Running errands" service is very popular
Go home to watch a TV show, order a box of fresh-cut fruits; forget to bring a power bank on business trips, order takeaways and buy one quickly, don’t panic when your mobile phone is charged... Nowadays, the concept of "takeaway" continues to expand and the industry The coverage is more diverse.
Open Meituan Takeaway and choose Meituan Flash Sale. Drinks and snacks, fresh fruits and vegetables, flowers and plants, pet mothers and babies, medicine, digital books and other categories can be delivered to home within 30 minutes to 2 hours.
Data show that in the second quarter of this year, the transaction volume and transaction value of Meituan’s flash sale increased by more than 140% year-on-year.
Among them, flowers and medicines maintained a high growth momentum and continued to outperform other categories.
In addition to delivering goods, you can also deliver services.
It is reported that the Meituan running errand service is divided into two parts: “help take delivery” and “help buy”. It hopes to provide users with instant delivery services within the same city when users cannot get away from their bodies, are in a hurry, and need to save time and effort. People who don't have much free time are liberated from trivial matters, making life more worry-free.
On the Ele.me platform, orders for takeaway medicines increased by 10% month-on-month and 130% year-on-year in July and August this year.
Ele.me and major pharmacies launched the "Late Night Pharmacy" event, which has implemented 24-hour health delivery services in nearly 5,000 pharmacies in more than 500 cities across the country, meeting the needs of users for late-night medication.
The Internet retail platform provides consumers with instant home services of food and beverage, vegetables and fruits, flowers and cakes, medicine and health, household daily use, and digital goods, which is also called instant retail.
Usually, the rider can deliver the order within 30 minutes to 2 hours after the user places the order.
During the epidemic prevention period, the immediate delivery business represented by fresh food and medicines developed rapidly, and together with catering takeaways, they helped the people's livelihood and stabilized the economy.
According to the "Research Report on China's Instant Retail Industry in 2021" released by iResearch, from the demand side, consumers expect to purchase a relatively balanced proportion of categories on the instant retail e-commerce platform, and they have instant consumer demand for all types of goods. ; From the perspective of the supply side, the current local life services have extended from food and beverage delivery to various commodities such as fresh fruits, household daily use, flowers and gifts, medicine and health, books and cultural creativity, and the instant retail scene also covers supermarkets, convenience stores, and pharmacies. , Bookstores and other offline places.
Improved technology, precise delivery
"Before, I was most worried about the bursting of takeaway orders during the noon peak. I missed orders and received wrong orders almost every day. Especially when I was busy and couldn't take care of the mobile phone. As a result, the meal was ready and there was no rider to pick up the meal, and sometimes the meal time was inaccurate. Contradictions are also prone to occur." Mr. Li, a take-out restaurant owner in Wuhan, Hubei, said with emotion, "After using digital store opening aids, the lunch and dinner peak hours will no longer be rushed, and the take-away business will be more prosperous."
The digital shop assistant tools mentioned by Mr. Li are cloud printers and "dinner assistants" developed by the food delivery platform.
The cloud printer is a take-out order printer that can automatically receive orders and print quickly, and can automatically print cloud storage orders; "Meal Assistant" is a new type of smart code scanning device that can instantly report "Mealing" by scanning the order number "Status, notify the rider to deliver to the store.
"We have used it for a while, and it feels very convenient to operate. The cloud printer can automatically take orders and no more missed orders during peak periods. The'Meal Assistant' allows the rider to more accurately determine when to pick up meals." Mr. Li said.
At present, more and more small and medium-sized catering merchants have started the take-out mode, quickly and without omission, accepting orders and timely delivery by riders, which has become the biggest demand of merchants.
The auxiliary tools provided by the takeaway platform can effectively improve the digital management level of small and medium-sized merchants.
Some shopkeepers pointed out that in addition to the improvement of digital hardware, instant retail e-commerce is also helping small retail stores in many aspects.
For example, small retail stores are small in scale and large in quantity. They are mainly mom-and-pop stores. They sell goods in a more traditional manner. They lack direct control of consumer data and cannot accurately determine consumer needs. However, after connecting to online food delivery platforms, instant retail e-commerce Relying on technical capabilities and big data advantages, we can accurately insight into consumer behavior, provide consumer portraits, consumer needs, etc. for small stores, help retail stores select products, and empower retail stores to upgrade digitally.
Industry insiders believe that the digitalization of the service industry is an emerging track. Life service apps such as Ele.me will continue to focus on the user’s “economy around” at the front end to meet user needs; at the back end, the continuous advancement of merchant digitalization will help Merchants can better acquire and manage users and improve operating efficiency.
Industry supervision is gradually improving
You can see the processing environment and production process of take-out food, and display real-time data such as the number of orders on the take-out platform-this is the first digital take-out supervision system "Zhejiang Waimai Online" officially launched in Zhejiang recently.
According to Zhang Genming, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Bureau, in view of the characteristics of the new economy and new business formats, "Zhejiang Waimai Online" creatively launched "reasonable time" for food delivery, "AI inspections" in kitchens, "data portraits" on platforms, and "operating risk perceptions for businesses" "Wait for the scene.
For example, the system calculates the riding time and the walking meal delivery time for the rider, and after comprehensively considering the traffic congestion and weather conditions, it automatically generates a "reasonable time" for the delivery of the takeaway. The rider completes the delivery task within this time period, and the platform must not Undermining its performance, consumers can't arbitrarily give bad reviews.
It is reported that since the trial operation, "Zhejiang Waimai Online" has completed the information verification of 293,000 merchants on the online food ordering platform, confirmed 205,000 catering registration entities, online access to more than 6,000 Sunshine Kitchens, and promoted more than 7,000 takeaway merchants to commit to use Take-out seals, 3,372 take-out merchants promised to use plastic-limited packaging, access to 339,000 take-out riders data, and jointly promote the collaborative governance of take-out platforms.
In recent years, the food delivery industry has developed rapidly, resulting in problems such as plastic pollution, algorithm hegemony, rider violations, food safety, and after-sale disputes. The actions to regulate the food delivery industry are being followed up continuously.
The State Administration for Market Regulation and other seven departments have jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Implementing the Responsibilities of Online Catering Platforms and Effectively Protecting the Rights and Interests of Takeaway Food Deliverymen", aiming at protecting the legitimate rights and interests of food delivery staff, such as labor income, labor safety, social security, and working environment. Put forward all-round requirements.
Prior to this, the State Administration for Market Regulation conducted investigations into suspected monopolistic behaviors such as "choosing one of two" on foreign selling platforms in accordance with the law.
With the significant strengthening of industry supervision, more attention has been paid to the social security issues of flexible employment groups including takeaway riders. Related improvements and sound measures will promote the development of online takeaways in the direction of healthy standards.
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