The reporter personally tested a number of mainstream grocery shopping apps: the delivery time differs several times and the threshold for free delivery fees is different

　　Fresh food e-commerce competition is becoming increasingly fierce.

"As far as grocery shopping, I have 5 to 6 apps installed on my mobile phone," Ms. Lin, a consumer, told reporters.

In recent years, the fresh and new retail industry has developed rapidly. However, after experiencing rapid offline expansion, large-scale capital entry, and massive subsidies to "burn money", the industry still faces the problem of how to make profits.

Under multiple rounds of shuffling, there are more and more patterns on the fresh food track. However, the most important things for consumers are price, product freshness, and delivery speed.

On March 27, all-media reporters evaluated the mainstream grocery shopping apps from multiple dimensions.

The delivery time of different platforms is quite different. On the same day, some platforms took only 13 minutes from placing an order to receiving the goods, while others took as long as 56 minutes.

As for the delivery fee, if it is not a new customer, first-order discount, membership, etc., the order amount that does not reach the platform's free shipping threshold will be charged for shipping. It is understood that the shipping fee for mainstream apps ranges from 3 to 6 yuan.

　　Text / table Guangzhou Daily all media reporter Wen Jing

　　reporter test

　　Commodities: Three in stock at the same price and one out of stock

　　On the morning of the 27th, the reporter placed an order for grocery shopping at Hema, Meituan, Dingdong and Pupu APP.

In terms of vegetable category selection, the reporter chose the more common Chinese cabbage.

Searching for pakchoi on the Hema, Meituan and Dingdong Maicai apps, there are related products displayed. According to the page, the price of pakchoi in the three apps is 3.99 yuan per serving, and each serving weighs about 300 grams.

　　During the order at noon that day, the reporter searched for "small cabbage" on the Pupu APP, and the result page only displayed products such as pakchoi, Yunnan Shanghai green, and Shanghai green cabbage, while the organic pakchoi displayed "coming soon"; Chinese cabbage Aberdeen also showed "About tomorrow night".

In the end, the reporter placed an order for 3.99 yuan per serving (about 300 grams) of Chinese cabbage on the above-mentioned three APPs that have pakchoi.

On Pu Pushang, similar cabbage was out of stock, and the reporter placed an order for milk cabbage seedlings of 7.99 yuan per serving.

　　Delivery speed: the fastest time is 13 minutes and the slowest time is 56 minutes

　　From the successful payment of the order to the delivery by the courier brother, according to the reporter's test, it took Meituan 13 minutes to buy food; Hema took 40 minutes; Dingdong took 56 minutes to deliver food to home; Pupu's delivery time It took 53 minutes.

The reporter placed the order on the same day from 11:30 to 12:00, and some platforms showed that it was a peak delivery.

Although the delivery time of each platform is different, they are all within the estimated delivery time displayed on the APP page.

　　Delivery fee: 3~6 yuan and different free thresholds

　　The reporter bought 3.99 yuan/unit of pakchoi and 7.99 yuan/unit of milk cabbage seedlings. How to calculate the above-mentioned platform delivery fee?

　　According to the test, the Dingdong shopping app waived the delivery fee of 5 yuan.

The Meituan grocery shopping page shows that there is a 3 yuan delivery fee, but due to the discount, the order is free of delivery fee.

Pupu shows that there are new user coupons that deduct the 3 yuan delivery fee, free delivery.

Hema needs 6 yuan for shipping because the order does not reach the limit of "free 6 yuan for shipping over 39 yuan".

　　The reporter later found that according to the Dingdong shopping app, if the order at the current address is less than 28 yuan, a delivery fee of 5 yuan will be charged, and each user will have one free delivery fee.

When the reporter places an order for the same product again, the page already shows a delivery fee of 5 yuan; similarly, Meituan Shopping has regulations on the delivery fee. For orders with an order value of less than 15 yuan, a delivery fee of 3 yuan will be charged.

Free shipping for orders with an order value greater than or equal to 15 yuan.

When the reporter placed an order for 3.99 yuan per serving of Chinese cabbage again, Meituan charged a 3 yuan delivery fee for grocery shopping.

On Pupu, the delivery fee is free for orders over 19 yuan, and a delivery fee of 3 yuan per order is charged for orders less than 19 yuan.

　　Industry Watch

　　Coupons reduce fresh food e-commerce and still lose money

　　Regarding the many fresh food platforms that have emerged in the market, consumer Ms. Lin said that the reason for downloading so many apps at that time was mainly because there were discounts for registering new members. "Now there are not as many coupons as before."

After a large amount of subsidies "burning money", at this stage, online fresh food needs to rely on product richness, distribution services, after-sales response speed, product quality, etc. to retain consumers.

During the interview, the reporter found that using multiple platforms together and purchasing different fresh products on different platforms is the choice of many consumers.

　　Consumer Miss Chen told reporters that, for example, live shrimps are sold from half a catty on Meituan. On the Hema app, Jiwei shrimp, Roche shrimp, river shrimp, etc. are all sold from a catty, "the former half a catty option is more friendly The choice of fruit and dairy products, Hema has more grocery shopping than Meituan and Dingdong.”

　　According to the big data of "e-commerce treasure", the scale of fresh food e-commerce transactions in 2021 will reach 465.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.92%.

At the same time, the penetration rate of the fresh food e-commerce industry in 2021 will reach 7.91%.

Although the transaction scale has increased, the fresh food e-commerce track has been plagued by product quality, quality control, and profitability in the recent period.

　　Earlier this month, Dingdong Maicai was interviewed by relevant departments and filed for investigation in response to the media reports of using dead fish to pretend to be live fish, "turning over the bag" to change the ticket without authorization, and routine disinfection being a mere formality.

Recently, there was a rumor on the Internet that the crocodile sold by Hema was "resurrected", and Hema immediately refuted the rumor through its official Weibo.

　　In recent years, many competitors have emerged in the online fresh food arena, and various platforms are under a lot of pressure to survive.

The vast majority of fresh food e-commerce companies are still losing money.

According to the financial report, in the fourth quarter of last year, the net loss of Dingdong Maicai was 1.096 billion yuan, and the net loss in the same period in 2020 was 1.246 billion yuan.

The net loss for the whole year of 2021 is 6.43 billion yuan, and the net loss for the same period in 2020 is 3.18 billion yuan.

　　According to Daily Youxian’s financial report for the third quarter of 2021, the net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders was 974 million yuan, an increase of 58.12% over the same period in 2020.

Data shows that from 2019 to the third quarter of 2021, the daily cumulative loss of Youxian is nearly 7.6 billion yuan.

　　Mo Daiqing, director and senior analyst of the Online Retail Department of the E-commerce Research Center of Netease, said that in 2022, the "slot war" of fresh food e-commerce will be further upgraded.

In addition, the fresh food e-commerce landscape has not yet been completely stabilized, and in the future, the fresh food market will present a coexistence of various formats such as vegetable markets, supermarkets, and community fresh food.