Our reporter Wu Yixuan Li Yanan

　　Recently, due to the impact of the epidemic, the order volume of fresh food e-commerce platforms has increased significantly. Can this reactivate the fresh food e-commerce market?

　　Looking back to 2020, the global epidemic has provided an opportunity for "savage growth" for the fresh food e-commerce industry. Daily Youxian and Dingdong Shopping have been successfully listed in the United States.

However, with the rise of community group buying, many emerging fresh food e-commerce companies are facing bankruptcy, and the industry has also turned from hot to cold.

Now that the epidemic situation is repeated, fresh food e-commerce platforms such as Daily Youxian, Dingdong Maicai and Hema Xiansheng have once again become the main battlefield for people in many places to buy vegetables.

　　Xiao Shen, a resident of Jing'an District in Shanghai, told the "Securities Daily" reporter: "Since the closure, I have been shopping at Dingdong and Hema Xiansheng every day to grab food, but I have never grabbed it. I still have to rely on the neighborhood committee's materials and community group purchases. "

　　A market researcher in Hangzhou told reporters: "In the past two weeks, orders for Dingdong grocery shopping and Hema platforms have increased by at least half. If the transportation capacity can be guaranteed, the number of orders will be even more."

　　However, the surge in demand is only short-term, and as the epidemic is gradually brought under control, people's demand for fresh food e-commerce will inevitably decline.

By then, how many users can the fresh food e-commerce platform retain?

　　Bai Wenxi, chief economist of IPG China, told reporters: "During the epidemic, fresh food e-commerce platforms have had an impact on people's consumption habits. In addition, fresh food e-commerce has continued to improve and upgrade in the competition, and its market share will increase in the future. Great improvement. The atmosphere of the fresh food e-commerce industry may also change because of this.”

　　Pan Helin, co-director and researcher of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of Zhejiang University International Business School, also said: "During the epidemic, it is impossible for small traders and hawkers to solve the problem of food supply in big cities, and fresh food e-commerce cooperates with community fresh food. Group buying can alleviate these problems to a great extent.”

　　It is worth noting that in recent years, various fresh food e-commerce platforms have been frequently complained by consumers due to issues such as product quality, pricing standards, and after-sales rights protection.

Among them, food quality complaints are not uncommon on major third-party complaint platforms.

The reporter searched the Black Cat Complaint Platform with the keyword "fresh food quality" and got over 600 results, 9 of which were related to fresh food e-commerce.

　　In this regard, Yuan Shuai, deputy secretary-general of the Rural Revitalization and Construction Committee of the China Cultural Management Association and an expert in the field of digitalization, said in an interview with reporters: "Due to the particularity of fresh products, ensuring quality is the prerequisite for platforms to improve consumer experience and retain users. Conditions. On this basis, strengthen brand building, so as to gradually achieve an appropriate premium for fresh products, fresh food e-commerce can improve efficiency.”

　　Yuan Shuai believes: "Fresh food requires a special cold chain transportation and logistics system. At present, my country has entered the era of modern logistics 4.0. Cold chain logistics needs to provide product packaging materials, refrigerated warehouses, refrigerated vehicles, and cold chain operations for different fresh products. A series of standardized solutions.” Pan Helin believes: “Compared with traditional retail fresh products, fresh e-commerce products are not cost-effective, and cost reduction needs to be considered.”

　　In fact, at this stage, the top fresh food e-commerce companies have gradually shifted their focus to supply chain construction.

Dingdong Maicai has been committed to expanding its own brands in recent years. The company’s fourth quarter financial report in 2021 shows that its current sales of its own brands accounted for 10.2% of the total merchandise transactions, compared with only 5.8% in the previous year.

Daily Youxian has been continuously increasing the direct mining from the origin in recent years.

Both companies are compressing intermediate links as much as possible to create greater profit margins.

(Securities Daily)