More intelligent logistics equipment provides support for online shopping of home appliances. The picture shows that not long ago, workers were driving forklifts to carry goods at Suning Huadong Logistics Center in Jiangning District, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province.
Photo by Fang Dongxu (Xinhua News Agency)
Open the take-away platform, consumers can not only order a fast food, but also order clothes, beauty cosmetics, electronic digital and other commodities-with the rapid rise of retail digitalization and instant delivery business, the "instant retail" model with higher convenience and timeliness is quietly popular.
It is estimated that from 2020 to 2021, the annual growth rate of domestic instant retail will remain at 80%-100%. Industry insiders predict that the compound growth rate of instant retail will remain high in the next few years. The slogan of "Go inside and have everything", which used to be an offline store, is becoming a true portrayal of the take-away platform.
Consumers pursue instant satisfaction.
"When time is tight, the advantages of instant retailing are reflected."
Many consumers have found that more and more things can be bought on the take-away platform.
Xiao Zhang, who is studying in Changsha, Hunan, is from Yangzhou, Jiangsu. Studying in a different place, she often misses her hometown flavor. On this day, she searched Yangzhou’s "Sanhe Simei" pickles on the take-away platform, but I didn’t expect that there were merchants selling them. "This brand is relatively small, and I thought there was no business to purchase. It’ s amazing to find the taste of hometown thousands of miles away, and decisively place an order! " Xiao Zhang said.
Based on stores and relying on instant delivery, this emerging consumption pattern similar to selling meals outside is called "instant retail". Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the E-commerce Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, told the author that with the help of the Internet platform, instant retailing can efficiently match local supply and demand, with the characteristics of fast speed and localization.
"E-commerce can be divided into far field, middle field and near field." Hong Yong said that it takes 2-3 days or even longer to place an order for shopping through platforms such as Taobao. The midfielder is shopping on the community group buying platform, and usually receives the goods the next day; Near field is instant retail, and the goods can be received in about 30-60 minutes after placing an order.
According to Focus on China Post-90s Consumer Groups published by Accenture, post-90s consumers pay more attention to delivery speed, with more than 50% of post-90s consumers expecting to receive the goods on the shopping day, and about 7% of post-90s consumers expecting to receive the goods within two hours. Some consumers use instant retailing because of its speed and convenience.
"There was an important online meeting two days ago, but the camera suddenly broke down an hour before the meeting. I quickly turned to the takeaway platform and placed an order for the camera of a nearby stationery store. " Chen Min, who lives in Beijing, recalled, "Fortunately, the takeaway brother was very powerful, and it was delivered in less than 30 minutes. This shows that when time is tight, the advantages of instant retailing are reflected. "
In the expert’s opinion, besides meeting the emergency demand, there are multiple reasons for the instant retail to become popular: the instant delivery system based on Internet technology is more perfect, the online shopping habit is developed under the influence of the epidemic, and the "Z generation" who pays attention to instant satisfaction is becoming the main consumer group … "These factors have promoted the rise of the instant retail model of’ everything can be bought’ and are favored by more and more consumers." Hong Yong said.
More sellers enter the market for instant retail.
"I have been doing shop business for several years, but now I mainly rely on online."
Corresponding to the growing consumer groups, on the supply side, businesses that originally focused on offline began to move online and start instant retail business.
"You have a new take-away order"-In a fresh supermarket in Wuchang District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, the take-away prompt sounds from time to time. There is a long receipt hanging from the cashier’s desk, and the clerk is busy sorting the take-away order against the receipt.
Mr. Li, the owner of the shop, introduced that his own fresh supermarket was opened more than two years ago. "At first, I was mainly engaged in wholesale, and I could get a good supply. Later, everyone knew that our dishes and fruits were fresh and we had many repeat customers. " Mr. Li said that he had not considered doing online business before. "There are not enough people in the store, and I am afraid that it is too late to take orders."
The rise of "home economy" made him start to consider the transition to online. "After all, fresh products can’t be put down, so we have to clear the inventory as much as possible. If there is an epidemic, we have to rely on online orders." He said, "In this way, it’s good to start the instant retail model, which has an additional market."
There are also some traditional small shops that simply choose to focus on online business. Lao Zhao is the owner of a stationery store. His shop faces the street. It is small in size but sells many kinds, including common office stationery, hardware and labor insurance supplies, disposable travel supplies, printers and ink cartridges. During the epidemic, he also added mobile phone stands, cameras and other tools for online teaching.
"I now have 70% to 80% of my business coming from online." Lao Zhao, who has been doing stationery business for nearly ten years, said that when the take-away was just emerging, he never thought that stationery could also be used for take-away. "I started to do it when other businesses were online on the platform. I have been doing shop business for several years, but now I mainly rely on online. It seems that it is right to embrace new things. " Lao Zhao said that the partners who joined with him before have rented warehouses to specialize in online business. Now, he is also looking for a suitable pavement and considering transformation.
Small shops go online and draw a larger sales radius. The 2022 China Real-time Retail Development Report issued by China Chain Store & Franchise Association shows that through the online store business circle provided by the real-time retail platform and the efficient real-time distribution network, the store business circle will be expanded from the current 1 km to 3-5 km, and the coverage of store users will be greatly improved. For traditional supermarkets, the traffic of offline supermarkets is unstable and there are many influencing factors, while the instant retail platform has stable and massive user resources, which will bring new increments to offline physical retail.
It’s not just street shops that are actively involved. On October 21st, Suning.cn announced that it had reached a strategic cooperation with Meituan, becoming the first large-scale chain brand of 3C category of household appliances to settle in Meituan platform. Consumers can place an order to buy mobile phones, computers and household APPliances by searching for "Suning.cn" on "Meituan" or "Meituan Takeaway" app, and it can be delivered in 30 minutes at the earliest. According to the person in charge of Suning.cn, at present, more than 600 stores in Suning.cn have completed the establishment of the US delegation, covering 175 cities across the country. The two sides will continue to deepen cooperation, and plan to set up more than 1,000 stores in Suning.cn in 2023.
The supply chain is going digital in an all-round way
"Real-time retail mode is not just about enterprises entering online"
Compared with traditional "far-field" online shopping, "near-field" instant retail has also become a new entrance for consumers to buy large items under affordable orders.
"I didn’t participate in the’ double 11′ of the traditional shopping platform this year, but I ordered a refrigerator for takeaway." Xiao Chen, who lives in Xiamen, Fujian, said that he had heard that large supermarkets had an "online order, offline delivery" model. Some time ago, the refrigerator at home broke down and it happened to be "double 11", so he tried to buy a new refrigerator on the takeaway platform. "Compared with the e-commerce platform, plus coupons, full reduction, and comparison of gifts, the instant retail platform not only has the lowest price, the fastest delivery speed, but also guarantees after-sales." Xiao Chen said that after the delivery man came to the door, he carefully explained the matters needing attention in the use of refrigerators and after-sales service, which was very thoughtful.
Consumers’ "home demand" has climbed, and businesses have laid out online, which has promoted the rapid development of instant retailing. According to the data provided by Suning.cn, as of November 11th, Suning.cn’s orders on Meituan platform exceeded 60,000 orders. According to the data of Meituan platform, the number of digital 3C stores participating in "double 11" this year has tripled compared with last year. From October 30th to November 1st, the sales of computer products from local physical stores in Meituan increased by 73 times compared with the same period of last year. According to the Report on the Development of Instant Retail in China in 2022, people in the industry generally believe that the compound growth rate of instant retail will remain high in the next few years, and it is estimated that by 2026, the market scale of instant retail will exceed 1 trillion yuan.
If "online take-out" and opening the instant retail mode are the helpers for many street shops and traditional supermarkets to resist difficulties and open up sales, then entering the instant retail track will put forward higher requirements for the store’s operation ability. Take Boss Li, a fresh food store, as an example, to do a good job in take-away business, the store must match the special order sorting and distribution strength, and it is also necessary to strengthen after-sales service to ensure that the whole process of sales and transportation will not affect the shopping experience of consumers. For sellers with larger goods, it is an innovative attempt of mutual benefit and win-win to extend their reach online.
"Meituan has professional localization operation and service capabilities, and has a large number of young users. Through cooperation, we can share the resource advantages of both parties and jointly improve service efficiency. " The person in charge of Suning.cn Smart Internet Company said.
According to Peng Jianzhen, secretary general of China Chain Store & Franchise Association, instant retailing is not only the need of business development, but also the result of the development of cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things and intelligent technology. Instant retailing brings online traffic to offline merchants, and only by making more efforts in management and service features can offline merchants expect to convert more online traffic into actual sales.
"The instant retail model is not only for enterprises to settle online, but also requires enterprises to digitally transform the supply chain system, shorten the matching time between online demand and offline supply, and improve supply efficiency and quality." Hong Yong said. Small and medium-sized enterprises should actively improve the digital system to attract and train digital talents; Leading enterprises in the industry should increase their investment in real-time distribution technology and infrastructure such as unmanned vehicles, front warehouses and smart cabinets, so as to enhance their digital operation and management capabilities and truly open up real-time retail sales.