Chinese online grocery platforms in huge demand after coronavirus outbreak
By Luo Shanshan, People’s Daily
Online grocery stores have become a new option for Chinese families
because of the novel coronavirus which confines millions of people across the
country.
Statistics indicate that Missfresh, an online grocery platform backed
by tech firm Tencent has seen a year-on-year growth of over 300 percent since
the Chinese New Year holiday, and its rivals Meituan and Jingdong Shengxian
also witnessed obvious sales growth in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan.
Vegetables, foodstuffs, fruits, meat, eggs, and aquatic products accounted for
over 60 percent of these platforms’ daily sales.
Li Jie, a retired teacher living in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu
province who used to buy vegetables at supermarkets, recently ordered two bags
of fresh vegetables from an online grocery platform. “It took me around 100
yuan and these vegetables can feed my family for a couple of days,” She told
People’s Daily.
Now the retired teacher rarely goes to supermarkets due to the
epidemic. She said that it’s convenient and safe to have the couriers send the
commodities to her doorstep. She learned how to order vegetables online from
her daughter during the Chinese New Year holiday, and is now able to select
products and pay deftly.
The epidemic is driving larger-than-usual demand for groceries on
online platforms. Wang Jun, partner and chief financial officer of Missfresh
noted that the upper-stream industries of China’s agriculture have huge
capacity, and the urgent problem is not production but labor shortage which
results in difficulties in picking and transportation. It calls for
collaboration to stabilize the supply side.
The General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture, the General Office
of the Ministry of Transport, and the General Office of the Ministry of Public
Security jointly issued a notice, requiring strict implementation of a “green
channel” system that ensures unobstructed transportation of fresh agricultural
products, as well as the orderly supply of non-grain food and
agricultural means of production.
To relieve the labor shortage, e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Hema chain
started “sharing” employees with catering enterprises. By Feb. 10, over 1,800
employees have joined the grocery chain. At present, this model has been widely
applied by online grocery platforms, and the employees who passed health
examinations and quarantine are working temporarily for these platforms to
maintain normal operation.
Since the onset of the epidemic, many online grocery platforms have
started providing non-contact service. Users can choose such service on mobile
applications or tell the couriers to place the commodities at designated places
via phone calls.
A citizen named Zhang Xinxia in Chengdu, southwest China’s Sichuan
province was one of the many who have used such service. After typing the code
on a smart locker at the south gate of her residential complex, the woman
immediately received a bag of fresh vegetables she had ordered on an online
platform.
Yao Xin, secretary general of the Commercial Sub-Council of China
Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told People’s Daily that
non-contact delivery not only enables the customers to enjoy fast delivery, but
also helps them avoid close physical contact and lower risk, which guarantees
the health of both the customers and couriers.
According to a report issued by online delivery platform Meituan, over
80 percent of the orders placed between Jan. 26 and Feb. 8 were delivered by
non-contact methods, and 66 percent of the customers requested non-contact
delivery for every order.
A courier places grocery on a shelve at a residential complex in
Beijing, Feb. 14. Online grocery delivery platforms have built “non-contact”
depositories in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Photo by People’s Daily
Chinese online grocery platforms in huge demand after coronavirus outbreak
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