Fresh e-commerce under the epidemic

Figure: Figure worm

Source: 21tech

Author: Tao Li Intern Wang Yuqi

Edit: Lin Kun

Recently, a new round of new crown pneumonia epidemic is threatening. On March 14, the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission reported that at 0-24:00 on March 13, 2022, there were 41 new confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia (including 2 cases of asymptomatic infected people to confirmed cases) and 128 cases of asymptomatic infection.

In order to cooperate with epidemic prevention and reduce travel, many citizens have moved their "vegetable baskets" from offline supermarkets and vegetable markets to online, choosing to place orders on major fresh e-commerce platforms. Whether it is Dingdong buying vegetables, Hema fresh food or Meituan buying vegetables, its order volume is rising sharply. On the other hand, due to the shortage of sorting and distribution personnel, the platform is also facing a lot of pressure.

Many citizens told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the delivery time of hema online orders has been extended, and it is basically necessary to make an appointment one day in advance in core areas such as Lujiazui and Changning Road, and it is difficult to make an appointment on the same day. At the same time, orders from Dingdong grocery shopping and other takeaway platforms have also been delayed.

In this regard, Hou Yi, president of Hema, revealed that the supply of goods in Hema is sufficient, but many clerks and distributors in the store are also under control, and at the same time, the demand surges, and the transportation capacity is indeed very tight. At present, they have greatly increased the order volume of vegetables and increased the frequency of store replenishment to ensure the consumption demand of Shanghai citizens for fresh food. However, due to the surge in online orders, there may be delays in delivery.

The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce said that in accordance with the requirements of the city's further strengthening of epidemic prevention and control measures, they have established a list of key wholesale markets, shopping malls, supermarkets, e-commerce platforms and other supply guarantee enterprises, and worked with relevant departments to accelerate the establishment of inter-provincial and intra-city logistics and transportation green channels, giving priority to ensuring nucleic acid testing for relevant employees to ensure the stable and orderly supply of the main and sideline food markets.

"Home" orders doubled

On the afternoon of March 14, 21st Century Business Herald reporters came to the Vegetable and Fruit Warehouse on Chenta Road in Yongfeng Street, Songjiang District, and in the 24,000-square-meter cold chain warehouse, hundreds of processing lines were orderly divided into hundreds of processing lines, and workers were in full swing, sorting and packing vegetables and fruits shipped from all over the country.

Outside the warehouse, dozens of cold chain trucks flow endlessly, transporting truckloads of vegetables and fruits to the densely distributed e-commerce front warehouses in Shanghai. It is understood that it receives more than 200 trucks every day to receive and receive, and swallows 1 million pieces of vegetables and fruits.

According to Zhang Yuanhai, director of operation of Dingdong BuyIng Vegetable Sorting Center, there are 7 such urban sorting centers in Shanghai, which are divided into vegetable and fruit warehouses, department stores, refrigeration warehouses, aquatic product warehouses, etc., with a total area of more than 130,000 square meters. At present, all production lines have been fully started, all staff are on duty, 24-hour operation, to ensure the Shanghai citizens' vegetable baskets, rice bags.

Compared with before the epidemic, the supply capacity of Dingdong Grocery Shopping Warehouse has increased by more than 50%. Among them, the supply of key livelihood protection commodities such as vegetables, meat, eggs and milk has increased by more than 100%, and it is still growing.

On the same day, the reporter also visited several major "vegetable basket" supermarkets in Shanghai, and overall the price fluctuations were not large. In offline stores such as Sam's Club, Carrefour, and RT-Mart, the flow of shoppers has decreased compared to before the epidemic, but the number of orders that need to be delivered home has increased.

It is worth noting that because the cooperation objects of Jingdong to home and hourly purchase are mainly major offline supermarkets, the data provided by it also means that "home" has become just needed. From March 7 to March 13, the number of orders on the platform increased by more than 34% compared with the previous week. At the same time, the consumption of people's livelihood commodities increased significantly from the previous week, of which vegetable sales increased by more than 10 times month-on-month, frozen and refrigerated goods sales increased by more than 7 times month-on-month, cooked food sales increased by more than 6.3 times month-on-month, and meat sales increased by more than 5 times month-on-month.

According to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, at present, the average stocking volume of the main e-commerce platforms in the front warehouses of Shanghai has reached 1.5 to 2 times of the daily level, and the supply of goods in most areas is relatively sufficient. In view of the problems such as the closure of some communities in the past two days due to epidemic prevention and closure, the demand for living materials, and some citizens reflecting the slow delivery of e-commerce platforms, the Municipal Commission of Commerce will continue to strengthen the dynamic monitoring of market operations, guide the docking of e-commerce platforms with the wholesale market in the city, and increase the supply of main and sideline food sources.

Increase the number of people to expand the scale

At present, the average daily supply of vegetables in Shanghai Vegetable Group is more than 6,000 tons, maintaining a stable level. Among them, the trading volume of Jiangqiao Market, the largest vegetable wholesale market in Shanghai, showed an upward trend, with the highest average daily trading volume reaching 5760 tons, an increase of 16.3% month-on-month.

Whether it is an offline store or an online platform, the front-line distribution and sorting personnel have borne the greatest pressure. The surge in orders will inevitably lead to manpower shortages at the site, and some platforms will be affected. The 21st Century Business Herald reporter learned from the relevant person in charge of Tmall that Tmall Supermarket has launched a special guarantee for Shanghai, warehouses, distribution stations and vehicles are eliminated according to Shanghai's epidemic prevention and control requirements, and personnel regularly do nucleic acid testing. In terms of material supply, Tmall Supermarket Shanghai warehouse grain, oil and rice noodles are well supplied, while Jiaxing warehouses and Hangzhou warehouses around Shanghai are also on standby.

However, the person in charge also admitted that due to the impact of epidemic-related controls and nucleic acid testing of personnel, the distribution efficiency has been reduced. At the same time, in order to ensure the safety of distribution, Tmall Supermarket has also temporarily launched contactless delivery in some areas of Shanghai, and will resume home delivery after the epidemic.

At present, Meituan's food-related sites are also increasing the purchase of goods to ensure inventory, and increase the frequency of delivery vehicles and delivery, and a group of takeaway riders have also participated in the delivery work.

Wang Xiaoxiao, a Meituan rider who has been responsible for the delivery service of Dahua Station in Baoshan District, Shanghai, because his community was sealed, in order to ensure the food and material supply of residents in the community, he took 4 riders to sign up to participate in the volunteer action and began to provide delivery services for isolated residents in the community.

"Recently, from 9:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., nearly 60 orders were delivered every day." Wang Xiaoxiao said bluntly that due to the recent epidemic, many residents cannot go out, coupled with the relatively hot weather, the order volume of citizens has also increased. Before the interview, Wang Xiaoxiao was still busy with volunteering.

For the entire fresh industry chain, no link can be taken lightly. Generally speaking, before the sale of vegetables, aquatic products, meat and poultry and other commodities, there are a series of strict pesticide residue testing, vehicle disinfection, nucleic acid report verification and a series of epidemic prevention and control procedures to ensure that the public can buy safe and healthy food.

In the practice of more fresh e-commerce platforms, riders provide 48-hour nucleic acid negative reports and can provide contactless delivery services. It is understood that 65 Hema stores in Shanghai and nearly 500 Hema neighborhood stores are also in normal operation, in the suburbs of the city and areas not covered by Hema stores, to provide consumers with the previous day order, the next day self-pick-up service. Some Hema neighborhood stores have also begun to provide door-to-door delivery services to facilitate the purchase of daily necessities by customers in need such as the elderly.

Zhang Yuanhai told reporters that in the past two days, more than 300 new employees have been recruited to fully guarantee the production capacity of the production line. Just before the deadline, Hema Xiansheng also issued an urgent announcement in Shanghai to recruit sorters and tally workers to cope with the demand for insufficient capacity.

For fresh e-commerce, instant delivery is still the core of competition and the threshold of the platform. As we all know, low-cost and high-frequency categories such as grain and oil, green leafy vegetables and so on, can not bring profits, but often can bring traffic and cultivate user habits. During the epidemic period, fresh e-commerce can use this to train troops on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can also establish its own reputation. After all, only by meeting the needs of users can the platform realize self-worth.

Editor: Lu Taoran