Under the epidemic situation, the distribution problem of the last kilometer of material supply has made the front-end warehouse model and the self-pickup container format red again. Recently, the Ministry of Transport and other five departments jointly issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the High-quality Development of Cold Chain Logistics and Transportation", encouraging fresh e-commerce and delivery logistics enterprises to increase the construction of "last kilometer" facilities such as urban cold chain front warehouses, and set up intelligent cold chain self-pickup cabinets in communities, commercial buildings, etc., to improve the level of convenient services.
Before the introduction of the policy, affected by the epidemic, the order volume of fresh food e-commerce platforms such as Dingdong Grocery Shopping and Daily Excellent Fresh increased sharply in many parts of the country, and the stock price that continued to fall also rebounded in early April. As one of the closest purchase channels to consumers, the front-end warehouse model covering 1-3 kilometers and 30 minutes to 1 hour delivery is an important infrastructure for the distribution at the end of the above platform. Does this mean that the front-loading model, which has been controversial over profitability, has once again ushered in a turnaround?
Dingdong buys vegetables in the front warehouse in Shanghai. Xinhua News Agency photo
The front warehouse has opened up the "last kilometer" key infrastructure
Fresh categories with high-frequency demand have always been the focus of e-commerce transformation. At present, the existing models of fresh e-commerce are mainly O2O, front warehouse, store warehouse integration and community group buying, representing the enterprises are Jingdong Home, Dingdong to buy vegetables, Hema and Duoduo to buy vegetables.
The front warehouse is based on the warehouse on behalf of the store, generally in the community 1-3 kilometers of the layout of warehousing, sorting and distribution in one of the storage points, flexible selection of stores, leasing community small warehouses, close to consumers. This format mostly adopts the self-operated model, and can be delivered to home in 30 minutes to 1 hour. Compared with other modes, the front warehouse mode has the advantages of high timeliness, flexibility and reduced fresh loss.
The recurrence of the epidemic has made fresh home service hot. The purchase demand of consumers who fight against the epidemic at home has erupted in a concentrated manner, and has concentrated on buying vegetables online, and their consumption habits have changed greatly. "The last time the front-loading warehouse model became popular was also because of the epidemic, when the epidemic first broke out, the daily excellent fresh and dingdong groceries that could be booked for home delivery relied on convenience and quickly attracted a group of users." Lu Zhenwang, a senior e-commerce expert, told Nandu reporters that the front warehouse has the advantages of distance, transportation capacity and goods in the "last kilometer" problem, allowing users to form a certain dependence on fresh home services.
Riders with daily fresh deliveries.
He also mentioned that after the epidemic stabilized in 2020, consumers developed the habit of buying vegetables and daily necessities online, and the requirements for timeliness and convenience also increased. At present, more and more players are increasing the size of instant delivery, constantly shortening the delivery time, and increasing to minute reach, and the "last mile" competition to reach consumers is more intense.
Some people in the industry believe that the front warehouse will move the warehouse from the outskirts of the city to a place closer to the consumer, only used as a warehouse, does not have a drainage effect, the site selection is less difficult, and it is easier to expand and adjust in the short term. According to the Daily Excellent Fresh Prospectus, there were 1500 pre-positions at its peak. This also allows it to respond quickly after the outbreak.
Cold chain pick-up containers have once again become an outlet
The epidemic has spawned "contactless distribution", and in the "last mile" supply channel, the contactless intelligent self-pickup container came into being and became one of the solutions.
Nandu reporter combed and found that in order to shorten the distribution chain, as early as the rise of unmanned retail, some retailers launched cold chain self-pickup containers. In 2018, Baiguoyuan reached a strategic cooperation with Rabbit Mall, a provider of intelligent unmanned container solutions. The two sides jointly studied the categories suitable for unmanned sales cabinets, and used unmanned sales containers to approach crowded areas such as communities, universities, office buildings, etc., and further "front-loading" the "front-loading warehouse".
Driven by "contactless distribution", smart containers usher in the wind outlet. In February 2020, Yonghui Supermarket invested fresh smart cabinets in a community in Hangzhou, setting up multiple temperature zones such as insulation and freezing. In 2021, Aunt Qian laid out unmanned containers, and its "Vegetable Bar" opened nearly 100 online stores in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, selling fresh categories such as vegetables, fruits, and beef, and opening up to join.
Aunt Qian invested in the dish bar
Express cabinets have long become an important supplement to "last mile" distribution, what role will the increase of cold chain self-pickup cabinets play? Wang Qinglin, a senior analyst at Ai Media Consulting, mentioned that the gradual increase in cold chain self-pickup cabinets can further increase the proportion of contactless delivery, and problems such as stealing takeaways and delivery personnel cannot go upstairs will be alleviated. Secondly, the government encourages the construction of cold chain self-pickup cabinets and cold chain front warehouses, which can give greater buffer space to the control area once the epidemic is repeated.
In addition, affected by the epidemic and community closed management, during the special period, logistics platforms such as JD.com and Cainiao began to more flexibly combine express delivery cabinets, convenience points, stations/distribution stations and front warehouses based on a variety of terminal distributed distribution scenarios with different distribution ranges, in order to meet the various delivery needs of consumers during the epidemic prevention and control period.
Zhang Peng, manager of the Guangzhou Liuhua Exhibition and Trade Center of Qixian Supermarket, told Nandu reporters that since the epidemic, Baiyun District has successively demarcated the sealing and control area, the control area and the prevention area, and the delivery staff cannot enter the community, according to last year's experience in epidemic prevention and supply, they took the initiative to put themselves on the shelves, and notified residents to pick up the goods after delivery. "Residential self-pickup cabinets and shelves are the most efficient methods at present. Judging from the single volume that has risen in the past few days, the utilization rate is higher, and the follow-up will also consider increasing the self-carrying frame. ”
How to break through the bottleneck of profitability
Once again popular due to the epidemic, will the front-end warehouse model and fresh cold chain self-pick-up cabinet usher in new opportunities? Lu Zhenwang told Nandu reporter that the fresh industry generally has a low gross profit, although the front warehouse solves the high pain point of fresh loss, but the dense front warehouse outlets, self-built cold chain logistics system and other need a lot of capital investment, is a heavy asset, heavy operation industry. "The market's previous recognition of the front position is declining, and most of the companies are in a state of long-term loss, and the stock price is not high."
It is understood that in 2021, daily excellent fresh and Dingdong to buy vegetables have successively gone to the United States to list, but also to the outside world to show the loss situation. Among them, the third quarter of 2021 financial report shows that the daily excellent fresh loss is 974 million, an increase of 101.69% year-on-year. The cumulative loss from 2019 to the third quarter of 2021 was 7.6 billion. Dingdong Buy's fourth quarter 2021 financial report showed a net loss of 1,096.3 million. The cumulative loss in three years is 11.4 billion.
Some insiders told Nandu reporters that the profitability of the pre-position model depends on the order density, the average customer unit price and the performance cost, and the unit price of the customer can only be covered by increasing the single volume while ensuring that the unit price reaches a certain level. Otherwise, the higher the number of front positions, the higher the cost. Dingdong grocery shopping has now achieved profitability in Shanghai, but whether it can replicate the Shanghai model to other regions is still unknown.
Lu Zhenwang believes that the epidemic has brought opportunities for pre-warehouses, but in the Shanghai area as an example, Dingdong's ability to buy vegetables and daily excellent fresh transportation capacity is extremely tight, and the distribution problem can still not be solved. On the other hand, if the operating conditions have not changed, the future will still face the problem of profitability.
Cold chain pick-up containers also face profitability problems. A retail practitioner told Nandu reporter that although the giants have entered the game one after another at the beginning of the epidemic, the follow-up has not been continuously laid, and it takes a certain amount of time to cultivate the user's usage habits and improve the usage rate. On the other hand, the industry generally believes that express cabinets are more difficult to make a profit. The cost of cold chain self-pickup containers is higher than that of ordinary express containers, and it is necessary to consider the input-output ratio and whether the courier can accept storage costs.
For the cold chain self-pickup container, Wang Qinglin believes that in the early stage of the construction of the cold chain cabinet, there will be relevant enterprises including Meituan, SF and so on. However, it is necessary to pay attention to strengthening overall supervision and avoid derivative problems such as excessive construction, unmanned supervision and maintenance, and couriers not delivering to the door at will.
In addition, she also mentioned that cold chain self-pickup containers face greater power consumption and maintenance costs, and whether this part of the cost will be passed on to consumers, such as pay-per-use. After the epidemic stabilizes, whether the frequency of use will decrease accordingly, it is necessary to consider and deploy space in advance.
Producer: Nandu Business Data News Department
Written by: Nandu reporter Huang Pei
Planning coordinator: Zhen Qin Tian Aili