#精品长文创作季#
The cooperation between Meituan UAV and 7-Eleven has taken the first step in the steady implementation of "technology + retail", allowing instant retail to speed up the low-altitude economy, and also allowing local life competition to "escalate" from the disorderly price war to the sea of stars in technology applications.
Author: Wang Zhen Editor: He Xiang
出品：零售商业财经 ID：Retail-Finance
Meituan drone joins hands with Guangdong 7-Eleven convenience store to promote instant retail and air delivery.
The significance of the cooperation between the two parties is as follows: first, the strong combination of "drone captain" and "king of convenience stores" will become a typical case of achieving the "multiplier effect" of performance and commodity power in the local business field;
Second, with the popularization of low-altitude logistics networks, emerging industries represented by Meituan's drone delivery will drive the growth of medium and large-scale retail formats with differentiated competitiveness in addition to the small format of convenience store chains.
01 Powerful combination of commodity power and fulfillment power
Recently, Guangdong 7-Eleven and Meituan UAV officially reached a cooperation to connect more than 3,000 kinds of goods to drone delivery.
Pictured: Meituan drone cooperation with 7-Eleven convenience store
In fact, as early as the beginning of 2021, Meituan drones completed the first order for delivery to real users in Shenzhen. It is curious why Meituan UAV reached a cooperation with Guangdong 7-Eleven convenience store this year and selected it as the first chain brand to realize the drone distribution business?
First of all, to provide users with the greatest degree of instant gratification and convenience services, is the same and long-term development goal of both parties.
There is a saying circulating in the retail world, "There are only two convenience stores in the world, one is 7-Eleven and the other is the other convenience store." ”
As one of the world's largest convenience store brands, 7-Eleven has a core value of "putting the customer first", and the starting point is to bring convenience to customers according to the time and local conditions.
Obviously, 7-Eleven has taken the lead in glimpsing the huge value created by "convenience" in the retail industry, but in addition to seizing the opportunity of "convenience", 7-Eleven's ultimate product development and management also constitute its core competitiveness.
In the "buyer's market", "sales power" has become the key to the survival of enterprises. 7-Eleven's PB products based on "quality first" have made it a competitor to NB, and specifically, 7-Eleven is a weapon for differentiation and an important source of profits.
Source: Internet Fresh food products
Relevant data shows that 7-Eleven accounts for more than 40% of the sales of fresh food products in the Chinese market, and the gross profit accounts for more than 60%. The high proportion and high contribution of fresh food also means that there are higher requirements for logistics timeliness and sales channels.
The core charm of the retail industry lies in the innovation that constantly breaks the "predetermined harmony". Meituan's drone hits this point squarely, and its strong fulfillment capability has greatly improved the efficiency of 7-Eleven product delivery and the penetration rate of the business, creating a surprise experience for consumers that "oops, it can be so fast and so good".
It is reported that the average delivery time of Meituan drones during 2022 will be about 12 minutes, which is nearly 150% more efficient than the traditional delivery model. The cooperation with 7-Eleven can achieve the fastest delivery of goods to the landing point in 4 minutes after packing, and Meituan's drone fulfillment capability makes 7-Eleven fresh food delivery more "fresh" than before.
All in all, 7-Eleven's differentiated product attributes and brand tonality coincide with Meituan's goal of "bringing everything to home in 30 minutes" to allow more consumers to enjoy a "high-certainty" lifestyle.
The natural convenience of convenience stores and the product composition centered on FF daily fresh food are a strong boost to the cooperation. The strong combination of the two parties' commodity power and fulfillment power has made the "convenience" mentality of 7-Eleven and Meituan more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
Source: Brand
Secondly, economic factors are superimposed on dietary preferences, and the two sides also have their own deep meanings for the consideration of cooperation location.
As the leader of the mainland economy, Guangdong Province has a high demand for efficient and convenient shopping experience, which can provide a good soil for the trial and promotion of new services.
As a gathering place for many high-tech enterprises and innovative companies, Shenzhen is more receptive and adaptable to emerging technologies. As of December 2023, Meituan drones have been operating in Shenzhen for more than three years, and have opened 25 routes in 11 business districts in Shenzhen and other cities.
It is worth mentioning that 7-Eleven and Meituan UAV also have their own business base in Shenzhen. Guangdong 7-Eleven already operates more than 1,700 stores in 13 cities in Guangdong Province, and has been committed to providing more timely and convenient digital services.
Good policies and supporting policies have brought a unique external support environment for cooperation between the two sides. At the end of 2023, 7 departments including the Shenzhen Municipal Transportation Bureau jointly issued the "Several Measures of Shenzhen to Support the High-quality Development of the Low-altitude Economy" to promote the strengthening, supplementing and extending of the low-altitude economic industrial chain in Shenzhen.
Not to mention Lao Guangren's dietary preference for "fresh fragrance", it can be said that the cooperation between Meituan UAV and 7-Eleven is both "everything ready" and "like-minded".
02 Meituan drones and local life businesses, preconditions for cooperation
Meituan's exploration of the drone business is to explore the "future needs" of consumers in advance.
In 2017, Meituan launched the R&D and exploration of drone delivery services, and set the goal of building an urban low-altitude logistics network integrating aircraft, ground undertaking devices and route management background systems.
In 2018, Mao Yinian, an undergraduate student from Tsinghua University of Meituan founder Wang Xing, joined Meituan to be responsible for the research and development of the drone business. In 2019, the team set up a test flight field on the outskirts of Beijing and conducted a large number of flight tests. In 2021, Meituan drones completed the first delivery to real users in Shenzhen, officially opening the era of "people sitting at home, and takeaway from the sky".
Source: Brand
As of December 2023, Meituan's drones have completed more than 230,000 orders, and can achieve a standard service of 15 minutes for end-to-end retail item delivery within a radius of 3 kilometers.
Behind the industry-leading business exploration is Meituan's increasing R&D spending year by year.
In 2021, Meituan's R&D expenditure increased by 53.1% year-on-year to RMB16.7 billion, its investment increased to RMB20.7 billion in '22, and its R&D expenditure reached a record high of RMB21.2 billion in '23. New business exploration and high R&D investment are actually the embodiment of Meituan's long-term layout around the "retail + technology" strategy.
At a time when drones are becoming increasingly important and gradually becoming smart city infrastructure, Meituan's forward-looking layout of drones is undoubtedly surprising and "to the point".
Mao Yinian once said that Meituan's drone production is not to be the next DJI, nor to sell drones, but to use it as a tool, and ultimately for delivery services. Drone delivery is not a VIP business, but a service to consumers, which is also a precondition for Meituan's cooperation with local life merchants.
Source: Brand
In other words, what Meituan wants to do is to manually and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to complete the delivery of takeaway orders, so that UAVs can supplement ground logistics and build an urban low-altitude logistics network to solve the problems of traffic congestion, long delivery time, and unstable human resources in traditional distribution.
With the iteration of technology and the expansion of application scenarios, drone delivery will become an important means to improve logistics efficiency and user experience.
In terms of utilizing urban low-altitude resources, improving timeliness, replenishing transportation capacity and optimizing scheduling, Meituan's drone accumulation is deeply engaged in the subdivision of "industry drones", which also gives Meituan a new level of competitive advantage in the field of local life.
03 Achieve the ultimate in real-time, and accelerate the "low-altitude economy" in real-time retail
The opportunity for the cooperation between Meituan UAV and 7-Eleven is that both parties see the certainty and steady development of the local life business.
In the context of the transformation and upgrading of the domestic consumption structure and the stratification of consumption, local consumption with rigid demand, high frequency and anti-cyclical consumption has become more valuable and reliable, and has become the cake targeted by all parties.
In 2023, Meituan's core local business continued to achieve steady growth, with revenue growth of 29% to RMB206.9 billion and operating profit of RMB38.7 billion, up 31% year-on-year. Among them, the number of Meituan instant delivery orders increased by 24% to 21.9 billion.
Figure: Meituan's 2023 financial report
It was also in this year that platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Xiaohongshu joined the local life campaign, and Meituan's pace of "seeking progress while maintaining stability" pointed to the goal of achieving the ultimate in instant retail.
Today, Meituan is using drones and other technological means to create "instant gratification" services to the greatest extent, turning the slogan "fast is the right time to get home" into reality, so as to form its own unique competitiveness in the offline retail field.
It can be said that Meituan hits the root of the supremacy of instant retail efficiency and meeting the needs of users. From in-store, to home, and then to "between stores", Meituan is bringing better products and services to users with higher technology density and more significant efficiency improvement in the whole process.
Source: iResearch
The cooperation between Meituan and 7-Eleven has taken the first step in the steady implementation of "technology + retail", allowing instant retail to speed up the low-altitude economy, and also allowing local life competition to "escalate" from the disorderly price war to the sea of stars in technology applications.
From a more macro perspective, the low-altitude economy has become a new industrial track for the development of national cohesion, and cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen have ushered in intensive test flights at low altitudes. The national orientation also encourages the development of new logistics models that combine with platform economy, low-altitude economy, and unmanned driving.
Meituan's drone food delivery and medicine delivery have quietly brought the low-altitude economy into people's daily lives in some cities, promoting the development of the low-altitude economy industry and public awareness from the life-oriented service scenarios.
The UAV logistics distribution integrates four industries: low-altitude manufacturing, low-altitude flight, low-altitude support, and comprehensive services. With the "escalation" of local life competition, Meituan has taken instant retail as the entry point, and has been at the forefront of exploring the commercial application of low-altitude economy.