Instant retail business is growing in popularity.
During the just-concluded Double 11 period, live e-commerce is still the protagonist, but it is no longer as popular as a few years ago. On the contrary, the other track is becoming stronger and stronger, quietly standing in the position of C, and becoming the focus of competition for various giants - instant retail.
During this year's Singles' Day, discount coupons on major platforms were available everywhere, and special live broadcasts were also held one after another, helping the transaction volume of multiple categories to set new historical records. Among them, Ele.me even announced the launch of the "Double Hundred Plan" at the instant e-commerce brand conference: working with 100 retail brands to achieve 100% growth within two years.
Ele.me isn't the only company on the market that has invested heavily in it. Other platforms have also been quietly laying out their own plans, either explicitly or implicitly. When the war intensifies and the competitive landscape is facing the possibility of subversion, it is necessary to start from scratch and sort out the new concept of instant retail.
*Originated from the current stage of the Internet, food delivery and fresh products are the protagonists of instant retail. Especially in recent years, cold chain logistics has become more mature, and the transportation and storage costs of fresh goods have dropped significantly, which has also helped to increase the instant retail penetration rate of fresh food. However, with the expansion of the user base and the diversification of demand, instant retail is rapidly expanding from fresh food to daily necessities, digital 3C and other categories. The concept of everything coming home has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
The popularity of instant retail also reflects the common thinking of merchants: everything follows the needs of users.
Three years after the pandemic, everything seems to be back to normal, but many of the changes are irreversible. Traditional supermarkets and FMCG brands have specific concerns, such as the loss of offline customer traffic and the fact that users have long become Xi to the all-you-can-deliver lifestyle. The link of online customer acquisition, offline delivery, and online and offline joint fulfillment is their way to deal with traffic anxiety.
For merchants, capacity is the key to just-in-time retail
Compared with Meituan, Ele.me, as a latecomer, has a slight disadvantage in the instant retail market. Many attribute Meituan's advantages to its vast capacity and merchant network. There is some truth to this view. After all, the competitiveness of instant retail mainly comes from the richness of products and the timeliness of delivery.
The "immediate" nature of instant retail, like takeout, is an urgent need of users right now. If you can win over merchants and meet the needs of merchants and users with a highly timely distribution system, it is not difficult to get a share of this 100 billion market.
Moreover, there are also quite a few players who want a piece of the pie. Douyin and Kuaishou are two new e-commerce platforms that stand out. However, they know that their capabilities are still far behind the three leading platforms, so they keep a low profile for the time being.
However, the live streaming capabilities of Douyin and Kuaishou should not be underestimated. For new players in the field, their business layout is still in its infancy, so they have not yet thought of building their own capacity team, but have taken the form of partnering with a distribution company.
*Originated from the InternetHowever, Douyin Kuaishou also has its own advantages: large traffic, and the internal circulation path is more mature than Meituan, JD.com, and Ele.me. In the final analysis, short ** and live broadcast are well-deserved "time killers" in the Internet industry. Douyin Kuaishou's social and entertainment attributes are not available on the three leading platforms. Their higher user stickiness and rate are also a kind of user stickiness for merchants.
It may one day become a dark horse on the instant retail track. What do you think?