Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

At a time when the whole country is fighting the epidemic, home isolation has become a necessary measure to prevent and control the epidemic. Under this, "online shopping" has become the mainstream of this special Spring Festival holiday, with a substantial increase in demand and an unusually hot scene.

Tang, an employee of the Chongqing Box Horse processing Center, spent this year's Spring Festival in a cold storage, according to Hongshang.com. It is understood that the main job of the employee is to check the quality of vegetables and coordinate the distribution of online orders. In the face of the demand for online orders that almost burst the table, Tang was not happy. "starting from the Spring Festival, about 100000 fresh orders have to be processed from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day, compared with about 10, 000 to 20, 000 a day during the Spring Festival last year," Tang said. The number of orders has fully increased by nine times over last year.

Industry data show that during the Spring Festival, the supply of leafy vegetable products of JingDong Fresh in Wuhan increased 36 times compared with the same period last year; from New Year's Eve to the third year of junior high school, JD.com 's platform-wide sales increased by 540% over the same period last year; from New Year's Eve to the fourth year of junior high school, the daily transaction volume of excellent fresh platform increased by 321% over the same period last year; this year, the order volume of New Year's Eve and Ding Dong increased more than 300% over the same period last year.

In addition, the sales volume of "Meituan Buy vegetables" has increased significantly in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Wuhan, with the highest daily sales in Beijing 2-3 times that of before the festival. There is a large demand for vegetables, grain, oil, non-staple food, fruits, meat, poultry and eggs, seafood and aquatic products, with average daily sales accounting for more than 60%, of which the growth rate of vegetable sales is the most obvious.

Such a bright data seems to sweep away the haze encountered by fresh new retail in 2019. The good voice quickly overshadowed the pessimism. Just as SARS spawned the e-commerce business in 2003, now affected by the epidemic, fresh retail is taking place a new inflection point. There is nothing wrong with a similar point of view

Just in judging the impact of the epidemic on the entire market, we see a different side, that is, the challenge of fresh retail is also escalating, so that the whole industry has to take special measures.

Big exam one: shortage of workers

The shortage of manpower caused by the demand for orders has undoubtedly become another major problem in the face of fresh retail.

According to Huang, the manager of a store in Wuhan, where Huang is located, the daily attendance of the two stores in Wuhan is about 300, with 50 delivery personnel in each store. "compared with the previous peak, the distribution staff has been reduced by half, and the riders of ele.me have been integrated, but the number of online orders has increased hundreds of times." Not only that, Hema national management executives said that since the outbreak, 18 stores in Wuhan have entered a state of front-line combat.

In order to solve the manpower problem, the use of "cross-industry" to keep warm has become a new idea to solve the plight of the industry in the face of the epidemic.

On February 3, Hema announced that it would cooperate with Yunhai Cuisine and New Century Youth Catering Co., Ltd. (youth restaurant) to solve the problem of manpower shortage and the income of those waiting for work in the catering industry. It's more than that. Under "holding a group to keep warm", the box horse is docked with the youth restaurant, and nearly 30 employees are on duty at the box horse shop in Beijing. Yunhai cuisine Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Kunming and other places, more than 400 people have been in place, box horses will pay the corresponding remuneration for services. As a result, the employment shortage in Box Horse has eased somewhat; the latest data show that as of February 9, more than 1600 employees have been employed in 30 enterprises.

Not only the box horse, but also fresh new retail enterprises, including JD.com 7FRESH, also started this "shared employee" model to deal with the epidemic earlier. JD.com 7FRESH released a "talent sharing" plan on February 5, inviting employees of catering, hotel, shadow line and retail affiliates who were temporarily out of business to take "short-term jobs."

Thus it can be seen that the "employee sharing mode" is a microcosm of the current online freshness. Sharing employees is actually a temporary measure for enterprises to tide over the difficulties together in this extremely special period.

In addition to labor shortage, affected by the epidemic, food rush in the middle of the night, full reservations, the surge of orders at the same time, fresh quality assurance, distribution efficiency and other issues have also aroused concern, fresh enterprises have to find ways to improve the safety and efficiency of distribution.

The second big exam: distribution security

Novel coronavirus's systematic public health incident broke out, and measures were taken to close cities in many places and extend the Spring Festival holiday. At the critical moment of epidemic prevention and control, in response to the national call, many people choose to actively cooperate at home to fight the epidemic. However, a new problem arises: fresh food, as a necessity for people's livelihood, is "out of ammunition" at home. For users who need to shop offline for a long time, they will change the traditional way of shopping and choose to shop online. It will inevitably give rise to security considerations such as goods, transportation and delivery personnel.

In this regard, some media interviewed the relevant staff of a Youxian supermarket, the staff said: "We have a total of five distribution personnel, all wearing protective clothing, gloves, head covers, vehicles and distribution goods are strictly disinfected." Before delivering the goods, the delivery personnel will communicate with the customers by telephone to determine the receiving method and the location of the goods, avoid direct contact with customers, strictly comply with the requirements of epidemic prevention and control, and ensure the health of customers, so that the public can rest assured to shop. "

Not only that, in the face of the menacing epidemic situation, many support online merchants to launch Mini Program "contactless" way to distribute goods, which can not only continue to provide users with a safe life guarantee, but also reduce the risk of their own business, and ensure the normal operation of the business work of the enterprise.

Exam 3: timeliness of distribution

From the point of view of the demand under the epidemic, although businesses have repeatedly stressed that there is adequate stock, the momentum of consumer hoarding continues unabated. Bold people simply go out to buy food for many days at a time, while those who do not go out rely on getting home online to maintain three meals a day. Recently, a friend in Beijing lamented: "A piece of Chinese cabbage costs dozens of yuan." If you want to buy it, you have to get up early in the morning and grab it with your uncle and aunt. "I can order it online, but it's too slow to send it."

It can be seen that the timeliness of offline distribution has become increasingly prominent.

According to the user experience collected by Tiger sniffing Network, a Hu olfactory colleague in Beijing placed an order to buy food when JD.com arrived home on January 31, but the order was not delivered for four hours and was finally cancelled. On the page of Box Ma Xiansheng, a community in the East third Ring Road of Beijing also shows that it cannot be delivered and must go to the store to place an order. In addition, the daily maximum of 1 hour of delicious food has also been changed to 2 hours during the Spring Festival. According to user feedback, fresh vegetables, eggs and other ingredients will be quickly robbed of fresh vegetables and eggs in the days after New Year's Eve, but the replenishment in recent days seems to be much faster. Orders that try to make an appointment in the early morning will also be delivered to the gate of the community at 9: 11 in the morning. It is reported that during this period, the average daily delivery time of excellent fresh food is 70-80 minutes.

At the same time, enterprises are actively taking measures.

Multi-point Dmall is working with partners to fully supply, in the case of limited capacity, the use of existing supply chain resources to open up a new distribution channel, from factory operations, free delivery to home the next day, to meet more home orders. At the same time, emergency deployment of resources, the development of distribution adjustment and resumption plan; Wal-Mart, which once suspended online distribution, said it had actively increased the number of staff for in-store distribution and Dada delivery.

Generally speaking, under the condition of ensuring the safety of all participants in the retail chain, offline supply and online distribution will gradually resume. In the face of this big test, fresh new retail platforms may be able to hand in a satisfactory answer.

The fourth big exam: supply chain

Of course, the factors that determine the future development of the fresh retail industry are not only the number of orders, new users, and the level of service. In the face of sudden epidemic situation, it will test the emergency response ability and strong supply chain management ability of enterprises.

In fact, since the past two years, especially at the moment of the spread of the epidemic, the new retail model has become the focus of attention from all walks of life. No matter the well-known e-commerce enterprises such as Ali and JD.com, or the traditional retail enterprises such as Yonghui and Yintai Department Store, are actively participating in the innovation practice of the new retail; the supply chain, as a dynamic system, under the operation around the core enterprise, will continuously add value and upgrade the entire supply chain through the control of information flow, logistics and capital flow in this process. Under the influence of the epidemic, logistics, as an important part of the new retail, plays an important role in the upgrading of the whole industry.

In addition, as we all know, the production of fresh upstream is highly dispersed, there are many circulation links, price increases at various levels and the circulation time is long. At the same time, fresh products are extremely perishable and the loss rate is high. Fresh products are mostly agricultural products, lack of brand, and it is very difficult to standardize, and the cost of procurement and quality control is high. The superposition of the three factors makes the gross profit margin of the fresh retail end very low.

Recently, according to the person in charge of purchasing a platform in the industry, the current surge in orders for fresh goods requires the temporary addition of a number of suppliers, and some categories, such as green leafy vegetables and tomatoes, have begun to restrict the purchase. The aim is to make it available to more people in need, and now supplies 1000 tons of vegetables to more than a dozen cities across the country. It is understood that the shortage of food materials in the market is mainly due to the lack of staff in the producing areas during the Spring Festival, restrictions on logistics, and poor circulation caused by the closure of villages and roads affected by the epidemic.

Not only that, as supply falls short of demand, many fresh retail platforms now need to "book one day in advance" or kill on a regular basis. Once the opportunity is missed, the vegetables will be sold out. The major platforms ushered in the test of the supply chain.

Tian Rui, vice president of SUNING Group and CEO of Carrefour China, said in a public interview that the epidemic is a big test for fresh retail. To this end, Carrefour has worked out a stock preparation plan from front-line operation, supply chain to rear procurement and coordinated suppliers to deliver goods in advance. JingDong Fresh urgently dispatched more than 30 warehouses across the country, with more than 50, 000 employees from procurement, logistics, warehouses and other departments to fight the epidemic.

In addition, the daily excellent fresh went to the source places during the epidemic, and added new sources in Shaanxi and Sichuan to meet the needs of consumers as much as possible. It is worth noting that the rapid response has led to a rapid recovery of the daily excellent supply chain, with the supply of vegetables doubling to 1,000 tons per day; the sales rate of fresh meat has also been kept within 10 per cent, and 95 per cent of orders have been delivered in two hours.

Obviously, the large platform shows stronger advantages in the supply chain in terms of response speed, scheduling capacity and operational flexibility in the face of the epidemic. At the same time, it also indicates that the whole industry will usher in the supply chain test.

In fact, after entering the era of fresh new retail, the essence of supply chain management will be retained, and fresh new retail enterprises will continue to improve their own service system and carry out cost control in the new era. In the subsequent development and dealing with emergencies, the nature of supply chain management will be more prominent.

Exam 5: repurchase rate after the epidemic

Looking back on the fresh new retail in 2019; in the first half of the year, the giant entered the game, constantly exploring new business type; at the beginning of the year, Meituan Buy vegetable APP and Mini Program were launched; in March, WOM ele.me announced the establishment of an open fresh platform, and WOM ele.me and Dingdong Buy vegetable signed a strategic cooperation agreement; in April, SUNING store announced that it would launch a pre-sale of goods and SUNING vegetable market on the APP platform of SUNING store in late April.

When the tide recedes, we know who is swimming naked.

In the second half of the new fresh retail in 2019, small and medium-sized players collapsed, financing failed, and negative information broke out frequently; first, Meituan Xiao Xiang closed five stores in Wuxi and Changzhou; Box Ma Xiansheng closed the store for the first time after expanding 150. since then, Mini fresh issued a notice on the official account that the operation of the platform was suspended due to long-term losses due to poor management, and dull radish was also exposed that the capital chain was broken. In December, Ji Hexian announced large-scale layoffs, our chef was exposed to suspension of service, and Yi Guo Shengxian was listed as the person to be executed many times.

At this point, people can't help thinking: what should be the normal state of fresh retail?

On the whole, in this highly competitive war epidemic, fresh enterprises are undergoing the same test. The sudden epidemic has created many evolutionary opportunities for fresh retail, but it has also accelerated the reshuffle of the industry. The epidemic will maximize the strength and problems of the industry in many aspects, such as supply and demand mode, user service, supply chain, mode of operation and capacity.

However, the key to the future development of the industry is still in a fog. Some industry insiders pointed out that despite the surge in demand under the influence of the epidemic, fresh new retail has gained a large number of new users at this stage, but whether and how these users can be retained is the key in the future.

It is certain that the epidemic will be overcome in the end. The fresh market of 10 trillion yuan is a must for capital. For the competitors of fresh and fresh retail, capital investment plays a key role in the battle of scale expansion in the future. under the high-speed operation of the business model, it can accelerate the development of the strong, but also accelerate the elimination of the weak.

With the opening of 2020, fresh and new retail may usher in a new era. It is pointed out that when the capital tends to calm down, fresh retail will grow from barbaric growth to strategic growth, and cross-regional efforts will become a new trend.

Or maybe increasing the repurchase rate will be the top priority for the industry's future success.

(official account of Liu Kuang / tr. by Phil Newell) ID:liukuang110

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