1. Purpose of product analysis

Meituan, which is on the cusp of the storm, how to stand out from the crowd of fresh food e-commerce products. This product analysis understands the strategy of Meituan’s grocery shopping. direction and give some insights of your own.

2. Brief product introduction

Meituan Maicai mainly provides users with online grocery shopping services. Users can place orders through their mobile phones anytime and anywhere. Meituan Maicai accepts orders from users. Afterwards, a nearby warehousing service station is selected for delivery based on the address bound by the user. The radiation range is 2 kilometers, and the delivery speed can achieve home delivery in as fast as 30 minutes.

3. The development history of the fresh food e-commerce industry

Fresh food e-commerce is currently in the development stage and has experienced two waves of boom since its development in 2005. Yiguo Fresh was established in 2005, kicking off the first wave of fresh food e-commerce. Since then, Cai Guanjia, Tuotuo Gongshe, and SF Express have all come online. As fresh food e-commerce continues to develop, supply gradually exceeds the real market demand, and expansion began to stop in 2012. In 2013, with a series of mergers and acquisitions, including SF Express and the large-scale nationwide expansion of Tuotuo Gongshe, fresh food e-commerce ushered in a second wave of climax, followed by the intervention of giants to continuously increase the cold transportation chain and fresh food supply chain , some small and medium-sized fresh food e-commerce companies went bankrupt or were acquired, and the industry entered a reshuffle stage. The intervention of capital has opened up the layout of new retail models, opening up online and offline consumption scenarios. Some choose to use stores instead of warehouses, such as (Walmart, Yonghui Supermarket, Carrefour); some choose to use front stores and back warehouses (such as Hema Fresh), Some choose front-end warehouses such as (Daily Fresh, Meituan Grocery), etc. These new retail models accelerate the development of fresh food e-commerce. Capital is trying every means to seize the market, and each company wants to certify that its retail model is Correct. The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020 led to nationwide quarantine and also brought explosive growth to the fresh food e-commerce industry. During the Spring Festival, the average daily active users of the fresh food e-commerce platform increased by 91% year-on-year compared with 2019. Orders from major fresh food e-commerce platforms appeared. 2-10 times growth.

4. Fresh food e-commerce business model

The current development of fresh food e-commerce is no longer limited to the transmission sales model. The current market products present several new models, such as front-end Warehouse, store-warehouse integration, community group grouping, store-to-home, freezer fonts, etc. At this stage, multiple business models are going hand in hand, and competition is intensifying. Compared with other e-commerce products, fresh food e-commerce has complex links and higher requirements for logistics, transportation, and cold storage. The entire market is still exploring models, and most companies are still subsidizing losses and fighting price wars for traffic. state. Judging from several products that are currently developing well in the industry, fresh food e-commerce companies with strong supply chain management capabilities are more likely to stand out.

5. The entire strategic deployment process of Meituan Maicai

5.1 Exploration Period

In July 2017, Meituan entered "catering + new retail" for the first time. Opened a 2,000-square-meter store similar to "Hema Fresh Food" - Zhangyu Fresh Food.

The overall operation model of Zhangyu Fresh Food is almost imitated by Hema, and it wants to imitate Hema to achieve the integration of stores and warehouses. It has released its own APP and promises "one-hour delivery", but Zhangyu Fresh only sells frozen aquatic products, and the product quality is far inferior to the fresh aquatic products of "Hema Fresh", which is more worthy of users' favor. Therefore, it has not been able to gain a foothold in the fresh food market and has not had a great impact on the industry.

In 2018, Meituan fully upgraded “Zhangyu Fresh Food” and changed its name to “Little Elephant Fresh Food”. In order to make up for the short version that did not have fresh aquatic products before, “Little Elephant Fresh Food” was repositioned as “Little Elephant Fresh Food”. It is an online and offline fresh food supermarket that integrates instant delivery of fresh food, food, catering, and e-commerce. It is more like Hema and has set up dine-in seafood. It has also upgraded its delivery service to "delivery within 3 kilometers in as fast as 30 minutes" like Hema. service”.

In December 2018, Little Elephant Fresh Food was in operation for a period of time and failed to meet the high-frequency consumption habits of users. Although the products had fresh aquatic products, the supply was insufficient. In addition, due to employee costs, store rent, and product customers, A series of factors such as high unit prices have hindered Little Elephant Fresh and competing products from taking over the market.

5.2 Development Period

In January 2019, "Little Elephant Fresh Food" was renamed Meituan Food Shopping, and the app of the same name was launched. Although past tests did not yield good results, Meituan decided to This time, it launched a challenge to fresh food e-commerce and opened its first offline service station in Shanghai.

The overall strategy has changed. "Meituan Grocery Shopping" is based on community-based services. The previous 3-kilometer range of delivery has also been changed to 1.5 kilometers. Based on the existing delivery system of Meituan Takeaway, it is less difficult to superimpose Meituan Grocery Shopping Business. , community residents can place orders to purchase ingredients through the mobile app, and Meituan Maicai will deliver the ingredients customers need for three meals a day to their homes through a service that integrates warehousing, sorting, and distribution set up by the community.

On the whole, it seems that Meituan has a well-planned strategic plan this time, but all models are the same as the path taken by its predecessors, and the predecessors have followed it well and are deeply cultivating it. As we all know, "Dingdong Maicai" first emerged in Shanghai, focusing on a fresh food retail platform that solves the problem of users buying vegetables. The overall model is the "APP + community service station" front warehouse distribution model. As everyone in Shanghai knows, the market is basically saturated. " "Meituan Grocery" will not have a competitive advantage at all if it is the first to implement this model in Shanghai. More methods may be for pilot testing.

After 60 days of exploring Meituan’s grocery shopping model, the overall model has not yet matured. Meituan transferred the pilot back to Beijing. On March 26, 2019, the Beijing market test was conducted in Tiantongyuan and Convenient service stations have been opened in the two major residential areas of Beiyuan. Residents within 2 kilometers of the service stations can place orders through the Meituan Grocery App and have the food delivered to their doorsteps.

5.3 Rapid Expansion Period

On April 10, the station opened in Yaojiayuan, Beijing

On April 17, Meituan’s cumulative service stations in Beijing and Shanghai reached 10 Home

On July 10, Meituan will select Wuhan for its third pilot program

So far, the cities where Meituan has launched Meituan are “Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Shenzhen, and Dongguan” , Guangzhou "The specific number of community service stations has not been found. According to Beijing statistics, there are currently 51 stations.

Summary

Judging from Meituan’s layout of the entire life cycle of fresh food e-commerce, Meituan is trying every step of the way, trying to follow the path taken by its predecessors. There are not many revolutionary innovations in terms of gameplay. Although it is said that planting trees for future generations will save a lot of trouble, but based on the current strategic deployment, it is difficult for Meituan to take the lead in the field of fresh food e-commerce. But

From the perspective of Meituan, Meituan’s grocery shopping may be an attempt in the new retail industry. Based on its own commercial value considerations, Meituan is currently on the same level as BAT as a local life service. As a leading company in the category, Meituan has a delivery service system based on catering, as well as long-term big data support for catering and food. Meituan’s current average daily orders have exceeded 21 million, and it has more than 500,000 riders for instant delivery, which can basically meet the needs of fresh food. E-commerce needs.

But judging from the current market environment, Meituan’s so-called trump card has long been unafraid of advantages in the fresh food e-commerce market. Looking at community service sites, Dingdong Grocery has been deployed nationwide With 550 sites and still expanding, the market in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai is becoming saturated. Daily Youxian was the first to enter the Beijing market compared to Meituan Maicai, cultivating a large number of users with good usage habits; from the perspective of delivery personnel, Hema Fresh Relying on Alibaba, it has a strong delivery team. Dianwoda and Hummingbird Delivery cover 6 million riders nationwide and deliver an average of 4.5 million orders per day. The delivery power behind this is more advantageous than Meituan; purchasing from origin, logistics and transportation, and cold chain warehousing Judging from the above, Meituan is not afraid of its advantages in grocery shopping. First, because the early products have been tested for a long time, early mature merchants such as Hema and Daily Fresh have quickly reached unicorn scale, and the suppliers they cooperate with are relatively stable. In order to win over suppliers and engage in price wars, Meituan Maicai has obvious disadvantages in terms of development scale.

Although scale does not mean everything, the particularity of the fresh food industry is that it is an industry that integrates high frequency, low price, timeliness and service. Although Meituan’s grocery shopping seems to be relatively vertical and light. Quantification, but in fact it is also a heavy operation and early investment. Compared with some small and medium-sized players, Meituan has capital and traffic advantages, but it has no advantages over large players. Its own corporate culture lacks the support of a professional e-commerce operation system, the accumulation of professional talents, and its products are not afraid of pioneering.

The field of fresh food e-commerce has been developing for more than ten years. Although competition is fierce, it still cannot achieve scale. The market has not yet explored which model is the ultimate model in this field.

Through the overall strategic deployment of Meituan, I feel that the reason why Meituan entered the fresh food e-commerce industry is that now it is on the same level as BAT, and the giants and capital are optimistic about the fresh food e-commerce industry. We cannot lag behind. One is to monopolize our own industry position, and the other is to show our strength to investors. When competition in the industry is fierce, we rely on our own brand strength to carve out our own piece of the pie, no matter how big or small, regardless of cost. . Looking at the past few years, Meituan has acquired bicycles, hotels, taxis, and is rumored to be preparing to enter the gaming industry. Today, Meituan’s grocery shopping can be described as an attempt to share the market share. Its real idea may not be In order to change people’s lifestyles,

If Meituan wants to go further and further in the fresh food e-commerce industry, I have some suggestions for strategic deployment:

< p> 1. From the perspective of city distribution: The giant’s layout starts from first-tier cities. Can Meituan consider second-tier and third-tier cities in a roundabout way? Although the pace of life in second- and third-tier cities is not as fast as first-tier cities, due to the epidemic, a large number of users have cultivated online shopping habits, then Meituan’s strategic deployment of stabilizing the first line and focusing on the second and third lines can quickly expand the fresh food retail territory. In addition, labor costs, rent, and logistics costs in second-tier cities are relatively low, and the saved costs can be used to subsidize user.

2. From a technical perspective: Meituan has always been a company that attaches great importance to big data. After all, urban white-collar workers are only a small group of people, and those who can order takeout rarely have time to cook. Most people who buy food are over 35 years old, and most people’s traditional concept of online food shopping is inseparable from offline scenes. How to integrate offline scenes and online food shopping? , whether Meituan can add real dish videos or place-of-origin purchasing VR to each product, instead of online refined product pictures, so that users can truly feel the quality of the product and gain a good reputation effect.

3. From the perspective of operation model: Meituan has formed a good user accumulation due to its brand strength for many years. Can it consider a business cooperation model and allow merchants to enter Meituan to buy groceries through certain qualification review? It can help merchants expand sales channels. Secondly, Meituan can quickly open up the market and form a win-win cooperation model. Coupled with the community group-building model it currently has, it can accumulate a good reputation for users and stabilize the market.

4. Talent cultivation: The reason why Meituan lacks a pioneering business model at this stage is the lack of talent accumulation. Meituan’s corporate culture does not have the ability to support the complex and changeable fresh food e-commerce. operations. Every supply chain link in the fresh food industry requires excellent management talents. If you want to spend more money on advertising, it is better to introduce or train professional and industry-breaking talents so that every strategic decision can be made in the industry. the front.

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