Recently, a group of data from the E-commerce Research Center shows that the growth of fresh e-commerce is gradually slowing down. Since 2012, with the high-profile entrance of many giants, fresh market broke out instantly, ushered in a new wave of subversion. With the continuous extension of the Antenna of the Internet, people are no longer satisfied with fresh procurement in disorderly places such as wet markets and bazaars, but have put forward higher requirements for fresh markets.
From a large number of followers blindly into the game, rampant growth, to a near death, survivors are treading on thin ice, the development of this market so far, is experiencing a new turning point changes.
In the new fresh age, the head effect is more obvious
On July 20, big data mining and knowledge management, Chinese Academy of Sciences laboratory released the 2018 World Cup fresh economic data report, the report shows that in the past two years the head fresh platform market share climbed steadily, until 2018 Q1, raw head platform has occupied more than 75% market share, and the future market will be further to the players gathered head.
The fresh food industry has also begun to move towards refined operation. A few head platforms such as Daily Youxian, Jingdong Home and Hema Xiansheng have gradually emerged in the C-end, while unicorns like Meicai.com have emerged in the B-end. The report also pointed out that a good user experience is an important indicator for fresh food e-commerce to win recognition in the market, and the chaotic procurement scene has slowly been replaced. With the withdrawal of more and more small and medium-sized players, the concentration of the fresh market is becoming higher and higher, and the head effect is increasing.
On the one hand, fresh industry threshold is high. The year 2012 has been regarded as the first year of the development of fresh food e-commerce. At that time, Ali and JD were transferred to the bureau. The former relied on ideas and resources, while the latter relied on self-established logistics system. Because if you want to play the fresh market, you have to be able to cross the entry threshold. But from the industrial chain to comb, we can find that the fresh industry in the front need to purchase control products, integration of scattered market, the middle end of the transport of cold chain logistics distribution requirements are very high, back-end trading after-sales service is an unprecedented challenge for the tender middle platform. These thresholds alone are enough to keep most people out.
On the other hand, the fresh market has been constantly shuffled in recent years, industry differentiation is further intensified, the pattern is more and more clear. As the head of the enterprise barrier is built higher and higher, their user experience and enterprise resources have formed a positive cycle; And the small and medium-sized platform in the tail is gradually eroded to decline. As a result, the fresh industry began to step into the market adjustment period, the stronger the stronger, the weak can only be eliminated.
In the toC market, Hema is the most representative one. To B Meicai is a veritable unicorn, having raised $450 million at the beginning of this year and valued at nearly $3 billion. In this context, a heavy assets, operating mode, can satisfy the catering enterprises such as B end user demand for DaTiLiang fresh trading service platform, and another to meet the demand of urban residents daily need scattered fresh procurement, C end user oriented fresh platform, has presented the obvious differences in the swimmer.
Hema fresh model innovation in the table, the integration of scattered markets for
Speaking of Hema, most people only have the impression that Alibaba has completely reconstructed offline supermarkets and shaped hema, a typical new retail format. It is not only a supermarket, but also a restaurant and a vegetable market. Consumers can not only go to the store to buy, but also enjoy half an hour of fast delivery online.
But in fact, these are just the appearance. From a deeper perspective, in addition to the innovation and transformation of the catering mode such as instant processing, hema’s unreplicability also comes from its overall integration and optimization of the fresh food market.
For example, the informatization of the whole process of Hema Fresh Food makes the original scattered fresh food transactions at the C-terminal more intelligent, transparent and efficient. Whole process informatization is very important for most retail industry, especially for fresh industry. Because fresh trade has high requirements for the freshness of products, and the consumption behavior of thousands of people needs one-stop, whole process information tracking to ensure consumer experience.
For another example, Hema Xiansheng uses big data and other technology applications to make portraits of scattered users at the consumer end, based on which to replenish and purchase fresh products, which greatly ensures the “freshness” of fresh products. Hema Fresh fruit and vegetable base direct procurement mode, according to the order replenishment, from the source to ensure the quality of fresh products. In this way, the original disorderly c-end fresh retail market has also been greatly improved, become standardized and standardized.
Or in the innovative logistics link, half an hour delivery service within 3 kilometers is a prominent advantage of Hema Xiansheng to reduce and digest losses in scattered markets. Cold chain, warehousing logistics is the most difficulty in the development of fresh electricity, which is the most pain points, in order to avoid raw product of high loss in transit, box Ma Xian born by high costs, the establishment of a standardized and efficient distribution logistics system, and the user order information and logistics system in series, ensure the quality of each order.
Hema has also moved its supply chain forward, setting up cold-chain, temperature-controlled, standardised packaging workshops next to growing areas to limit the time from harvest to store shelves to less than 18 hours. Moving forward in the supply chain greatly optimizes processes, reduces intermediate links, reduces cost and, most importantly, ensures the quality of fresh products.
Through the integration and transformation of each link, Hema fresh meets the standard experience of C-end service and solves the difficult problem of disordered traditional fresh market. This is also why Hema has developed a gap with its followers in the process of increasing technological maturity.
Meicai refined operation of B-end services, to build up the core of the supply chain barriers
For b-end users of fresh market, the disordered fresh procurement scene is in urgent need of integration and optimization. As we all know, the biggest pain point of the catering industry comes from the procurement link of the supply chain. It is difficult to ensure the quality of food ingredients, the opaque price of food ingredients, and the insufficient quantity, high procurement costs and many other chaotic problems need to be solved.
The reason is that the information asymmetry between the buyer and the seller is the main problem. The fresh market is chaotic and disorderly, and the dominant position of the supply side makes the buyer only passively receive and suffer from high costs. Therefore, Meicai helps the catering industry to reduce costs and increase efficiency in the procurement end, by strictly controlling products, establishing an effective information feedback mechanism, optimizing the supply chain, and cleaning up from the source to improve the entire industrial environment. Meicai is well versed in the core of the development of fresh food industry, and strives to optimize the supply chain model by playing the role of b-end service provider.
First of all, American food achieves strict product control at the purchasing end to ensure the quality and quantity of ingredients, which saves many troubles for catering enterprises under the traditional procurement mode and makes the transaction fully transparent. This reduces the cost loss and waste caused by human procurement process, and ensures the quality of fresh products.
Secondly, in B2B mode, Meicai can effectively connect and timely feedback the double-B-side information and appeals, balance the market positions of buyers and sellers, and establish an effective and healthy trading mechanism in the balance. In fact, in the traditional mode, due to the imbalance of discourse power between the two parties, it is difficult for catering enterprises to purchase high-quality and inexpensive raw materials. However, under the transparent information grafting system and standardized product specifications of American cuisine, the supply and demand of buyers and sellers are balanced to the maximum extent, and the operating risks of enterprises are also reduced.
Finally, Meicai fully follows up the whole transaction process to provide catering enterprises with more guaranteed after-sale return and exchange services. “Product origin can be traced” is a major innovation advantage of American food. The traditional fresh trading mode has always been adhering to the “caveat emptor” trading purpose, and the immature construction of the credit system for catering enterprises to eat a lot of dark losses have bitter to say. Through the application of big data, Meicai has realized the new transaction mode of front-end inspection, after-sales traceability, and return and exchange, ensuring the interests of catering enterprises.
In the B-end market, Meicai.com has become the largest catering supply chain service provider in China, and its strong supply chain optimization ability is not available on ordinary small and medium-sized platforms. As the most accurate platform for grasping the demand of catering supply chain in the market, Meicai.com can effectively connect the information of buyers and sellers, fully improve the user experience of catering market, ensure that catering enterprises have no concerns about procurement at the end of the supply chain, and enable a single catering enterprise to achieve cost reduction and profit maximization. Meicai’s strong supply chain service capability creates a healthy and sustainable industrial atmosphere for the entire catering market.
The future of fresh industry, the supply chain has the world
In fact, hema and Meicai come to the same destination in both b-end and C-end markets. One starts from integrating the market to improve user experience, while the other comprehensively optimizes the supply chain. These two unicorns tell us: the future of fresh food industry, the supply chain wins the world.
With the whole industry into a period of adjustment, the head platform to save energy, thick accumulation of hair. The end of hibernation is bound to be accompanied by more intense battles over user experience. In the future fresh market, quality control ability, cold chain distribution ability, and after-sales customer service ability are the focus of competition. The platform with better user experience and stronger supply chain optimization ability will undoubtedly be the ultimate king.
With the deepening of supply-side structural reform, the application and strengthening of big data, Internet of things, cold chain and other technologies ensure the quality of fresh e-commerce transactions and promote consumption upgrading. People’s demand for fresh quality and distribution service is also getting higher and higher, and the pain point on the supply chain is not eliminated every day, the user experience of B and C end cannot be improved, and the fresh industry will eventually be a backwater.
Supply chain problems are pathogens for the development of fresh food industry. Hema And Mei CAI, as industry unicorns, have made the same choice due to their accurate grasp of market demand. Although the focus is different and the development path is different, they both optimize the supply chain and improve the user experience of THE B and C end. In terms of the whole industry, the optimization of supply chain also makes fresh trade more orderly, improves the industrial environment, and shapes a new fresh ecology.
Article/Liu Kuang public account, ID: Liukuang110