What is the life of fresh e-commerce? Cold chain logistics!

Nowadays, fresh e-commerce is always in the state of investors coming forward one after another, constantly closing down and investing constantly, which makes many people feel confused, since so many fresh e-commerce platforms have closed down, why are there so many capital institutions such as Alibaba and JD.com favored fresh e-commerce?

A fascinating rapid growth rate

First of all, fresh e-commerce has a huge market size, and the future growth rate is also very rapid. According to the "Special report on China fresh E-commerce Logistics Industry 2016" released by Analysys think tank, by the end of 2015, the market transaction size of China's fresh e-commerce logistics industry was 16.26 billion yuan, an increase of 87% compared with 2014. At the same time, with the rapid growth of fresh e-commerce market, it is predicted that the transaction size of China's fresh e-commerce logistics industry will reach 27.42 billion yuan in 2016, an increase of 68.6% month-on-month. In 2017, the market transaction volume of China's fresh e-commerce logistics industry will reach 43.49 billion yuan, an increase of 58.6% over the previous year. Secondly, relevant data show that as early as 2011, the online retail penetration rate of cosmetics reached 16.3%, and the penetration rate of 3C products reached 15.6%, and clothing reached 14.3%. On this day in 2016, the current market penetration rate of fresh e-commerce is less than 2%, which is a market gap that remains to be exploited and tapped.

The growth of the market scale of the lazy economy

Finally, with the continuous improvement of the degree of domestic information, and more and more post-80s and 90s have begun to set up their own families, especially the gradual expansion of the market economy scale of lazy people, after these people are busy going to work every day, the frequency of going to supermarkets and vegetable markets to buy fresh products is also getting lower and lower, and their acceptance and recognition of fresh e-commerce is also relatively high.

Thus, although the current development of fresh e-commerce is not so smooth, but its huge market potential is enough to drive entrepreneurs and capital markets crazy.

So, what is the difficulty of fresh e-commerce?

In fact, there are far more fresh e-commerce companies in operational difficulties than we mentioned earlier. Relevant data show that among the nearly 4000 agricultural products e-commerce across the country, 7% have huge losses, 88% have small losses, and 4% are flat. That is to say, only 1% of fresh e-commerce is profitable. So, why is fresh e-commerce so difficult? what is the difficulty of it?

The first and biggest difficulty lies in the fact that fresh e-commerce has a very high demand for cold chain logistics. Fresh e-commerce is different from other products, it must ensure sufficient freshness, but it is easy to lead to product wear and tear in the process of storage, transportation and distribution of fresh products, which requires fresh e-commerce to be refrigerated. The data show that the cost of fresh cold chain logistics is 1-2 times higher than that of ordinary goods, and the cost of cold chain accounts for 25% and 40% of sales. Therefore, for fresh e-commerce, its entire cold chain logistics construction cost is very high, the return time is also long, most fresh e-commerce can not afford such a huge cost, which is why we see why fresh e-commerce is so expensive.

The second difficulty is that users' consumption habits for fresh e-commerce have not been fully cultivated. For most families, when they buy fresh products, they often go to the vegetable market or supermarket around the neighborhood, especially for the elderly who do not know how to surf the Internet, they will not buy fresh products through their mobile phones. At present, the penetration rate of fresh e-commerce in China is less than 2%, and the whole user market still needs a period of education.

The third difficulty lies in the influx of too many competitors. at present, there are nearly 4000 fresh e-commerce businesses across the country, and most of them are still concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other first-tier cities. In that case, in the face of so many competitors, there will inevitably be serious homogenization of competition. The original cost of fresh e-commerce is high, the unit price is low, and the price war of spending subsidies will only hurt both sides, and ultimately reduce the profitability of the fresh e-commerce platform.

The fourth difficulty lies in the supply chain, which is closely related to its cold chain logistics. The problem that the supply chain needs to solve is the source of the product, whether to purchase directly from the origin or to the wholesale market. It is also very important to solve the problem of purchasing source. on the one hand, it can ensure the quality of fresh products, especially food safety, on the other hand, it can also solve the problem of purchase cost.

The fifth problem is the standardization of fresh products. The variety of fresh products is very many, complex and diverse, even if it is the same fruit, it is difficult to unify the price because of different quality. Then, since it is difficult to standardize operation, it can not reduce its cost, but also can not improve its operating efficiency, but also makes it difficult for consumers to compare horizontally and judge the advantages and disadvantages, so it is not easy for fresh products to accumulate consumer reputation.

The above five difficulties are the reasons for the general losses in the whole fresh e-commerce market, but the real core advantage in the field of fresh e-commerce lies in the construction of cold chain logistics system, which is the key to determine the outcome of fresh e-commerce in the future.

Those who get cold chain logistics get fresh e-commerce.

As for the current cold chain logistics and distribution of fresh e-commerce, the Analysys think tank "China fresh E-commerce Logistics Industry Special report 2016" divides it into two categories: one is the self-built logistics model represented by easy fruit fresh, Shunfeng optimization, two fresh, daily excellent fresh, Tuotuo industrial society, and so on. The other is the third-party logistics model represented by original life, one meter fresh, meow fresh, good goods and so on. In fact, there are two types of logistics: the combination of self-built logistics and third-party logistics and crowdsourced logistics.

Self-built logistics distribution model, on behalf of enterprises: easy fruit fresh, COFCO I buy net

JD.com Mall can gradually develop and grow under the market pattern of Taobao dominating Chinese e-commerce, and form a triumphant situation with it. The fundamental reason lies in the success of JD.com Mall's self-built logistics. Fresh and fresh e-commerce self-built logistics represented by easy fruit and COFCO also has many advantages.

First, compared with the third-party logistics and crowdsourcing logistics, the self-built logistics way of easy fruit fresh and COFCO I buy network has a much stronger ability to control the quality of goods, which ensures the "freshness" of fresh products and the safety of food. this virtually solves the problem of the source of product supply, and customer satisfaction will be higher. Easy fruit fresh reached a strategic cooperation with Alibaba to establish a wholly-owned fresh logistics Anxiangda, users can purchase fresh products can achieve one-stop distribution, and achieve room temperature fresh-keeping, cold storage and freezing three insulation layers; COFCO I Buy Network is backed by the powerful Cofco Group, realizing its own cold chain logistics service system.

Second, the fresh Anxianda and the self-built logistics of COFCO I Buy Network have also formed a standardized warehousing operation mode, which not only improves the distribution efficiency of logistics, but also saves the distribution cost of logistics. At the same time, self-built logistics is also helpful to the standardized operation of products.

Third, from the point of view of the service to the logistics team, self-built logistics is not only guaranteed in the delivery time, but also can be better controlled in the distribution service, which can greatly enhance the consumer experience and increase the stickiness of users. For example, at present, in many first-and second-tier cities, easy fruit fresh, I buy the net of grain have been able to achieve same-day delivery.

Fourth, for fresh e-commerce, chain breakage is the most deadly, it will not only cause high loss, but also bring food safety risks. The distribution of the self-built logistics model will be more secure, at the same time, it is also safe for the platform itself, and there is no risk of leakage of the user data and transaction data of the platform.