Fresh e-commerce companies began to shuffle "Xiaomi" out of the giant to compete for supremacy.

After a round of capital and entrepreneurial frenzy, fresh e-commerce has had a lot of bad news this year. Faced with the dilemma of the market and capital, once extremely fanatical fresh e-commerce began to enter the "reshuffle season", the industry threshold will be gradually raised. Li Chengdong, an e-commerce analyst, said that in the field of fresh e-commerce, players are not what they used to be. Last year, it was still in the horse race enclosure, but this year it has become a giant competition.

Shoddy quality, change the origin. In recent years, the "extensive" operation model of some fresh e-commerce has become unbearable for consumers, and they have finally been "voted with their feet". Faced with the dilemma of the market and capital, once extremely fanatical fresh e-commerce began to enter the "reshuffle season".

The origin information is difficult to identify.

There is a mixture of good and bad quality.

"they all claim to be big peaches in Pinggu. Four nectarines sell for 12 yuan and six big peaches sell for 24 yuan. The introduction says sweet and juicy, which is like eating canned food. But after buying and tasting it, there is no taste at all, which is far worse than the ordinary peaches sold in the morning market. " Ms. Liu complained when she described her shopping experience at a well-known fresh e-commerce company to the Beijing Morning Post.

"Why do you buy online fruits that can be bought offline? I just hope to eat good quality. " As a regular customer of the e-commerce, Ms. Liu found that with the continuous enrichment of the e-commerce products, the quality of the goods has become mixed.

Miss Zhai often buys imported cod online for her children and the elderly. However, as the media gradually exposed the problems of "smuggling" food and inferior quality on the e-commerce platform, Miss Zhai began to lose her mind.

"some fresh e-commerce companies that boast pure sources of imported goods have been found to have no key qualifications such as the record registration of foreign trade operators, the business scope of import and export industry and commerce, and customs codes. In addition, the phenomenon of entrusting and labeling is also common in the imported fresh market, such as imported salmon purchased on the market, but the packaging information shows that it is produced by domestic manufacturers. Some of the fresh products I bought online do not have a Chinese logo on the outer packaging of imported food, and it is difficult to identify the country of origin information, not to mention the health certificate of the inspection and quarantine department. " Miss Zhai believes that it is difficult for consumers to tell the true from the false.

News of closures and layoffs continues.

Reduced to an investment pit.

After a round of capital and entrepreneurial frenzy, fresh e-commerce has had a lot of bad news this year.

Delicious Qiqi, which has been exposed by the media as a "lack of import qualification", has closed down, and the "extensive management" of fresh e-commerce has shown its bad results. Subsequently, Aixian bee fell into a storm of layoffs, large-scale "dissuasion" of employees, fresh community O2O model into difficulties. Originally, life closed the "original convenience store"; all the orchard stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other cities were closed, and the orchard was upgraded to "lightning delivery". "Young vegetable gentleman" and "fruit gang" announced the closure on July 30 and August 1 respectively. The field of fresh e-commerce has been jokingly called "investment pit" by the investment circle.

For consumers, "quality control" has become the key to restrict the development of fresh e-commerce. For fresh ecommerce, the challenge is much more than that.

"there are two hardest things about fresh e-commerce," says Wang Xiaosong, vice president of JD.com Group and president of JD.com Mall's fresh business department. "one is product standardization, and the other is cold chain logistics." To do these two points well means that the cost is high.

Zhang Chenyong, an expert in e-commerce, estimated that the cost of packaging and distribution of B2C such as Tmall is about 15 yuan. Take the typical central warehouse delivery of fresh e-commerce as an example, when it reaches the C end through landing distribution, the cost of fresh packaging and cold chain transportation is about 30 yuan, and there is a high proportion of loss.

According to a survey by Analysys think tank, the added value of common ingredients such as vegetables and rice noodles is only in the single digits; the added value of middle and high-end kitchen ingredients is higher, with a gross margin of about 20% for fruits, 20% to 30% for meat, and more than 50% for seafood. According to a simple estimate, it is almost difficult to cover orders under 100 yuan only for cold chain logistics costs.

Huge business opportunities attracted the participation of Internet giants, JD.com and Ali have entered one after another, aggravating the market competition. In the first half of this year, JD.com announced that he would spend 10 billion yuan to build an integrated fresh distribution network. Tmall fresh is to establish an advance compensation mechanism, users "bad fruit compensation", up to a maximum credit line of 10, 000 yuan. The traditional e-commerce giant has a large flow, after cutting into the fresh field, the user drainage cost has a greater advantage than small and medium-sized fresh e-commerce companies, and the operating cost is also relatively low.

A giant becomes a big player.

Raise the threshold of fresh e-commerce

"in recent months, our own sales have increased dozens of times compared with last year. This figure is very amazing, but also very real to see that more and more users are willing to buy fresh products online. " Wang Xiaosong said.

Despite the challenges, fresh e-commerce is still regarded as one of the most promising e-commerce markets. "how big is the fresh market in China?" Wang Xiaosong believes, "there must be 4 trillion to 5 trillion yuan." My chat with seafood imports is growing by more than 80% a year, which shows how strong this demand is. "

However, the industry view is no longer as optimistic as before, it is generally believed that Chinese fresh e-commerce will enter the reshuffle stage this year, the industry threshold will be gradually raised.

According to a research report from AC Nielsen, "products from multiple origins" is one of the main reasons why consumers choose to buy fresh online, accounting for 47%. JingDong Fresh signed cooperation agreements with Chile, Spain, South Africa, France, the United Kingdom and other countries to introduce high-quality local fresh products. Previously, JingDong Fresh also opened cash on delivery, Wang Xiaosong said, "this is very challenging." For fresh products, if the user refuses to accept, this product is equivalent to scrapping. "

Li Chengdong, an e-commerce analyst, said that in the field of fresh e-commerce, players are not what they used to be. Last year, it was still in the horse race enclosure, but this year it has become a giant competition. The giants build an ecosystem through mergers and acquisitions and integration. Giants such as Tencent + Daily Youxian, JD.com Xindada + Wal-Mart + Yonghui, Ali + Yi Guo net + Box Horse Xiansheng + Lightning Purchasing Enterprises + Dian I Da, Meituan-Dianping + China Resources and other giants have become big players in the fresh e-commerce market.

Beijing Morning Post reporter Liu Yinghua