"To be honest, fresh food is not a good business. We are seeing others making profits and going public one after another, but we still have to persevere."
Although Zhang Yida did not explain the specific purpose of his visit, Liu Chuanjun also guessed that it was close to ten.
Ali owns Hema Xiansheng, Goudong also launched 7FRESH at the beginning of the year, and the third largest shareholder of Super Species is Penguin.
The Mr. Zhang in front of me is probably not willing to lag behind and is going to cause trouble on this track.
Zhang Yida said with a smile: "Consumers have an urgent need to go out. Jack Ma used to clamor to eliminate offline shopping malls every day, but now he is not preaching the so-called new retail everywhere.
Shopping on the way out will cut off a large chunk of e-commerce market share, because no matter how fast the courier guy runs, it can't be faster than when you turn into a small store to buy something when you pass the bus stop.
So there must be some products that are more effective to buy offline, and some products that are more reasonable to buy online.”
Liu Chuanjun nodded, "That's the reason. Most people will buy clothes, shoes and bags online, but vegetables and fruits will definitely be purchased offline."
Liu Chuanjun looked at Zhang Yida and said with a smile: "If Mr. Zhang intends to enter the fresh food industry, I have some immature suggestions."
"I'm all ears!"
Zhang Yida smiled kindly, his attitude was very sincere, and he did not look down upon others due to the size of the company.
The reason why he came to Meicai.com was to communicate with this veteran of the fresh food industry.
The most taboo thing about doing business is patting your head and working behind closed doors. Listening to different viewpoints may bring you more inspiration.
Before he even made a request in this regard, Liu Chuanjun was the first to speak. What a wonderful person.
Although Meicai.com itself is in the field of fresh food, it currently focuses on B-side business and has become China's largest catering supply chain service provider.
What Zhang Yida wants to do is to serve C-end users and scattered fresh food transactions. His biggest enemies should be Hema and 7FRESH.
Liu Chuanjun was also well aware of these situations, otherwise he would not have confided in Zhang Yida because of Ruixiang's status as a shareholder.
"Compared to Ahri, Goudong, Ruixiang and Zhonghe, their technical and traffic advantages are not weaker than theirs."
When it comes to this, Liu Chuanjun is also very envious. I am afraid that software with hundreds of millions of users is not taken seriously by the person in front of him. He is eyeing the big deal of 1 billion or 2 billion users.
Zhang Yida smiled and nodded. Liu Chuanjun's words were not exaggerated. In terms of traffic, Zhonghe is probably second only to Penguin in China.
In terms of technology, Ali is leading the way in cloud computing, but in other cutting-edge technologies, everyone is on par with it.
Liu Chuanjun continued: “These advantages can be used to do a lot of things in the fresh food industry.
For example, the informatization of the entire process makes the originally scattered fresh food transactions on the C-side more intelligent, transparent and efficient.
For another example, using big data to profile scattered users on the consumer side, and using this as a basis for replenishment purchases, can greatly ensure the "freshness" of fresh products.
Take Hema Fresh's direct sourcing model from its fruit and vegetable base as an example, it is also very instructive.
Replenish supplies according to orders and ensure the quality of fresh products from the source.
The originally chaotic and disorderly C-end fresh food retail market can be greatly improved and become standardized.
But innovation in logistics is something that is difficult to do, but it must be done.
Hema has established a standardized and efficient distribution logistics system through high-cost investment, which can provide half-hour delivery services within 3 kilometers.
Behind this is the integration, improvement and transformation of every link, which is a great test of supply chain capabilities and logistics team building capabilities.
For some entrepreneurial companies, this path is difficult to copy. But for Ruixiang and Zhonghe, it should not be a problem."
Zhang Yida smiled and said: "Hema Xiansheng's model is called a store-to-home model in the industry, right?"
“Yes, in addition to this, there is also a front-end warehouse model and the recently emerged community group-building model.
Each of the three models has its own advantages and disadvantages and is suitable for enterprises of different sizes and resources.
The first to take advantage of front-end warehouses is Daily Fresh. They rely on city central warehouses and then build front-end warehouses in business districts and communities based on order density, covering a surrounding area with a radius of 3 kilometers.
The selected products directly purchased from the origin will first be sent to the city sorting center. After quality inspection, they will be stored in different temperature zones and then sorted and processed into small packages. Then, they will be sent to each front-end store every day according to the replenishment algorithm empowered by big data.
Warehouse replenishment.
When users place an order online, the picking, packaging and delivery will be completed by the front warehouse nearest to them.
This has indeed improved the delivery speed, optimized and reduced the high cold chain logistics costs and loss costs in the past.
However, the high cost of building a front-end warehouse, the high labor management costs after building a warehouse, and the profit model of the front-end warehouse have not yet been solved. These have always restricted the continued expansion and profitability of Daily Fresh.
Community group buying is a trend that has just emerged recently. I heard that it was inspired by Pinduoduo and is positioned as a community-based C2B social e-commerce platform.
Through community mothers purchasing and delivering together, they can enjoy better quality and lower price products.
The community group-building model solves to a certain extent three very thorny problems in the e-commerce and retail industries: high traffic costs, logistics costs that are difficult to compress, and inventory costs that are difficult to reduce.
In terms of traffic, community group buying is based on acquaintance relationships, and the cost is almost zero.
In terms of logistics, the products are delivered to the site centrally, and the team leader completes the last mile delivery to reduce distribution costs.
In terms of sales, pre-sales can achieve zero inventory.
As for the flaws, time still needs to be verified, after all, this model has just emerged.”
Zhang Yida smiled and nodded, and Liu Chuanjun analyzed the three mainstream operating models of the fresh food industry for him one by one.
The other party will definitely not directly advise you which mode to choose, but you will make the final decision based on your own resources.
There are many trends this year, including unmanned shelves, unmanned supermarkets, and social e-commerce.
Speaking of social e-commerce, Zhang Yida remembers that in his previous life, Meicai.com launched its own community group buying brand "Meijia Youxiang".
Thinking of this, Zhang Yida asked: "Meicai.com has such a big advantage in the fresh food supply chain, can it definitely get a foothold in the community group buying market?"
Liu Chuanjun said with a smile: "We are already conducting inspections. If nothing unexpected happens, the project will be approved soon."
Zhang Yida added: "Whenever a storm emerges, it will be followed by bloody storms. Only the fastest one can survive."
Liu Chuanjun thought Zhang Yida was reminding him to hurry up, so he nodded and said, "That's right. Huimin Bicycle's approach in the field of shared bicycles is very classic and can be selected as a business school case."
Seeing that he misunderstood what he meant, Zhang Yida didn't explain too much, but asked: "How about melting another E+ round? Let the bullets fly faster!"
Liu Chuanjun is a little confused. He only raised US$450 million in January, so he is not very short of money.
Zhang Yida saw his hesitation and added fuel to the fire: "Ruixiang and Zhonghe have been building an open platform that can provide traffic support."
Upon hearing this, Liu Chuanjun immediately changed his attitude and asked, "How much do you want to invest?"
"How about 400 million?"
"RMB?"
Zhang Yida burst into laughter, "400 million US dollars!"