Dingdong Maicai Product Analysis

Dingdong Maicai Product Analysis

Dingdong Maicai was launched in May 2017, focusing on the fresh food e-commerce model of forward warehouses. It first developed in Shanghai. At the end of 2019, the number of forward warehouses was 550. It has now opened in 9 cities including Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Suzhou. In April this year, Dingdong Maicai entered Beijing and is acquiring new users through subsidies and preferential methods.

Tianyancha information shows that Dingdong Maicai has completed seven rounds of financing from May 2018 to July 2019. Past investors include Gaorong Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, Red Star Macalline, Tiger (China), Sequoia China, Today Capital, and Chinese Culture Fund.

In May 2020, the company was disclosed to have raised $300 million in a new round of financing with a valuation of $2 billion, led by General Atlantic.

In December 2020, Dingdong Maicai confirmed that it had completed its latest round of financing. Star Capital is the lead investor, and follow-up investors include China Media Capital, BAI (Bertelsmann Asia Investments), Qiming Venture Partners and Longfor Properties.

Why has Dingdong Maicai developed so rapidly in such a short period of time? Does this industry really have a bright future like the food delivery and ride-hailing industries before it?

This article will analyze Dingdong Maicai's perspective to give you an in-depth understanding of the company and the operating logic of the new retail industry of fresh food delivery.

This article will analyze from the following aspects:

  1. Industry Analysis
  2. Analysis of Typical Models in the Fresh Food Industry
  3. Competitive product analysis
  4. User Value Analysis
  5. Business value analysis
  6. Product Iteration Analysis
  7. Product structure analysis
  8. Operational Analysis
  9. Summarize
  10. SWOT Analysis
  11. Future Outlook

1. Industry Analysis

The fresh food e-commerce industry is a new model of fresh food retail in which enterprises rely on the Internet and use advanced technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to upgrade and transform the production, circulation and sales processes of fresh food, thereby reshaping the industry structure and ecosystem, and deeply integrating online services, offline experiences and modern logistics.

So why has the fresh food delivery industry developed so rapidly in recent years? Next, this article will use the PEST model to explore the reasons behind this.

1.1 Politics

On November 11, 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting Innovation and Transformation of Physical Retailing", which clarified the guiding ideology and basic principles for promoting innovation and transformation of physical retailing in my country.

On September 21, 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Leading the Accelerated Development of New Consumption with New Business Forms and Models", which clearly proposed to step up efforts to promote the organic integration of online and offline consumption and increase support for new consumption. It affirmed the important role played by the new consumption model in this epidemic, and clearly proposed to accelerate the promotion of "fresh food e-commerce + cold chain home delivery" for agricultural products.

The support of national policies has made the development of this industry more formal and powerful.

1.2 Economy

First, China's population is increasing, and the proportion of urban residents is increasing significantly . The fresh food e-commerce industry almost serves urban residents. The increase in urban residents and the modernization of Chinese cities are conducive to the development of this industry.

Second, with the development of the times, the living standards of the Chinese people are getting higher and higher , their consumption capacity is getting stronger and stronger , and they are becoming more and more accustomed to convenient online shopping. As can be seen from the figure below, China's online retail sales have continued to grow, and the growth rate is greater than the GDP growth rate. It can be inferred that the proportion of people's online consumption to offline consumption is increasing, which is greatly beneficial to the development of e-commerce .

1.3 Society

With the rapid development of the Internet in recent years, new things such as food delivery and online ride-hailing have quickly become part of people's lives, changing not only people's lives but also their views on future life.

So why can these things develop so quickly and change people's lifestyles? This is because the pace of life nowadays is getting faster and faster, and time is getting more and more compact, especially for white-collar workers in first- and second-tier cities, who have heavy workloads. New industries such as e-commerce and new retail can solve these problems and bring more efficient choices to fast-paced life . People are also becoming more and more adaptable and fond of them.

Since 2015, the number of people who "go online" and "buy groceries" has begun to overlap. Starting from 2015, women born in the 1980s and 1990s entered families and began to buy groceries more frequently, and those born in the 2000s are also slowly entering this stage. When these people who never bought groceries three generations ago start to move from a small incremental group of people buying groceries to the mainstream group, it means a major change in an industry.

Especially this epidemic has accelerated the integration of fresh food e-commerce into people's lives , allowing people to feel the convenience that fresh food e-commerce brings to their lives and making people more adaptable to this change.

1.4 Technology

The continuous development and progress of technology has brought many improvements and changes to the fresh food e-commerce industry.

  1. E-commerce reduces offline labor service costs, making it more efficient and easier for users to purchase items.
  2. The distribution and transportation of fresh food based on Internet big data are more reasonable and economical , reducing storage and transportation costs.
  3. As life becomes more and more "online", big data is increasingly understanding people's bodies. It can customize diet plans that suit people and even communicate with medical data to arrange diets according to special physical conditions and other innovative services.
  4. Cold chain logistics is an important supporting force for the development of fresh food e-commerce. In recent years, the scale of cold chain logistics in China has gradually increased. With the continuous development and upgrading of big data to empower cold chain logistics, the potential of the cold chain logistics field will be further effectively released and continue to develop in the direction of automated and intelligent cloud warehouse models. Fresh food e-commerce and cold chain logistics complement each other, promoting the development of each other's industry and bringing more possibilities for the future.

1.5 Summary

All of the above factors have contributed to the booming fresh food e-commerce market in recent years. So what will be the development trend of this industry in the next few years? Is there enough market space?

In 2019, the market transaction volume of China's fresh food e-commerce industry reached 279.62 billion yuan, an increase of 36.7% over the previous year. Due to the impact of the epidemic in 2020, consumers' demand for fresh food delivery has increased sharply, and the transaction scale of the fresh food e-commerce market will increase significantly. It is estimated that by 2023, the transaction scale of the fresh food e-commerce market will exceed 800 billion yuan.

In recent years, fresh food e-commerce has developed rapidly with the support of capital. In 2019, as capital attitudes became more conservative and most fresh food e-commerce companies had not yet achieved large-scale profitability, many fresh food e-commerce platforms began to face crises, and the fresh food e-commerce industry ushered in a new round of reshuffle. At the same time, the number of monthly active users of fresh food e-commerce companies declined significantly. Since October 2019, affected by the big promotion of fresh food e-commerce, the number of monthly active users of fresh food e-commerce has grown rapidly. In December 2019, the number of monthly active users of fresh food e-commerce reached 31.2282 million, an increase of 82.5% year-on-year.

Since 2020, affected by the epidemic, the monthly active users of fresh food e-commerce have maintained a strong growth momentum.

Therefore, we can see that there is still a lot of room for this market, and it will continue to grow rapidly in the next few years.

2. Analysis of Typical Models in the Fresh Food Industry

With the growing development of online retail, the fresh food e-commerce industry has also broken through the traditional fresh food model. New models such as forward warehouses, store-warehouse integration, community group buying, store-to-home delivery, and refrigerator self-pickup have emerged one after another. At this stage, a variety of business models coexist in the fresh food e-commerce industry, and competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Compared with other e-commerce products, fresh food e-commerce has complex links and higher requirements for transportation and storage. Currently, there is no mature profit model. Fresh food e-commerce with strong supply chain management capabilities is more likely to succeed in the breakthrough.

2.1 Traditional Fresh Food E-commerce

  • Model introduction : Fresh products are delivered directly to consumers through the Internet through self-built logistics or third-party logistics.
  • Layout of cities: nationwide layout
  • Coverage : >10km
  • Delivery time: 1~2 days
  • Advantages: ① Low customer acquisition cost due to early user habits; ② Strong brand advantage and credibility
  • Disadvantages: ①Long delivery time; ②High product loss rate; ③Dependent on the strength of capital chain
  • Representative companies: Tmall Fresh, JD Fresh, and Fruitday

2.2 Platform-to-home model

  • Model introduction: The platform provides home delivery services to consumers by cooperating with offline supermarkets, retail stores and convenience stores.
  • Layout cities: Mainly first- and second-tier cities
  • Coverage: 1~3 km
  • Delivery time: 1~2 hours
  • Advantages: Distributed around users to meet immediate needs
  • Disadvantages: Cooperating with offline merchants, unable to control product quality
  • Representative companies: JD.com, Meituan, and Ele.me

2.3 Self-operated forward warehouse model

  • Model introduction: Layout storage points integrating warehousing, sorting and distribution in the places closest to users, shorten the distribution chain and reduce e-commerce distribution costs
  • Layout cities: Mainly first- and second-tier cities
  • Coverage: 1~3 km
  • Delivery time: 30~60 minutes
  • Advantages: ① Distribute the forward warehouses around users to improve delivery efficiency; Avoid offline customer selection to reduce product loss; Reduce cold chain delivery costs; Because the delivery time is short, you can choose to process the ingredients before sending them to your home (for example, kill the fish)
  • Disadvantages: Large initial investment in supply chain and warehousing
  • Representative companies: MissFresh, Dingdong Maicai

2.4 In-store + home delivery model

  • Model introduction: In-store consumption + online shopping + timely delivery, providing an integrated online and offline consumption experience
  • Layout cities: Mainly first- and second-tier cities
  • Coverage: 1~3 km
  • Delivery time: 30~60 minutes
  • Advantages: Provide consumers with an integrated online and offline experience; Online and offline traffic forms a closed loop, reducing advertising costs; Online and offline integration allows users to purchase online and see the quality of fresh food offline, reducing trust costs; ④ Because the delivery time is short, you can choose to process the ingredients before sending them to your home (for example, kill the fish)
  • Disadvantages: The model is too heavy, and the store and labor costs increase
  • Representative companies: Hema Fresh, 7Fresh

2.5 Community Group Buying Model

  • Model introduction: The group buying platform provides product supply chain logistics and after-sales support, the group leader is responsible for community operation, and users pick up the goods in the community
  • Layout cities: second-tier, third-tier and fourth-tier cities
  • Coverage: 500m~1km
  • Delivery time: 1~2 days
  • Advantages: Low customer acquisition cost; Light operation model is easy to expand on a large scale; Group purchase has lower delivery costs for enterprises, and there are group leaders to conduct offline interpersonal communication, which makes it easier to enter the sinking market
  • Disadvantages: The platform’s product variety is limited; Lack of comprehensive group leader management experience; Inconvenient returns and untimely refunds; Because group buyers pay more attention to price, similar competing products use subsidies to lower their prices, which are far below the market price, which is not conducive to market development. Currently, it has been strictly prohibited by the new regulations issued by the central government, “Nine Don’ts for Community Group Buying”; After the “Nine Don’ts” were issued, prices were raised one after another, and a large number of customers were lost.
  • Representative companies: Xingsheng Youxuan, Shihuituan, Chengxin Youxuan, Shixianghui

2.6 Summary

People's pace of life is getting faster and faster. The long delivery time of traditional fresh food e-commerce is a fatal flaw . If they fail to keep up with the pace of the fast times, they may be eliminated by the times.

The platform-to-home model can quickly complete its layout by utilizing existing merchants and its own delivery system. Meituan, JD.com, and Ele.me are all big players in the delivery field. They are adept at copying the e-commerce model of other commodities to the fresh food market and have developed rapidly . As B2C platforms, their operations and profit-making methods are similar, and the investment is relatively small. But it is precisely because of the combined efforts of others, and the fact that the fresh produce is of similar types but not standardized, it is difficult to unify the quality and difficult to supervise and control. In addition, the fresh produce sold in the supermarkets near each user is different and the types are limited .

The forward warehouse model places goods closer to consumers, improving logistics and distribution efficiency and experience. Relatively speaking, the forward warehouse model is a capital-intensive investment and is an asset-heavy and operation-heavy model. From the perspective of the fulfillment cost structure of fresh food e-commerce in the forward warehouse model, the costs of warehousing and distribution from the large warehouse to the forward warehouse and the last mile are relatively high. In addition, the forward warehouse model generally has no offline stores and lacks offline traffic entry, requiring higher marketing costs and high subsidies to attract customers. Overall, the forward warehouse model requires high cost investment and a longer payback period .

At present, the forward warehouse model is still in continuous development and iteration. Whether it can achieve a balance between the cost and revenue sides, find a profitable way, and thus obtain positive cash flow is the key to whether the forward warehouse model can be successfully implemented. Currently, the distribution system of forward warehouse companies is a major reason for their slow development . After all, there is no ready-made distribution system like Meituan, Ele.me and other companies.

The entry point of the in-store + home delivery model is relatively gentle. After all, the fresh food industry is a rigid demand and a necessity in people's lives. It is closely related to people's lives. Compared with takeout and daily necessities, people prefer to choose them on the spot because the quality of the same variety of fresh food is also uneven. Choosing the fresh food you like within the same price makes people feel more fulfilled. This model integrates offline stores into people's lives, supplemented by the convenience of giving people more choices online , forming an online and offline traffic closed loop. It has better development prospects, but the capital investment is very large , and the development speed cannot be as fast as other online fresh food e-commerce, because the development of offline stores limits the overall development speed, and the overall development is slow and steady .

The users attracted by the community group buying model originally used it for low prices. After the new regulations were introduced, prices were raised, and some were even higher than the local market. This is a factor that cannot be ignored for community group buying users who are more sensitive to prices. The price correction in December 20 caused it to lose some users. How to make community group buying, which is known for its low prices, continue to grow, how to enter the high-consumer market, and how to add a richer variety of goods are the directions that community group buying needs to catch up.

3. Competitive Product Analysis

MissFresh and Dingdong Maicai have the same model and are direct competitors, and their delivery time is shorter, which is more in line with the fast pace of modern life. So next we will take the growth paths and business models of these two companies as the entry point to gain a deeper understanding of the differences between them.

3.1 Daily Fresh

  • It was founded in November 2014 and received a US$5 million angel round investment from Yuanjing Capital and Guangxin Capital that year.
  • In April 2015, MissFresh’s WeChat Mall was officially launched, and in May it received a US$10 million Series A financing round led by Tencent.
  • In November 2015, MissFresh officially launched its 2-hour express delivery service and received RMB 200 million in Series B funding led by Tencent that year.
  • In March 2016, MissFresh APP was officially launched, and in April of that year it received RMB 230 million in B+ round financing led by Yuanyi Investment. In December, its MAU ranked No. 1 among fresh food e-commerce companies, and its revenue increased by 527% year-on-year.
  • In March 2017, MissFresh received a US$230 million Series C financing led by Tiger Global, Yuansheng Capital, Jeneration Capital, Tencent, and Lenovo Capital, entering the ranks of unicorns.
  • In June 2017, the unmanned office retail project MissFresh was launched; in November, MissFresh's express delivery service was accelerated to 1-hour delivery for members, and in December of the same year, it received a US$100 million Series D financing led by Jeneration Capital. MissFresh received a US$200 million financing ecological chain fund led by Tencent CDH Investments, and San Sheng Venture Capital was established.
  • In April 2018, Daily One Tao, a professional selected social e-commerce company invested and incubated by MissFresh, was launched, and in August of the same year it received US$450 million in financing led by Goldman Sachs, Tencent, Jeneration Capital, and Davis Selected Advisers; in November, Daily One Tao received US$100 million in financing led by Yuansheng Capital and DCM.
  • In July 2020, MissFresh received a strategic investment of 495 million yuan led by Goldman Sachs, Tencent and Tiger Global.
  • In December 2020, Qingdao Guosen, Sunshine Venture Capital, and Qingdao Municipal Government Guidance Fund formed a joint investment entity and made a strategic investment of 2 billion yuan in MissFresh. This is the largest strategic investment in local fresh food e-commerce to date. It is understood that MissFresh will register and establish its headquarters company in Chengyang District, Qingdao City, setting a precedent for unicorn companies to set up national headquarters in Qingdao.

3.1.1 Procurement

  • Category: All categories
  • Available quantity: Only a small number of options are available for each product
  • Source: Experienced professional buyers go deep into the global production areas to purchase directly, only select high-quality sources

3.1.2 Supply Chain Logistics

  • Forward warehouse coverage radius: 1.3 kilometers
  • Delivery time and speed: 30 minutes to 2 days
  • Fresh food quality and safety management: Fresh food that has been in the warehouse for 1 to 7 days is defined by letters A to G. Whether fresh food will be removed from the shelves depends mainly on the color and appearance of the fresh food.

3.1.3 Customers

  • User acquisition: Social membership is MissFresh’s main way to attract new users, by developing new users through old users and directing them to the platform. Members can attract new users by inviting friends to place orders to receive red envelopes, share fresh coins, invite group purchases, and share membership experience cards to ensure the activity of new users.
  • Overall, MissFresh relies heavily on the 1.1 billion traffic pool from Tencent WeChat, generating new customers from old customers. Its official revealed that MissFresh's customer acquisition cost is as low as 40 yuan per person.
  • Service area: Nationwide
  • User characteristics: All netizens with high consumption levels who are unwilling to go out, have no time, are physically tired, but want to buy high-quality fresh food (because Daily Fresh has a small number of categories and all are selected from around the world, the price is relatively high)

3.2 Dingdong Shopping

  • In March 2014, Shanghai Yibaimi Network Technology Co., Ltd. was established and the Dingdong Community APP was launched.
  • In May 2017, Dingdong Community was officially renamed Dingdong Maicai
  • From May 2018 to July 2019, the company has completed seven rounds of financing. Past investors include Gaorong Capital, Morningside Venture Capital, Red Star Macalline, Tiger (China), Sequoia China, Capital Today, and Chinese Culture Fund.
  • In December 2019, Dingdong Maicai's annual GMV exceeded 5 billion yuan, with monthly revenue exceeding 700 million yuan. At the end of the year, the average daily order volume exceeded 500,000 orders, and nearly 550 forward warehouses were opened in 6 cities across the country.
  • In February 2020, amid the epidemic, Dingdong Maicai’s New Year’s Eve orders increased by more than 300% compared with the previous month; more than 40,000 new users were added every day, and Dingdong Maicai’s daily order volume exceeded 600,000, with monthly revenue exceeding 1.2 billion yuan.
  • In May 2020, Dingdong Maicai completed its Series C financing round led by General Atlantic, with a financing amount of US$300 million.

3.2.1 Procurement

  • Category: 2000+SKUs of fresh food, covering everything you need in the kitchen
  • Quantity to choose from: Many, with products from major brand suppliers
  • Source: Meat products are directly supplied by brand owners on demand, and fresh products such as vegetables and aquatic products that are difficult to transport over long distances are mainly purchased in bulk in cities. More than 80% of the goods are directly purchased from the place of origin. There are 350 direct production areas for fresh produce and more than 500 direct supply suppliers from the place of origin.

3.2.2 Supply Chain Logistics

  • Forward warehouse coverage radius: 1 km
  • Delivery speed and time: 30 minutes to 90 minutes, 6:30-22:30 is divided into 32 time periods with half an hour interval. If a time period is full, it cannot be selected. You can make an appointment for home delivery up to one day in advance.
  • Fresh food quality and safety management: The "7+1" quality control process conducts quality control management on fresh food products throughout the entire chain, which can effectively ensure product quality. Each fresh food is given an optimal shelf life and comes with a QR code that can be scanned for traceability.

3.2.3 Customers

(1) User acquisition

1) Mamabang: Liang Changlin, the founder of Dingdong Maicai, previously founded Mamabang. Advertising on Mamabang can accurately target young mothers, who are one of Dingdong Maicai's main groups. The advertising cost is low but the effect is good;

2) Group buying + sharing: Using social software such as WeChat groups to acquire new users through group buying and sharing red envelopes among neighbors. Social sharing based on acquaintances is easier to gain the trust of new consumers;

3) Local promotion: Because Dingdong’s predecessor was originally used for community services, the service area is small and densely laid out. By setting up promotion booths at the entrance of the community, residents are guided to download and use the Dingdong Grocery APP. After downloading the APP, they can place an order and receive oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and other products, thereby attracting users to register and try it out at a low cost.

4) Tik Tok ads

  • Service area: Currently only services are provided in first- and second-tier cities and parts of 28 cities in the Yangtze River Delta region.
  • User characteristics: All netizens who don’t want to go out, have no time, are physically tired, but want to buy high-quality fresh food

3.3 Summary

Food safety is always a decisive factor in food purchases. For vegetables, Dingdong has clearly marked the shelf life, while Daily uses letters A to G to identify freshness, and judges the freshness of the produce by color and appearance. Although objectively speaking, when buying vegetables in daily life, we do rely on color and appearance to identify the freshness, Dingdong's food freshness definition rules are undoubtedly better, which shows that Dingdong is indeed better than Daily in ensuring the quality and safety of fresh produce .

Both have a wide variety of products, but MissFresh targets a higher-end market. There are only a handful of fresh products to choose from and the prices are much higher than ordinary fresh products, but they are all guaranteed by the brand. Some of Dingdong’s products are self-listed, but most are available from major suppliers, with prices ranging from low to high.

MissFresh focuses on the high-end fresh food market, while Dingdong is more in line with ordinary people's fresh food consumption concept . (The picture below is the pork purchase interface, with Daily Fresh on the left and Dingdong Shopping on the right. Daily Fresh’s pork is all authentic and more expensive, while Dingdong has COFCO and Su Food, and the prices vary.)

The coverage of the forward warehouses of the two is not much different, but they cover the whole country every day and are much larger than Ding Dong. In cities without forward warehouses, the minimum delivery amount is one piece and there is no delivery fee. In areas with forward warehouses, delivery can be made to the door at the scheduled time on the same day. Dingdong only serves forward warehouse areas, and orders can be booked for tomorrow at most. The delivery time can be changed or the order can be canceled at any time before sorting. The daily service scope is larger than Ding Dong, but the reservation capability is weaker than Ding Dong .

In a nutshell, MissFresh casts a wide net but the mesh is also large, while Dingdong casts a small net but the mesh is also small.

4. User Value Analysis

In the fresh food e-commerce industry, there are four main participants: consumers, suppliers, and platforms. The business logic diagram of Dingdong Maicai is as follows:

4.1 Consumers

In recent years, food safety issues have been frequently exposed, consumers have become increasingly aware of food safety, and pay more attention to product quality when purchasing fresh food.

Survey data from April 2019 showed that 55.7% of users said that food safety is the most important factor when choosing a fresh food e-commerce platform, and quality is the second consideration, accounting for about 49.3%. As can be seen from the figure below, the price at the retail terminal is 2.3 times the producer price, and the product has been more than 9 days old. The price and freshness of traditional fresh produce are greatly reduced due to the existence of multiple middlemen.

Finally, in this fast-paced era, people’s time is filled with all kinds of things. Although online shopping has basically become an era, buying fresh food still requires going out and squeezing through crowds. Many people give up or perfunctorily implement their desire for fresh food due to time, fatigue and other reasons.

Consumers have three traditional options for buying fresh produce:

(1) Vegetable market

  1. Although the relevant departments have made great efforts to rectify the situation, the sanitary environment is still poor.
  2. The dishes are limited, with very little vegetables, fresh seafood and meat.
  3. Prices are not uniform. Merchants at various stalls in the vegetable market always attribute their high prices to the quality of their ingredients, but there is no clear ratio between the quality of the ingredients and the price, which may lead to consumer fraud.
  4. There is a mix of good and bad food, and the safety and freshness of fresh food vary greatly, and it is difficult to distinguish them unless you are experienced.
  5. The food in the vegetable market is rich and fresh before 10:00 in the morning, which is more suitable for families with elderly people to help buy groceries and cook.

(2) Large supermarkets

  1. Not only fresh food, large venue, time-consuming
  2. Large supermarkets are usually located in areas with convenient transportation and high population density, so marginal residents spend more time on the road.
  3. Large supermarkets have a wide range of products and are safe and secure, making them suitable for people who live nearby and have the leisure to go shopping in supermarkets.

(3) Fresh food convenience stores

  1. The prices at fresh food convenience stores are 10% to 30% more expensive, and due to their small size, the variety of products is also limited.
  2. They are usually opened in residential areas, so it is relatively convenient to buy fresh food, which is suitable for residents of the community to save time and effort.

It can be seen that the above three methods all have their defects and cannot meet the needs of consumers well.

4.2 Suppliers

4.2.1 Agricultural product growers in production areas

The biggest demand of product growers is to sell more and earn more, but due to funding, technical and other reasons, the scale of planting is small and the product quality is low and uneven, which makes it impossible to sell in large quantities and earn large profits.

The solutions they currently use more often are:

(1) Selling to middlemen

When the agricultural product harvest season arrives, a large number of middlemen will come to the planting bases to discuss purchasing. Due to the short shelf life of agricultural products and the limited sales capacity of agricultural product growers, they are very happy to give them to the middlemen during the harvest season. However, because the quality of agricultural products is greatly affected by factors such as climate, temperature and humidity, soil, and natural disasters, general middlemen dare not sign long-term and stable purchasing relationships with agricultural product growers in the production area.

Therefore, the middlemen will take whatever they want wherever they go. They will buy the good ones in large quantities and the bad ones at a lower price or even not want them at all.

The middleman is usually not the one who sells the final product to the end user. He will calculate the costs of sorting, transportation, warehousing and loss into the agricultural products, so the price-cutting phenomenon of products is quite serious .

(2) Selling to tourists at street stalls

In order to get a good price, agricultural product growers usually set up stalls to sell the products to tourists, but the sales cycle is usually long and the sales scale is small because the number of tourists is limited and the quantity purchased each time is also limited.

(3) Borrowing from banks/relatives and friends

In most cases, agricultural product growers have to borrow the funds they need in the early stages from friends and relatives, and the amount they can borrow is limited. People who have a certain prestige and credit in the local area can borrow through rural bank cooperatives. Although the amount is more than what they can borrow from friends and relatives, the loan period is usually shorter and there is interest.

(4) Self-study and mutual learning

Some growers have begun to use the Internet to supplement their knowledge, but after all, their learning ability is weak. The systematic knowledge required for planting is extensive and complex, and the knowledge they have learned is limited.

It can be seen that none of the above methods can effectively solve the pain points of agricultural product growers in the production areas.

4.2.2 Urban wholesale market

Dingdong Maicai mainly purchases fresh products such as vegetables and seafood that are difficult to transport over long distances in bulk. It does not have to bear the loss of these products during transportation, nor does it have to build overly complicated cold chain logistics.

The main sales channels of the urban wholesale market are currently supermarkets, small vendors, etc. There are many wholesalers, and each vendor operates independently. Under the traditional supply and retail model, it is difficult for suppliers and sellers to accurately obtain user portraits and users' real product needs . Even if they obtain the information, supermarkets and other channels need to have the willingness to purchase before they can reach a cooperation agreement. However, supermarkets, which control the consumer window, will adopt the form of pricing, bidding, and price comparison as sales platforms, and in the case of information asymmetry between the two parties, they will squeeze the interests of suppliers to the greatest extent.

4.2.3 Brand Suppliers

The meat of Dingdong Maicai is supplied by brand suppliers to ensure the safety and quality of the products. A brand supplier is usually a brand organization of a certain product that has a cooperative relationship with the customer, and the required goods are shipped directly by the brand owner.

Brand suppliers build their brand capabilities mainly through the following ways:

  1. Through advertising, we can increase brand awareness, let more users know about the brand, and accelerate the process of consumers purchasing brand products. However, advertising is expensive and may not achieve the desired results, so the company may incur high expenses.
  2. Looking for large supermarkets to cooperate with. Through promotional activities, customers can become familiar with the products and then become users of the products. However, supermarkets have a wide range of product categories and prices are very similar, so it is difficult to surpass other brands after returning to normal prices, and the effect is not good .

It can be seen that none of the above methods can meet the expectations of brand suppliers well.

4.3 Platform

The above analysis shows that different parties have different requirements and problems in the fresh food sector.

Consumers ’ demands and questions include:

  1. Is the product safe, of quality and fresh?
  2. Is there a time limit for where to buy the product?
  3. Does the product purchase save time and effort?
  4. Is the product price affordable?
  5. Are there many product categories to choose from?

The problems faced by growers in the production areas are:

  1. Lack of long-term stable acquisition relationships, sales are unstable and rare
  2. Insufficient funds to cover costs
  3. The education level of growers is low, there is no systematic training, and they lack planting knowledge and technology.

The problems existing in the urban wholesale market are:

  1. There are many customers but the purchase quantity is small, so the management cost is high
  2. There is no systematic data system, and it is difficult to grasp the supply and demand data to prepare goods.

The problems faced by brand suppliers are:

  1. Branding is expensive
  2. The branding effect is not good enough

So how does Dingdong Maicai solve the pain points of all parties so well that suppliers are willing to supply goods as required and consumers are willing to buy?

4.3.1 Meeting consumer needs

  • More: Dingdong Maicai provides consumers with 2000+ SKUs of fresh vegetables, covering everything needed in the kitchen. There are many products to choose from, including goods from major brand suppliers and goods at all price levels to meet the needs of all consumption levels.
  • Fast: Dingdong Maicai's forward warehouse covers a radius of 1 kilometer, and the delivery time is 30 minutes to 90 minutes. 6:30~22:30 is divided into 32 time periods of half an hour. If the reservation volume for a certain time period is full, you cannot select that time period. You can make an appointment for the delivery time up to one day in advance.
  • Good: Dingdong Maicai implements a "7+1" quality control process to conduct quality control management on fresh products throughout the entire chain, which can effectively ensure product quality and provide an optimal shelf life for each fresh product. Each product has a QR code that can trace its source to ensure freshness and safety, allowing consumers to eat and buy with peace of mind.
  • Save: 80% of Dingdong Maicai’s products are sourced directly from the origin, eliminating layers of middlemen. The price at the retail terminal is 2.3 times the producer price. Direct sourcing from the origin will inevitably reduce Dingdong Maicai’s costs, part of which can be passed on to consumers, making product prices lower than the market price.

4.3.2 Meeting the needs of suppliers

(1) Farmers in the production area

In 2019, under the leadership of Shanghai cadres sent to Guizhou, Dingdong Maicai reached a strategic cooperation with a local cooperative in Zunyi City, and completed the purchase of nearly 150 tons of Chishui winter bamboo shoots in just one month. This year, Dingdong Maicai will also help farmers alleviate their difficulties through live broadcasts from production areas and other means, and will continue to increase the purchase and sales of Chishui winter bamboo shoots. It is expected that sales will increase by more than 30% over last year, reaching a scale of over 200 tons.

In order to solve the funding problem, in the second half of last year, Dingdong Maicai started to explore supply chain finance cooperation with Shanghai Bank. Dingdong Maicai served as a credit endorsement , and the bank provided upstream production areas with loans of several hundred thousand yuan for 2 to 3 months .

On the afternoon of September 7, the signing ceremony of the Dingdong Maicai Smart Agriculture Demonstration Park project was held in Langxia Town. The two sides will work together to deepen the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, jointly build the "Dingdong Maicai Smart Agriculture Demonstration Park" with technology + talent + brand, realize the aggregation of the agricultural industry chain through the "Harvest Alliance", promote farmers' employment and income, and promote the upgrading of the agricultural industry. During this period, Dingdong will also build a harvest alliance and a talent college in Langxia, build a science and education training center, cultivate more vegetable farmers , and at the same time drive the update and upgrade of other agricultural product planting and management in Langxia, and build the Dingdong Harvest Alliance.

Dingdong Maicai has been committed to promoting and developing digital fresh food, always regarding the promotion of agricultural products as an important goal, and continuously helping poor areas to get rid of poverty. In addition, the Dingdong Maicai e-commerce platform has developed corresponding training courses for agricultural product companies in poor areas through "Dingdong University" and "Dingdong Research Institute".

It can be seen that Dingdong Maicai provides farmers with support such as funding, technical training, and stable strategic partnerships , which not only creates high-quality upstream product production for itself, but also makes great contributions to agricultural development.

(2) Urban wholesale market

Through the accumulation of data, the model obtains a large number of feature inputs, including time series data, as well as external features such as weather and solar terms. Through machine learning algorithms, it makes accurate predictions about future sales. Through the sales forecasting intelligent system, Dingdong Maicai's overall sales forecast accuracy has reached over 90%, and the prediction accuracy of popular items has reached over 95%, which has greatly improved operational efficiency and reduced process losses.

It is understood that the loss rate in traditional vegetable markets is over 30%, and in supermarkets with high management levels, the product loss rate is also over 10%. Ding Yi revealed to Nandu reporters that Dingdong Maicai’s unsold product loss rate can currently reach 1%.

In addition, Ding Yi, vice president of Dingdong Maicai, also told reporters that Dingdong Maicai will share a lot of relevant data with suppliers to achieve "win-win" results . "For example, if we predict that a certain product will be hot-selling recently, the popularity of some corresponding products may decrease. The relevant data will be synchronized with suppliers, so that they can prepare stocks more accurately."

Dingdong Maicai’s “win-win” approach is conducive to cooperation between the two parties, jointly targeting market demand and timely adjusting supply types, which is conducive to avoiding problems such as blind production and roundabout ways of goods, improving the response speed of suppliers and increasing profit margins. This shows that it is no fluke that Dingdong Maicai won the honor of "Leading Retailer in Supplier Satisfaction in 2019" with a high score of second place.

(3) Brand suppliers

As a fresh food e-commerce company, Dingdong Maicai naturally attaches great importance to marketing strategies. It has a strong advertising effect and can meet the requirements of brand suppliers who want to increase their visibility. The platform itself has large traffic and high user frequency, and Dingdong Maicai will add the name of the brand provided before each product name, so the brand exposure will naturally increase.

Summary : Through the above analysis, we can find that compared with other methods, consumers are more willing to buy fresh food on Dingdong Maicai, and the three types of suppliers are also more willing to supply their products to Dingdong Maicai.

5. Commercial Value Analysis

Dingdong Maicai’s current core business is “forward warehouse + home delivery”.

An important indicator for judging whether a business can develop healthily is revenue. Here we use GMV, the most commonly used data indicator in e-commerce, to analyze whether Dingdong Maicai’s core business is healthy.

GMV = number of users * conversion rate * average order value

Any improvement in any of the indicators, such as the number of users, conversion rate, and average order value, will have a positive impact on the overall revenue growth, so next we will focus on analyzing the means Dingdong Maicai uses to improve these three key indicators.

5.1 Increase the number of platform users

The number of users is the most basic and indispensable part of a product. Without the number of users, how can we talk about conversion and average order value? Next, we will analyze in detail how Dingdong Maicai attracts new users.

Dingdong Maicai has five main ways to attract new customers: advertising, offline marketing, social media acquisition, community operation, and word of mouth.

5.1.1 Advertising

(1) Online Advertising

  1. Online advertising was placed on platforms such as "Mamabang", "Ai Zaojiao" and "YaYa.com", targeting the young mothers group, as the platform's users value fresh and hygienic food, have a need to cook but are pressed for time. Among them, "Mamabang" was previously founded by Liang Changlin, the founder of Dingdong Maicai. It has a low launch cost but better results.
  2. February 25, 2018: Dingdong Maicai launched video advertisements titled “Live Shrimp,” “Account Settlement,” and “Weather” on Youku, Tencent, iQiyi and other platforms.
  3. In 2019, Dingdong Maicai cooperated with Xinchao Media to carry out large-scale advertising promotion.
  4. Tik Tok video ads, WeChat Moments information flow ads, NetEase Cloud Music splash screen ads, etc.

(2) Offline advertising:

  1. Advertisements on the body of Dingdong Maicai vehicles;
  2. Personnel clothing advertising;
  3. Printed leaflets, shopping bags and other hand-out advertisements;
  4. Posters and other advertisements on platforms and bulletin boards near the community;
  5. Title advertisement: "Ding Dong Maicai Team" of Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Antaisha 8 (the 8th Asia-Pacific Business School Desert Challenge); jointly launched the "Ding Dong Fresh Card" with China Unicom to heavily subsidize 5G mobile phone users.

5.1.2 Local Marketing

Dingdong Community, as the predecessor of Dingdong Maicai, is a community service app. Before becoming Dingdong Maicai, it already had a large number of users and must have been familiar with local promotion. By setting up promotion booths at the entrance of the community and guiding community residents to download and use the Dingdong Maicai APP, they can receive oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and other products as soon as they place an order after downloading the APP, thereby attracting users to register and try it out at a low cost.

The sales staff said that the daily KPI for Meituan Maicai is to attract at least 6 new customers, and that for Dingdong Maicai is 15. The task achievement standards on both sides are the same. Users download and register, and also have to complete the order. Whoever’s QR code is scanned will have its performance counted. The QR code is valid for 24 hours.

Since Dingdong Maicai has a higher KPI, its field sales staff appear to be more aggressive. Their uniforms are all printed with the word "Iron Army", and their rhetoric is varied, such as "Good wine needs no bush, and a hero needs no wait to download an APP", "Download Dingdong and get free eggs, so you don't have to buy eggs for a month", etc.

5.1.3 Social Networking

5.1.4 Community Operation

Dingdong Maicai maintains its fan base by operating social accounts such as Weibo and Douyin, and continuously spreads word-of-mouth on the Internet to expand its influence.

5.1.5 Word of Mouth

At present, Dingdong Maicai has various discounts and activities. With coupons and discounts, you can buy high-quality fresh food at extremely low prices. When people get a bargain, they will always post it on social platforms such as WeChat Moments, Douyin, and Weibo to satisfy their vanity and tell others that they have found "good things". They will also mention this cheap and good APP when chatting with others. Especially those who originally resisted and distrusted fresh food e-commerce will like this product more than others after they have tasted the sweetness. They will also be more willing to recommend it to people around them who also don't believe in this APP, resulting in a better word-of-mouth effect.

5.2 Improve conversion rate

After you have users, you have to find ways to get them to place orders. Only when users place orders can the platform make a profit, otherwise all the previous promotional advertising will be in vain.

Next, we will clarify how Dingdong Maicai improves conversion rates from the user's perspective and shopping process.

5.2.1 Home Page

  1. After opening the APP, a pop-up window "Today's Special Offers" will pop up, presenting today's promotional products to users in the most intuitive and eye-catching way, stimulating users' desire to buy .

  1. After closing the pop-up window, the new user area occupies most of the screen, including 108 coupon packages + free shipping on the first order + new user trial prices (some products enjoy new user preferential prices, limited supply, while stocks last). This is the most important step to get new users to place orders and increase conversion rates. The new user preferential policy makes the prices of the first few orders of new users significantly lower than the market price, so that users get very obvious discounts , which encourages new users to place orders.
  2. There is a search box above the new user area, which allows targeted users to quickly find the products they want as soon as they open the APP, reducing user operation costs .
  3. The sections below the newcomer zone make the classification section. Even if users do not click on the "category" at the bottom, they can see various categories at the moment they open the APP, grab the eye and reduce operating costs .
  4. Below is the slogan with "29 minutes delivery, free delivery fee for every 38 yuan, and safe return". Click on slogan to jump directly to the return and exchange instructions page, which contains 8 common returns problems for users. It directly and clearly informs users of the "safe return" conditions (free home return), which solves the most worrying problem of new users, greatly enhances user trust, and greatly reduces the user's trust cost . New users do not have to worry about not being able to return badly, causing their own losses, so that new users can place orders with confidence.
  5. The limited-time purchase, new tastes, you may like, special promotions, hearty lunches, hotpot home delivery, etc. at the bottom make users excited to place orders from various entrances .

5.2.2 Classification

  1. Dingdong Maicai puts "recommended", "new products" and "special offer zones" at the top of the small categories to recommend products to people without clear shopping targets to enhance their desire to buy .
  2. Tags include information such as pre-sale delivery time, special offers, limited-time offers, sales ranking, number of purchases, etc. Limited-time discounts give users a sense of time urgency; sales rankings and purchasers create popularity and reputation atmosphere, and stimulate users' herd mentality; remove the original price icons and make the discount "visualized" them, which is conducive to promoting users' purchases .

5.2.3 Product Details Page

The product details page can be divided into four contents: product, evaluation, details, and recommendation. Plus a small consumption pop-up window.

1) Consumer pop-up window

When a user is on the product details page, no matter which content he is looking at, a small pop-up window will pop up from time to time in the upper left area: XXX purchased the product, making the user feel that he is not shopping alone. If someone else buys this product, it not only gives the user a sense of trust, but also makes the user feel herd .

2) Products

  • High-definition large pictures or videos: shaping the sense of consumption scenes and making users feel that this is the product they want.
  • Price + discount + mortgage coupon: Show the cost-effectiveness, making users feel that the purchase is very cost-effective.
  • Delivery time: First, it eliminates some users' worries about delivery time, so that users do not have to worry about time issues, and prompts users to place orders; secondly, it can play a role in implying consumption. In real life, like when buying clothes, the clerk asks you to try it on first, and when buying things, the salesperson asks the consumer directly how much to buy, whether or not to buy a bag. The reason is the same. Assuming that the customer wants to purchase and preparing the customer’s purchase needs in advance can greatly increase sales.
  • Weighing and price refund service: Establish consumption guarantee, establish user trust and security through service commitment and after-sales guarantee, solve worries, and allow users to purchase with confidence!

3) Evaluation: Through user comments, on the one hand, we build a sense of trust, and on the other hand, we create a strong atmosphere of consumer popularity, and use the principle of social identity to make users follow herd behavior.

4) Details: Including high-definition large pictures, taste, and nutritional ingredients, so that users can understand the product better and enhance users' desire to buy.

5) Recommendation: Below the details page, you recommend products similar to this product. Even if the user reads the details, they do not want to place an order. There are more options to help users choose and increase the order rate.

5.2.4 Shopping Cart

  1. Coupons: Make it cheaper for users to receive coupons, show concessions, and accelerate users' willingness to pay.
  2. Gifts: Green card or new users or events will be given away. The gift value is not low. The principle of reciprocity greatly enhances users' willingness to place an order for the first time.
  3. Free shallot: Designed above the settlement button. One is to remind the user to give away the shallots when the user settles. On the other hand, ask the user whether the shallots need to instantly pull the distance from the user, so that the user feels considerate and is more willing to place an order.

5.3 Increase Average Order Value

Order price = total paid amount/total number of paid people

That is, the average payment amount for all paid users over a period of time. Therefore, there are two ways to increase the average customer price:

  1. Increase the amount of single consumption for a single user
  2. Increase the consumption frequency of a single user over a period of time, that is, the repurchase rate.

Next, this article will analyze in detail how Dingdong Maicai increased its average customer price:

5.3.1 Increase the amount of single consumption

1) Recommended methods for product details pages. People not only learn how to cook in this module, but also can purchase all the products required for all the dishes in one-stop. While facilitating users' purpose of buying groceries and cooking, they also increase the amount of users' consumption.

2) The " related recommendation " of the product details page, and the " Guess you like " of the home page, product page, and settlement page all give users more choices at all times. Sometimes, things that they didn't want to buy are wanted after seeing.

3) Full discount coupon: Give users discount discount coupons. At the same time, in order to use full discount coupons, users have a great tendency to increase the purchase volume, thereby increasing the user's single consumption amount.

4) Free delivery fee to make up orders: Currently (2021.1.8) is free of delivery fees for more than 38. Depending on the delivery area, it is generally around 5 yuan, so users may make up orders to avoid delivery fees, which increases the average customer price.

5) For full purchases of the shopping cart page, the consumption amount must reach a certain amount and up to 10 items can be exchanged for each time.

  1. The purchase itself has the effect of making users feel preferential and increase purchase.
  2. The limit-to-time system makes users feel that the exchange is worth the price. There is a meaning that a merchant sells at a loss and can only let you exchange it 10 times. It gives users a psychological perception that the discount is very strong and cost-effective. The restriction of purchase conditions and times is to use the psychological principle of shortage . Similar to limited-time rush purchases, the higher the threshold for getting a thing, the rarer the thing is, and the more people want to get it. I don’t know whether the number of purchases is restricted to control the preferential cost. Anyway, the average customer price will definitely increase.
  3. Secondly, if the user does not exchange it, it will cause people to be deprived of super reactions , because if they do not exchange it again, they will have to wait until the next time they purchase it. The damage caused by losing one thing is much more than the happiness brought by getting this thing.

5.3.2 Improve repurchase rate

There is an industry algorithm that the cost of fulfilling a forward warehouse is between 12-15 yuan/order. Calculated at a gross profit margin of 20%, each revenue needs to be increased to more than 80 yuan to cover all costs. Dingdong Maicai has another set of cost accounts, which has a calculation formula:
V=(a+b+c+…)*d^n

V is the revenue scale, a+b+c is traffic, d is the growth factor mainly based on the repurchase rate, and n is the number of purchases. From this formula, we can see that the increase in the repurchase rate will bring exponential growth to the platform.

The average customer price target of Xu Zhengding of Daily Youxian is 80+ yuan, while Liang Changlin, the founder of Dingdong, emphasized that the repurchase rate is king: "The average customer price is determined by the customer. The cost of a family to eat cabbage a day is fifty or sixty yuan, which is the most reasonable average customer price. We determine the average customer price level based on the basic needs of customers, and force ourselves to improve efficiency so that we can win."

Dingdong's traffic is actually much smaller than many competitors, and almost all rely on their own deductions to the APP. However, Dingdong's order volume is not small, even higher than many competitors, because Dingdong's repurchase rate is very high.

Starting from 2020.9, Dingdong will charge a delivery fee if it is less than 38 yuan. The main purpose is to change the consumption behavior of users with particularly low customer unit prices. The average customer unit price in the test area has also increased from around 50 yuan to more than 60 yuan.

In addition to attracting users to place orders with real advantages such as cheap prices, large discounts, and fast delivery, Dingdong Maicai's points, farms, green cards, and gift card systems also increase the user's repurchase rate from the perspective of cultivating user stickiness, thereby increasing the average customer price.

Buy again: This function can place orders before you buy one click, which makes it easier for users to purchase again and avoid re-selecting. For users who purchase certain products with a fixed frequency, they will be more willing to place orders directly.

Rigorous, responsible and quick return and refund: Each product will contain quantity or weight specification information on the product list and details page. When the actual product data does not match this, Dingdong will return and refund in a timely manner. Its rigorous and responsible attitude greatly enhances the trust of users and is more willing to place an order again, thereby increasing the repurchase rate.

Live Module: The live Module is one of Dingdong’s five major modules, and Dingdong must have great expectations for this. In recent years, short videos and live streaming have become popular. Some people have placed orders for products recommended by the anchor because of the interesting and beautiful anchors, while others have placed orders because they have no clear goals. The products displayed in the live stream are more realistic. In addition, the anchor’s commentary and recommendations are good and they place orders. No matter which category it is, it undoubtedly increases the purchase rate of users.

The three major contents of the live broadcast module are all closely related to people's kitchen and diet. Dingdong hopes to use this module to gradually integrate Dingdong into people's lives: you don't know what dishes to cook, you don't know how to cook, you don't know how to cook, you are bored and like delicious food. The market-oriented traffic thinking, hot product thinking and logistics supply chain of other categories of e-commerce are not feasible simply in non-standard fresh food categories. Therefore, the fresh food market is not a field that can be occupied in the short term. Therefore, integrating into people's lives is not only to improve user stickiness to obtain a high repurchase rate, but also to win this protracted war.

6. Product Iteration Analysis

In order to deeply analyze the iteration rhythm of Dingdong Maicai's version and explore the iteration logic of this product, this article organizes and analyzes all the iterations of Dingdong Maicai. Since Dingdong Maicai's predecessor was Dingdong Community, it has nothing to do with Dingdong Maicai's business. Since version 7.0.0, all Dingdong community businesses have been removed from the shelves and changed to Dingdong Maicai. Therefore, this article only organizes and analyzes all the core versions from version 7.0.0 to the present (2021.1.12):

According to the curve chart of the cumulative download volume of Dingdong Maicai on Cool Pass, it can be seen that the curvature of user growth has continued to increase since January 2019. Although the curvature of the local growth has decreased in the past six months, the growth rate is still very high, indicating that Dingdong Maicai still has a large space for growth, so it belongs to the "J-shaped" curve. Therefore, the development of Dingdong Maicai can be divided into two stages for analysis: the start-up stage and the growth stage.

6.1 Startup Phase

Before January 2019, the cold start phase of Dingdong Maicai. The main goal of this phase is to verify user needs and polish user experience. During the startup stage, Dingdong Maicai updated and iterated quickly, and the changes in functions and activities were updated once a month on average.

Since February 2017, Dingdong Community has begun to focus on buying groceries and switched to Dingdong Maiche. It has removed its previous functions and put the groceries on buying groceries. At the same time, it has also launched the shopping cart and order modules that are essential for e-commerce.

The recipe recommendation function was launched in May 2017. Users can choose recommended recipes to choose fresh foods that they need to buy. While making it convenient for users to choose, it also solves the problem of users' selection of "What to buy today? What to eat?", making recipes a major reason for users to use Dingdong.

The three versions from July to August 2017 were all activities to attract new products and increase conversion rates, which shows that Dingdong's updates and iterations in the past six months have improved its basic functions, and user feedback is also good, so Dingdong began to increase users. Although there were basic users in Dingdong community before, the proportion of buying groceries may not be high after the revision, so Dingdong used various activities to increase conversion rates.

The time-out compensation function and delivery location viewing function launched on September 11, 2017 will make users more at ease about delivery efficiency, and at the same time, it will also make Dingdong's delivery personnel supervised and improve efficiency, pay more attention to time issues. It is a good phenomenon to launch common questions in customer service. Common questions make the most frequently extracted questions based on the large number of questions answered by customer service, which shows that Dingdong's users are small in size. If you have questions, it means that you have the desire to buy. As long as you solve these problems, you can quickly increase the conversion rate.

Pre-sale goods were added on September 27, 2017, for two reasons: ① These goods are not suitable for transportation and storage, and after pre-sale, they can be shipped directly from the source of goods; ② Pre-sale is to investigate market demand at low cost and avoid the situation of being unable to be sold after purchase.

In November 2017, promotions were added to give users a continuous discount experience. The product recommendations on the product details page allow users to have more choices to provide them with after reading a product details even if they do not want to buy the product. The quick note function gives old users a more convenient experience.

Points will be rebate when placing an order in December 2017, and the points will be used to increase the repurchase rate. The order details page adds an application refund entry description. Dingdong returns and refund system is basically complete. Users can directly click "Apply for refund" to return and refund, and the process is more convenient and systematic.

In January 2018, one month after the return points refund function was launched, users are already familiar with the role of points. This time, signing in online to get points is to allow users who have experienced the benefits of points to check in online every day to improve user stickiness. Popular keywords are to provide users with the public's choice and also to facilitate users' search. The "Buy Again" function facilitates old users to repurchase previous products and improves their willingness to repurchase. "Modify delivery time" provides users with choices to deal with emergencies, and also reflects that Dingdong's delivery system is relatively complete, and inserting real-time user changes into the delivery staff's process will not affect delivery efficiency.

In February 2018, two reminder functions facilitated customers to purchase in time, thereby increasing the average customer price to a certain extent. The purchase of the original price of the excess part solved a special bug: if the user originally wanted to buy 10 items, if the product became a limited purchase product, it could only buy 3 items, which could not meet the number of users.

The green card membership function was launched on May 18, 2018. The green card membership brings huge discounts to users. This is Dingdong's killer weapon to improve user stickiness and repurchase rate. Dingdong's basic functions during this period have been almost perfected. After the points module is also improved, in order to further increase the repurchase rate, Dingdong strikes while the iron is hot and launches a green card membership.

In July 2018, the invoice issuance function met the invoice needs of some users, and also made Dingdong appear more professional and systematic. The filtering of recipes by scene further solves the user's need for not knowing what to eat. The food in each scenario is different, making it more convenient for users to use and also makes Dingdong more thoughtful.

In August 2018, reasons for supporting sorting ① There are many products in Dingdong ② After a period of operation, the total sales volume of Dingdong was already good. After all, it was too useless to launch this function when there was no sales at the beginning. It may also reduce the user's desire to buy because the sales volume is low, so there was no sales volume display at the beginning. Share recipes on WeChat not only facilitate users’ sharing, but also allows Dingdong to attract new products through WeChat sharing. There are two coupons to receive, and users are reminded to seize the opportunity of discounts at all times.

In October 2018, scanning the QR code traceability function greatly enhanced users' trust in the quality of Dingdong products, and also indirectly explained that Dingdong's product logistics management system has taken shape. This is the most difficult and most important step in doing fresh food e-commerce. Ensuring the quality of your own products is something that all e-commerce companies need to do, and it is more important for fresh food e-commerce, because food is the most important thing for users, and users value fresh food products the most is also a quality issue. The solution to quality problems has also laid a solid foundation for Dingdong Maicai, and only by deep roots can the leaves be lush.

6.2 Growth Stage

From January 2019 to the present, Dingdong Maicai has been in the growth stage. The main goal of this stage is to acquire new users. From the total number of users, it can be seen that the user growth rate in this stage is very high, and the number of users continues to rise with a visible growth volume.

In addition to optimizing basic functions at the product level and improving user experience, Dingdong Maicai still spares no effort to continue to provide various activities and discounts to improve conversion rates.

At this stage, Dingdong Maicai also began to target enterprises and launched the " Enterprise Procurement " module. After all, the purchase volume and hidden users that an enterprise can bring are very huge, which can have very good publicity and new attractions.

The 20-year epidemic period can be said to be the spring of all fresh food e-commerce companies. The number of users increased very rapidly during this period. In order to better meet the epidemic prevention requirements, Dingdong launched the " Contactless Receipt Notes ".

In this era of short videos and live streaming, Dingdong also hopes to seize this trend and add the fifth module to Dingdong interface - live streaming . Not only does it issue coupons in live streaming, but it also designs different combinations for the live streaming time and content. The purpose is to make the live streaming content more in line with people's lives, so as to integrate into user's lives and improve the repurchase rate.

Overall, Dingdong Maicai clearly understood some of the key points of fresh food e-commerce from the beginning: life-friendly experience, convenient delivery services and trustworthy after-sales service. Therefore, the first few versions have added recipes to improve user experience and fit life, and have continuously upgraded the delivery module, and have also put a lot of effort into returns, refunds, online customer service and common problems. It is these points and the vigorous promotional activities that have allowed users to slowly begin to accept the emerging industry of fresh food e-commerce.

During the epidemic, Dingdong also seized the opportunity, not only reflected in online changes, but also tried its best to strictly abide by epidemic prevention requirements offline, and to ensure that the quality of fresh food will not decline due to the increase in quantity. It also needs to think of various ways to ensure sufficient manpower and material resources.

In recent months, the frequency of Dingdong's new function has been greatly reduced, and it is more about optimization and promotional activities in various details. It can be seen that Dingdong Maicai is relatively mature, and Dingdong has also begun to make big moves in attracting new products. In the past, the cold start stage was mainly low-cost methods such as community ground promotion and social new products. Now, advertising is started in various online and offline to increase popularity. Judging from the growth curve, Dingdong Maicai still has a lot of room for development.

7. Product structure analysis

In the iterative analysis, we analyzed the iterative steps of Dingdong Maicai's product functions. Next, let's take a look at what users' needs meet and how they are distributed throughout the app. This is mainly through the analysis of the product structure. The following figure is the product structure brain diagram of Dingdong Maicai V9.21.2.

7.1 Five major modules

(1) Home page

It is mainly used to ① use newcomer gift packages to increase conversion rates ② to let users see the discounted content, and to encourage users to place orders ③ to provide users with more choices. For details, see 5.2.1 of this article.

(2) Classification

  • After each APP is launched, click "Category" below, and the interface of the first picture will appear. It automatically displays all 18 major categories, allowing users to know the overall classification of the product at the moment they click on the classification, reducing users' operating costs and cognitive costs of the APP .
  • Click on other areas to receive the large classification interface at the top, saving space. If you want to reopen, just click "All" on the right, which not only meets the user's needs to control the overall situation, but will not interfere with the user's vision when selecting a product .
  • As shown in the picture on the right, the left side is a small category in the big category, and the right side is a list of products with selected categories. The above product list can also be sorted by price and sales. Dingdong Maicai places "recommended", "new products" and "special offer areas" at the top of the small category to recommend products to people without clear shopping targets to enhance their desire to buy .
  • In the product column on the right, the introduction of each product can be divided into 6 parts: picture, name + quantity, one-sentence summary, label, price and shopping cart logo. Pictures, number of names, generalizations, etc. all provide users with more complete product information with the simplest screen space. Even online shopping still makes product information transparent, allowing users to quickly grasp information, increase user trust and reduce user thinking costs . Shopping carts give users a convenient shopping experience .

(3) Live broadcast

All contents of this module are designed to improve user stickiness and thus improve repurchase rate. For details, please see 5.3.2 of this article

(4) Shopping cart

Shopping cart is a necessary module for e-commerce. In addition to being used for order payment, merchants can also induce users to place orders in detail. For details, please refer to 5.2.4 of this article.

(5) Mine

It is a centralized place for most functions except for the basic functions of the product ordering process, mainly used to manage user's personal information (including accounts, orders, balances, etc.)

In the upper right corner is the message center, including event benefits, orders, reminders, customer service, important notifications and other message pushes. If there are unread messages, there are red numbers on the bell to display the number of unread messages.

On the top left is the account information, which includes avatar, nickname, gender, birthday, mobile phone number, WeChat account, etc.; on the right is the points module, which prompts you to sign in and get points. Click to enter the points page and complete the check-in. After signing in, "Continuous Signing X Days" will be displayed to remind users to sign in and maintain user stickiness.

Next is personal economic account information, including the number of coupons, points and balance. The display of the number of coupons is to let users know that they have coupons and use them quickly; the points are intuitively reflected in the points system, allowing users to see at a glance. Some users have points but do not know the role of points. Click to enter the points interface to learn about it; the balance is consistent with the gift card page, and Dingdong gives a recharge discount, hoping that users will recharge on Dingdong to improve user stickiness and repurchase rate.

If there is no green card member, then the next one is the banner of the green card member. The text content is: You can save 806 yuan/year by opening, and recommend users to activate it with specific money saving numbers.

Turn on message notifications not only to allow users to receive useful information such as orders, but also to push discount information to encourage users to place orders.

The order module in the center of the interface is a necessary functional module, so it occupies a large area and is in the middle, making it convenient for users to find and use.

Dingdong Farm and invited neighbors are also in the center and are accompanied by color pictures. Only these two people with color pictures on the entire page will be attracted at first glance, and the advertising effect will be obvious. Dingdong Farm is mainly used to improve user stickiness. See the brain map of 5.3.2 in this article for details. Invitation is also a new function. See the 5.1.3 in this article for details.

Next is a large functional cluster area, including green card, delivery address, invitation gifts, customer service, gift cards, corporate procurement, recruitment, feedback, scan and settings.

Finally, I guess you like it. No matter which page the entire APP is on, you can always see recommendations, with only one purpose: you didn’t expect to buy something, which made you accidentally see it, and you suddenly want to buy it, thereby increasing the purchase rate.

7.2 Two major flow charts

7.2.1 The flow chart of user selection products

7.2.2 User order and order management flow chart

7.3 Five major scenarios

For the convenience of analysis, this article will re-sort the product functions of Dingdong Maicai V9.21.2 according to four dimensions: user, scenario, requirements and functions, and obtain the following table:

Dingdong Maicai’s target customers are mainly individual users and corporate users. The scenarios when using individual users are mainly divided into four scenarios: before and after ordering and before and after arrival. There is only one scenario before purchasing for corporate users to conduct online.

7.3.1 Before placing an order

Before choosing a product, users must have doubts: Is the quality and safety of fresh products guaranteed? If it is not good, can you retreat? Dingdong Maicai put the terms of safe return on the content on the homepage, and placed it openly in the most obvious place to dispel users' worries. Regarding the quality of fresh products, you can see the shelf life on the details page. Dingdong Maicai’s non-packaged and sealed products have their own QR codes that can be traced, ensuring quality and safety. Every user who has placed an order should know it, but it is not reflected on the APP. I think this is a shortcoming. This information is not visible to users at a glance (it may be that the function is not fully covered or there are defects, so this function has not been disclosed).

When making a choice, users with a target can use search to quickly find what they want, or slowly select from the category. Users without a goal can find their own dishes in live broadcasts or various recipes, and can also learn various dishes and desserts on Dingdong. For old users, you can purchase items you have purchased before with one click on the order interface.

After selecting, you can carefully view the details. The content of the product details provides various information to allow users to gain insight.

7.3.2 Ordering

After selecting the product, users can make the final adjustments on the shopping cart page, with coupons, activities, gifts, quantity, etc. all available. Click on Settlement to enter the order filling page to change the filling address, confirm the delivery time, discount information and the final consumer price, and finally confirm all information and you can pay and place an order.

7.3.3 Before arrival

After placing an order, users can see the details of their orders on the order interface, and can see the progress of their products on the delivery interface, making users more at ease.

If you have something or fill in the delivery time incorrectly, you can change the delivery time or cancel the order before sorting.

7.3.4 After arrival

If there is any problem with the product after the arrival, you can apply for a refund on the order interface or contact customer service. If you have any complaints or praises about the product or delivery, you can write your own review in the order evaluation for others' reference.

After the order is completed, if an invoice is required, you can also make up for invoices in the order interface.

7.3.5 Before purchasing

For enterprises, there are two main purchasing goals: welfare and food supply. The benefits available to Dingdong Maicai include gift cards, electronic vouchers, fruit gift boxes, etc. After the company needs to submit relevant information on the page, the staff will take the initiative to contact us for details.

The above analysis shows that Dingdong Maicai can meet the needs of users in any scenario, dispel concerns, provide multiple choices, convenient ordering, and complete after-sales service to provide users with one-stop service, allowing users to place orders with confidence, be willing to place orders, and like to place orders. It is a product with relatively excellent design.

8. Operational Path Analysis

It is said that "the product is responsible for giving birth, and the operation is responsible for raising children." The previous content has already made everyone understand what the "child" of Dingdong is like. Next, this article will use the AARRR model to analyze the main operating activities of Dingdong Maicai.

8.1 Acquisition

User acquisition will attract new products. There has been a detailed classification introduction in 5.1 before, so I will not repeat it here.

8.2 User activation (Activation)

Activation is for new users, guiding users to complete certain specified actions, with the purpose of allowing users to experience the value of the product, generate interest in using it, let users use the product and bring value to the product. For Dingdong, activation is to encourage new users to place orders. In order to improve user activity, Dingdong mainly has the following two methods (the specific detailed analysis is the same as in this article 5.2 to increase conversion rate):

  • Promotions
  • Newcomer gift pack

8.3 User Retention

Retention refers to the process of users continuing to use the product after being activated. The main goal of improving retention is to improve the two indicators of next-day retention and 7-day retention. Through the activation process, users experience the value of the product. At this time, the user's willingness to retain is the highest. The freshness, curiosity, and effectiveness of solving demands brought by the product functions allow users to continue to use the product for a period of time. However, when the freshness or user's needs are no longer so strong, the frequency of using the product will not be so high.

So what efforts has Dingdong made in user retention?

  • Cultivate living habits. The live broadcast module's weekly menu, recommended recipes, recipe classification, etc. provide users with daily cooking options, especially the weekly menu, which is different every day, making users more fresh. Before cooking every day, they will check what the recommended menu is today, thereby improving retention rate.
  • Induce it with benefits. Dingdong Farm signs in and feeds fish every day, and after growing it, you can receive a fresh fish in real life; sign in with "My" interface to get points, and the points can be redeemed for feed or full discount coupons; the package for green card members is very affordable, attracting users to purchase members with huge discounts. After having a member, users will naturally continue to use it, which not only increases the retention rate, but also increases the repurchase rate and unit purchase price.

8.4 Revenue

The gains are similar to commercial value analysis, see Chapter 5 of this article for details.

8.5 Recommended communication (Refer)

Recommended communication means self-propagation. As the name suggests, it means that the product itself stimulates spontaneous communication between users without the need to use too much external force. Personally, I think Dingdong’s self-communication has three key points: ① Good quality and low price, better than offline market ② Good delivery services and after-sales services ③ Make users feel that the Dingdong platform is trustworthy.

The first two key points have been analyzed in 3.2. Let’s talk about how Dingdong Maicai makes users feel that this platform is trustworthy and willing to promote it and recommend it to friends around them.

Dingdong Maicai has transformed from Dingdong Community. It has always been a concept that is close to the community residents and has gained the trust of residents and thus grown rapidly. It sometimes undertakes work similar to the community neighborhood committee and holds various interesting or meaningful community activities.

  • Since August 2018, Dingdong app has started to provide visual impairment assistance functions. In recent years, it has been constantly visiting, face-to-face communication, listening to opinions, and improving the APP experience for the blind.
  • On December 28, 2018, the "Dingdong Maicai Charity Tour" and the "Green Account" and the Hongkou District Garden Community Committee held a green point exchange event. Residents used their accumulated "green account" points to exchange for fresh fruits and vegetables and other gifts provided by Dingdong Maicai. The generous gifts ignited the enthusiasm of users on site to actively participate in the new lifestyle of "green environmental protection, garbage classification".
  • March 5, 2019 is the 56th day of learning from Lei Feng. Dingdong Maicai launched the "Spring in March, Volunteering" volunteer service event, actively participated in community charity activities, advocated the concept of public welfare and environmental protection mutual assistance, and created a strong atmosphere of learning from Lei Feng to take action.

The high-quality grocery shopping experience and the "positive energy" shown by Dingdong are deeply loved by community residents (especially the old men and mothers), and also make users willing to recommend Dingdong to people around them.

Liang Changlin, the founder of Dingdong, once said: "The average customer price is determined by the customer. The cost of a family to eat cabbage is fifty or sixty yuan a day, which is the most reasonable average customer price. We determine the level of the average customer price based on the basic needs of the customer, forcing ourselves to improve efficiency so that we can win." I was deeply impressed by this sentence. The moment I saw this sentence, I admire him very much. Compared with Xu Zheng, Xu, who aims to achieve profits with the average customer price, Dingdong's direction and goals are obviously more reasonable, warmer and more humane. This is the real "people-oriented".

The psychology of "I am for everyone, everyone for me" is not only reflected in my daily life, but also in this relationship between the platform and the user. The words Liang Changlin said have given me a lot of points for Dingdong. If the price of Dingdong and Daily Fresh is not much different from that of Dingdong, I will definitely choose Dingdong first and will also recommend it to friends. Even if many users don’t know what Liang Changlin said, I believe that many of Dingdong’s behavior and activities reveal relevant concepts. When these little details gather together, they will give people a very comfortable and close experience, and make people willing to promote it.

IX. Conclusion

The content written above is very detailed. This part will summarize the contents of the first eight dimensions.

(1) Industry analysis: Policy, economy, social culture, and technology. No matter from any aspect, the fresh food e-commerce industry is very promising, with a large market and great room for development.

(2) Typical models of the fresh food e-commerce industry: there are five main categories: traditional fresh food e-commerce, platform home delivery model, forward warehouse model, store + home delivery model, and community group buying model. As of now, each model occupies a certain market, has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each model is still exploring. It is still unknown which model will stand out in the future.

(3) Competitive product analysis: MissFresh and Dingdong Maicai are both forward warehouse models. By comparing with MissFresh, the direct competitor, we can know several differences between the two.

  1. Dingdong is better than daily in terms of quality and safety assurance of fresh food
  2. Daily high-quality products are few but exquisite, focusing on high-end and big-name fresh food markets, while Dingdong's products are more affordable and have more choices, which is mainly more in line with the people's fresh food consumption concept.
  3. The daily service scope is greater than Dingdong, but the scheduled delivery capability is weaker than Dingdong.

(4) User value analysis: Fresh food e-commerce platforms mainly have contacts with two types of people, one is consumers, and the other is suppliers. Only by handling the upstream supply chain well, grasping consumer demand and pain points, and doing downstream sales well can we continue to develop.

(5) Commercial value analysis: Dingdong Maicai’s core business is to let users place orders to buy fresh food, mainly based on ground promotion, advertising, social recruitment, community operation, and word of mouth as supplements to obtain users; after the user downloads and registers, users are encouraged to place their first order through newcomer gift packages and various recommendations, dispel users’ various doubts and complete conversions; after the first time, users will understand the advantages of Dingdong Maicai and have initial trust, Dingdong Farm, green card members, points sign-in, weekly menus and more discounts, so that users are willing to continue to use, thereby increasing the average customer price.

(6) Product iteration analysis: Overall, Dingdong Maicai can be divided into two stages since its establishment, the start-up stage and the growth stage. Dingdong clearly understood some of the key points of fresh food e-commerce from the beginning: life-friendly experience, convenient delivery services and trustworthy after-sales service. Therefore, the startup stage is about polishing the user experience around these three, and launching low-cost new activities such as invitations and gifts early, gradually improving modules such as points and green card members. During the growth stage, Dingdong began to cooperate with enterprises, firmly grasped the opportunities during the epidemic, and launched "contactless notes" in accordance with the requirements of the situation and development. Recently, it also launched the "live broadcast" module to increase the repurchase rate. Dingdong's functions are basically perfect, but from the perspective of the growth curve, there is still a lot of room for development.

(7) Product structure analysis: Dingdong's main users are consumers, and all structures and functions are centered around consumers. The consumer's use process can be divided into four scenarios: before placing an order, during placing an order, before arrival, and after arrival.不管在哪個場景叮咚買菜都能很好的滿足用戶的需求,打消顧慮、提供多選擇、便捷下單、完善的售后服務給用戶一條龍服務,讓用戶放心下單、愿意下單、喜歡下單,是一款設計比較優秀的產品。

(8)運營路徑分析:有了好的產品,也要有好的運營才能讓產品走向大眾。通過AARRR模型分析可以看出,叮咚在這五個方面的運營都做了大量的工作,目前看來效果還不錯。

十、SWOT分析

以上的內容我們從各個方面仔細分析了叮咚買菜為什么能火起來,接下來本文將用SWOT模型進行系統分析,聊聊筆者對叮咚買菜將來大方向趨勢、小細節優化的理解。

10.1 Strengths

  1. 生鮮品類多。包含16個品類,2000+SKU生鮮菜品。
  2. 配送服務好。可預約定時配送,可在分揀之前更改配送時間或退單。
  3. 平臺為用戶們提供多種更人性化的選擇。例如每次下單時,都會提示,是否需要免費的小蔥;購買魚類時,彈出提示框,可做出多種選擇,殺好(要內臟)、殺好(不要內臟)、不殺等。
  4. 保證品質:嚴格遵循“7+ 1 品控流程”:“貨源品控、加工倉品控、加工過程品控、前置倉品控、巡檢品控、分揀品控、顧客品控、售后品控” ;顧客端通過手機,能及時查閱商品分揀狀態,庫存實時更新;還可以掃描商品上的二維碼溯源。
  5. 叮咚買菜80%以上的商品均來自于產地直采,產地直采可降低成本,實現產地直采的商品比原先價格平均降價幅度達25%。
  6. 通過銷量預測智能系統,叮咚買菜銷量預測整體準確率達到90%以上,熱門單品預測準確率達到95%以上,極大的提高了運營效率,減少流程損耗。據了解,傳統菜場的損耗率在30%以上,管理水平高的商超,商品損耗率也超過10%,而叮咚買菜的滯銷損耗率目前可以做到1%。
  7. 高復購率讓叮咚更能持續發展。綠卡會員、叮咚農場、積分系統、直播、一周菜單、優惠活動等方面極大提高了叮咚的復購率,因此即便叮咚的流量比很多競爭對手要小得多,但是叮咚的單量卻不小,甚至比很多對手都高。
  8. 叮咚買菜對上游十分注重。叮咚將自己的部分數據共享給供應商,方便其備貨,實現共贏;為種植戶提供資金、技術培訓、穩定戰略合作關系等支持。

10.2 Weaknesses

  1. 模式過于單一,未來長遠戰略發展規劃不明。
  2. 服務范圍小,目前只為一線城市和長江三角部分城市共28個城市提供服務。
  3. 前置倉模式需要高昂的成本投入和較長的回報周期。前置倉模式屬于資金密度型投入,是重資產、重運營的模式,一般無線下門店, 缺乏線下流量入囗,需要較高的營銷成本和高額補貼來引流獲客。
  4. 前置倉模式目前看來只適用一二線城市,一二線的人們喜歡快節奏生活,用錢換時間,下沉市場的人們則是時間換錢,一旦平臺價格高于線下或其他競爭對手,叮咚就無法獲得下沉市場。

10.3 Opportunities

  1. epidemic. 2019年生鮮電商行業已經開始走下坡路,許多公司倒閉。 2020年因為疫情的原因,居民們足不出戶,生鮮大部分都由生鮮電商配送。期間,叮咚不僅上線了“無接觸取貨備注”,而且還呼吁員工返工,將一些超市閑余的員工暫借過來增加勞動力,借此機會獲得了較大的增長。即便疫情好轉,嘗過生鮮送上門的甜頭的用戶也會繼續使用,總之,生鮮電商的種子已經在用戶心中種下,只需讓它生根發芽即可。
  2. 國家政策大力支持生鮮電商行業的發展,明確提出加快推廣農產品“生鮮電子商務+冷鏈宅配”;冷鏈物流行業今年發展迅猛,給生鮮電商提供了硬件支持;經濟越來越發達,人們消費水平越來越高,網上消費比例越來越大,大大有利于電商的發展;人們的生活越來越快,也越來越適應和喜歡快捷的事物,比如外賣、網約車,而叮咚定時送上門的服務更是貼合了這種生活節奏趨向。政策、經濟、社會文化、技術四大因素都提供生鮮電商一片肥沃的土地,這就是生鮮電商的機會,至于能不能成長為參天大樹,就得看個體自身的發展。
  3. 傳統購買生鮮的方式在生鮮品質、價格、購買便捷性、品類數量方面都有不同程度的不盡人意;種植戶、城批市場、品牌供應商也有各自的苦惱,而叮咚卻能很好的解決這些問題,從而擁有巨大的發展機會。

10.4 Threats

  1. 目前的生鮮賽道人滿為患,雖然叮咚目前的成績名列前茅,但是其他競爭對手的威脅仍不可小覷,特別是阿里旗下的盒馬體系、騰訊支持的每日優鮮等重量級選手,相比這兩家,叮咚買菜就顯得有些勢單力薄。
  2. 民以食為天,生鮮是老百姓生活中不可或缺的一環,因此會受到傳統菜市場、一些老百姓的強烈抗議,因為人們害怕、擔心一旦生鮮市場被互聯網公司壟斷,消費者只能被殺熟、割韭菜,老一輩的觀念無法快速改變,而年輕人的時代才剛剛開始,因此想要讓整個中國的生鮮市場進入互聯網時代還需要較長的時間。

十一、未來展望

(1)前置倉模式

梁昌霖回答記者時曾說過:“我們起步是前置倉,也讓消費者認識到了我們,但之后去別的的地方可以考慮其他的模式,不是一定更要用前置倉,還是要因地制宜。”不難看出,梁昌霖目前并沒有打算用一個模式打遍全國,但鑒于前置倉模式在上海已取得成績,開始收支平衡。

筆者認為,叮咚或將前置倉模式完全應用于一二線城市,因為一線的人們喜歡效率,傳統和社區拼團并不合適,一線城市的線下門店成本非常高,且覆蓋范圍小。而未來進軍其他城市或將參考線下店、社區團購等模式打通下沉市場,畢竟社區團購在下沉市場取得的成績有目共睹。

目前叮咚提供服務的28座城市中就有許多三四線城市,叮咚或許是拿這些城市實驗,前置倉模式是否在三四線也成立,待試驗成功之后,叮咚或許就會迎來最大的上升期,將模式復制全國,與其他商家爭奪用戶。

(2)生鮮安全

生鮮商品品質、安全等問題一定要加強規范,雖然叮咚從一開始就認識到了這個問題的重要性,也出臺了很多規定和措施,但是在新聞中可以看到,即便公司明文規定,但是員工也不按規矩辦事。

雖然員工違背規定的事情不管哪個公司都有,但是對于生鮮電商來說這是個致命傷,一個漏洞就可能導致全盤皆輸,所以在監督方面,叮咚需要比其他行業公司更加重視。

個人建議可以在前置倉內開設直播監督,直播間有收入之外,既可以低成本監督,提高員工的積極性,避免倦怠違反規定,又可以讓消費者親眼看看員工的行為和前置倉的管理,讓消費者更放心。

(3)功能模塊

未來待到叮咚進入成熟期后,可以考慮將營養、廚師模塊加入,提升叮咚在飲食行業的專業度和自身的服務上限。

  1. 營養模塊符合現代人注重營養健康的生活理念,既提供大眾營養價值參考,也可以給有條件的用戶私人定制,而且注重營養健康的人群一般是中老年人和一線白領,因為這兩類人基本都是亞健康,比較注重自身的健康,與叮咚買菜的原有用戶重合度高,效益可能會比較好
  2. 可以提供廚師上門的服務,平臺作為一個中介人,給用戶多一個體驗選擇,廚師在經過驗證之后可在平臺上發布自己的廚藝水平、工作經歷、擅長的菜系、空閑時間和服務價格,用戶可根據需求與廚師私聊,雙方達成一致則可以下單,主要用于一些大日子請親朋好友吃飯但是擔心自己做不好,可以請廚師回家幫忙,或者在家享受不用買菜不用做菜甚至不用洗碗的逍遙生活。

以上就是筆者出于了解行業的目的做出的叮咚買菜產品分析,歡迎給出不同意見!

作者:MJTYM

來源:MJTYM

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