Yizhuo.com’s product removal phone number is unreachable: the money-burning model of fresh food e-commerce is difficult to sustain

During this period, Ms. Liu, a citizen, found that all the products on the Yizhuo.com APP mall where she had bought fresh food before were removed from the shelves, and the customer service phone number was always unreachable. The shopping card she had previously applied for could not be used. Such abnormal phenomena caused Ms. Liu and other citizens to question, "Is Yizhuo.com facing bankruptcy?"

The reporter of Morning Post saw that the company headquarters of Yizhuo.com was empty. However, the person in charge of Yizhuo.com denied the claim that the company had closed down, saying that the company simply stopped doing fresh food e-commerce and was preparing for transformation.

“Did the company go bankrupt?”

Ms. Liu, who lives in Xuhui District, once bought a Boston lobster for 18 yuan and a 200-gram Australian M3 sirloin steak for 40 yuan on Yizhuo.com.

"There are many discounts and the goods are delivered to my home, which is really convenient." Ms. Liu said that because the shopping experience was good, she applied for a 2,000 yuan shopping card. She has just used more than half of it and currently has more than 800 yuan left on the card.

But recently, Ms. Liu found that the official website of Yizhuo.com only had one picture, and no other links. All the products on the Yizhuo.com mobile app mall were removed, and the shopping interface was cancelled. She called the customer service hotline, but no one answered.

The reporter verified and found that the products on Yiduo.com's official website and mobile app were indeed as Ms. Liu said, with the products removed from the shelves and the shopping function disappeared. When calling the company's hotline starting with 400, no one responded.

"Has the company closed down?" Ms. Liu questioned. The company did not inform her in advance. Now the shopping card cannot be used and I don't know where to refund the balance on the card. Are other consumers who hold shopping cards also unable to get a refund?

The headquarters moved out half a month ago

The reporter checked the company information and learned that the operator of Yizhuo.com is Shanghai Shiwei Trading Co., Ltd., and the company's headquarters is located at No. 188, Lane 1421, Zhuanxing East Road, Minhang District.

At about 11 a.m. on August 31, the reporter arrived at the headquarters of Yizhuo.com on Zhuanxing East Road. The headquarters is surrounded by industrial plants, including a mold factory, a semiconductor equipment factory, and a courier warehouse. The automatic telescopic door of the headquarters of Yizhuo.com was closed. The aunt on duty at the gate told the reporter: "This company moved out about half a month ago, and there was no notice posted at the door. She didn't know the specific reason."

The reporter walked into the company's yard and saw that there was no one in the huge factory, and no vehicles. The house was empty, the ground was covered with dust, and there was a plaque outside the door that said "Shipping Area" and "Distribution Office".

Denies claims of company bankruptcy

That afternoon, the reporter contacted Mr. Li, a newly resigned employee of Yizhuo.com. He told the reporter, "The company went bankrupt, so I left because there were problems with financing."

However, the claim that the company had closed down was denied by Mr. Fu, the director of Yizhuo.com. “Yzhuo.com has not closed down. It has just given up its fresh food e-commerce business and is preparing for transformation. However, the specific direction of transformation will be decided by the investors.”

Director Fu said that regarding the issue of the company's customers' shopping card balances being unable to be refunded, the company has contacted each customer based on backend records and is returning the balance in cash.

Fresh food e-commerce's money-burning model is difficult to sustain

According to public information, Yizhuo.com was founded in June 2015 by Kaiming Investment, a private equity investment company focusing on the consumer industry, but the initial investment amount was not disclosed. Its model is to provide delivery services to customers in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and promises that customers within the outer ring of Shanghai will receive same-day delivery if they place an order before 14:00 on the same day.

According to the vision of Yizhuo.com's management, the company's professional team searches for high-quality raw materials all over the world. The company builds its own warehouses and independent temperature-controlled areas, and uses a professional logistics system to provide full cold chain distribution and efficient delivery services to meet customer needs.

However, Huang Lifeng, an industry insider in the Shanghai fresh food e-commerce industry, pointed out that Yizhuo.com has built its own warehouse and distribution team, and its operation model is relatively heavy, similar to the fresh food e-commerce company Delicious 77 that encountered problems in April this year. To make a profit, the company needs a large number of orders and customer scale, otherwise it is difficult to cover costs. According to statistics, the average gross profit margin of fresh food e-commerce products is 20%-30%, but the cost of warehousing and operation can account for 1/3, and the logistics cost may account for another 1/3. At present, the average customer price of most fresh food products does not exceed 200 yuan. Although it is not low, it is difficult to make a profit for fresh food products with logistics and cold chain costs of dozens of yuan.

Huang Lifeng stressed that it is difficult for fresh food e-commerce companies to sustain operations by relying on subsidies and burning money. Once financing fails and the capital chain is broken, the company will soon collapse. In addition, the market competition for fresh food e-commerce is already very fierce. The entry of e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and JD.com will undoubtedly make things worse for small and medium-sized fresh food e-commerce companies.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.