How to sell fresh food through e-commerce operation

E-commerce selling fresh food can operate in seven modes.

Mode 1: integrated e-commerce platform

When it comes to e-commerce, we have to mention e-commerce giants such as Ali and JD.COM. Nowadays, domestic integrated e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD.COM, Suning.cn, 1 Store and Amazon have all started to set foot in fresh e-commerce. Then compared with other fresh e-commerce, the integrated e-commerce platform has several obvious advantages.

First, the biggest advantage of integrated e-commerce platform is the advantage of entrance, especially Tmall and Taobao, which occupy more than 80% market share in China. This powerful traffic advantage is beyond the reach of other fresh e-commerce platforms in the short term.

Second, the integrated e-commerce platform has long cultivated users' good shopping habits, which is a natural advantage. Many users shop on Tmall, Taobao, Suning.cn and other platforms. When they see fresh e-commerce products, they will choose to buy them accordingly.

Third, trust is a key factor for online shopping users. Many people choose online shopping, preferring to choose a platform with enough integrity, such as Tmall and JD.COM, but it is difficult for many fresh e-commerce companies to do this at first.

Fourth, for online shopping platforms such as fresh e-commerce, a perfect payment system is also quite necessary. At this point, for other fresh e-commerce platforms, I am afraid it is difficult to create a powerful Alipay like Taobao and Tmall.

Fifth, integrated e-commerce platforms such as Tmall and JD.COM have strong brand advantages and many loyal users, which other fresh e-commerce companies do not have.

Since the integrated e-commerce platform has so many advantages, does it mean that they are perfect in the field of fresh e-commerce? Of course not.

First of all, they are faced with the problem of inconsistent commodity standards. For the integrated e-commerce platform, what they mainly do is the platform, and most fresh e-commerce companies sell through the merchants on the platform. However, there is no uniform standard for the quality and price of fresh products sold by different businesses, which requires consumers to make a lot of comparisons in order to choose more fresh products with good quality and low price.

Second, because the integrated e-commerce platform is a platform model, the quality of fresh products sold by merchants cannot be controlled. However, fresh products are different from other products, and once food safety problems occur, it will be a devastating disaster for the whole platform.

Third, for the integrated e-commerce platform, commodity loss is a very common and serious problem. Many merchants do not specify or choose some courier with poor service when mailing goods, and the loss of goods is inevitable.

Fourthly, the distribution logistics selected by many merchants is not guaranteed in delivery time, which is also a very serious problem for the preservation of fresh products.

Fifth, it is also a logistics problem, because fresh products have higher requirements for logistics, so its delivery unit price is naturally expensive. Fresh e-commerce without price advantage also requires customers to pay expensive logistics costs, which is naturally unacceptable to customers.

Mode 2: Logistics E-commerce

Speaking of the fresh e-commerce model, SF Express, which started with express delivery, is a model that we have to mention. Agriculture is the only industry where e-commerce is not completely e-commerce. Wang Wei, CEO of SF Express, chose to cross the border from express delivery to fresh e-commerce, which is also ambitious. In his view, SF chose to be a fresh e-commerce, which has advantages that no other platform has.

Advantage 1: SF has the largest express delivery army in China, and SF's express delivery service is also the most recognized by users among all express delivery companies in China. Fresh e-commerce is an area that needs very good express delivery, and this is precisely the advantage of SF.

Advantage 2: Fresh e-commerce also has very high requirements for warehousing. SF Logistics has a large number of storage centers all over the country, which is also a big advantage of SF compared with other platforms.

Advantage 3: SF can be well combined with SF. Now SF has more than 500 SF Express stores in 70 cities across the country, which is also the obvious advantage of SF's choice of community O2O.

Of course, SF also faces many challenges in building a brand-new fresh e-commerce platform.

Challenge 1: The promotion cost of SF Express in the early stage will be very high, which is why SF Express is still unprofitable although it has the highest market share among fresh e-commerce.

Challenge 2: SF prefers to be a fresh e-commerce self-employed, and it faces great challenges in supply chain management. How to ensure that the platform can supply fresh and excellent fresh products in real time requires close cooperation with many farms and fruit and vegetable wholesale markets all over the country.

Mode 3: Food suppliers

COFCO Womai.com and Guangming Caiguan are two typical representatives of traditional food enterprises entering fresh e-commerce. Of course, COFCO established Womai. com, and Bright Food Manager was later acquired by Bright Food Group. Food companies directly do fresh e-commerce, which naturally has no small advantage.

First of all, I buy nets and vegetable butlers in the food supply chain, and it is difficult for other fresh platforms to PK. A large part of the operational difficulties of many fresh e-commerce companies is due to problems in the food supply chain.

Secondly, COFCO and Bright Food Group are also quite strong in food storage, which is beyond the reach of many fresh e-commerce platforms.

Third, COFCO and Bright Food can easily gain the trust of users in terms of safety. For a fresh e-commerce platform, food safety is the first step for users to buy.

Finally, COFCO and Guangming have obvious price advantages in fresh food, and the prices of many foods are in their hands, so it will have an advantage to fight price wars.

At the same time, logistics is also a big difficulty for me to buy nets and vegetable butlers. Logistics can't keep up, which means that it is difficult to keep fresh when fresh products are delivered to users, and the loss rate will be higher.

In addition, compared with Taobao, JD.COM and other e-commerce platforms, I need more manpower and financial resources in the early operation.

Mode 4: vertical e-commerce

Vertical fresh e-commerce companies such as Putian.com, Youcai.com and Benli.com are the initiators of fresh e-commerce. It is precisely because of their rise that other e-commerce platforms have also begun to awaken.

Because it focuses on vertical e-commerce and pays more attention to segmentation than other platforms, it understands users better than other platforms. However, due to many disadvantages of vertical e-commerce, Liu Kuang believes that vertical fresh e-commerce is difficult to become bigger and stronger.

Disadvantage 1: For vertical e-commerce, they have not accumulated in food suppliers before, which may easily lead to problems in the supply chain. In particular, some vertical e-commerce companies that have just started, because of their weak strength, no food suppliers are willing to cooperate with them.

Disadvantage 2: Fresh e-commerce has very high requirements for logistics and distribution. If logistics outsourcing is adopted, the possibility of commodity loss will be higher. However, if the staff distribution is adopted, a lot of manpower is needed, which limits the expansion speed of the company to some extent.

Disadvantage 3: Due to the lack of brand awareness, it is very difficult and expensive to directly gain the trust of users and buy fresh products on the platform in the early stage.

Disadvantage 4: Food refrigeration is also a major disadvantage of vertical e-commerce. Large-scale cold storage needs to invest a lot of money, which is naturally difficult for weak vertical e-commerce.

Mode 5: Farm Direct Selling

The representatives of farm direct selling model are Dolly Farm and Tuotuo Commune, which rely on their own farms to build fresh e-commerce and also have great advantages.

The first advantage is also the biggest advantage, because it is its own farm, so it has absolute confidence in food safety, and ecological fruits and vegetables are also consumers' favorite and most willing to buy.

The second advantage is their advantage in the supply chain, because they are self-produced and sold, so there is no need to worry about sudden problems in product supply.

The third advantage is the advantage of close range. Because they are all fresh fruits and vegetables that have just been picked, close distribution can ensure the freshness of fruits and vegetables sold directly by farms.

Since proximity is an advantage, long-distance distribution naturally becomes a disadvantage of farm direct sales model. Because for the farm direct selling platform, because the distance of the farm is relatively remote, it is a troublesome and time-consuming process to deliver goods by express delivery.

Furthermore, because the farm direct selling platform is self-produced and self-sold, the breadth of products naturally cannot meet the diverse needs of users.

In addition, the farm direct selling platform also needs to bear certain risks. Self-produced fruits and vegetables may lead to poor harvest due to season, rain, technology and other reasons, which will affect their supply to some extent.

Mode 6: offline supermarket

Fresh platforms such as CR Vanguard, Yonghui Supermarket and Metro have closed one after another, which shows that it is not easy for offline supermarkets to get involved in fresh e-commerce.

Although it has obvious advantages in short-distance distribution of goods, refrigeration and supply chain management. Due to the inability to make ends meet after building a fresh e-commerce platform, offline supermarkets involved in fresh e-commerce have closed down.

On the one hand, they have an unnecessary labor cost for delivery (customers used to shop directly in the supermarket, but now they need home delivery. If it is a long distance, there is also an extra express fee, which needs to be packed and delivered by a special person); On the other hand, they also need to pay more online operating costs, which is not the strength of offline supermarkets. Those who don't understand the internet naturally need to pay more for it.

Mode 7: Community O2O

In fact, when it comes to community fresh O2O, Taobao, JD.COM, SF Express and vertical e-commerce are all involved, and they are all trying to use it as a breakthrough for fresh e-commerce. However, the most representative is the WeChat business. With the official account of WeChat WeChat, a large number of entrepreneurs started fresh delivery in the community.

First, community O2O door-to-door delivery is very convenient, and it can ensure the freshness of dishes and reduce the loss rate.

Second, in the payment link, community O2O can also use offline cash on delivery, which is more secure for consumers.

Thirdly, for many users who buy fresh e-commerce, they pay attention to speed, because there is no food at home and they need to buy food, but they don't want to go to the vegetable market. At this time, they can purchase directly through WeChat official account or mobile app. Community online to offline can guarantee a short delivery time.

Fourth, community O2O merchants only deliver goods to nearby communities and do not need a lot of cold storage. They only need to purchase a small amount of fresh vegetables, and at the same time, they can ensure that fruits and vegetables are sold in time, which reduces waste and saves costs.

Of course, for the community fresh WeChat business, we also need to work hard in the early promotion. Especially in the scale expansion, more costs are needed, and the expansion speed will be quite slow.

As we all know, mobile phones Taobao and Tmall also have positioning characteristics, which solves the dilemma of Taobao fresh O2O. Taobao's successful entry into catering O2O is a good example. Compared with WeChat merchants, Taobao and Tmall are more likely to unify the commodity standards of fresh e-commerce. In addition, Ali Rookie Logistics is escorting the long-distance distribution of fresh e-commerce.

On the whole, among the seven models, Liu Kuang believes that in the end, fresh e-commerce will form a pattern of Taobao as the main business, supplemented by WeChat business. Vertical fresh e-commerce, SF You Xuan, Womai. com, and vegetable housekeeper are difficult to compare with Taobao in scale, while offline supermarkets and farm direct sales may all open stores in Taobao and use WeChat official account to promote services.