Quality and service frequently become ＂bad points＂ community group buying pain points need to be cracked

Hubei Daily full media reporter, Li Chaoxia

During the epidemic in 2020, community e-commerce emerged suddenly. For a while, "online order, contactless delivery, fixed-point self-pickup" has become a new model for many families to buy food. From fresh food to condiments to daily general merchandise, all kinds of group buying have followed. JD.com, Meituan, Pinduoduo and other Internet Tech Giants have entered the market, which has affected the current pattern and pattern of fresh consumption to a certain extent.

At present, while community group buying is still red, professional fresh food e-commerce represented by Missfresh and simple shopping is rapidly rising, traditional vegetable markets and life supermarkets are constantly being upgraded, and fresh sales formats of different business models meet different levels and different needs of consumers.

How is the development of community group buying? What are the advantages and disadvantages? How is the consumer experience? Recently, Hubei Daily full media reporters conducted a visit and investigation.

Shop owner "has several groups"

"Did the dishes you bought yesterday arrive?"

At 11 o’clock on April 14, Wuchang District Wuzhong Pearl Garden Community Xinminxin non-staple food store, a small space placed in a small variety of snacks, seasonings and other goods, yellow, blue and green on the ground in the storage basket piled up with all kinds of group buying goods.

The head of the group, Du Dongmei, sorted out the group buying goods that had just been delivered, and transferred the milk and other goods that needed to be stored at low temperature to the refrigerator. From time to time, community residents came to pick up the goods.

"At the same time, she is the head of five platforms including Jingxi, Hema and Meituan." Du Dongmei introduced that she and her husband are the head of the group while running the non-staple food store. Before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2019, the husband and wife began to contact community group buying, and have now "held several groups".

Reporters visited and found that as community group buying blossomed everywhere, many shops such as Cainiao Post Station, convenience stores, community supermarkets, dry cleaners, etc. became community group buying self-pickup points while operating their main business. The goods bought by residents’ groups are mainly fresh, and the platform distributes and after-sales goods uniformly. The head of the group is responsible for collecting and distributing the goods.

"The head of the group needs a fixed place to place the goods to deal with the uncertainty of the weather, and the residents have different pickup times, so they need to keep an eye on it for a long time." Du Dongmei introduced that considering the cost, "shop + group buying self-pickup point" is the more common operating model at present.

"Buying more food is cheap, and the quality of the box horse is good." Du Dongmei and his wife have rich experience in community group buying. They believe that the main reasons why residents in this community choose group buying are two: there is no fresh supermarket in the community; group buying price is favorable.

According to reports, similar self-pickup points have a WeChat group of more than 100 people, and the staff or heads of each platform will release preferential information from time to time, and consumers will only consult the order logistics and after-sales situation.

"Don’t look at the dozens of orders on just one platform, but most of the transactions are only a few yuan or more than ten yuan." Du Dongmei said frankly that there are more and more heads of delegation now, and there are two in this community. The order volume is not as large as before, and the commission is getting lower and lower. "It’s really getting harder and harder to do. Once, the commission for an order of 50 yuan was only a few cents."

Radish and cabbage have their own loves

The reporter observed in Xinminxin non-staple food store that most of the people who came to pick up the goods in the morning were fathers and mothers-in-law in the community. Du Dongmei introduced that as the head of the team, she mainly serves young office workers and the elderly.

"It’s mainly cheap," Shi, a resident of the community, told reporters. She orders three to four times a week, and community group buying has become the main way for her and her wife to buy food.

For post-90s office worker Xiao Zhang, community group buying can save the time and labor cost of going to the farmers’ market or supermarket to buy vegetables, and it is cheaper than fresh food e-commerce. "Just move your finger to place an order and pick it up at the pick-up point when you get off work the next day."

When it comes to shopping, consumers’ needs are diverse and scattered. Young people care about convenience and time saving, while the elderly care more about freshness and low prices.

There is a basket of life supermarkets in Yuyuan Community, Chutian City, Wuchang District. Every afternoon, the vegetables are bought by the middle-aged and elderly groups in the community. Tingting, a clerk, said: "The store is also a community group buying self-pickup point for three e-commerce platforms. There are only three or four orders a day for many times. On the contrary, we often use group buying to supplement daily necessities such as seasonings because of discounts."

Unlike the elderly who buy food first and then decide on the menu, young people mostly decide on the menu first and then place targeted orders. Xiaojin, a post-95 consumer, said: "Every time I think about what to cook before buying ingredients, it is more suitable to place an order online."

Consumer demand is constantly being subdivided, with different requirements for different formats. Obviously, the development direction of fresh retail is mainly to clarify service segments.

The problem of preservation is unavoidable

Despite the huge differentiation in the way people buy food, personal preferences vary and preferences change from time to time, which also makes the community group buying market usher in a round of reshuffle.

Last year, food enjoyment, orange heart selection, ten Hui group and other brands have completely shut down related business, the rise of community group buying under the special background of epidemic prevention and control, continuous industry shock.

The reporter learned in the interview that while pursuing price concessions, people’s requirements for quality are increasing day by day. As a daily consumer product, fresh food is consumed with high frequency and fast consumption speed, but there are many links in the fresh supply chain, long chain and large loss, so it is difficult to avoid how to keep "fresh".

Many citizens believe that community groups buying orders can only be "accepted as ordered", unable to select and select goods on the spot, and the delivery time of goods cannot be standardized. Many fresh products cannot be maintained after delivery.

In addition, quality, service, and after-sales issues also pose pain points.

Consumer Xiao Wang reported that he had bought unripe cantaloupe and slightly moldy leafy vegetables, and also lost quick-frozen French fries. Because the goods were only "left" on the overhead floor of the negative first floor of the community every time, and he never met the head of the team, the after-sales problem was settled.

According to industry analysts, the consumption model of "reservation + self-pickup" is doomed to the disadvantage of community group buying in terms of shopping timeliness and experience. Its biggest strength is low price, which comes from the reduced loss rate in the distribution process and the subsidy of the platform. In order to enhance the stickiness of old users and grab new users, many platforms often launch ultra-low price panic buying activities. When low price becomes the main competitiveness of the platform, the price fluctuation of other channels will affect the sales volume of the platform, and the order profit is extremely low, and even the transit warehouse and logistics costs cannot be covered.

Relevant experts said that the platform should return to the essence of the retail industry, make every effort to build a fresh supply chain system, provide consumers with guaranteed and quality products; use data, capital, technology and other advantages to fully cooperate with the upstream manufacturers to improve the business chain operating efficiency; fully empower local suppliers and heads, differentiate the operation of regional community group buying business, and ensure the stable development of the regional market.