Ele.me announced a comprehensive upgrade on July 10, transforming from a food delivery platform to a life service platform that solves all the immediate needs of users. In the future, it will vigorously deploy the "economy around" and create a life circle with everything.
Right now, the entire economy is undergoing a rebound and recovery after the epidemic. The consumer industry represented by catering, fresh food, and retail is accelerating the rebound. Ele.me announced a comprehensive upgrade at this time. It can be described as taking advantage of the trend. In my opinion, this time There are two main points of the comprehensive upgrade. In the post-epidemic era, Ele.me's transformation from a food delivery platform to city life services will also have a profound impact on the entire local life services.
Aspect 1: Are you hungry? Why did you announce a full upgrade at this time?
In the retail battlefield, timing and fire conditions often determine everything. Ele.me announced the full upgrade this time, and it did the right thing at the right time.
First, it has caught up with the profound changes in consumption habits in the post-epidemic era.
From O2O in 2014 to new retail in 2018 to instant delivery in 2020, the commercial practice of local life has not been smooth along the way. One of the key reasons is that consumer needs and habits have not fundamentally changed, and offline consumption is still Overwhelmingly attractive.
But after the baptism of the epidemic, contactlessness and social distancing are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, greatly accelerating the transformation of consumer needs and habits. There are data to prove: Since the epidemic, the number of Ele.me’s overall businesses has increased by 30%, the number of non-catering stores has grown much faster than the market, the number of pet supply stores has increased by 6 times, and the number of hot pot skewers and maternal and child stores has also increased Super 3 times.
Let’s look at Are you hungry after the upgrade: On the one hand, the retail products for immediate delivery include fresh milk, maternal and child toys, beauty, books and stationery, sports equipment, etc.; on the other hand, nail art, beauty, housekeeping, cleaning and other items are also Delivery service will be realized, which is actually equivalent to upgrading from food delivery to intra-city retail. During the epidemic period, consumers' demand for instant retail and instant delivery has been deeply explored. The upgrade of Ele.me is a trend and a trend.
Secondly, Ele.me who returns to the starting point of user value comes prepared.
Before the outbreak of the epidemic, competitors such as Meituan and even JD.com, Suning, and even SF Express, Flash Delivery, and Linqu had already made efforts in intra-city retail. However, user needs had not been changed by the epidemic at that time. These platforms were prematurely launched intra-city retail attempts. Did not make waves in the market.
Looking at Are you hungry again, it seems to have been quiet recently, but this is exactly what you are hungry to return to the original intention of user value, and calmly face the performance of competing with Meituan, using more constructive and developmental thinking instead of competing thinking. Future performance.
Obviously, Ele.me could not have noticed the change in consumption habits when the epidemic occurred, but based on the judgment of the retail trend in the same city, understanding that new services will urge changes in the production chain, and it has been deployed in advance.
Therefore, Ele.me’s comprehensive upgrade is not only an expansion of distribution categories, but also four aspects including providing full-service life in the same city, personalized recommendation, content-based interaction, and upgrading the membership system. To be precise, it is the content +Members+Algorithms+Scenarios are fully superimposed and deeply integrated, and come prepared with a complete set of mature solutions.
Aspect 2: The entire local life competition landscape ushered in a big change
In the next local life battle, the only platform that is qualified and hungry is Meituan. And we can boldly judge that Ele.me will have more advantages than Meituan.
First of all, Ele.me's layout in the local life field has begun to take shape. As early as August last year, Ele.me officially announced the establishment of an open platform for supermarkets. Leading supermarkets such as Metro, RT-Mart, Hongqi, Carrefour, BBK, and convenience have been assembled. Since the first half of this year, Ele.me has directly contacted retailers. Open cooperation, Xinhua Bookstore, Decathlon, Liangpin Shop, Roseonly, Innisfree.
Second, compared to the boundless life created by Meituan with its own efforts, Ele.me is more open with the help of Ali's ecology, especially in the local life era, with more external resources. For example, since the first half of the year, A large number of retailers have moved from Tmall to local life. In fact, Ali's blessing to Ele.me goes far beyond ecological interface traffic, but also data and technology. Earlier, Ele.me announced that it will be 100% integrated into Alibaba Cloud, which can quickly expand capacity to support 100 million people to order at the same time. This is the embodiment of Ele.me’s technical advantage over Meituan.
Third, from Ali's perspective, Are you hungry is also a key part of Ali's promotion of Ontology's life services, and instant delivery is an important support for Ontology's life services. In the Ali department, are you hungry and Taoxianda who can take on this important task. But Taoxianda focuses more on tool attributes, especially the transformation of the offline real economy. Ele.me has stronger consumer brand attributes. Ali wants to rebuild an integrated online and offline life service platform. Are you hungry? It is foreseeable that in the future, Ali will give Ele.me a full-time nanny escort.
In the post-epidemic era, the people’s needs for a better life will not change, only the form of consumer demand will be changed; Ele.me’s comprehensive upgrade will not only lead the recovery of the entire retail industry in the second half of the year, but will also be a challenge. Profound shaping of consumption.