2024 Meituan Instant Retail Industry Conference： Lightning warehouse is the biggest opportunity in the industry, and the ＂Star Plan＂ is launched to help merchants ＂open positions＂
People’s Political Consultative Conference Network October 15th On October 15th, Meituan Flash Shopping held the "2024 Meituan Instant Retail Industry Conference" with the theme of "Evolution NOW" in Beijing (hereinafter referred to as the "Conference"). Practitioners from industry associations, research institutions, retailers and brands from all over the country participated in the conference to discuss new trends and development opportunities in the industry.
Wang Bin, director of the Circulation Industry Promotion Center of the Ministry of Commerce, delivered a speech for the opening of the conference. He said that in recent years, the instant retail industry has developed rapidly, the market scale has continued to expand, consumer goods have been continuously enriched, the customer base has grown significantly, and the lightning warehouse model has developed rapidly. Instant retailing, represented by Meituan Flash Shopping, relies on the Internet trading platform, online ordering, offline delivery and instant fulfillment, which creates a new model for the development of retail formats and plays an important role in smooth circulation, promoting consumption and protecting people’s livelihood.
Wang Puzhong, the core local business CEO of Meituan, shared the theme of "NOW Era, New Evolution". He pointed out: with the continuous change of retail format, instant retail maintained a resilient growth, and the industry scale increased by 26.2% from January to August this year. Behind the steady growth, instant retailing, as a highly-determined lifestyle, is constantly expanding, the supply categories and scenarios of instant retailing are continuously enriched, the frequency of users’ consumption is constantly increasing, and the consumption time and region of instant retailing are constantly expanding and spreading. The evolution of retail format is similar to the evolution of species. The evolution of species is mainly air, temperature and oxygen content. The evolution of retail is our lifestyle, infrastructure and scientific and technological level. The emergence and prosperity of lightning warehouse format is an important symbol of this evolution.
Xiao Kun, vice president of Meituan and head of the flash shopping division, said that the flash shopping of Meituan continued to grow at a high speed, and the peak order volume on Tanabata in 2024 exceeded 16 million orders. The rapid growth comes from the continuous evolution of the instant retail supply ecology. As an important format in this process, lightning warehouse continues to drive the evolution of the instant retail supply ecology and the cultivation of users’ lifestyles, becoming the biggest opportunity for the industry. At present, the number of Meituan lightning warehouses has exceeded 30,000. By 2027, Meituan lightning warehouses will exceed 100,000, covering all categories and regions. It is estimated that the market scale will reach 200 billion yuan.
At the conference, Du Guochen, director of the E-commerce Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, released the Report on the Development of Instant Retail Industry (2024). According to the report, instant retailing has become an important format in the fields of county commerce, modern circulation, smart business circle and leading new consumption. Among them, lightning warehouse has become a typical format of instant retail, which will play an active role in promoting industry prosperity, helping businesses innovate local sales channels and obtaining new growth curves.
The era of instant retail has accelerated, and many kinds of supply species such as lightning storage have evolved.
At the conference, Wang Puzhong reviewed the development process of the instant retail industry in recent years: from 2013, it gradually expanded from catering take-out to other categories, from emergency categories to daily necessities in 2018, and then from 2021, it covered digital home appliances, beauty clothes, daily necessities and other fields. The instant retail of "Everything Comes Home" has become an industry consensus. Wang Puzhong believes that the era of instant retail is now accelerating, which is marked by the formation and extension of instant retail as a highly certain way of life, as well as the richness and innovation of instant retail supply.
"From January to August 2024, the proportion of overnight orders of Meituan Flash Purchase continued to increase, reaching 26%; In sinking markets such as counties, the volume of immediate retail orders of Meituan increased by 54% year-on-year. These are pure incremental consumption. " At the conference site, Wang Puzhong used these sets of data to illustrate the continuous extension of the instant retail lifestyle.
"The extension of lifestyle can’t be separated from the evolution and prosperity of supply ecology, which is very important for the accelerated arrival of the instant retail era." Wang Puzhong said that instant retail has developed many kinds of supply species so far, including "warehouses are stores" like Rosen, "stores contain warehouses" like Yonghui and RT Mart, and independent warehouses like Elephant Supermarket, Dingdong Shopping and Meituan Lightning Warehouse.
"Meituan Lightning Warehouse represents the evolution trend of instant retail, which is to promote instant retail supply.
The rapid evolution of lightning warehouse brings greater development opportunities for instant retail industry practitioners. For example, Wang Puzhong said that compared with stores and warehouses with the same area, the lightning warehouse format has advantages in terms of rent cost, number of display SKUs, business hours, floor efficiency, monthly sales and profit rate. "This will create value for both consumers and instant retailers."
Meituan flash purchase: lightning warehouse is the biggest opportunity in the instant retail industry, and the number will exceed 100,000 in 2027.
"The evolution of supply ecology has created a better experience for consumers, and constantly cultivated an instant retail lifestyle. The development of lifestyle has spawned more demand and further promoted the evolution of supply." At the conference, Xiao Kun deeply analyzed the evolution trend of the instant retail industry.
"On Tanabata this year, the peak order volume of Meituan Flash Purchase exceeded 16 million orders." Xiao Kun said that the rapid growth reflects the drive of supply ecological evolution to users’ highly determined sexual life style. Flash shopping, fresh food and food in Meituan
Xiao Kun said that the popularity of the instant retail lifestyle has brought strong enough demand. The objective mismatch between supply and demand has given birth to the emergence of lightning warehouse format, and the increase of demand density has accelerated the prosperity and development of lightning warehouse, which makes lightning warehouse an excellent way to "overweight instant retail and gain increment" in various formats of physical retail.
"The current lightning warehouse format is constantly evolving. Lightning warehouses are climbing rapidly in the sinking market. In 2024, 1866 lightning warehouses of Meituan convenience store were opened in the sinking market, and lightning warehouses of various vertical categories also flourished. The technology and facilities of lightning warehouse are constantly upgraded and go deep into the supply chain. The more important trend is that large retailers are accelerating the layout of lightning warehouses. " Taking famous products and Watsons as examples, Xiao Kun revealed that at present, famous products have opened 500 warehouses in Meituan, and it is expected that they will exceed 800 during the year, making them the largest number of retail brands in the industry. Watson’s lightning warehouse in Meituan covers more than 10 first-and second-tier cities, with warehouse receipts.
"Lightning warehouse is the biggest opportunity in the instant retail industry, and all towns that open takeout have the opportunity to use lightning warehouse for instant retail." At the conference site, Xiao Kun released the "Star Project" of Meituan Lightning Warehouse. Through this plan, Meituan Flash Shopping will provide businesses interested in developing lightning warehouses with "accurate site selection, operational guidance, climbing resources, morning glory"
"It is estimated that by 2027, the number of lightning warehouses of Meituan will exceed 100,000, and the market scale will reach 200 billion yuan." Xiao Kun expressed the hope that the "Star Project" will help physical retailers and related practitioners to share this new opportunity of "100,000 warehouses and 200 billion yuan" in the instant retail market. (Sun Guang)