A leading Chinese e-commerce player says it has perfected its cold-chain logistics and can deliver live crabs “from pond to customer” within six hours of purchase.
Jingdong (JD.com) is gearing up for the annual autumn sales rush on China’s hairy crabs, such as the prized Yangcheng variety from the easterly province of Jiangsu.
Fresh food is a new priority for China’s e-commerce giants who have had to invest massively in infrastructure to exploit demand in China for home delivery of fresh produce. The need for cold-chain and fulfilment centers has cost Alibaba and JD.com billions of yuan and is part of the reason why a select group of players are pulling ahead in the competition of companies that entered the e-commerce sector but underestimated the costs of distribution.
Fresh food sales online were worth CNY 91 billion (USD 13.7 billion, EUR 11.6 billion) in 2016, according to the China Ecommerce Research Center. It’s projecting growth of 80 percent this year, meaning sales will likely top CNY 150 billion (USD 22.5 billion, EUR 19.1 billion) in 2017.
Acquiring supermarket chains to aid their delivery networks has been another priority for the big e-retailers. JD.com has invested in the Yonghai chain, while Alibaba has bought into the Hema Xiansheng chain of stores.
