Meituan Instant Retail Conference revealed several key data sets

This article will give you an in-depth understanding of the key data revealed at the 2024 Meituan Instant Retail Industry Conference, exploring the growth trends of instant retail, category changes, the evolution of user consumption behavior, and the innovation of the supply ecosystem.

Since the beginning of this year, several major Internet giants including Meituan, Taobao, JD.com, and Douyin have continued to increase their investment in the instant retail track. For the platforms, it is very important to win the "battle" of instant retail.

Because the instant retail market is growing at a rapid pace, it is expected that the market size will exceed one trillion yuan by 2026, and is expected to exceed 2 trillion yuan by 2030!

At the recent 2024 Meituan Instant Retail Industry Conference, leaders from industry associations, Meituan-related teams, etc. revealed a lot of consumption data and user behavior changes about instant retail, all of which hint at the huge potential and opportunities of the instant retail market.

The market size data mentioned at the beginning is revealed by the instant retail related report released at this conference. In addition, from snacks to digital appliances, from beauty and flowers to medicine and health care, the categories of instant retail are expanding at an unprecedented speed.

In addition to the expansion of market size and the enrichment of product categories, consumer behavior is also undergoing profound changes. New consumption patterns such as cross-city migration and nighttime ordering are emerging, and the market potential of mid- and low-tier cities is also being released. Next, let's take a look at several key data and new business growth opportunities revealed in this conference and related reports:

01 Key data on the growth of the instant retail market

1. It is estimated that by 2026, the scale of the instant retail related market will exceed 1 trillion yuan, and by 2030 it will exceed 2 trillion yuan.

2. The categories of consumer goods in instant retail are constantly expanding, from daily necessities such as snacks, wine and beverages, fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, oils and non-staple foods, to all categories such as digital appliances, beauty and flowers, clothing, shoes and hats, medical care, and pet supplies.

3. The forward warehouse model is developing rapidly. It is estimated that by 2023, the number of forward warehouses will increase by more than 100% and the market size will increase by more than 50%.

4. Instant retail maintained resilient growth, with the industry scale increasing by 26.2% year-on-year from January to August this year. In the current environment, there are not many industries that can maintain double-digit or even over 20% growth.

02 Key data on changes in Meituan’s instant retail categories

1. In the past year, Meituan Instant Retail sold more than 400 million pieces of cut fruit, maintaining a growth rate of 29%. At the same time, some big single products continue to emerge, such as durian sold 18 million kilograms, a growth rate of 53%, which is a year-on-year growth, far higher than the industry's growth.

2. Consumers are consuming beer vigorously this summer. In just two months this summer, 150 million liters of beer were sold, a growth rate of 68%, and the growth of high-frequency users was particularly rapid.

3. Fresh food and food are the most natural and suitable categories for instant retail, but non-food categories are also rising rapidly. Non-food is a category that does not sound so urgent, but the growth rate of non-food flash sales is very fast, such as facial masks, clothing, blind boxes, game controllers, etc.

In the past year, more than 20 million boxes of facial masks were sold, with a triple-digit growth rate; 1.78 million women's skirts were sold; after the release of the Black Myth game, the transaction volume of game controllers soared by 145%, and was mainly concentrated in the past one or two months.

Digital home appliances also performed very well. More than 3 million electric fans and 40,000 washing machines and dryers were sold in a year. These were not large washing machines in the traditional sense, but small washing machines used in dormitories and rental houses, and portable and disposable washing machines that can be used in hotels.

4. In emergency scenarios, 280,000 wheelchairs and 640,000 pairs of crutches were sold, reflecting the satisfaction of consumers’ urgent needs.

03 Changes in user consumption behavior

1. Cross-city migration. After users experience this good lifestyle in one place, they will use this instant consumption wherever they go. In the past year, more than 100 million users still placed flash purchase orders when they traveled to other cities (including business trips, travel, and home reunions).

2. More than 70 million users place orders across cities. For example, they place orders in Beijing for their parents in Nanjing, in Shenzhen for their girlfriend in Guangzhou, or for their relatives in their hometown. Therefore, this kind of cross-city scenario has become more and more a habit. This includes buying a new phone for family members when a new product is first launched. These are all new consumption methods that are emerging.

3. Nighttime orders have risen rapidly this year. The number of consumers who place orders between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. the next day has exceeded 100 million. 124 million users have placed orders at night, which has brought unprecedented convenience to consumers.

4. The trend of instant retail is expanding to middle and low-tier cities, that is, third-tier and below cities, with a very impressive growth rate. Therefore, instant retail is not exclusive to big cities, and the demand in middle and low-tier cities is also very strong.

5. Instant retail is not emergency retail, but a highly certain lifestyle. Emergency retail is the beginning of instant retail, but it is not the end. With instant retail, everything can be delivered at any time. Users do not need to prepare so many things, do not need to stock up at home, and do not need to make a lot of plans. In essence, it brings high certainty to users' lives.

04 Changes in the supply ecosystem

1. Now all kinds of physical retail formats can do takeout, such as familiar brands, supermarkets, fresh food markets, flower markets, vegetable markets, department stores, specialty stores, discount stores... Offline physical store retail formats that can survive among users can all do takeout, and use takeout to bring incremental users and incremental opportunities.

2. The prosperity of lightning warehouses is actually the result of the increase in order density brought about by the development of a lifestyle. Because the warehouse business is also a physical entity, it has the most basic sales requirement for survival. For example, in the convenience store business, if the sales are less than 5,000 a day, it may be difficult to survive. Therefore, the higher the density, the higher the probability of survival of the warehouse.

3. There are many models for warehouses now. The first model is "store is warehouse", which means goods are sorted in the store. This model is suitable for smaller convenience stores, such as Lawson. The second model is "designing an independent area in a large store to serve as a warehouse", which is suitable for large supermarkets such as Yonghui. The third model is "independent warehouse", which is the fastest growing model, such as Xiaoxiang Supermarket and Dingdong Maicai.

4. Meituan is promoting the lightning warehouse system to help the industry upgrade. Currently, the number of Meituan's lightning warehouses has exceeded 30,000 (of which convenience store lightning warehouses have exceeded 10,000 nationwide, and the remaining categories account for 20,000). It is expected that by 2027, Meituan's lightning warehouses will exceed 100,000, covering all categories and all regions, and the market size is expected to reach 200 billion yuan.

5. Lightning warehouses are growing rapidly in the lower-tier markets. In 2024, Meituan Convenience Store Lightning Warehouses will open more than 1,800 warehouses in the lower-tier markets, which is a very rapid trend. The cost, rental cost and labor cost in the lower-tier markets are very low, so the warehouses are very profitable.

6. Large retailers are accelerating the layout of lightning warehouses. For example, MINISO has opened 500 warehouses on Meituan, and it is expected to exceed 800 within the year, making it the retail brand with the largest number of directly-operated lightning warehouses in the industry. Watsons’ lightning warehouses on Meituan cover more than 10 first- and second-tier cities, and warehouse receipts have increased by 1.4 times.

7. Lightning warehouse is the biggest opportunity for the instant retail industry. Meituan has launched the Lightning Warehouse "Star Plan": Meituan Flash Purchase will provide merchants who are interested in developing Lightning Warehouses with full-link empowerment for Lightning Warehouse opening, including "precise site selection, operation guidance, ramp-up resources, morning glory system, and exclusive delivery solutions", and open platform support resources such as daily magic prices, magic coupons, product magic cubes, smart distribution, and precision marketing to merchants.