After a year of preparation, Douyin Supermarket is launched. What do industry insiders think?

Is the sudden launch of Douyin Supermarket a long-planned one? Will the self-operated business, home delivery, and new e-commerce be successful in this wave of attack on traditional e-commerce? Many professionals have expressed their opinions. Many service providers are rushing to enter the market, and the low-price war is coming fiercely. Recommended reading for those who are interested in Douyin e-commerce and Douyin Supermarket operations.

Douyin Supermarket is here!

On January 28, the first working day after the Spring Festival, "Douyin Supermarket" was officially launched on the Douyin App. Since the layout was rumored in early 2022, Douyin Supermarket has been brewing for a year. Xinbochang learned that Douyin Supermarket has started to attract investment. However, industry insiders have different views on Douyin Supermarket.

Some people believe that Douyin opening a supermarket "may be an opportunity, or it may be a pitfall. What Alibaba has not succeeded in, Douyin cannot do either." Others revealed that Douyin may have a local consumer e-commerce business in the future, similar to JD.com's home delivery service, and this business is independent. The "battle" in the e-commerce track is still going on, and Douyin is still continuing to attack the hinterland of traditional e-commerce platforms.

01 Douyin opens a "supermarket"

"Official direct delivery, authentic product guarantee", "Real subsidized price, buy with confidence", "No need to compare, it's the lowest in 30 days"...

After launching its online mall and focusing on shelf e-commerce, Douyin e-commerce has taken new action: launching its official self-operated supermarket "Douyin Supermarket", competing with Tmall Supermarket and JD Supermarket.

Currently, users can enter the supermarket to shop by searching for "Douyin Supermarket" in the Douyin App search bar or shopping portal. In addition, users can also enter Douyin Supermarket by clicking "Enter Store" from the official flagship store account of "Douyin Supermarket".

After entering Douyin Supermarket, the interface is simple and clear, and the business categories mainly include nine categories: "paper laundry, household cleaning, snacks and sweets, grains and oils, instant foods, dairy drinks, wine and health care, personal care and beauty, mother and baby and pets, and electrical appliances and department stores."

It is reported that the business license displayed in the qualifications of most of the merchants in the "Douyin Supermarket" is "Shanghai Xinpai Information Co., Ltd.", and the major shareholder behind it wholly owns the shares is Douyin Group (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. This shows that the main supplier of goods on the shelves of Douyin Supermarket is the "subsidiary" of Douyin Group.

Regarding Douyin Supermarket, the public's focus is mainly on why Douyin wants to set up a supermarket and whether it can do it well.

So, what is the current status of the "Douyin Supermarket" after a week of launch? Xinbochang mainly summarizes the following points:

1. Product situation: Few product categories

Although Douyin Supermarket basically covers all categories of supermarkets, it does not have an advantage in product categories compared to Tmall Supermarket and JD Supermarket.

There are 18 major categories of goods displayed on the homepage of Tmall Supermarket, and JD Supermarket includes more than 40 categories such as "food and beverages, mother and baby toys, grains, oils, rice and noodles", but Douyin Supermarket currently only has 9 categories.

2. Product price and sales volume: Low price wins, and food and daily necessities sales volume leads

At present, the products in Douyin Supermarket are mainly food, daily necessities and other products with high repurchase rates. There are many products priced at 9.9 yuan, such as various snacks, paper towels, beverages, etc. These are also the products with the highest sales in Douyin Supermarket. The overall sales of high-priced products such as 3C products are not high.

For example, the sales of Coca-Cola at 8.9 yuan for 6 cans and Samyang Turkey Ramen at 34.9 yuan for 5 packs both exceeded 3,000 units, while the sales of tablet computers and Apple mobile phones priced over 3,000 yuan were less than 500.

3. Consumer feedback: many product problems and high rate of negative reviews

In addition, judging from the product review area in the supermarket, many products have a lot of negative reviews, mainly due to poor quality, product damage during transportation, low cost performance, etc. Some consumers even complained directly: "If it weren't for Douyin, I wouldn't buy it."

It seems that Douyin Supermarket is not yet mature.

In addition, according to the "DataEye Research Institute E-commerce Group", in Douyin Supermarket, if you click on any product in Douyin Supermarket, the corresponding search term will appear in the search box above. Click on the search term and many related products will be found. Among the searched products, some are brand-owned stores, some are third-party stores, and some are live broadcast rooms explaining this product. This gameplay is relatively innovative and has not been found on other platforms.

02 A year in the making, now coming with great momentum

In fact, there have been signs that ByteDance has been planning and planning for Douyin Supermarket.

In early 2022, it was reported that ByteDance's e-commerce department was responsible for the development of Douyin's supermarket business, and JD Supermarket was used as a benchmark; in June 2022, according to "LatePost", Douyin had launched its own business similar to JD Supermarket - "Douyin Home Delivery", taking JD as a "reference", but the concept of "Douyin Supermarket" had not yet been formed at that time.

In August 2022, Douyin launched the "Douyin Supermarket" account, which currently has 43,000 followers and a description on its homepage that reads "making user family consumption simpler and life better." However, the account has only posted one entry status, which was posted on August 10, 2022, and no other videos or updates.

During this period, on August 31, 2022, Douyin officially released the "【Douyin E-commerce Supermarket】Supplier Investment and Entry Management Specifications", officially launched the project, and adopted a targeted entry investment promotion method.

Then, in October 2022, Douyin Supermarket took the lead in piloting in four cities, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Huizhou and Dongguan, focusing on flowers, vegetables and fruits. At that time, the supermarket section was still embedded in the Douyin Mall interface and was not separated. Users could only shop at Douyin Supermarket by entering the Douyin Mall. In terms of logistics, Douyin Supermarket has reached a cooperation with local life service merchants, who provide warehouse and door-to-door delivery services. Some products can be delivered as soon as "next day" and "hours".

On November 3, 2022, Beijing Zitiao Network Technology Co., Ltd. applied to register the "Douyin Supermarket" trademark, which is classified as Class 41 in the international classification, including advertising sales, education and entertainment, etc. Currently, the status of the trademark is under application.

Byte spent a year planning and laying out the "Douyin Supermarket", and on January 28 this year, the "Douyin Supermarket" was officially launched and opened to users nationwide. This also means that Douyin e-commerce has begun to launch a fierce attack on traditional shelf e-commerce, reflecting Douyin's emphasis on the shelf market.

Xinbochang learned that Douyin Supermarket has now started recruiting investors and has released a total of 31 pages of investment information to the public.

Investment information shows that Douyin Supermarket has currently attracted many well-known industry brands including Jierou, Peixinyin, Kotex, Seven Days, and Always, mainly focusing on personal care and household cleaning products.

Xinbochang also found that some institutions and service providers have released relevant investment information, indicating that "opening and settlement, targeted invitations, and application approval" and that the cities that can be opened currently include 32 cities across the country.

03 Is it a new opportunity?

On May 31, 2022, at the Douyin E-commerce Second Ecological Conference, Douyin E-commerce announced that it would upgrade interest e-commerce to the global interest e-commerce stage. Although it is still named "interest", the focus has actually shifted to "shelf e-commerce". After all, interest cannot always be used as a meal, but shelves can.

Compared with traditional e-commerce platforms such as Tmall Supermarket and JD Supermarket, Douyin Supermarket's advantage lies in the platform's traffic. Data shows that the number of Douyin users in 2022 is around 842 million, with more than 700 million daily active users; according to data previously released by Douyin, as of October 2022, Douyin's local life services have covered 377 cities across the country, and the overall transaction amount has increased more than 30 times year-on-year.

However, industry insiders have different opinions on Douyin's role as an online supermarket.

Lao Wang, a person from an MCN agency, believes that it is not a big problem for Douyin to become a supermarket. He said that since May last year, Douyin has put the mall on the top tab. According to data calculated by a third party, from the current data, the mall has at least tens of millions of traffic.

"The growth trend is very good, and more and more mall traffic will be poured into the live broadcast side." Lao Wang added that in the analysis of Douyin's live broadcast traffic, the proportion of malls is still gradually increasing compared with last year.

On the other hand, some people working in the e-commerce industry are not optimistic.

First, the challenge facing Douyin Supermarket is that the position of traditional e-commerce is too solid. As a latecomer, it is not easy for Douyin Supermarket to catch up with Tmall and JD.com in terms of product supply chain. Moreover, the entrance to Douyin Supermarket is relatively secretive at present, and users can only enter the page when they actively search.

Secondly, judging from the pages and business templates of Douyin Supermarket, they are almost exactly the same as those of Tmall Supermarket and JD Supermarket. Some industry insiders believe that Douyin is "imitating", while others even question whether it is "copying".

"In the trial and error business, cats and dogs should try it out first, and then Douyin can reuse it when it is mature", "Just imitate", "It may be an opportunity, or it may be a big pit"... Industry insiders expressed the above views in an e-commerce industry exchange group.

There are also views that it is difficult for Douyin to do a good job in the supermarket business, saying that the competition in this field is too fierce, "What Alibaba has not done, Douyin cannot do either."

In addition, insiders revealed that Douyin will have a local consumer e-commerce business in the future, similar to JD.com, and this business is independent. When users enter the live broadcast room to place an order, the nearest store in the same city will be displayed. After the order is placed, it will be delivered by SF Express, Dada, etc., and delivered to the customer within two hours.

The "battle" in the e-commerce field is still going on. Betting on shelf e-commerce, launching online supermarkets, and launching local consumer e-commerce, Douyin continues to attack the hinterland of traditional e-commerce platforms, but whether these businesses can eventually make a splash remains to be seen.

Author: Xiaolongguo

Source: New Broadcasting Station (ID: New_bc)