With development of technology increasing rapidly, people are changing their shopping habits from offline to online. In China, Alibaba Group and JD.com are known as the two biggest e-commerce companies. Today they have already became to online shopping gathering places for China's 720 million Internet users. People can only use a mouse click and get anything they need that includes trendy clothing, accessories, household appliances and tech gadgets.
Since 2012, the Chinese e-commerce behemoths turned target to everyday indispensables. They want to drag shoppers away from supermarkets and corner stores. According to the National Statistics Bureau, online purchases accounted for 10.8% of China's 4.4 trillion dollar retail sales in 2015. A 32% increase over the previous year. Meanwhile, about 20% of purchases include toiletries, soft drinks and fresh food were bought online. Until August,2016, around 4,000 companies have built up their applications on smart phones which specialized in fresh food selling. Alibaba Group and JD.com now also run "Supermarket Online" with their own delivery system. Statistics show that JD.com's gross merchandise volume grew 47% from March to June of the current year, with a degree of 92% of customer satisfaction for post-service.
In the online retail sales, vegetable and fruit occupy predominance of the fresh products, which account for 55.2%. The second place is meat and egg, with 17.4%. The third belongs to the frozen product, with 2.6%.
"We guarantee that the fresh food delivery arrives at the customer's home in two hours maximum." A deliveryman from Jishisong company said.
The substantial market is facing the pressure. In June, Wal-Mart stepped up its partnership with JD.com and sold its online grocery store- Yihaodian to JD.com.
Meanwhile, the change of shopping habits threatens smaller business as well. Mrs. Zhang, owner of a grocery store near BFSU, said "more and more people prefer to buy fruit and vegetables online. My business has been affected quite a lot. And now we have to do some delivery service too, to keep clients."
In China, the life style of "Online payment and Offline enjoy" has become popular in modern days, especially among the young generation.
Although online shopping of fresh food has become a trend, but some consumers still has concerns. "When I buy fish and meat in the grocery store, I can look at it and check it, to guarantee that I choose the good quality ones." said Mrs. Wang, a housewife. For 62 year-old Mr. Sun, the traditional way goes better. "Since I retired, I have more time to go in person to the market, to buy fresh food. I feel very difficult shopping online."
