The disappearance of the hottest online shopping mania in China

During height Of the pandemic, a unique type of online shopping has become one of the hottest trends in the Chinese technological sector. Called “Purchase of the community group“It allowed consumers to save money on everything, from apples to iPhones, making bulk orders together with their friends and family. The model, which was a bit like Groupon meets Instacart, has proven particularly popular for shopping. But now the purchase platforms of community groups in China are disappearing one by one.

At the end of last month, MeiTuan, the giant of the delivery of Chinese food, announced that he was abruptly closing his purchase operations of food groups in all provinces except four, surprising many customers and even suppliers.

In March, Alibaba’s food of food, Taocaicai, also closed. Xingsheng Youxuan, the company that has started the national sector, now only operates in three provinces, down for 18 years. Today, Pintoduo, the Chinese associate of Temu, is the only great internet platform that continues to offer food throughout the nation.

The sale of food is not a business with high margins and the cost of shipping something small like some potatoes may never have a financial sense for a technological company. The promise to acquire group, however, was that the groups of grouping by the dozen and delivering them all in one place could be quite profitable.

The industry began to train at the end of 2010, but it really grew when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. While Chinese cities went to intermittent blocks for three years, going to a grocery store was often impossible and technological companies took the opportunity to digitize and monopolize more daily activities. While families in larger and more developed cities could afford the expense delivered directly to their homes, people in the less developed regions found an alternative to the purchase of group food.

At the beginning of the 1920s, the purchase of community groups was seen as an innovative solution for the delivery challenges of the latest mile associated with the delivery of expenditure. But while the pandemic blocks end and the Chinese companies, including Meituan, continued to expand their dense corrioire networks, began to offer a delivery in just 30 minutes, eliminating the need for people to meet with their neighbors to make a group purchase.

“Now, the instant retail sale is also reaching the cities of a lower level, so people could also get food for perhaps the same price as the group waters of the community but within an hour, instead of waiting one day and having to collect from a leader of the community group”, says and Sander, Tech Buzz China’s technological analyst, who has monitored the group of group acquisition for several years. “We arrived at a time when it is almost an old model.”

The day Meituan closed most of its groups to purchase groups, also issued a declaration by saying that it would have expanded its instant delivery activity. Meituan did not respond to a request for comment from Wired.

Secondary concerts

One of the most interesting aspects of the business model for the acquisition of groups is that it is based on thousands of leaders of the contractual community. Called Tuanzhang—A playful carried out on the Chinese term for the “Regimental Commander” military title – these people often have profound connections with local communities and are recruited by platforms to promote their services and assemble mass food orders.

In exchange for sales commissions, the leaders of the community resolve the orders of the shopping, and then deliver them directly to their neighbors or wait at home that people come and get them. Most of the community leaders are owners of small retail shops or housewives and retirees who have a lot of time for a secondary concert.