MoonFox Data Releases New Report: Instant Retail Becomes the Next Battleground as JD.com and Meituan Intensify Food Delivery Competition in China

Shenzhen, June 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — [Shenzhen, China] – [June 3, 2025] – MoonFox Knowledge, a number one supplier of market intelligence and knowledge analytics, at this time launched its newest report, “Immediate Retail Stays a Lengthy-Time period Battle, and the Meals Supply Battle Is Simply the Starting.” The report reveals how China’s instantaneous retail sector is coming into a brand new section of fierce competitors, with JD.com and Meituan on the forefront, leveraging meals supply as a essential driver of consumer progress and market growth in 2025.

In 2025, JD.com and Meituan engaged in a number of rounds of on-line “cross-platform jabs” over their meals supply companies. Matters reminiscent of “Meals Supply Battle” and “Meituan Points One other Assertion” trended on social media. Amid the following “disagreement” and mounting public debate, each platforms’ ambitions within the “instantaneous retail” area have been laid naked.

Tracing again their improvement, it’s evident that JD.com and Meituan have been investing in instantaneous retail for over a decade. As early as 2018, Meituan internally launched the “Flash Sale” model targeted on instantaneous supply of retail objects. Nevertheless, after 7 years and a number of rounds of fierce competitors in group group buy, “Meituan Flash Sale” was solely formally launched as an impartial model in 2025. In the meantime, from 2015 to 2023, JD.com steadily bolstered its capabilities in provide chain, digitalization, and logistics. By integrating various service segments, together with JD Well being, JD Automotive Care, and comfort supermarkets, the corporate established a sturdy localized service chain. In 2024, constructing on this built-in capability, JD.com formally unveiled “JD Immediate Supply” as its flagship instantaneous supply service.

Desk 1: Growth Historical past of Immediate Retail Enterprise on Varied Platforms

Knowledge Supply: Public data, compiled by MoonFox Analysis Institute

I. Immediate Retail Exhibits Robust Potential, however Sustained Survival Stays Difficult

To start with, it’s important to make clear the ideas of native life companies and instantaneous retail: Native life companies seek advice from using on-line channels to show details about native brick-and-mortar companies, with transactions accomplished offline companies (via in-store visits or residence). This mannequin emphasizes “geographic relevance”. Immediate retail, as a key part of native life companies, includes delivering merchandise from native retail fashions (reminiscent of supermarkets, warehouses, and storefronts) on to customers via same-city supply. It covers a variety of classes, together with meals & drinks, contemporary produce, electronics, and prescription drugs. Companies like hourly supply, half-day supply, group group buy, and meals supply all fall throughout the scope of instantaneous retail. Its excessive time sensitivity is the important thing issue distinguishing it from conventional e-commerce and parcel supply.

The native life companies sector is continually seeing the emergence of latest entrants. Nevertheless, most of those newcomers are likely to give attention to “in-store” enterprise fashions relatively than delivery-heavy companies, because the latter demand strong and fast-changing supply ecosystems that many discover tough to maintain.

For instance, Douyin launched “Beckoning Meals Supply” in 2021 and shaped strategic partnerships with service suppliers like Ele.me, DADA, and SF Categorical. Nevertheless, after lukewarm outcomes, Douyin Life Companies pivoted its native service technique to give attention to the enterprise from group buy to in-store visits. Kwai trialed meals supply via chosen native life service retailers in 2023 however didn’t scale up, sustaining its give attention to in-store offers of group buy. DiDi tried to launch meals supply twice in China however failed each instances and has since shifted its meals supply ambitions to abroad markets in 2025. Group group buy manufacturers like Good Tuan, Chengxin Chosen and MissFresh shut down round 2023 as a result of operational difficulties…

Regardless of these setbacks, instantaneous retail nonetheless holds huge potential inside China, particularly in lower-tier markets.

Business statistics present that in 2024, China’s instantaneous retail market reached roughly RMB 780 billion, accounting for less than 6% of whole on-line retail of bodily items. The market distribution between main cities and county-level areas is roughly 7:3. By 2030, the market is anticipated to surpass RMB 2 trillion.

Desk 2: Immediate Retail Market Development in China (2018 – 2030)

Knowledge Supply: Chinese language Academy of Worldwide Commerce and Financial Cooperation, Nationwide Bureau of Statistics, Stories from SDIC Securities, compiled by MoonFox Analysis Institute.

II. Platforms Face Development Nervousness and Urgently Want New Development Curves

For JD.com, native life companies stay fertile floor with vital untapped potential. Amongst them, instantaneous retail, characterised by excessive buy frequency and speedy conversion, is undoubtedly a essential lever for driving enterprise progress and attracting UV.

Desk 3: Comparability of Totally different Retail Fashions (In Phrases of Profitability Effectivity: Immediate Retail > Conventional E-commerce > Offline Retail)

Conventional e-commerce has handed its high-growth section. In recent times, large-scale promotional occasions reminiscent of “618” and “D11” have misplaced their earlier traction, signaling shopper fatigue in direction of extreme discounting and promotional gimmicks. In response, e-commerce platforms reminiscent of Taobao, JD.com, and Vipshop have prolonged promotional intervals and launched “Billion-RMB Subsidy” to keep up whole gross sales progress. Nevertheless, Pinduoduo’s speedy rise and the rising competitiveness of rising e-commerce platforms like Douyin and Kwai have created new challenges. JD.com’s dominance, notably within the electronics product class, is now below risk from a number of fronts.

Throughout Meituan’s Q3 2024 monetary report audio convention, founder Wang Xing commented on business developments, stating that instantaneous retail will ultimately account for over 10% of the whole e-commerce market, and that Meituan Flash Sale’s progress has exceeded expectations. The 2024 monetary report famous: “In 2024, ‘Meituan Flash Warehouses’ skilled vital progress, notably in lower-tier markets, the place they’ve develop into a key progress channel for a lot of retailers. Numerous main conventional retail corporations have adopted ‘Meituan Flash Warehouse’ mannequin… As our instantaneous supply enterprise expands, we stay dedicated to constructing a sustainable ecosystem.”

In keeping with Meituan’s monetary studies from 2022 to 2024, the platform’s gross revenue margin has grown by over 30% YoY for 3 consecutive years, with its gross margin rising from 28% to 38%. Core native companies income maintained a YoY progress fee exceeding 20%, and new enterprise earnings continued to speed up. Though Meituan Flash Sale had not but formally launched, it was repeatedly highlighted in annual monetary studies over the previous 5 years as a key progress engine for the platform.

III. JD.com’s Shock PR Offensive: Speedy Growth into Meituan’s Core Territory

In early April, JD.com CEO Xu Ran acknowledged in an interview with 36Kr that the meals supply enterprise might assist JD.com enhance each consumer base and buy frequency, extending its service situations.

On April 15, a leaked 7-minute inside assembly audio recording of Liu Qiangdong revealed his views on the home meals supply business: Meals supply platform commissions can attain as excessive as 25% (generally over 30%), which he attributed to monopolistic practices that drive small and medium-sized retailers to chop meals high quality, negatively impacting the buyer expertise. He additionally proposed differentiated insurance coverage insurance policies for full-time and part-time couriers to higher safeguard their rights.

As early as 2022, Meituan’s monetary report confirmed that its meals supply enterprise had reached a peak of over 60 million orders per day. Though there’s nonetheless a big hole so as quantity between the 2 platforms, JD Meals Supply achieved over 10 million in a single day on April 22, reflecting speedy progress.

Evaluating the each day new consumer progress for service provider and courier platforms because the begin of 2025, JD Immediate Supply Service provider Version and DADA Immediate Supply Courier Version apps noticed a UV surge. In keeping with MoonFox Knowledge, JD Immediate Supply Service provider Version app peaked in each day new consumer numbers on April 24. Each platform initiatives and market responses clearly point out that JD is making a daring incursion into Meituan’s meals supply “stronghold”.

Desk 4: New Every day Person Development on Service provider & Courier Platforms (2025)

Knowledge Supply: MoonFox iApp, Knowledge Cycle: January 1, 2025 – April 27, 2025

For customers, switching between meals supply apps has low friction. With a transparent intent to order, pricing and supply time are sometimes the one decisive elements. Final summer season, Ele.me attracted UV through its “Reply to Win Free Meal” marketing campaign, which relied on extraordinarily low reductions and easy, partaking interactions. Whereas Meituan launched “Meal Group Shopping for”, considerably reducing common order worth to retain customers via quantity gross sales, although at the price of some eating expertise. As well as, Ele.me additionally tied its premium membership to Taobao’s 88VIP, leveraging excessive member stickiness from Taobao to spice up Ele.me order frequency.

For platforms, the quick migration of customers and excessive utilization frequency makes meals supply the perfect UV lever for JD.com to develop its instantaneous retail enterprise. However earlier than that, onboarding a lot of restaurant retailers and recruiting a adequate courier fleet are important. Since launching JD Meals Supply on February 11, the platform has used a variety of PR techniques to develop into a significant business subject, rapidly transferring past its chilly begin right into a section of explosive progress.

• Late February: JD took the lead in advocating reform within the meals supply sector, specializing in courier welfare. This proactive stance gave JD the higher hand within the preliminary “disagreement”. With value-driven messaging and concrete coverage help, JD.com gained public recognition and courier endorsement.
• In April, JD.com and Meituan entered a second spherical of confrontation. JD.com issued an open letter condemning Meituan’s numerous “misdeeds” and concurrently rolled out new help insurance policies and promotional advantages, as soon as once more pushing “JD Meals Supply” into the highlight throughout the web. The next day, “Liu Qiangdong Takes on Meals Supply” showcased JD’s robust dedication to creating its meals supply enterprise. With a light-hearted and humorous public picture, Liu received over netizens, who jokingly dubbed his supply persona “GG Bond”. This, coupled with the platform’s swift advertising response, sparked a brand new wave of viral consideration.

Throughout this second “disagreement” wave, though Meituan responded swiftly with rebuttals, and a few couriers questioned the accuracy of JD’s claims on social media, the incentives provided by JD helped counterbalance earlier criticism. Nevertheless, total, the varied incentives launched by the platform are serving to to offset the adverse public opinion brought on by early-stage points. JD has nonetheless managed to earn the belief of most retailers and couriers.

Desk 5: Platform-level New Person Scale Development

Knowledge Supply: MoonFox iApp, Knowledge Cycle: January 1, 2025 – April 27, 2025

Desk 6: Key Occasions within the 2025 “Meals Supply Battle”

IV. The “Meals Supply Battle” Ushers in a New Period of Immediate Retail Competitors

In April, amid the extraordinary “Meals Supply Battle” between JD.com and Meituan, each Meituan “Flash Sale” and JD’s “Self-operated Immediate Supply” companies have been launched concurrently.

Simply forward of the Labor Day vacation, “Taobao Flash Sale” went stay in 50 cities, adopted by a nationwide rollout on Might 2. To drive up order frequency through the vacation, Taobao partnered with Ele.me to subject substantial shopper subsidies reminiscent of free-order card and treat-voucher card.

In keeping with MoonFox Knowledge, since April 2025, JD.com’s each day new consumer quantity has repeatedly elevated, and has surpassed Meituan’s since April 16. Because the launch of its meals supply service, JD.com has additionally seen a gradual rise in common consumer on-line time. As of April 23, common each day on-line time reached 14.27 minutes per consumer, elevated by 54% in contrast with the identical interval final yr.

Desk 7: Adjustments in JD.com’s Energetic Person On-line Time

Knowledge Supply: MoonFox iApp, Knowledge Cycle: April 28, 2024 – April 23, 2025

Regardless of studies of points reminiscent of “inefficient processes” and “system bugs” with JD Meals Supply, there are nonetheless many shortcomings within the courier operation procedures that must be addressed. Nevertheless, pushed by advantages associated to fee charges and worker safety, a lot of couriers are switching platforms, whereas meals supply retailers and offline shops are additionally accelerating their entry into “JD Immediate Supply”. With intensified funding in enterprise improvement fashions, infrastructure development, and supporting insurance policies, each JD and Meituan are stepping up efforts to grab market share.

Desk 8: Platform Traits Comparability

Knowledge Supply: Public data, compiled by MoonFox Analysis Institute

Meituan’s instantaneous retail enterprise is an extension of its meals supply capabilities, counting on third-party franchises and offline retail retailer partnerships for warehousing, and service-provider-based courier fashions. This asset-light technique performs to Meituan’s platform operation strengths, enabling speedy territorial growth throughout cities.

JD’s instantaneous retail enterprise locations larger emphasis on its “self-operated” mannequin, leveraging its early investments in e-commerce warehousing as a key basis. It expands operations based mostly on regional success facilities whereas strengthening partnerships with offline shops, notably branded chain shops, to boost supply effectivity and guarantee product high quality, a technique that aligns with customers’ current notion of JD’s authenticity and logistics capabilities in e-commerce. The provision of native couriers primarily depends on contracted riders from DADA Immediate Supply. In recent times, JD Group’s rising fairness stake in DADA has additional strengthened its affect over last-mile supply within the instantaneous retail sector.

The eye generated by the “Meals Supply Battle” and the increase of instantaneous retail has created invisible stress for conventional e-commerce giants like Taobao. Taobao, backed by Alibaba’s huge ecosystem, together with Tmall Grocery store, Amap, Ele.me, Freshippo, and Alipay, has promising alternatives within the native life service sector. Nevertheless, the coordination between totally different enterprise items and the logistics effectivity throughout the final 3 to five kilometers stay key challenges that the platform should overcome to scale its instantaneous retail enterprise.

At current, Taobao Flash Sale seems to be a mixture of Ele.me’s authentic meals supply companies and Taobao’s earlier “hourly supply” characteristic, swiftly coming into the competitors to drive UV and consumer engagement. Throughout the Labor Day vacation, matters reminiscent of #Taobao Flash Sale Crashed# even trended on social media platforms.

For Meituan, instantaneous retail represents a brand new progress engine; For JD.com, it’s a strategic lever to drive progress throughout its whole e-commerce ecosystem. In contrast with the overt and covert competitors between the 2 giants, the speedy launch of Taobao Flash Sale is extra of a defensive transfer. Its long-term prospects stay to be seen. For now, all main platforms are nonetheless targeted on strengthening infrastructure and optimizing operational effectivity, with instantaneous retail shaping as much as be a long-term battle.

About MoonFox Knowledge

As a sub-brand of Aurora Cellular, MoonFox Knowledge is a number one professional in knowledge insights and evaluation companies throughout all situations. With a complete, secure, safe and compliant cell massive knowledge basis, in addition to skilled and exact knowledge evaluation expertise and AI algorithms, MoonFox Knowledge has launched iAPP, iBrand, iMarketing, Different Knowledge {and professional} analysis and consulting companies of MoonFox Analysis, aiming to assist corporations acquire insights into market progress and make correct enterprise selections.

About Aurora Cellular

Aurora Cellular (NASDAQ: JG) established in 2011, is a number one buyer engagement and advertising expertise service supplier in China. Its enterprise contains notification companies, advertising progress, improvement instruments, and knowledge merchandise.

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