ByteDance’s Douyin App Launches Supermarket Business

Chinese users from all over the country can now access online supermarket shopping services on ByteDance’s short video app Douyin, Tech Planet reported on January 28.

The available products cover dairy, cleaning supplies, alcoholic beverages, health products, and others. Users can enjoy delivery services after purchasing their order. Douyin is also launching a flash promotion category every day, emphasizing “real subsidy, buy with peace of mind” and “there’s no comparison, this is the lowest price in 30 days.”

According to industry analysts, the move was made based on differences between consumer groups, and according to the current consumption habits and user trends, customers who buy products offline will gradually use online channels.

Douyin aims at seizing the differential market between large supermarkets and convenience stores, realizing a complete range of categories, and meeting the consumer demand for quick delivery. At present, Meituan, JD.com, and Alibaba also focus on their own supermarket businesses, realizing the linkage between online and offline customers.

Chinese media outlet Huxiu reported that in early 2022, Douyin’s supermarket business was developed by the e-commerce department of ByteDance, which was regarded as a rival to JD Supermarket.

Douyin’s supermarket team has cooperated with hundreds of thousands of merchants, and will set up supply chains and purchasing departments. These units will jointly cooperate with merchants to complete product links and offline store expansion. The channels of performance are mainly divided into offline stores, commodity cash flow, logistics and warehousing flow.

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JD Supermarket allows small brands to operate on the platform. Meituan mainly focuses on distribution, while Douyin will set up warehouses, increase cooperation with major logistics companies, then gradually complete user-side optimization.

The annual target of Douyin’s supermarket distribution business in 2022 is 10 billion yuan ($1.47 billion). However, an insider said that its gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the first three quarters of 2022 is only over 1 billion yuan, which is far from the annual target.