Xiaomi Opens Delivery Service on Meituan
William Lu, partner of Xiaomi and general manager of the Redmi brand, made a post on Weibo on Tuesday asking netizens to try something new: “Search Mi Home on Meituan, and new products will be delivered in half an hour at the fastest!” This Weibo post has been regarded by the industry as the official announcement of the cooperation between Xiaomi and Meituan.
As early as October 2021, the two sides have started cooperative experiments. At present, there are more than 3,000 Mi Home outlets on the Meituan platform, covering 276 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Chengdu. These service outlets provide shoppers with the ability to instantly purchase items from a range of categories including smartphones, clothing, smart home and personal care.
One person in charge of the digital product category of Meituan‘s flash purchase services spoke about the affect of the partnership on sales: “After Mi Home became available on Meituan last year, its average monthly growth rate has remained at around 5 times. In addition to smartphones and tablets, other products have also sold well, including smart wearable devices such as Bluetooth headsets and smart bands, and home electronics like fascia guns, water flossers and electric screwdrivers. Small household appliances have also done well with rice cookers and electric kettles selling well.”
Since the first delivery of the Huawei P40 through Meituan in 2020, digital brands and distributors have begun to offer flash purchase services with the platform. According to people familiar with the matter, the number of digital 3C brands working with Meituan’s flash purchase in 2021 has more than tripled compared with that in 2020, and there are now nearly 10,000 digital brand outlets on Meituan, covering 299 cities across China.
For this cooperation with Meituan’s flash purchase, Xiaomi‘s spokesperson said that the main users of digital 3C products are young people who update frequently, are looking for the latest thing and don’t want to wait. This description fits with the users who often browse Meituan’s flash purchase’s offerings. The ability to be able to place an order online and have it delivered to their door within 30 minutes is a new growth opportunity for physical Mi Home outlets.
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Accenture’s latest report titled “Meet China’s Gen-Z Consumers” also shows that more than 50% of Gen-Z consumers want to receive their orders the same they place them. They will cancel orders if the delivery time is unclear but are willing to pay extra for express delivery.
