Thailand News: China's Delivery Services are Too Fast! Thailand's Ministry of Commerce: Study the Model Quickly!

On July 29th, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce Jurin Laksanawisit expressed that currently, Thai enterprises need to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing consumer trends to meet consumers' demand for convenience. To this end, he instructed the commerce team to continuously conduct market research and surveys to help Thai enterprises and stakeholders keep pace with the business trends of the new era.

Jurin noted that he recently received a report from Alarnu, Director of the Trade Promotion Office of Thailand in Guangzhou, China. The report pointed out that currently, major Chinese e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Taobao, and Meituan are adjusting their business competition strategies, focusing on rapid delivery to satisfy Chinese consumers' demands at any time. This has led to the introduction of a new delivery model, "Instant Delivery," which is highly popular among Chinese consumers.

Alarnu pointed out that since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese consumer behavior has changed, with an increasing number of people choosing to shop online and demanding faster delivery speeds. Approximately 75% of consumers expect to receive their orders on the same day of purchase, rather than waiting 3-5 days like traditional e-commerce. The new retail model of "Instant Delivery" has effectively responded to these changes in Chinese consumer behavior.

Data from the "2023 Instant Retail Industry Development Report" shows that in China's first-tier cities, up to 64% of consumers choose to place online orders with delivery completed within 30 minutes, and it is expected that this business model will become the primary consumption pattern for Chinese consumers in the future.

In early June, Alibaba launched the "Hourly Arrival" instant delivery service on its Taobao app, encompassing stores located outside the province as well as those nearby the consumer's location. Customers can receive their orders within an hour of placing them. Additionally, apps like Ele.me and Meituan also offer "delivery within an hour" services, allowing users to choose from over 10 million products from more than 300,000 supermarkets, flower shops, and fruit stores on platforms like Tmall Supermarket, Taoxianda, and Hema Supermarket.

Furthermore, China's major e-commerce company JD.com has launched the "JD Instant Delivery" service, with delivery times as fast as 9 minutes. Its service covers large supermarkets, 24-hour convenience stores, fresh food markets, etc., and consumers can select from various categories including mobile and digital products, medicines, beverages, household items, fresh food, and flowers. The checkout page provides delivery time options, with orders within 2-5 kilometers containing multiple items having the fastest delivery time of 17 minutes and the slowest of 40 minutes.

Moreover, the Douyin platform has also launched its "Douyin E-commerce" service, quickly gaining popularity among consumers. Recently, Douyin introduced its hourly delivery service, attracting numerous large supermarkets and small shops, including Xiaomi Home, Pupu Supermarket, JD Seven Fresh, IKEA Flower Shop, and Fairy Flower Shop. These stores offer products ranging from fruits, groceries, flowers, snacks, beverages, digital products, to medicines.

Jurin emphasized that for Thai enterprises to compete in the fiercely competitive Chinese market and keep up with the pace of modern business, relevant institutions, exporters, and Thai retail enterprises must study the evolving new market strategies to apply them to domestic ordering and delivery services, thereby promoting consumption growth and stimulating local store spending, including that of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Simultaneously, leveraging technology to improve production, marketing, and overall production and logistics chain management can increase local income.