Monday, July 3, 2017



Despite its US $ 150 Million investment Alibaba has been quite low-key running the Hema Markets chain…
Hema Market (盒马集市) is a rather premium, fresh offline chain here in Shanghai that refuses to label itself as a “supermarket” but rather as an “e-commerce experience store”. 
Hema Market is like an expanded version of C!ty'super (premium supermarkets). Its main focus is fresh food and dry grocery.

Main features of the Hema stores:
  1. They are Cashless…(cash looks like a dying king)
  2. One can only pay with Alipay
  3. The stores are used for pick-up for online delivery within the same day only and as fast as within 1 hour. 
  4. The Hema APP has to be downloaded for starting shopping online.
  5. Digital price tags are installed in store for an efficient pricing
A little bit of background info: Hema (“盒马”) is a homophone and wordplay of hippo (河马), replacing “river” with “box” --a name associated with other members of the “Alibaba Zoo” (previously they've rolled out Tmall -- cat, Alitrip -- pig, Antgroup -- ant, etc).
In early 2016, Hema made the transition from fresh food e-commerce and food delivery to offline markets. They opened their stores in places that are a bit further away from downtown Shanghai. This latest store opened a couple of months ago, located in the busy part of Pudong, underneath the shopping complex Shanghai Bay.

The Hema Market could be divided roughly in two parts:
Part one: Classic supermarket with dry food (imports and local), pre-packed fruits and pre-packed veggies, dairy, beverages… To be noted that he store has installed the digital price tags… 


Part two: Third party food and beverage consignment like many food courts that we can find in China. Shops were busy this lunch and quite premium.

Hema employees can be seen taking and processing orders from online shoppers. They're selecting items, packaging them, and sending them off to the delivery department using conveyor belts. 

According to some of my colleagues here, they tried Hema delivery and were all satisfied with the prices, efficiency of delivery and quality of the goods they ordered, which for fresh goods is a deal breaker.
Interesting to see how clients are accepting these cashless stores, interesting to see Alibaba keeping investing on the offline retail... #makeretailgreatagain..
Written by Stephane JOLY, Shanghai, Altavia Asia
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