Coronavirus a boon for China’s tech-savvy supermarkets as homebound customers switch to online grocery orders
- Supermarket chains that have been actively improving their e-commerce services have reaped the rewards as people opt for home delivery
- Products such as fresh food that were previously sold overwhelmingly offline have seen huge rise in online orders during the health crisis
The deadly coronavirus outbreak has dealt a heavy blow to shops across China, as hundreds of millions of people stay home amid efforts to contain the epidemic.
But savvy supermarket chains that have been actively improving their e-commerce services have reaped the rewards as more customers opt to order their groceries online for home delivery.
Sun Art Retail Group, China’s largest hypermarket operator by market share, is a case in point. Its online sales almost quadrupled during the Lunar New Year holiday from the same period last year, according to chief executive Peter Huang.
“The outbreak is a crisis, but opportunities also abound in it. We are seeing a rapid growth in online orders, which proved that our digital transformation that started two years ago was the right decision,” said Huang during a post-earnings press conference on Friday.
While nearly 80 per cent of the 486 hypermarkets run by Sun Art were shut at the height of the epidemic on February 4, their revenue remained steady, he said, as residents switched to ordering fresh food and groceries deliveries online.
Sales via online channels are expected to make up a fifth of overall the group’s sales in 2020, up from 15 per cent last year, Huang said.
The Covid-19 outbreak has claimed over 2,240 lives and infected more than 76,710 people since it erupted in January. While the Chinese government allowed some companies to return to work last week after a prolonged holiday, many have asked employees to work from home to avoid infection.