By Li Qiuying in Shanghai China News Service “Setting an alarm clock to buy food,” “what I eat today depends on what is still available on the online platform,” “what wakes me up every day is not the alarm clock but my desire for fresh vegetables.” … During the epidemic, ordering food online becomes the choice of many consumers. The fresh produce e-commerce platforms, which were previously hit by high costs, huge waste and high inventory, have ushered in a new life in the epidemic. “Since the epidemic broke out, we have been running at a high speed,” said Zhao Yuanyuan, a produce picker at New Jiangwan Store of Fresh Hema. She was jokingly called “daily marathoner” by her friends as she walked 60,000 steps per day. Zhao’s job was to select, scan and package products for customers from various shelves. During the period when people had to stay at home, she walked a total of over 600,000 steps, equivalent to running a marathon every day. On top of that, Pu Jing, manager of Fresh Hema’s New Jiangwan Store, found that even after the epidemic eased, the number of online order maintained growth, and offline traffic flow rebounded significantly. Data showed that during the epidemic, more than 200 Fresh Hema stores across the country achieved growth in both online and offline channels. Online traffic was nearly three times the same period last year, while the proportion of online order increased from 50% to 80%. In February, Dingdong Maicai had revenue of more than 1.2 billion yuan. The proportion of new customers that grow organically every day at Dingdong now rises to 70% from 25% before the epidemic. Statistics from the Shanghai Commission of Commerce also showed that in the first quarter of 2020, the cumulative turnover of fresh produce e-commerce in Shanghai was 8.8 billion yuan. In February, when the epidemic was the worst, Shanghai’s main fresh produce e-commerce platforms had 500,000 orders a day, selling about 150 tons of pork and 500 tons of vegetables. As production and life gradually recover, the focus now is whether fresh produce e-commerce will continue to embrace opportunities or growth was just short-lived. Recently, the city has unveiled “Shanghai’s Action Plan for Promoting Online New Economy (2020-2022),” thus giving a strong shot in the arm to fresh produce e-commerce. The “Action Plan” clearly states that Shanghai will expand fresh produce e-commerce, vigorously promote the development of new consumption formats such as “digital food markets,” accelerate the development of contactless delivery, and encourage the development of smart retail terminals. The aim is to create a batch of e-commerce platforms with big demonstration effect, strong driving effect, and great market influence. The city will nurture and strengthen emerging consumption patterns in a bid to promote the new online economy. Fresh Hema is undoubtedly the most active responder to this wave of favorable policies. In mid-March, Fresh Hema said that it planned to open 100 Fresh Hema member stores and 100 Hema mini stores this year. On April 17, construction of the US$100 million Hema base kicked off in Hangtou Town, Pudong New Area. Hou Yi, vice president of Alibaba Group and president of Hema Business Division, said: “As Alibaba’s pioneer in exploring new retail, Hema’s success is inseparable from the nourishment of the land in Shanghai. We can say that the results achieved by Hema are also Shanghai’s achievements in encouraging innovation and promoting the development of the new online economy.” From Yiguo Fresh to Hema and Dingdong, many fresh produce e-commerce companies favor Shanghai. Economist Song Qinghui analyzed: “Shanghai’s market is highly open and has an excellent supply chain, which helps fresh produce e-commerce companies in Shanghai to carry out business in time. It is conducive to the long-term development of enterprises. Also, the consumption power in Shanghai is quite strong and people pay more attention to health.” Professor Du Li, a researcher at the Shanghai Institute of International Finance and Economics and executive director of the Center for Public Economics Research at Fudan University, also said that a good business environment and transparent regulations are part of the reasons why companies choose Shanghai. During the epidemic, social media platforms were flooded with users’ complaints about many food-purchasing apps for insufficient supply and slow delivery. Behind these phenomena are supply chain problems faced by fresh produce e-commerce companies. Fu Yifu, a senior researcher at Suning Institute of Finance, said: “In the future, fresh produce e-commerce platforms should focus on using digital technology to empower traditional industries and using information technology to open up the supply chain system.” Pan Helin, executive dean of the Digital Economic Research Institute of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, also emphasized the importance of digital technology. “How to use digital technology to improve operation and production capabilities is an important issue that fresh produce e-commerce platforms will face," he said. Du reminded: “In the future, companies should pay close attention to the introduction of new policies, especially in the areas of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Yangtze River Delta Integrated Development Demonstration Zone, because the policies in these areas are more specific and may be more powerful.”