Watsons’ and Sephora race to be first in last mile unmanned, same-day deliveries in China
In China, same-day deliveries are becoming increasingly commonplace. With competition for the “last mile” of delivery becoming more intense, delivery apps are becoming the new sales channels for retail. We take a closer look at this, as well as the current unmanned delivery market, where a number of platforms are progressing development at a rapid pace.
Watsons and Sephora start deliveries through major food delivery services
Immediate delivery of goods, including cosmetics, is getting a boost from food delivery apps in China. With the spread of COVID-19, the number of people using these services has increased, with demand driven by enforced lockdowns. Alibaba Group subsidiary ELEME and Tencent subsidiary Meituan are competing neck and neck against each other for market share, and the services have now started handling not only food but also a wider range of goods, from everyday necessities to over-the-counter drugs, as well as handling the delivery the goods from supermarkets and drugstores.
In the field of beauty, Watsons moved early, starting deliveries via ELEME in 2018. Since then, others have started registering on ELEME as well, including Watsons rival Mannings and cosmetics specialty chain GIALEN.
Meanwhile on the Meituan platform, Sephora started deliveries in April 2020, with their goods being delivered from their Beijing and Shanghai stores. Watsons has also started deliveries through Meituan, along with new cosmetics retailer chain THE COLORIST.
As more and more beauty retail stores register with these food delivery services, brands have also started looking into food delivery apps. Innisfree by Amorepacific was the first beauty brand to start deliveries through ELEME in June 2020. From around 200 stores they’re delivering more than 300 kinds of products. At fastest they’re able to deliver in 30 minutes, although it depends on the distance from store to destination. Other brands are following suit, with Chinese skincare brand “AFU” also having started deliveries.
Meanwhile, New Zealand skincare brand “geoskincare”, which has a famous cream-type face mask for use before bed, sealed a strategic partnership contract with ELEME in October. Both parties will cooperate to announce new products and conduct digital marketing, and geoskincare will also be available through ELEME. The plan is to eventually have 8,000 stores nationwide handling the brand’s goods, with services having already begun in around 1,500 stores in major cities including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
Meituan opens a retail store that uses unmanned delivery vehicles
As rivalry among food delivery apps becomes more intense, the competitors are actively incorporating new technologies in order to stand out from the crowd. In 2018, ELEME began deliveries by drone in an area within the Jinshan industrial district on the outskirts of Shanghai.
On the other hand, Meituan started researching unmanned delivery vehicles back in 2016, and by 2018 started test driving them inside office buildings. Also, in February when the coronavirus crisis was ongoing in China, they made deliveries using their unmanned delivery vehicle “MAD” in a part of Shunyi District in Beijing.
Furthermore, in October Meituan opened the retail store “MAI Shop” that incorporates unmanned delivery vehicles within Beijing’s Shougang Park, an event space for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Visitors to the park make orders through the custom app and, once the orders are checked through the store system, a MAD vehicle will automatically pick them up and deliver them. Customers can receive their order by inputting an authentication code sent to their smartphone.
ELEME has yet to announce any integrations of unmanned delivery vehicles, but Alibaba Group did announce the delivery robot “Xiaomanlv” along with a cloud computer at the annual Alibaba Cloud event “Apsara Conference 2020” that was held in September.
This robot, developed by Alibaba Group’s global research institute DAMO, is able to carry 50 standard-size packages. If it makes 10 rounds in a day, it’s calculated to be able to deliver up to 500 packages. It can run for 100 km on one charge, has high safety levels, and can detect danger within 0.01 seconds and come to a halt.
JD.com Inc. leads with unmanned deliveries
Leading in the field of unmanned deliveries is JD.com Inc. that operates the JD.com site. From 2016 they started delivering by drone in rural districts. In 2017, they invested in unmanned delivery vehicles and, while the areas they operate in remain limited, they’re active in 20 cities. In 2019, they formed an agreement with Japan’s Rakuten to have them implement JD.com Inc.’s drones and unmanned delivery vehicles.
Back when Wuhan was in lockdown, JD.com Inc.’s unmanned delivery vehicles were put to work delivering supplies to the Ninth Hospital of Wuhan for treating COVID-19 patients.
Furthermore, at the Fifth Global Smart Supply Chain Summit held in October, JD Logistics CEO Zhenhui Wang made clear his intention to build “a city of unmanned deliveries” through a partnership with Changshu City, Jiangsu Province.
The city has permitted the use of unmanned delivery vehicles, and already over 30 are in operation, with another 100 planned to be implemented by the end of the year. They have five different kinds of vehicle models, each having separate uses. The largest type can transport loads of 2 m2 and, depending on the model, some can deliver over 500 standard-size packages in one go.
5G and China’s version of GPS accelerate the uptake of unmanned deliveries
It’s predicted that the use of unmanned deliveries will escalate through the proliferation of 5G usage. However, there’s another technology that could also contribute: the satellite positioning system BeiDou.
BeiDou, the Chinese version of America’s global positioning system (or GPS), launched its 55th satellite in June. This was the final satellite, marking the completion of BeiDou’s satellite positioning system, which has been 20 years in the making since the first one was launched in 2000. China now no longer needs to rely on America’s GPS technology.
With the expanded usage of 5G and the BeiDou system, unmanned deliveries may quickly grow to become an everyday service in China. Naturally, delivery apps are likely to make use of these systems. It won’t be long until China will have same-day — or even 30 to 60 minute — deliveries of cosmetics.
Text: Ching Li Tor
Original text (Japanese): Team Roboteer
