China's rural e-commerce accelerates development driven by diversified competition
On December 12, Liu Yulan, chairman of the China Association of Productivity Promotion Centers under the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Commerce, by the end of the third quarter of 2016, 350,000 rural e-commerce service outlets had been established nationwide, covering more than half of all administrative villages across the country. In some villages, "multiple coverage" has already emerged, with several e-commerce platforms setting up operations at the same time. At present, driven by the combined efforts of all parties, China's rural e-commerce development has shown a momentum of "the light boat has already passed ten thousand mountains."
Speaking that day at the High-level Forum on the First Anniversary of the Implementation of the State Council's "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Accelerated Development of Rural E-commerce" held in Beijing, Liu Yulan said that since 2014, China has been advancing rural e-commerce for more than two years, and its development has shown three major characteristics: the policy system for rural e-commerce is accelerating its formation, a pattern of diversified competition is beginning to take shape, and the development process of rural e-commerce is noticeably faster than expected.
Liu Yulan said that the pattern of diversified competition comes from the penetration of e-commerce giants such as Alibaba and JD.com, the high-profile entry of "national team" players such as China Post, and nearly 20 agriculture-related listed companies carrying out rural e-commerce businesses. The initial formation of this pattern of diversified competition has enabled rural e-commerce to break through its difficulties. By conservative estimates, there are more than 1,000 local rural e-commerce platforms nationwide. As the coverage of rural e-commerce rapidly expands, rural e-commerce consumption is also increasing rapidly. Statistics show that on the basis of 353 billion yuan in 2015, the scale of rural online shopping reached 316 billion yuan in the first half of 2016.
During the forum, channel partners and suppliers that have long been committed to deeply cultivating China's rural market formally signed contracts with Happy Farmhouse, forming a brand cooperation alliance to jointly advance the development of China's rural e-commerce industry. Chen Qiang, chairman of Beijing Happy Farmhouse Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that as China's fastest-growing new rural e-commerce chain enterprise, Happy Farmhouse takes "rebuilding the rural commercial ecosystem" as its entry point and takes "one in, one out, building China's most valuable internet rural commercial resource integration platform" as its mission. By integrating the commercial resources of traditional rural supermarkets, it provides diversified commercial services to rural areas, while bringing the most original and safest agricultural and sideline products from rural areas to urban consumers.
It is reported that Happy Farmhouse has now completed the outlet development of nearly 100 county-level subsidiaries and a market layout of nearly 2,000 rural franchise supermarkets in 4 provinces and regions: Hebei, Henan, Anhui, and Inner Mongolia. In 2017, Happy Farmhouse's rural e-commerce chain will expand to 18 provinces nationwide, and is expected to complete franchising for more than 30,000 rural supermarkets.