---
title: "Amid Consumption Shifts in Neighborhood Stores, a New Instant Retail Format Is Taking Shape"
description: "Between the distant and the self lies a vast middle ground—the nearby. Two years ago, Luo Zhenyu emphasized that observing the same thing from a distant gaze versus a nearby perspective yields different views. As the world returns to normal, he believes the keyword for the recovering 2023 business landscape is 'the nearby is a sea of stars.' Diverse forms of the nearby are emerging, replacing familiar street cries, as local commerce rebuilds daily relationships with communities. The value of the nearby is the force behind the recovery and growth of local retail, which has developed new formats like instant retail as consumers increasingly choose to shop locally."
author: "古廿"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2023-01-18"
language: "en"
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# Amid Consumption Shifts in Neighborhood Stores, a New Instant Retail Format Is Taking Shape

> Between the distant and the self lies a vast middle ground—the nearby. Two years ago, Luo Zhenyu emphasized that observing the same thing from a distant gaze versus a nearby perspective yields different views. As the world returns to normal, he believes the keyword for the recovering 2023 business landscape is 'the nearby is a sea of stars.' Diverse forms of the nearby are emerging, replacing familiar street cries, as local commerce rebuilds daily relationships with communities. The value of the nearby is the force behind the recovery and growth of local retail, which has developed new formats like instant retail as consumers increasingly choose to shop locally.

Between the distant and the self lies a vast middle ground—the nearby.
Two years ago, Luo Zhenyu emphasized that observing the same thing from a distant gaze versus a nearby perspective yields different views. Simply put, sometimes to see a broader world, an observer should shift their perspective.
As the world gradually returns to normal, facing the recovering business landscape of 2023, Luo Zhenyu believes the keyword is 'the nearby is a sea of stars.'
Diverse forms of the nearby are rapidly emerging, replacing familiar street cries, as local commerce rebuilds new daily relationships with communities. Street restaurants, small shops, and bistro bars that once played important roles are making a comeback in new formats, constructing myriad scenes of the nearby. The value of the nearby lies in the power of local retail recovery and growth. After the pandemic, local retail has once again become consumers' first choice by serving community residents well and integrating into convenient living circles. As more consumers choose to spend nearby, the local retail industry has developed new formats like instant retail, further accumulating momentum for recovery.
### **Reconstruction of Nearby Diversity**
In 'Thirteen Talks,' renowned scholar Xiang Biao lamented to Xu Zhiyuan about 'the disappearance of the nearby.' This nearby can be understood as the buffer zone between the individual and the external world, with the power to stabilize personal life. In the PC internet era, people naturally immersed themselves in the nearby, knowing whom to call for a clogged drain, which supermarket had the best discounts, and what new restaurants had opened around the neighborhood. In the mobile internet era, smartphones have brought individuals closer to the distant. The beautiful stories of 'the world is so big' on phone screens always seem more attractive than the nearby, and young people's bodies and souls are always on the move. Those yearning for the distance inevitably neglect the daily nearby, and we have fewer reasons to connect with people around us. The nearby may be overlooked, but it never disappears. Last year, a Shanghai netizen's pandemic sharing sparked discussion: a homeowner placed cola in the lobby for neighbors, saying 'anyone who wants a drink can take it.' Subsequently, neighbors took the cola and left chili sauce, skincare products, instant noodles, and other supplies. Within hours, 'a box of cola' turned into 'a small shop,' with pet diapers, luxury skincare, coffee, beer, and more scattered on the floor. Similar scenes happen all the time. Everyone's nearby became the smallest front for overcoming difficulties together, and many understood for the first time that 'a close neighbor is better than a distant relative.' The concept of nearby discussed by scholars was limited to the physical disappearance of communities. **Now, 'nearby' is no longer just about neighborhoods and neighbors; it has shifted from a social perspective to a commercial one, with the value of local supply being rediscovered.** During the pandemic, 'certainty' in consumption became a consensus. Online shopping during special times became an unattainable 'distance,' and compared to delivery packages with unknown arrival times, consumers increasingly recognized the efficiency of 30-minute local delivery. 'Buy everything via delivery' instant retail is not only reshaping consumption habits but also reconstructing the diversity of the nearby. In his New Year's speech a few days ago, Luo Zhenyu cited the case of the restaurant brand Nanchengxiang. While everyone was finding their way out during the three-year pandemic, Nanchengxiang doubled its store count and achieved an average daily revenue of 30,000 yuan per store, a counter-trend growth. For Nanchengxiang's growth, food delivery expert Tan Daqian previously summarized four keywords: 'three full, one small'—in meal pairing, combining products along children's needs. On this product basis, achieve full category, full time period, and full population coverage. Nanchengxiang's ability to achieve three full coverages is the result of local commercial digital prosperity. Growth is not only the result of correct methodology but also of keeping up with trends in operational changes. Nanchengxiang's single-store model, honed as a community dining store, is also a major factor in its counter-trend expansion to 120 stores. **Behind seemingly counter-trend brand performance often lies a business trend that is being followed.** As Luo Zhenyu pointed out, the business trend 'the nearby is a sea of stars' is also supported by macro-level data showing the value of the nearby is being reassessed. National Bureau of Statistics data shows that among urban residents' consumption expenditures, more than 50% are living consumption expenditures, including food, tobacco and alcohol, clothing, daily necessities and services, and education, culture, and entertainment. **Multiple national consumer surveys show that of the 50% living expenditures, another 50%-60% have strong local consumption characteristics, typically resolved within a one-kilometer radius of residence.** During the three-year pandemic, consumers realized that nearby small shops can better meet immediate needs, and people need to build a sense of belonging through the real life of the 'nearby.' Merchants discovered that deepening local operations and serving nearby users is also a strategy. Both supply and demand sides have jointly matured local retail, and small shops hidden in communities have begun to emerge.
### **Local Merchants Following the Trend**
As digitalization of local business formats deepens, the reassessment of the nearby's value is also being written into urban development plans. In October 2021, the Ministry of Commerce announced the first batch of 30 pilot cities for '15-minute convenient living circles.' The plan proposes establishing community business circles within a 15-minute walking radius around residential communities, including vegetable markets, convenience stores, restaurants, pharmacies, and repair services, to meet residents' daily needs. **Not only infrastructure construction for local supply around communities, but the construction of 15-minute convenient living circles also needs to incorporate more technological means.** Government work opinions point out the need to encourage the application of 5G, big data, AI, IoT, and other technologies to develop innovative models such as contactless transactions, smart settlement, and online ordering with in-store pickup or delivery, expanding the application scenarios of convenient living circles. Relying on local life service platforms like Meituan, more local merchants cover a wider range of service scenarios, becoming one of the cores of nearby economic development. **For businesspeople, following the trend is often the most effective way to grow.** Zhou Yu, born in the 1990s, and his wife run a grocery store in Beijing. In less than a year, the small shop has recouped its costs and is profitable every month. In the last month, combined offline and online revenue approached 1 million yuan, with Meituan platform sales alone reaching 550,000 yuan. Talking about the methodology for monthly sales of one million, store manager Zhou Yu believes: put the small shop on the delivery platform and operate all time periods and all categories. Even if offline traffic drops significantly, the shop's business can surge online through delivery. 'After the optimization of epidemic prevention policies, our online orders still account for a large proportion. In the backend, we can see many consumers have already repurchased dozens of times online.' **If following the trend is about eating the trend dividend of business changes, then long-term growth depends on the wisdom and diligence of the merchants themselves.** Wuhan Geek Life Supermarket maintains around 5,000 SKUs year-round, making it the instant retail small shop with the most single items locally, equivalent to the scale of a medium-sized supermarket. Owner Zhang Yuanbo has run supermarkets for 10 years; Geek Life Supermarket is the first store primarily operating online. On the first day, it had only 9 online orders; now it has over 5,000 orders a month. From 9 orders on the first day to 5,000 now, the long-term growth behind it is Zhang Yuanbo's foresight of the rise of local retail and the courage to list on the delivery platform early. Zhang Yuanbo frankly stated: the supermarket updates about 10% of SKUs monthly, eliminating poor sellers and adding new products, a large portion of which are internet-famous products from social media. The product update strategy is mainly based on Meituan sales data; we can often predict some bestsellers and sell whatever is hot. In her view, online operations are not easier than offline, but as long as you find the knack and use data to guide, you can definitely optimize and improve. **For local merchants, following the trend for growth is the explosive power of new formats, and at this level, instant retail provides new opportunities.** In building the foundation for local commercial digital prosperity, instant retail is clearly becoming a long-term operational position for every local merchant.
### **Abandoning Traffic Thinking**
### **Returning to the Supply-Demand Essence of the Local Retail Ecosystem**
When the industry develops to a certain extent and the brand enhancement that online can bring is relatively limited, shifting to more integration of offline and online is an inevitable evolution. In the first half, everyone may focus more on traffic acquisition; in the second half, it's about improving service quality. Traditional e-commerce brought extreme efficiency improvements. With highly developed social logistics systems, industrial belt and brand products are supplied to consumers nationwide at cost-effective prices. But in this business ecosystem, traffic is king has become the basic rule. Under the logic of traffic * conversion = transaction, consumers have become cold 'traffic,' and merchants are all chasing traffic to convert into transactions. But now retail has entered the second half of competition; consumers are no longer satisfied with the richness of products but pursue the certainty of 'buy now, get now.' At the same time, in the instant retail model, both products and services are based on local supply, with a single store serving community consumers within a 3-5 kilometer radius. The traffic logic no longer applies; operators must focus more on accurately grasping differentiated consumer needs. A thoughtful store owner will survey the surrounding community, study the composition of residents, and adjust their store's products accordingly. For example, near young people's communities, they stock more internet-famous products and adjust according to the season. In spring, they add camping picnic mats and barbecue charcoal; in summer, mosquito repellent and sunscreen. Furthermore, the digital ecosystem built on local supply in instant retail, with its long-term interaction, also provides more opportunities for real connections with the nearby. **The return of the nearby requires both the convenience and efficiency brought by digitalization and the life's hustle and bustle brought by eye contact.** Driven by technological progress, retail formats can better return to people's real needs and the warmth of the integration of people, goods, and scenes. The needs of the nearby, the warmth of the nearby, the experience of the nearby. **As a sustainable new format, instant retail is not a huge retail revolution but a redefinition of lifestyle based on familiar cognition and touchpoints of local commerce.** This is the value origin of industry thinking behind digital commerce and the commercial result of the virtual and real coexistence of humanity and technology in this era.


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