Source: E-commerce Online (ID: dianshangmj) Author: Wang Yaqi
From occupying prime locations, competing for operators, to technological innovation, this is an all-round competition.
In the past two years, the food delivery competition between Ele.me and Meituan has been in its 1.0 stage, focusing on traffic, merchant resources, and delivery capacity. As the game progresses, with merchants largely 'online' and under the guidance of antitrust and interoperability policies, the competition has shifted to a deeper level—refined operations and service quality.
Recently, media reports have indicated that Ele.me and Meituan are quietly deploying smart food delivery cabinets, aiming to install tens of thousands by the end of this year.
E-commerce Online confirmed with Ele.me that starting this year, Ele.me has upgraded and intensified its efforts, making food delivery cabinets a strategic business that is expanding rapidly, already covering major urban areas in first-, second-, and third-tier cities. A source close to Alibaba revealed that the business, under the smart logistics division, has had its organizational structure hidden on DingTalk and Alibaba's intranet, similar to the value-for-money e-commerce platform Taote, which has also been highly valued.
Small smart food delivery cabinets are quietly expanding, becoming part of exploring new service scenarios in local life. Both Ele.me and Meituan have set their sights on this new track. The question is: how many people will accept having food delivered not to their door but to a cabinet?
A Supplementary Scenario for Food Delivery
Consumers are wary of "food not being delivered upstairs."
On Weibo, WeChat, and Douban, doubts about food delivery cabinets are often linked with parcel lockers:
"If I have to go downstairs anyway, why order delivery?"
"Parcels used to be delivered to the door, now I have to pick them up myself. Is food delivery going to do the same?"
On the consumer service platform Black Cat Complaint, there have been 190 complaints about "food not delivered" in the past three months.
Food delivery essentially solves the point-to-point scenario of dining without leaving home, and cabinets that require self-pickup seem contradictory to that. Especially after April last year, when Hive Box introduced charging policies and membership services, consumers felt their rights were infringed: originally free door-to-door parcel delivery, now they have to pay, which feels like exploitation.
From a delivery scenario perspective, food delivery and parcel delivery share many similarities—delivery personnel place food in cabinets, and consumers retrieve it by entering the last four digits of their phone number or a delivery code, similar to the Hive Box model for parcels.
In fact, you can't blame them for being similar. Food delivery cabinets and parcel lockers were born almost simultaneously during the internet entrepreneurship era, with small-scale attempts at food delivery cabinets as early as 2013. However, compared to parcels, food delivery cabinets, which focus solely on meal delivery, were not as popular, and venture capital and attention shifted to parcel lockers.
It wasn't until 2020, when the pandemic brought "contactless delivery" back into focus, that food delivery platforms like Ele.me and Meituan began to notice this easily overlooked scenario.
Unlike the first batch of entrepreneurs, with the enrichment of platform supply, food delivery cabinets now offer more diversified value to platforms.
Currently, both Meituan and Ele.me claim that their cabinets are shared and do not charge any fees to merchants, consumers, or delivery personnel.
In the short term, they still position food delivery cabinets as a supplementary scenario for food delivery, an extension of service.
They don't need to consider profitability from the start like the first batch of entrepreneurs. Nor do they need to think about a standalone profit model like Hive Box, whose main business focuses solely on parcel lockers.
For food delivery platforms, even if they don't turn a profit, cabinets can bring some traffic and expand into new markets in areas where delivery personnel cannot enter.
(Delivery personnel cannot enter campuses, so food is left on the ground)
So you'll find that the location selection for food delivery cabinets is more deliberate than for parcel lockers—an Ele.me spokesperson revealed that Ele.me's cabinets are currently focused on office buildings, industrial parks, schools, and hospitals. These scenarios share characteristics of high enclosure and complex delivery environments.
"For example, most universities do not allow delivery personnel to enter, and in some schools, food can only be left on the ground for students to pick up from dormitories, which easily leads to loss or mix-ups. Hospital delivery environments are complex, and waiting for elevators during peak hours can take over ten minutes. Office buildings are similar; some industrial parks are inaccessible, and consumers may not be able to pick up food immediately during work or meetings."
The essence of food delivery cabinets is to solve the problem of delivery failure in certain scenarios.
For communities and residential buildings where delivery and pickup are smooth, these are not the current focus for cabinet deployment. An Ele.me spokesperson said that not all food can be placed in cabinets. "For all food placed in cabinets, delivery personnel must communicate and confirm with consumers before placing it."
The reporter noticed that despite mixed attitudes toward food delivery cabinets, contrary to external expectations, the actual usage rate is not low. A local operator of food delivery cabinets in Hangzhou told E-commerce Online, "Conservatively, the usage rate is at least 50%, and in some enclosed parks, it's even higher."
Taking a smart industrial park in Hangzhou as an example, the average delivery time for Ele.me riders used to be nearly 30 minutes. With smart cabinets, orders placed in cabinets can save riders nearly half the delivery time.
Ele.me and Meituan Compete for Food Delivery Cabinets
The benefits of food delivery cabinets are tangible. For platforms, they bring incremental orders; for delivery personnel, they improve efficiency; and they help consumers solve issues like lost or stolen meals, inconvenient pickup, and hygiene concerns from contact delivery.
In several university living areas in Xiasha, Hangzhou, Meituan and Ele.me cabinets face each other, each occupying a side.
Similar scenarios are widespread. According to the self-media Can Baodian, in Chongqing, Meituan has deployed multiple smart cabinets in Yuzhong, Jiangbei, and Liangjiang New Area, while Ele.me has activated cabinets in Jiangbeizui Financial City, SFC Xiexin Center, Chongqing Hi-Tech Hilton Office Building, and Longhu Tangning.
Their expansion is rapid—Ele.me began piloting cabinets at the end of last year and within less than a year has basically covered core areas in first-, second-, and third-tier cities.
(Meituan and Ele.me cabinets side by side in competition)
(The view from this angle faces Ele.me's cabinets)
The competition between Ele.me and Meituan over cabinets is already unfolding in invisible places. Besides location competition, both platforms are expanding through operators.
The typical industry practice is: operators handle operations, and platforms handle delivery. An operator for a platform's smart cabinets said they are mainly responsible for cleaning and resolving simple consumer issues, such as handling meals not picked up after 24 hours.
Operators with property resources are often the targets of both sides. An operator working with Greentown Property told reporters that property management is not opposed to cabinets, "For them, it's also an added service and extra income. But sometimes communication isn't smooth, and there are disagreements over profit distribution."
Given the various demands, platform competition and cooperation are more intense. For example, in the same industrial park, the ground-level location with higher foot traffic is prime real estate—who gets it? This tests the negotiation skills of the expansion team.
(Ele.me and Meituan customer service numbers coexist on the same set of cabinets)
This competition has extended to deeper technological aspects. Food delivery cabinets are ultimately different from parcel lockers; they store food, requiring higher standards for storage conditions and environment. An industry insider said that no universal standard for food delivery cabinets has been established yet, and both Ele.me and Meituan are vying for industry discourse power.
For example, in August this year, Meituan, together with the China Cuisine Association, released a management specification document that sets clear requirements for the functionality, quality, location, service process, and operation of smart food pickup cabinets.
In the same month, Ele.me's cabinet materials passed the national laboratory food-contact grade standard test, becoming the first smart cabinets to pass national food safety standards. In the first half of the year, its patent applications for inventions, designs, and utility models related to smart cabinets exceeded the total for the previous year.
From occupying prime locations, competing for operators, to technological innovation, this will be an all-round competition.
Can Food Delivery Cabinets Only Hold Food?
At this stage, smart food delivery cabinets are just a supplementary scenario for food delivery. But clearly, platforms don't intend to treat them as mere boxes for food.
The logic behind platforms' smart cabinets can be compared to ice cream brands. Early on, ice cream brands built a dense offline distribution network through freezer placement.
The earliest in China was Wall's, the maker of Cornetto. After entering China in 1993, Wall's deployed an average of 6,000 freezers annually, totaling 60,000 over ten years by 2003. By providing free freezers to small retailers, its market share rose to the top.
Scaled equipment placement can achieve higher market share—a path that has been proven.
Unlike freezers, Ele.me and Meituan's cabinets are currently interoperable—unlike Wall's, which would rather take back its freezers than allow other brands to use them.
In the long run, competition among platforms will persist. For platforms, smart cabinets can be an independent business, not just for food but for more.
(Fresh food self-pickup cabinets)
In 2020, during the peak of community group buying, a batch of entrepreneurs emerged focusing on fresh food self-pickup cabinets. These cabinets often include refrigerated and frozen compartments and gravity detection software.
They provide 24-hour fresh products, allowing consumers to purchase anytime. However, this requires high control over costs and inventory, users haven't developed a habit of paying for this service, and fresh food is a high-loss category, making fresh food cabinets a low-profitability attempt.
E-commerce Online believes that fresh food cabinets could be one commercialization path for food delivery cabinets. Unlike the 2020 batch of fresh food cabinet entrepreneurs, food delivery cabinets might charge a small fee after scaling up.
This means that food delivery cabinets naturally have a large volume of food delivery orders from platforms, so profitability isn't a major concern. Innovative businesses can expand to fruits, vegetables, and other categories, with the former providing continuous support for the latter.
Looking at a higher level, Meituan has Meituan Select, Ele.me has a grocery business, and Alibaba has Hema NB and MMC community e-commerce. Scaled cabinet placement could become infrastructure for new businesses, much like Cainiao Post stations.
From community group buying to a small food delivery cabinet, the forms of commercial retail are constantly changing, and it's hard to say which is the brightest path. But for now, it's still too early to discuss these business extensions. In the short term, the battle between Ele.me and Meituan over food delivery cabinets will continue. Scaling is a more forward-looking indicator than commercialization.
Are you "watching" me?