---
title: "From Traditional Retail to Launching Meituan Flash Warehouse: 3 Years, 21 Stores, 20% Net Profit, Practical Experience Sharing!"
description: "In 2020, Meituan Flash Purchase launched Meituan Flash Warehouse, a pure online convenience store front-warehouse model focused on serving online users, with consumers ordering online and receiving delivery in as fast as half an hour. To date, Meituan Flash Warehouse has expanded to over 200 cities, with partner merchants opening more than 4,000 warehouses, achieving explosive growth. Many friends in the traditional FMCG industry have consulted New Distribution about whether Meituan Flash Warehouse's rapid development presents an opportunity to enter the market and how to do so. Recently, New Distribution conducted an exclusive interview with Liang Qizhi, founder of Guangzhou Youkeduo. In 2016, he started offline convenience stores in Guangzhou, and in 2020, he partnered with Meituan Flash Warehouse to establish Youkeduo. From opening his first Meituan Flash Warehouse store in 2020 to August this year, he has opened 21 stores, with average daily sales per store exceeding 10,000 yuan and top stores exceeding 18,000 yuan, achieving a net profit margin of over 20%."
author: "周群"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2023-08-17"
categories: "E-commerce & Instant Retail"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/M-DtiWkKTekgCtzmdJQL0g"
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citation: "周群. “From Traditional Retail to Launching Meituan Flash Warehouse: 3 Years, 21 Stores, 20% Net Profit, Practical Experience Sharing!.” New Distribution, 2023-08-17. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/from-traditional-retail-to-launching-meituan-flash-warehouse-3-years-21-9e1eb2a8/"
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---

# From Traditional Retail to Launching Meituan Flash Warehouse: 3 Years, 21 Stores, 20% Net Profit, Practical Experience Sharing!

> In 2020, Meituan Flash Purchase launched Meituan Flash Warehouse, a pure online convenience store front-warehouse model focused on serving online users, with consumers ordering online and receiving delivery in as fast as half an hour. To date, Meituan Flash Warehouse has expanded to over 200 cities, with partner merchants opening more than 4,000 warehouses, achieving explosive growth. Many friends in the traditional FMCG industry have consulted New Distribution about whether Meituan Flash Warehouse's rapid development presents an opportunity to enter the market and how to do so. Recently, New Distribution conducted an exclusive interview with Liang Qizhi, founder of Guangzhou Youkeduo. In 2016, he started offline convenience stores in Guangzhou, and in 2020, he partnered with Meituan Flash Warehouse to establish Youkeduo. From opening his first Meituan Flash Warehouse store in 2020 to August this year, he has opened 21 stores, with average daily sales per store exceeding 10,000 yuan and top stores exceeding 18,000 yuan, achieving a net profit margin of over 20%.

In 2020, Meituan Flash Purchase launched Meituan Flash Warehouse, a pure online convenience store front-warehouse model focused on serving online users, with consumers ordering online and receiving delivery in as fast as half an hour. To date, Meituan Flash Warehouse has expanded to over 200 cities, with partner merchants opening more than 4,000 warehouses, achieving explosive growth. Many friends in the traditional FMCG industry have consulted New Distribution about whether Meituan Flash Warehouse's rapid development presents an opportunity to enter the market and how to do so. Recently, New Distribution conducted an exclusive interview with Liang Qizhi, founder of Guangzhou Youkeduo. In 2016, he started offline convenience stores in Guangzhou, and in 2020, he partnered with Meituan Flash Warehouse to establish Youkeduo. From opening his first Meituan Flash Warehouse store in 2020 to August this year, he has opened 21 stores, with average daily sales per store exceeding 10,000 yuan and top stores exceeding 18,000 yuan, achieving a net profit margin of over 20%. Through three years of effort, Guangzhou Youkeduo has achieved deep coverage of its operating area with its warehouse stores. From the perspective of the retail industry, how should we understand Meituan Flash Warehouse? How do you operate a Meituan Flash Warehouse from zero to one? Is it an opportunity for distributors to engage in Meituan Flash Warehouse? How should they do it? Next, we will share Liang Qizhi's practical experience and thoughts with you.

**From Traditional Retail to Instant Retail: Doing Business with Incremental Growth**

Before starting Youkeduo, Liang Qizhi had already been in traditional retail for three years, operating over a dozen offline convenience stores in Guangzhou. He was very familiar with the business logic of traditional offline retail. Why did he choose to do Meituan Flash Warehouse? Liang Qizhi told New Distribution that whether online or offline, the underlying logic is to meet consumer needs, and Meituan Flash Warehouse captures two needs that are growing rapidly among current consumers.

**First, the demand for "I want it now" in online shopping is growing.** Consumers have become accustomed to shopping online, and their expectations for delivery speed are increasing. From the traditional e-commerce "three-day delivery" and "next-day delivery" to the current expectation of receiving goods within "one hour" or "half an hour," "instant gratification" has become the norm for online shopping.

**Second, instant needs in specific scenarios are being explored.** The underlying logic of retail is essentially the reconstruction of "people, goods, and places." In the past, traditional retail was inefficient in matching needs in certain scenarios, but Meituan Flash Warehouse can efficiently meet them. How does Meituan Flash Warehouse efficiently match scenario needs? For example, when moving, you realize you don't have enough cardboard boxes and urgently need to buy them. Most stores don't carry this item, and going to a physical store would cost a lot of time and might not even guarantee availability. However, Meituan Flash Warehouse's rich product supply can exactly meet this instant need.

"Needs that are growing will inevitably match businesses with incremental growth." Having insight into this opportunity, Liang Qizhi partnered with Meituan Flash Warehouse in 2020, established Youkeduo, and opened its first warehouse store. The first store achieved profitability in less than two months. Liang Qizhi found that the profit model of this model is excellent. Since 2021, Youkeduo has entered a rapid expansion phase and has now opened 22 warehouse stores.

Liang Qizhi believes that Meituan Flash Warehouse has three obvious advantages:

**First, it offers a richer product assortment than convenience stores.** A mom-and-pop store or chain convenience store of 80-150 square meters can accommodate 1,000-1,500 SKUs, but a warehouse store can accommodate 2,500-5,000 SKUs, better meeting consumer needs.

**Second, it has longer business hours than supermarkets.** Supermarkets have sufficient product variety, but their business hours are limited. Meituan Flash Warehouse operates 24/7, creating stronger user stickiness.

**Third, single-store operating costs are lower.** Meituan Flash Warehouse does not need to receive consumers in offline spaces, maximizing the use of time and space, significantly reducing rent and labor costs.

Liang Qizhi stated that compared to traditional offline retail stores, the Meituan Flash Warehouse model is relatively asset-light. Once the profit model of the initial store is proven, expansion becomes highly efficient.

**From Zero to One: How to Do Meituan Flash Warehouse Well**

"Unlike traditional offline stores, Meituan Flash Warehouse is a pure online warehouse store model; the offline counterpart is just a warehouse," Liang Qizhi said. He emphasized that three modules are crucial for Meituan Flash Warehouse: site selection, product selection, and operations.

**1) Site Selection: Radiating 3-5 Kilometers, Based on Logistics Routes, Minimizing Costs**

The core radiation range of a Meituan Flash Warehouse is the population within 3-5 kilometers. Unlike traditional offline store site selection, Meituan Flash Warehouse does not focus on foot traffic but on population and order volume.

**First, look at the volume of food delivery orders in the selected area.** Based on Meituan's data, check the number of food delivery orders within a 3-5 kilometer radius of the selected location. The more people ordering food delivery, the higher the conversion to Meituan Flash Warehouse orders.

**Second, consider the logistics route from the central warehouse to the store.** The site selection of Meituan Flash Warehouse should revolve around the central warehouse's distribution routes, with one vehicle per route, making replenishment more efficient and reducing costs.

**Third, assess whether the radiating population matches the positioning of Meituan Flash Warehouse.** The population determines the average order value. For example, if the core consumer group nearby is students, you need to see if your product mix can satisfy students before deciding on the location.

**Fourth, consider costs.** Meituan Flash Warehouse does not require a street-facing prime location; simple decoration is sufficient, but the ceiling height should not be too low, both to accommodate tall shelves and to avoid making staff feel cramped. Meituan's data model can estimate a reasonable rent cost based on surrounding order volume.

In fact, before opening a store, the Meituan Flash Warehouse team provides full support and guidance. The above four actions must be evaluated based on Meituan's system data; do not make decisions blindly on your own.

**2) Product Selection: Based on Consumer Analysis, Assortment with "Standard Products + Personalized Products"**

Youkeduo has approximately 4,600 SKUs, with a combination of "70% standard products + 30% personalized products." Standard products drive traffic, while personalized products supplement profits. Product selection revolves around two dimensions:

**First, based on core items sold in surrounding markets, supermarkets, and convenience stores, as well as new and best-selling products learned from other channels and suppliers.**

**Second, based on Meituan's digital tools, identify consumer profiles and scenario needs in the coverage area to select personalized products.** For example, if the surrounding area is a tourist attraction, you can add disposable hotel supplies.

**Third, based on current hot products on various internet platforms, select bestsellers with built-in traffic.** For example, products that brand owners heavily invest in across major platforms.

**Fourth, dynamically select products based on seasons and holidays.** For example, add quilts in winter, mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival, etc.

Additionally, it is emphasized that the core cost of Meituan Flash Warehouse lies in fulfillment. The fulfillment cost for a "15-yuan order" and a "45-yuan order" is not much different, so you must use product mix to raise the average order value.

**3) Operations: Leverage the Platform's Digital Tools for Multi-Dimensional Marketing**

Many orders for Meituan Flash Warehouse come from search-based entry, not necessarily because your products are cheaper than those in supermarkets. Different stores need different marketing strategies. It is essential to combine underlying data logic to optimize promotional methods and address shortcomings. For example, if the average order value is too low, you need to increase full-reduction coupons to raise it; if beer sales are poor during summer peak season, you need to add category-specific coupons.

In terms of activity operations, grasp two points: first, follow the platform's marketing rhythm and make good use of resources during promotional nodes with platform empowerment; second, be sensitive to manufacturers' marketing activities and seize brand-invested resources.

**What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages for Distributors Doing Meituan Flash Warehouse?**

Liang Qizhi told New Distribution that because of his offline convenience store chain, he is familiar with many distributor friends, and many have consulted him about Meituan Flash Warehouse. In his view, whether distributors should engage in it depends on their own development direction and positioning.

From a market perspective, instant retail is an incremental business channel, so it is necessary for distributors to do it. The survival rule of business is that whoever is closer to consumers has more say. Manufacturers place more importance on the C-end than the B-end. From this point, distributors also have value in doing it.

The core advantage for distributors doing Meituan Flash Warehouse is their product supply chain and logistics warehousing system.

First, products: distributors themselves are in the agency business, especially multi-category distributors, with relatively rich upstream product supply chain resources, which can reduce the proportion of external procurement. Moreover, distributors have price advantages. In the past, distributors' profit margins were low, mainly because from distributor to store, they had to pay salesperson commissions, various store fees and resources, and provide sufficient profit margins. But Meituan Flash Warehouse eliminates these intermediate links, improving efficiency and reducing costs.

**Second, the logistics warehousing system.** Distributors' own warehouses are large enough to serve as central warehouses, accommodating sufficient products and improving replenishment efficiency. Coupled with their own logistics and distribution systems, they can handle product transportation, also reducing costs.

**However, distributors also have shortcomings. Their past business logic was based on traditional offline marketing tactics, targeting the B-end. The Meituan Flash Warehouse business model directly faces consumers, focusing on the C-end. The operating methods of the two are different.** For example, when distributors do traditional business, they simply want to make money on each order, but Meituan Flash Warehouse is different. It is normal for some orders to incur losses; you need to look at the overall order profit rather than the profit of a single order.

**Distributors need a mindset shift, from offline "distribution" logic to online "operations" logic.**

**Final Words**

Due to space limitations, Liang Qizhi's practical experience and insightful thoughts cannot be detailed here. "New Distribution" and "Meituan Flash Purchase" will organize an in-depth study tour on August 24, visiting Guangzhou Youkeduo, to have in-depth exchanges with General Manager Mr. Liang Qizhi and the Meituan Flash Warehouse team: How to start a Meituan Flash Warehouse from zero to one? Can distributors enter the Meituan Flash Warehouse market? Where are the opportunities?


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 周群
- Published: 2023-08-17
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/from-traditional-retail-to-launching-meituan-flash-warehouse-3-years-21-9e1eb2a8/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/M-DtiWkKTekgCtzmdJQL0g

## Copyright and AI use

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