---
title: "Hema Needs Nightlife"
description: "Supermarkets are unwilling to be left behind by the times. Hema has started to embrace \"nightlife.\" On June 1, \"Hema Night Market\" was officially launched. From 5 PM to 10 PM every day, Hema Fresh stores transform into a night market offering nearly 100 kinds of food, including quality items like steak, seafood platters, and craft beer, as well as street foods like stinky tofu, grilled pork belly, fried yogurt, and braised dishes. According to Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe), the Hema Night Market project began piloting in some cities in April this year."
author: "刺猬公社编辑部"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2022-06-08"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/hema-needs-nightlife-daf2f77b/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/hema-needs-nightlife-daf2f77b.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/jYjRj9CLctUX8QYzeD819w"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E7%9B%92%E9%A9%AC%E9%9C%80%E8%A6%81%E5%A4%9C%E7%94%9F%E6%B4%BB-daf2f77b.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/hema-needs-nightlife-daf2f77b/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# Hema Needs Nightlife

> Supermarkets are unwilling to be left behind by the times. Hema has started to embrace "nightlife." On June 1, "Hema Night Market" was officially launched. From 5 PM to 10 PM every day, Hema Fresh stores transform into a night market offering nearly 100 kinds of food, including quality items like steak, seafood platters, and craft beer, as well as street foods like stinky tofu, grilled pork belly, fried yogurt, and braised dishes. According to Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe), the Hema Night Market project began piloting in some cities in April this year.

**Supermarkets are unwilling to be left behind by the times.**
Hema has started to embrace "nightlife."
On June 1, "Hema Night Market" was officially launched. From 5 PM to 10 PM every day, Hema Fresh stores transform into a night market offering nearly 100 kinds of food, including quality items like steak, seafood platters, and craft beer, as well as street foods like stinky tofu, grilled pork belly, fried yogurt, and braised dishes.
According to Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe), the Hema Night Market project began piloting in some cities in April this year. For example, from April 15, residents of Changsha could already experience the night market service, both ordering online and "shopping and eating" offline.
In people's impressions, the night has always seemed to belong to classic nighttime formats such as bars, KTVs, and food streets, with little connection to supermarkets. Therefore, in the view of industry insiders, **this newly launched "Hema Night Market" is an innovative attempt by the supermarket format under new retail, opening up a new growth point for traditional supermarkets by combining with the night economy.**
Why is it so difficult for supermarkets to integrate into the "night economy" trend? Why can Hema succeed? And what inspiration can the Hema Night Market case bring to traditional supermarkets?
******The Abandoned Supermarket**
Night markets have a long history.
Historical data shows that night markets in China began to emerge in the Han Dynasty, initially in border and rural areas, purely for trade. In the Tang Dynasty, under the "Lifang" system of urban management, night markets only appeared in a few prosperous commercial areas, mostly limited to serving officials and wealthy merchants. With the change of dynasties, in the Song Dynasty, the street-lane system replaced the Lifang system, and the consumption theme of night markets expanded to all levels of society, marking the most brilliant period of ancient night markets.
Since the founding of New China, night markets have gone through three stages: a brief decline during the planned economy period, encouragement of business in the early reform and opening-up, and dispersal and guidance under urban appearance rectification in the 1990s, before entering the current stage of accelerated development.
**In recent years, major cities have continuously issued policy documents to promote "night markets" and the "night economy":** In November 2017, Nanjing issued the "Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the Development of the Night Economy." In April 2019, Shanghai issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Night Economy in Shanghai." In August 2021, Suzhou issued the "Guiding Opinions on Supporting the High-Quality Development of Night Markets (Draft for Comments)." According to statistics, in 2020 alone, more than 40 policies related to the night economy were issued.
It is not difficult to understand that these policies target the huge potential of the night economy to drive consumption. According to iiMedia Research data, the night economy market size in 2020 reached 18.7 trillion yuan, accounting for 48.61% of total social retail sales that year, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.4% from 2016 to 2020. Driven by relevant policies, the overall market size will continue to grow at an annual rate of over 15% from 2021 to 2025.
Ye Dingyuan, known as "the first person in China's night economy research," wrote in his book "Night Economics": "The prosperity of the night economy can further improve the development level of the service industry, increase the proportion of the service industry in the industry, and is an important promoter of promoting economic structural adjustment and accelerating the transformation of economic development mode." Lao Guiling, director of the E-commerce Research Center at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, believes that **especially after the epidemic, when the economy urgently needs recovery, the vitality of the night economy will become an important force for promoting consumption and ensuring people's livelihood.**
**Comparing various specific formats of the night economy, we find that supermarkets have become a relatively marginal existence.**
From the perspective of nighttime consumption share, according to iiMedia Research data, catering, bars, and cultural activities occupy the top three positions, accounting for 22.4%, 19.3%, and 14.8% respectively, while shopping, which is strongly related to supermarkets, only accounts for 12.9%.
Consumer surveys also illustrate this. The China Tourism Academy's "2020 China Night Economy Development Report" shows that the top three nighttime consumption scenarios attracting consumers are cultural and art venues, cinemas/theaters, and night markets/fairs, followed by department stores. It is worth noting that there is a clear difference between consumers going to department stores for shopping and going to supermarkets for shopping: the former is mainly for leisure and entertainment, while the latter is more for rigid needs.
Combining the specific content of relevant policy documents, it is not difficult to find that **the "night economy" is always closely linked with words such as "characteristic," "leisure," "landmark," "internet celebrity economy," and "fashion."** When people shed the fatigue of a day's work at night, they crave relaxation rather than the trivialities of life. Therefore, the night economy formats that are more popular are naturally those with more leisure attributes.
**In contrast, traditional supermarkets have highly prominent "goods" and "place" attributes, but the "people-goods" and "people-place" relationships are relatively simple, and the "goods" and "place" do not have obvious characteristics.** This leads to supermarkets losing their appeal both during the day and at night.
According to a survey by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, the average number of people visiting a supermarket per day in 2019 was 2,414, but this number dropped to 2,030 in 2020. According to a survey by management consulting firm Kearney, the average customer loss rate for hypermarkets reached 24%.
Especially for the younger generation, with community group buying, fresh food e-commerce, and online shopping being so convenient today, going to supermarkets seems both time-consuming and laborious. A 28-year-old male white-collar worker living in Beijing told Hedgehog Commune: "I probably haven't been to such a supermarket for more than half a year. It's not necessary, and I don't want to go. I have little time outside work, so I'd rather go to more interesting places."
******Hema, Breaking into the Night**
So why can Hema, which is essentially also a supermarket, launch the "Night Market" project? To answer this question, we need to look at it from two perspectives: feasibility and necessity.
**First, Hema has the capability to launch the "Night Market," mainly including product supply capability and scenario supporting capability.**
In terms of product supply, to prepare for the night market goods, Hema placed an order of about 8,000 tons of crayfish this year from two production areas in Qianjiang and Honghu, Hubei Province, doubling the scale compared to 2021. At the same time, Hema also contracted 4,500 tons of 39° oysters in Zhuanghe, Dalian, finding a market for local farmers before the typhoon season.
In the night market scenario, alcoholic beverages are also a rigid demand. It is understood that Hema's 28-day craft fresh beer launched in 2021 ranked first in Hema's beer category across all channels. This year, Hema also launched fruit-flavored series according to the season: bayberry craft beer in spring, lychee wheat in summer, mango sea salt gose sour beer, and also introduced a 2-liter large bucket to support the night market.
To better cater to the dietary preferences of consumers in different regions, Hema also introduced local specialties in night markets across various places, such as Leshan Bobo chicken in Chengdu, squab in Nanchang, Huainan potato chips in Hefei, seafood porridge in Shenzhen, and stinky tofu in Changsha.
In terms of scenario, Hema Fresh itself is different from traditional supermarkets in its business format—**traditional supermarkets only have product display areas, while Hema Fresh also has dining areas and several food processing stalls.** After purchasing seafood and other ingredients at Hema Fresh, consumers can take them to the stalls, pay an appropriate processing fee, and ask the chef to cook them into dishes for on-site enjoyment.
The value of doing this is twofold: for offline consumers, Hema Fresh provides one-stop catering services, creating a unique experience and forming a differentiated advantage compared to traditional fresh supermarkets and restaurants; for online consumers, the complete offline supporting experience can better win their trust.
This business model makes the birth of "Hema Night Market" very natural: **no additional infrastructure or team capabilities are needed; it only requires setting up the scenario and providing products and services around the theme.**
"Having the ability to do it" does not mean it must be done. What is the commercial value of "Hema Night Market" to Hema? Or, what is the necessity for Hema to do it?
In fact, Hema's development history has been quite tortuous: According to E-Business News, in mid-2019, in Alibaba's internal performance assessment, Hema ranked last. At the end of that year, due to profitability and GMV growth not meeting expectations, Hema Fresh was downgraded from an independent business group to a sub-business under a business group. In June 2021, Hema was upgraded again to an independent business group, but under Alibaba's comprehensive implementation of the responsibility management system, this meant Hema had to be responsible for its own profits and losses. In December 2021, Hema transformed from an independent business group to an independent company. In January 2022, news broke that Alibaba was considering seeking independent financing for Hema...
**A Damocles sword has always hung over Hema's head—its business model cannot be verified, and its profitability cannot be proven.**
No one will deny that Hema once carried Alibaba's and the retail industry's ambitions for new retail. Since its birth, as the pioneer and model of Alibaba's new retail, Hema has been widely discussed by the industry and capital markets. Among various retail formats, Hema has always been special.
**First, in terms of channels,** it breaks through the limitations of offline foot traffic through innovative online-offline integration, using online traffic to improve sales per square meter.
**Second, at the product level,** it positions itself as high-quality goods, attaches importance to supply chain construction, strengthens direct sourcing of fresh products, deeply cooperates with product partners for standard products, and emphasizes self-developed products.
**Third, at the technology level,** relying on Alibaba's technological capabilities, it continuously strengthens the digitalization of people, goods, and places, improving operational efficiency and user experience.
Looking at Hema's innovations in recent years, they basically revolve around the above three points. Whether it is launching different store formats such as Hema Mini and Hema Cai Shi, continuously strengthening self-owned product supply and incubating new brands, or adopting "black technology" like smart price tags, from a business model perspective, its main line is still to reform around the core logic of "people, goods, and places," thereby providing consumers with better products and experiences and covering more potential consumers and consumption scenarios.
But undoubtedly, Hema hopes to improve its performance through these innovations and corresponding management optimization and strategic measures.
Expanding stores, attacking lower-tier markets, and attracting consumers with high-quality products are measures to increase revenue, while refined operations and adjusting compensation and welfare mechanisms are measures to reduce costs. In addition to improving profitability on the basis of existing business, new store models can adjust cost structure and revenue structure to achieve efficient profitability, and laying out self-owned products also helps improve overall profit margins.
Along this line, at the beginning of 2022, Hema CEO Hou Yi sent an internal email stating that **this year Hema's goal is to upgrade from single-store profitability to overall profitability, and Hema has clearly defined the "multi-format online and offline coordinated development path."**
To this end, he proposed five measures. In addition to four measures related to improving organizational management efficiency, including "following the essence of retail operation management," "consolidating the basics of retail," "carrying out ideological and organizational system reform," and "maintaining the characteristics of the entrepreneurial stage," Hou Yi also specifically mentioned the need to **upgrade Hema Fresh's development direction from "online development as the main, offline development as the supplement" to a dual-wheel strategy of "online and offline common development."** This means the status of offline business has become more important.
In this context, the launch of "Hema Night Market" is even easier to understand: First, in terms of offline business, a high degree of scenarioization helps attract foot traffic, cultivate users' Hema consumption habits, strengthen Hema's unique recognition in consumers' minds, and more high-quality product supply helps stimulate an increase in average transaction value. Second, the online-offline coordination of "Hema Night Market" fully reflects the dual-wheel strategy of "online and offline common development."
It is understood that during the night market period, Hema App orders increased by nearly 20% year-on-year, and offline stores were often crowded, showing that the goal of "online and offline common development" has achieved results.
******Supermarkets for the Future**
Hema can make a night market, but traditional supermarkets may not be able to. The core gap is not the product supply capability and scenario supporting capability mentioned above, but rather the development and operation mindset that has not kept up with the times.
The Kearney consumer team believes that retail has now entered an era of "people-oriented" development. The key to a retailer's success lies in building consumer brand awareness and creating an irreplaceable moat of characteristics.
To this end, traditional retail formats need to start from the core demands of consumers, and with thoughtful product selection, sharp pricing, vivid displays, comfortable environments, and attentive service, actively shape a lifestyle with clear brand awareness for consumers.
The reason for emphasizing "lifestyle" is that **the in-store management model of traditional hypermarkets has passed through the stages of "communicating with products" and "communicating with scenarios," and has embarked on a new journey of "communicating with lifestyle."**
> In the "communicating with products" stage, supermarkets and hypermarkets are oriented towards simple display and sales functions, requiring only simple display or no stacking of products.
> In the "communicating with scenarios" stage, supermarkets and hypermarkets add emotional touch attributes in addition to functional orientation, strengthening emotional communication through activities and demonstrations. Specifically, they can create an atmosphere through display decorations, zoning layouts, and material design.
> In the "communicating with lifestyle" stage, supermarkets and hypermarkets need to lead and convey a quality life philosophy, strengthen the environment's awakening of shopping emotions, and stimulate and guide purchase desires.
According to this model, most traditional supermarkets and hypermarkets still remain in the "communicating with products" stage. Although some supermarkets, including Hema, have made attempts at scenarioization, there is still a distance from leading a lifestyle.
To truly achieve a thorough transformation of retail, purely from the perspective of consumer experience, combined with leading practices in the retail industry, we believe traditional supermarkets may need to achieve the following three points.
**First, continue to deepen scenario exploration and get rid of the traditional supermarket's characteristic of "using goods as the place."**
The so-called "consumption scenarioization" is to create various life or experience scenarios and then integrate customer consumption needs into them. "Hema Night Market" is a typical case of creating a nightlife scenario. But beyond this, supermarkets have many possibilities in scenarios.
In May 2021, Wuhan Wushang Moore City Super Life Hall reopened after closing for upgrades. Its upgrade revolved around the word "scenario": in the fruit area, an orange tractor was surrounded by tropical fruits, presenting a harvest scene; the bathroom area directly created a home bathroom scenario; the beer area was turned into a mini bar, where customers could buy canned beer or have a glass of craft fresh beer on the spot.
Retail enterprises should find the connection point between products and consumer life and turn it into a way of communicating with consumers.
**Second, add content attributes, inject and convey life philosophy.**
From pure scenarios to lifestyle, the key difficulty in achieving this step is to convey values and ultimately create a sense of value and resonance. This is not yet obvious in the department store and supermarket field, but many new retail consumer brands have realized this.
The beauty collection store HARMAY is relatively advanced in this regard. It hopes to convey the proposition of a beautiful life through the aesthetic design of "one store, one design." Taking HARMAY's Chongqing Jiefangbei store as an example, its design theme is based on Chongqing's characteristic landscape—air-raid shelters.
Inside the store, warehouse-style shelves made of stainless steel, glass, and plastic, undulating conveyor belts, accessible workbenches, and huge power generation devices form a factory production line, giving birth to a cave factory.
But what "lies" on the production line are beauty, skincare, and fragrance products, creating a visual shock with strong personality tension. This design goes beyond pure scenarioization; it is supported by culture and conveys the concept of quality life.
**Third, focus on consumer needs and carry out refined and systematic operations.**
The consumer's in-store experience is determined by countless details. To this end, Kearney proposed the "Three-Dimensional Experience Cube for In-Store Management," using "multiple awakening points," "differentiated circulation and zoning," and "immersive environment and atmosphere" as the "points, lines, and planes," and comprehensively improving consumer experience through 20 operational elements.
Source: Kearney, "Supermarket Retail Enterprises, Where Is the Way?"
Undoubtedly, these three directions are all about "adding" to supermarkets, which will ultimately translate into higher store operating costs and higher product prices, which is something both enterprises and consumers do not want to see. To offset these adverse effects as much as possible, supermarkets also need to strengthen their internal strength by optimizing operational efficiency, laying out upstream supply chains, and leveraging digital empowerment.
As for what kind of retail model and format can best balance the four dimensions of "more, faster, better, and cheaper," it may require continuous exploration by the supermarket industry. What is certain is that more innovative measures will emerge in the industry, and supermarkets will have more than just nightlife.
Source: Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe)
Author: Zhang Zhan
Editor: Garden Director
_**-END-**__**
**Are you "watching" me?**


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671