Recently, Pinduoduo has been quietly testing a new business called 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket' within its app, extending its mature 'Billion-Dollar Subsidy' model to high-frequency, essential supermarket categories, using limited-time and limited-quantity coupons and low-price subsidies as core mechanics, currently open only to a randomly selected group of users. When the supermarket category, closest to people's daily lives, further moves online, and the 'new player' is Pinduoduo, known for extreme cost-effectiveness, this seemingly low-key test could push competition to a new dimension. From 'Billion-Dollar Subsidy' to 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket' Testing Mechanics Upgraded Again It is reported that the core logic of Pinduoduo's 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket' continues the platform's iconic 'Billion-Dollar Subsidy + Coupon' model, precisely focusing on daily essential scenarios. The platform page shows that 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket' has not yet set up an independent first-level entrance but is embedded within the 'Billion-Dollar Subsidy' section on the app's homepage. Its core appeal lies in two dimensions: discount intensity and product richness. Image source: Pinduoduo In terms of core mechanics, 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket' launches a 'Weekly Coupon' activity, where every Monday at 00:00, large coupons such as 20% off and 15% off are available for grabbing, with a maximum single coupon discount of 50 yuan and a cumulative discount of up to 70 yuan. These coupons apply to all products on the landing page. In terms of product selection, 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket' offers users retail services across multiple life scenarios, including fruits and vegetables, nuts and snacks, dairy and beverages, and maternal and baby products. By integrating the supply chain with subsidy mechanisms, Pinduoduo attempts to expand 'Billion-Dollar Subsidy' from a small number of partial product categories to a broader range of consumer scenarios for daily life, further meeting users' demand for high-cost-effectiveness daily necessities. According to market analysis, Pinduoduo's testing of the 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket' business may point to the supermarket category's role as a core traffic entry point in the retail market due to its high frequency and strong demand. In users' consumption logic, categories such as fruits, vegetables, snacks, and maternal and baby products have high repurchase attributes and demand stickiness. Therefore, this layout can, to some extent, activate platform activity and build a stable user retention system. What Advantages Does Pinduoduo Have in Entering the Supermarket Track? Some industry commentators say that Pinduoduo's move may seem sudden, but it is actually a precise strategic positioning based on industry trends and its own development needs. First, Pinduoduo has previously leveraged its 'Billion-Dollar Subsidy' strategy to accumulate a large user base in high-ticket categories such as 3C digital and beauty, establishing a significant price advantage and brand mindshare. However, there has always been a gap in high-frequency, essential categories like supermarkets. Image source: Pinduoduo When traffic dividends peak and industry competition shifts from acquiring new users to mining existing ones, this layout gains strategic significance. By driving low-frequency consumption of 3C and beauty products through high-frequency supermarket consumption, forming a 'high-frequency drives low-frequency' consumption loop, it can both deeply tap the consumption potential of existing users and attract new users with low-price advantages. At the same time, this strategy precisely aligns with the trend of consumption stratification: On one hand, it firmly captures price-sensitive users in lower-tier markets (accounting for 63.4% of the national population, about 890 million people), meeting their core demand for high-cost-effectiveness products and effectively activating the consumption potential of this group; On the other hand, it also successfully leverages the consumption potential of consumers in first- and second-tier cities who seek high cost-effectiveness, creating differentiated competition with traditional supermarkets and other e-commerce platforms. In addition to the low-price strategy, Pinduoduo's supply chain system, accumulated over many years, also provides key support for the implementation of 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket'. Through direct connections with industrial belts and digital integration, the platform has successfully opened up the entire chain from source origins to consumers, eliminating redundant circulation links and effectively reducing intermediate costs. This supply chain integration capability not only makes the low-price strategy sustainable but also ensures the quality and stability of product supply from the source. Amid Giants Pinduoduo Still Has a Long Way to Go Despite the clear strategic significance and its own advantages, Pinduoduo still needs to face the competitive landscape of giants and its own shortcomings to establish a firm foothold in the supermarket track. From the competitive landscape, rivals such as JD.com, Alibaba, and Meituan have already built deep barriers. JD Supermarket, leveraging its professional procurement and sales team, AI empowerment, and strong supply chain, saw its shopping user base grow 18% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, with order volume up 20% year-on-year; Its subsidiary Seven Fresh also performed impressively, with its first store in Shijiazhuang receiving over 100,000 customers in three days during the 2026 New Year holiday, and nationwide online and offline total orders doubling year-on-year, with online orders growing 180%. It also plans to add new stores in Beijing and Shanghai before the Spring Festival, accelerating its national expansion. The Alibaba system has built a multi-dimensional supermarket matrix. Tmall Supermarket, through a multi-level warehouse network of 'large warehouses + small warehouses', achieves delivery times as fast as 4 hours; Hema, with its dual-wheel strategy of 'Hema Fresh targeting mid-to-high-end and Super Hema NB for volume', is accelerating expansion, with GMV expected to exceed 100 billion yuan in fiscal year 2026. In addition, players like Meituan are also stepping up their layouts. Xiaoxiang Supermarket's front warehouses have covered more than 30 cities nationwide, and in 2026 it will accelerate the opening of new cities and warehouses, forming multi-dimensional competition with leading e-commerce platforms. In contrast, Pinduoduo's shortcomings are more obvious. For example, 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket' currently does not have an independent first-level entrance but is embedded in the 'Billion-Dollar Subsidy' on the app's homepage, making it less likely to be discovered by users, reducing users' willingness to use it, and causing some potential target users to miss the opportunity. In terms of fulfillment efficiency, Pinduoduo lacks the mature warehousing and distribution network and instant delivery system that JD.com and Alibaba have, making it difficult to meet users' high requirements for delivery speed in the short term; in addition, issues such as insufficient product richness, loss control in fresh produce categories, and after-sales service improvement are challenges that need continuous resolution. In the future, as the business model continues to be refined, whether 'Billion-Dollar Supermarket' will be upgraded to an independent entrance, further expand product categories and user coverage, may become a key layout in Pinduoduo's competition in the supermarket track. [Moving Toward the C-End] The 11th China FMCG Conference Time: March 16-18, 2026 Location: Chengdu, China