Instant retail, a topic that has suddenly become hot this year, has left many people stunned. Recently, many brands have asked me: "Teacher Ren, what exactly is instant retail? How is it different from traditional e-commerce? How should we position ourselves to respond?" In our recent training sessions for brand executives, instant retail has been a core topic. Some say the impact of instant retail is seriously overestimated, because based on its scale exceeding one trillion yuan, its market penetration is less than 2% of China's total social retail market of 50 trillion yuan. Indeed, in terms of scale share, instant retail is not large. But to judge the impact of something, we cannot only look at its current scale; we must also consider whether it aligns with trends and what disruptions and impacts it has on existing models. My view is: instant retail turns our phones into something like "Doraemon's four-dimensional pocket," satisfying our "I want it now" needs. This deep-seated human desire, once satisfied, will make many of our consumption habits "never go back." Looking at it from a developmental perspective, as market penetration increases, categories match various细分 scenarios precisely, and future technological developments reduce operational and fulfillment costs, at least for FMCG brands, the impact of instant retail is not overestimated but underestimated! It is not enough for brands to view instant retail merely as a sales channel; it imposes new requirements on product structure optimization, demand-side capture and operation, and supply chain. Correctly understanding instant retail and these requirements is of great significance for understanding the direction of industry change. In this article, I share my thoughts with you.

The Interface for Satisfying Human Instant Needs****

Since the beginning of this year, several internet giants have suddenly increased investment in the field of "instant retail," burning through tens of billions of yuan in subsidies. What's going on? Are they crazy? Of course not. The "food delivery war" initiated by JD.com, Meituan, and Alibaba has suddenly brought instant retail, which had been developing quietly for years, into the industry spotlight. As a new channel, it has attracted brand attention again. But instant retail is not just a new channel; it is essentially a reconstruction of the distribution structure. To explain this clearly, we need to start with the concept of "instant retail." As a mature industry concept, instant retail was systematically proposed and promoted by Chinese internet companies like Meituan and JD.com in the late 2010s. Instant retail is a "Chinese-style" industry expression, but the real pioneer in practice is actually Amazon. Amazon's Amazon Prime membership service, launched in 2005, had a core promise of "two-day delivery," redefining the speed standard for e-commerce logistics. Later, in 2014, it launched Prime Now, offering "one-hour delivery" for fresh produce and daily necessities, which was already a complete model of "instant retail" globally. Amazon is the founder of this model, but they may prefer terms like "Instant Delivery" or "On-demand Delivery." Amazon did not elevate this to a mainstream retail form; it was Chinese internet giants who systematized it into a new retail paradigm. In China, early food delivery platforms (like Meituan Waimai and Ele.me) expanded from delivering meals to delivering fruits, medicine, and flowers, essentially practicing "instant retail," but limited to catering and a few other categories. Starting around 2018, Meituan platformized its food delivery capabilities and vigorously expanded non-catering businesses, such as Meituan Flash Purchase. In company earnings reports, analyst meetings, and public speeches, Meituan executives (especially CEO Wang Xing) began systematically articulating the concept of "instant retail": a retail model driven by consumers' instant needs, relying on offline physical supply chains, and delivering goods to consumers within a short time (usually 30 minutes to 1 hour) through instant logistics. Meituan CEO Wang Xing judged that instant retail represents the endgame of retail, namely "everything to home." It can be said that Wang Xing's judgment on this point is very insightful, but "everything to home" today might be more accurately described as "everything to hand"—covering not only home but also travel, dining, social, and other demand scenarios. Meituan summarized "sixteen major scenarios" in 2024. What the giants are fighting for is not just traffic, but "who can become the interface for users' immediate needs." Humans are inherently anxious and pained by "delayed gratification." We want pain to disappear immediately and desires to be satisfied instantly. Anyone who has watched the classic anime "Doraemon" knows that the robot cat can pull out whatever it needs from its "four-dimensional pocket" (four-dimensional = physical object + time), which can be said to be our ultimate intention for wanting needs satisfied immediately. "I want it now!" is a phrase engraved deep in our humanity. And instant retail exactly satisfies this underlying need for "instant gratification."

  • No need to stock up or go out
  • Just search on your phone for what you need
  • Delivered within 30 minutes after ordering In a sense, instant retail turns our phones into "Doraemon's four-dimensional pocket." Whoever controls this "pocket" controls consumers' instant choice. According to data from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, the scale of instant retail will exceed one trillion yuan in 2025, with an average annual compound growth rate of 39% from 2019 to 2026. A market of this scale, even if it accounts for only a single-digit share of total social retail, will inevitably have a huge impact on FMCG brands—and this is closely related to the characteristics of FMCG products.

Scenario-Based Supply-Demand Matching****

Internet e-commerce has had a huge impact on traditional sales chains, but to date, offline channels still account for 70% of FMCG sales. Because overall, compared to 3C digital products, clothing, shoes, and hats, FMCG products are still mainly purchased impulsively and instantly. But the 30-minute fulfillment time of instant retail exactly covers this type of product. Physical retail is the main sales channel for FMCG products. In what ways does instant retail impact it? First, it greatly weakens the "location dividend" of physical retail; Second, "recommendation algorithms" replace the "display value" of physical stores; Third, it marginalizes the "customer relationship resources" of physical stores. As the penetration rate of instant retail (front warehouses) increases, more and more consumers form new consumption habits, and more and more physical retailers will have to become "platform nodes," integrating into this fulfillment network. As a seasoned user of instant retail, let me list a few typical shopping behaviors. 1. At home, I buy bread and fresh milk from Xiaoxiang Supermarket or Qixian; 2. When traveling, I order Bluetooth earphones and computer adapters from Lightning Warehouse; 3. For outdoor scenarios, I order drinks and wet wipes on the platform for camping gatherings. Let's look at it from another perspective: the "four-dimensional pocket" is just an interface. As a user, when you take something from the "pocket," you don't need to consider the complex backend chain, because the platform completes supply-demand matching through powerful online algorithms and offline scheduling capabilities. I shared a viewpoint at the New Distribution Conference in August: Behind consumption is the matching of supply and demand. Price is just one dimension; completing efficient and precise matching of supply and demand is the key. This is an important reason for the rapid growth of instant retail, and also a reason brands must not ignore. But it must be recognized: instant retail is not an "accelerated version" of e-commerce, nor an "takeout version" of physical retail. It combines e-commerce's digital transactions with offline retail's instant fulfillment, reconstructing both the demand-side selection mechanism and the supply-side fulfillment mechanism. For example, traditional e-commerce has infinite shelves, but instant retail has limited shelves, and the operation of traffic and supply fulfillment are separated. Channels classified under instant retail include systems like Xiaoxiang, PUPU, Qixian, Hema (some are pure front warehouses, some are warehouse-store integrated), as well as O2O listings from various physical stores, and of course, various types of lightning warehouses that have developed rapidly in recent years. All these stores are either brand-operated, supplied by distributors, or supplied by market flow goods. If brands cannot sort and integrate their supply side to form synergy in product selection and promotion, it will be difficult to achieve scale growth in this channel and form a competitive advantage over rivals.

What Should Brands Do?****

Recently, in exchanges with some brands, we found that some brands are still seeking a new understanding of this channel, while others have fully updated their operations in terms of cognition and organization. How should brands respond? Below I share my views from two levels: instant retail as a new channel and as a system reconstructor. The first level: instant retail as a new channel. The traditional chain is push-based: factory → warehouse → distributor → store → user The instant retail chain is pull-based: user clicks → rider delivers → delivery completed What products do you list? Which stores (warehouses) do you need to deploy? How do you get users to choose you? And through what means do you complete the flow and delivery of goods? Brands need several mindset shifts: 1. In terms of products, shift from "what can I supply" to "what does the user need right now." The success logic of traditional brands is "distribution," but instant retail does not emphasize channel depth; it emphasizes instant supply-demand adaptation. Under the logic of "distribution breadth" and "channel pathways," product design is centered on the production end (favorable for factory production), but the problem is that SKUs are numerous and redundant, not necessarily suitable for instant scenarios. Now, with instant scenario adaptation and platform algorithm matching as the core, design "algorithm-friendly" SKUs: lightweight, small size, high repurchase, easy to deliver. 2. In demand capture, shift from "I push, you buy" to "I understand what you want." Traditional methods rely on offline advertising, channel pressure, and sales tactics to guide consumption, emphasizing "sales promotion strength" rather than "demand matching," with marketing budgets focused on exposure rather than conversion loops. In instant retail, consumers actively search + platform recommendations, so brands must co-build content strategies and traffic synergy with platform algorithms: no longer just investing in exposure, but finely operating "keywords, reviews, add-ons, discounts, search recommendations," emphasizing "scenario language + user emotion" for conversion. 3. In the sales chain, shift from emphasizing "shipment completion" to "fulfillment completion." One brand said that in the past, instant retail was under the KA or e-commerce department, but now it has been spun off into a dedicated department. Not only that, they did not use traditional distributors but organized dedicated distributors adapted to instant retail. This is a very correct approach. The logic, pace, and data granularity of instant retail are completely different from traditional e-commerce or KA. From a development trend perspective, it is inevitable for brands to establish independent teams, lead cross-departmental collaboration, and form a closed loop of "supply-demand integration" driven by fulfillment. The second level: instant retail as a system reconstructor. In the "White Paper on the Transformation of Production, Supply, and Sales in China's FMCG Industry" released in August, we mentioned: The game between brands and retail continues, and platforms have become a "third order force." In fact, without the development of instant retail, the so-called "third order force" might not exist. Algorithms + traffic distribution make prices transparent and squeeze brand profit margins. Under the traffic recommendation mechanism, "best-sellers" even replace "brands" as the basis for consumer decisions. Facing this trend, I suggest brands strengthen actions in the following three areas: 1. Product power upgrade: continuously innovate and differentiate to avoid becoming a "copycat best-seller"; 2. Data capability building: build your own consumer data system to generate "consumer insights" rather than just "platform insights"; 3. Organizational restructuring: shift from traditional sales-oriented organizations to "product + data + marketing" integrated organizations.

Final Thoughts

Some may think the content of this article is exaggerated and extreme. No matter how instant retail develops, it is just one of many channels for brands. Indeed. But I want to say, the more extreme, the more profound. The current retail transformation requires brands to break away from past inertia in many aspects. To respond to changes, brands need to adjust not only product specifications but also their industry role positioning and organizational logic. Consider instant retail as the strongest signal for deeply understanding industry change: Understand instant retail and use it as an opportunity to force yourself to rethink product design, channel layout, and fulfillment mechanisms under the new consumption logic. Readers interested in the content of this article can scan the QR code to add the author for further communication.