A concept known as near-field e-commerce has emerged as a prominent business model for agricultural products, particularly fresh produce, amid the backdrop of China's smallholder economy, in recent years. The model aggregates dispersed small farmers through direct and collective procurement based on orders at the source. Leveraging digital technologies, it also combines online purchase with offline delivery from nearby warehouses, enabling precise matching of vast individual demands and reducing the time and distance for products to reach consumers.

The emergence of near-field e-commerce has also made it possible to aggregate deterministic demand through retail stores, supermarkets, and other offline outlets, thus driving deterministic supply from agricultural bases and ultimately realising order-based agriculture, in addition to enhancing the efficiency of agricultural product distribution. The model has injected new vitality into the high-quality development of agricultural e-commerce.

Flower delivery was included among the list of top-10 agricultural product categories by sales on e-commerce giant Alibaba's platforms for the first time in the 2022 version of a series of reports on agricultural e-commerce within its ecosystem that the company has been releasing, underscoring the effectiveness of near-field e-commerce in transforming and upgrading agricultural products' digital supply chains.

The digitisation of the flower industry has historically progressed at a sluggish pace due to the delicate nature of flowers. Flowers have stricter requirements in areas such as temperature control, quality, and maturity than fruits and vegetables, and their vulnerability poses significant challenges when transporting them directly to consumers from their origin, which resulted in them being considered one of the most difficult products in the fresh produce category.

Near-field e-commerce has enabled more precise matching between suppliers, products, and consumers via the application of digital techniques, however, facilitating large-scale online purchases of flowers and other delicate agricultural products.

Efforts associated with a well-known Chinese retailer serve as a good example. The company got involved with the flower industry in 2019 and had forged partnerships with nearly 40 direct flower procurement bases across the country and established various flower origin warehouses by 2022. The retailer meticulously selects flowers based on their blooming stage during the procurement process so that consumers can enjoy the entire lifecycle of flowers, from buds to full bloom.

The company has also invested in high-quality "flower shuttle buses" that maintain a temperature range of 4℃ to 15℃ in order to minimise damage to flowers when they are transported long distances from origin warehouses to sales warehouses, where they are then transported short distances within the near-field e-commerce network to retail locations and ultimately consumers, ensuring that they remain fresh and vibrant.

The entire process, from origin warehouses to sales warehouses, retail locations, and consumers, represents fully digitised supply chains that enhance flower quality and reduce losses from rural areas to urban centres.

Near-field e-commerce has also heralded a fresh milestone in agricultural e-commerce, especially in the realm of digital agriculture, in addition to spurring the swift expansion of flower delivery services. With the relentless progression of technology and the emergence of innovative models, it is envisioned that near-field e-commerce will increasingly play a pivotal role in the agricultural e-commerce sector, further promoting the digitalisation of China's agricultural industry.

Source:

AliResearch

Administration and Management Institute (AMI) of China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA)