Fresh food is the key to new retail? Amazon spent $13.7 billion to enter the market

　　#Laogao E-commerce News# Last week, almost on the same day, something happened on both sides of the Pacific that could seriously affect the consumption habits of "foodies". First, it was rumored that Xinmeida recently completed capital cooperation with the food B2B platform "Asia Food Union". Xinmeida invested more than 100 million yuan this time, and its shares were unknown, but the possibility of controlling shares was extremely high. In addition, some industry insiders also revealed that Xinmeida will soon enter the offline fresh food supermarket - Zhangyu Fresh, and the related apps have entered the official operation period.

　　Then on June 16, local time in the United States, Whole Foods Market announced that it had signed a final cooperation agreement with Amazon. Including net liabilities, Amazon will acquire it with $42 per share in all cash, a premium of 27% from the previous day, with a total transaction amount of US$13.7 billion, which is also a well-known merger and acquisition case in Amazon's history. Previously, Alibaba invested in Century Lianhua and Sanjiang Shopping, and invested in Hema Fresh; JD.com invested in Yonghui Supermarket, and it is said that JD.com is also going to open offline fresh food physical stores in Beijing.

　　Offline has become a delicious bun for e-commerce? Fresh food has become a key entrance to new retail? ...I remember that two or three years ago, Whole Foods Market was a star company in the American retail industry, and many Chinese Internet companies had visited Whole Foods. Whole Foods chose organic fresh food as its main product, seizing the wave of consumption upgrading in American consumers' pursuit of healthy diet. Following this wave, traditional supermarkets such as Wal-Mart and Target have also begun to increase the proportion of fresh food. Whole Foods has faced more market competition, and their performance growth is not as good as before. Fresh food was once considered the last fortress of offline retail, but this fortress is being disintegrated by e-commerce. The fresh food industry cannot be separated from offline. Perhaps a more appropriate statement is: the fresh food industry is opening the door to Internet transformation. What kind of new retail experience may Amazon acquire Whole Foods bring? Amazon's stock was a bit crazy a while ago, and once soared to $1,000 per share.

　　Amazon's stock price rise is due to the development of cloud computing service AWS, and on the other hand, it is due to the uplifting number of Amazon 's Prime paid members. Just now, Whole Foods Supermarket has a move criticized by some investors: it has never implemented a membership system. Fresh food is a high-frequency consumption demand, three meals a day, and a basic need for daily life. High frequency and urgent needs, the Internet favorite. In the past two years, the investment in offline logistics infrastructure of e-commerce companies has not decreased but increased. One of the important layouts is to enter the fresh food market. By acquiring Whole Foods, Amazon is expected to add a high-frequency product choice to its Prime members, increasing member stickiness. Amazon has been coveting the fresh food market for a long time.

　　In the past two years, Amazon has started operating the Amazon Fresh Go project, hoping to make a difference in fresh food e-commerce. However, the fresh food market still has a high dependence on offline food. The fresh food has a short shelf life, and consumers are more picky about the color, smell, shape, etc. of the food when purchasing. The central warehouse distribution model of traditional e-commerce is difficult to support the consumption habits of fresh food products. By connecting to 460 offline stores of Whole Foods, Amazon can integrate Whole Foods’ fresh food supply chain and use Whole Foods’ stores as node warehouses for the last mile delivery. By acquiring Whole Foods, Amazon has gained a bridgehead to quickly enter the fresh food market, combining Amazon's logistics capabilities and data capabilities with Whole Foods' supply chain and store network, and the market competition for fresh food may change.

　　In addition, through the power of capital, Amazon has broadened a new consumption field. For Amazon Prime members, people's living needs will become more and more "Amazonized". Maybe one day, Amazon Prime will become the pass you need for life.

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