Food retailer goes online
- Details
- Category: Ningbo District
- Published: Tuesday, 26 November 2013 09:38
The online agricultural products retailing is making another highlight of Ningbo's booming e-commerce, as a number of online retailers are exploring new models and new markets. A new online food retailer named HOWER (http://haoer.ebsig.com/) officially went online at 10:00 am on Monday. With its own agricultural farm and self-service pickup stations network, the new online retailer aims to integrate the online and offline sales and offer new online shopping experience to local consumers.
HOWER combines modern agriculture with urban community service platform, and offers modern agricultural products shopping and distribution services. The online retailer had its own farm covering an area of 1,000 mu(164.7 acre). In the meantime, it set up about 300 self-service pickup stations in stores all over Ningbo. Customers can place an order via computers, cell phones, or telephones. They can pick up their grocery in the nearest station within 24 hours after they placed their orders.
Another advantage of online shopping is the cheap prices. With its own farm and logistics system, HOWER is able to save transportation cost and thus keep their prices 10 percent lower than local supermarkets or shops. The establishment of HOWER was inspired by the business pattern ofwww.taobao.com, a major online retailer in China. Making best use of self-service pickup stations located in community stores, HOWER managed to reduce labor and transportation costs. "We can ensure cheaper prices by saving cost. Our customers can benefit more by shopping online," said a director of HOWER. He added that HOWER plans to add more self-service pickup stations in over 1,000 stores in Haishu, Jiangdong, Jiangbei and Yinzhou districts in the future.
"We run our website in the same way as large online retailers like Taobao or Jingdong, but we sell different commodities and we'll learn their marketing strategies and develop our strength," said the director. HOWER will try to know more about local consumers' shopping habits and interests through data analysis. To attract more customers, it will launch a number of promotions and diversified services.
