Online retailer launches fruit business

Yihaodian.com, the online retail unit of United States-based Wal-Mart in China, launched a fruit business on April 7, in a bid to enter the emerging online fresh food sector.

The business is directly managed by Yihaodian rather than by independent suppliers, and Shanghai is the first city to have access to it. The company said it would launch the service soon in other major cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou.

Guo Dongdong, vice-president of the company's food and beverage department, said it started its fresh food business with fruit because the requirements for cold chain logistics management are relatively lower compared to vegetables and other chilled food. In the long run, Yihaodian plans to enter the vegetables and chilled food trading business as well, but it did not disclose a detailed schedule.

After starting trial operations on March 28, Yihaodian said that demand is better than expected, and that most buyers are white-collar workers. The company declined to reveal detailed figures.

Guo said the average fruit price is 3 to 5 percent lower than in traditional hypermarkets.

Fresh food trading is an emerging sector for e-commerce operators in China. Many online traders including JD.com, which was previously known as 360buy.com, and Amazon China, entered the fresh food sector in 2012 by inviting suppliers to sell fruit on their platforms.