Jan 31, 2022 11:55:00

In the fierce battle of high-speed delivery services for groceries and daily necessities, an average deficit of 2300 yen per order

Services that deliver groceries and daily miscellaneous goods in a short time are being developed here and there. In some cases, the waiting time is less than one hour, but behind the scenes, the cost is high and it is blown away instead of squeezing the profit, and an average deficit of 2300 yen appears per order. It is reported that there is.

Losses Mount for Startups Racing to Deliver Groceries Fast and Cheap --WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/losses-mount-for-startups-racing-to-deliver-groceries-fast-and-cheap-11643544004

The 'high-speed delivery business' that quickly delivers products to consumers has been a field that has been attracting attention many times since the 1990s, and during the IT bubble period from the 1990s to the 2000s, 'Kozmo.com ' and 'Urbanfetch' were the best. I built an era. Kozmo.com successfully raised more than 200 million yen in 2000, delivering ice cream and DVDs in an hour. However, due to high labor costs and advertising costs, the business was suspended in 2001. Urbanfetch also shut down in 2000.

This trend is about to happen again in the 2020s. In New York, while at least six companies including 'Gorillas ' from Germany are competing, San Francisco-based food delivery service ' DoorDash ' is also participating, and it is said that the situation is in a difficult situation.

In the case of one of the startups in the midst of the battle, '

Fridge No More, ' the average order value in September 2021 was $ 33 (about 3800 yen). However, if you deduct the product cost, packing cost, labor cost, disposal cost, storage cost, etc. from here, you will get a deficit of 3.3 dollars (about 380 yen) at one time even if you do not consider advertising costs. After advertising $ 70 (about 8100 yen) to acquire customers, it seems that each customer was in the red of $ 78 (about 9000 yen).

This situation has not changed much for other companies, and considering advertising costs, it is said that an average deficit of 20 dollars (about 2300 yen) has come out with one order.

However, as it has been a field that has been attracting attention many times since the 1990s, grocery and daily goods delivery is a huge business, and it is expected that it will be profitable if one or two companies can control the market. Investment in startups in this area has been over $ 5.5 billion since 2020.

Of course, it is a field that major companies are also paying attention to, but it is said that they have already withdrawn or changed the service form due to reasons such as deterioration of delivery time. For example, eBay's same-day delivery service ended in 2015. Amazon launched a 'delivery within 1 hour of order' service in New York in 2014, but for orders under $ 35, there is a $ 9.99 fee.

In addition, the contents of the products they handle are changing, and the number of services that handle processed foods is increasing, avoiding perishable products that spoil quickly. Four companies have already discontinued the handling of fast-damaging bananas.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Kozmo.com founder Joseph Park said, 'Delivery in 15 minutes is more difficult than delivery in an hour, but I think it's a good business model (' There have been technological innovations (compared to when Kozmo was deployed), and I think it's an absolutely possible business, even if it's not easy. ' On the other hand, Kozmo.com co-founder Yong Kang said, 'I think it's difficult to monetize,' he said, not optimistically.