How did instant retail trigger China’s ‘second takeout war’?

China’s second takeout delivery war is underway — only this time it’s not just about your lunch, but about the entire instant retail market

By Lee Shih Ta

As “5-minute grocery orders and 30-minute delivery” become the norm, Chinese e-commerce is no longer just about discounts and price comparisons. From a massive subsidy battle between Meituan (3690.HK) and JD.com (JD.US; 9618.HK), to Alibaba’s (BABA.US; 9988.HK) launch of an “instant commerce” service, what’s unfolding is more than just another takeout war — it’s an outright battle for a booming new market in “instant retail.”

Instant retail refers to a business model where ordering, delivery, and receipt of goods are completed within one to a few hours. It combines the price and product selection advantages of traditional e-commerce with the instant availability of purchases made in physical stores, addressing consumer needs for both urgency and convenience.

Simply put, it’s a hybrid of e-commerce logistics and food delivery networks. Consumers can now order an iPhone online as easily as a bowl of noodles — and get it delivered to their doorstep within half an hour. If everything can be this fast, why wait a few days?

The concept of instant retail has existed for years, but only recently has it gained serious attention. Meituan launched its Flash Sale service in 2018; JD.com introduced its JD Daojia local on-demand delivery service as early as 2015; and Alibaba’s Taobao joined later with its Xiaoshida one-hour delivery service in 2022.

In 2023, Meituan began aggressively pushing its “everything to your door” strategy, expanding into categories like fresh produce, drugs and household items. It used subsidies and other incentives to rapidly build a “warehouse network” using local convenience stores and supermarkets. This April, it officially rebranded the service as Meituan Flash Sale, openly declaring war in the instant retailing space.

JD.com, with its strength in logistics and supply chains, integrated its JD Daojia and JD One-Hour Delivery services into a new brand called JD MiaoSong, or delivery in seconds, last year. Focusing on electronics, home appliances and daily essentials, it offered ultra-fast delivery services and launched aggressive subsidies early this year, including providing goods free of charge if deliveries took more than 20 minutes, directly targeting Meituan.

For its part, Alibaba upgraded its Taobao One-Hour Delivery service to Taobao Instant Commerce in late April, consolidating resources such as its Ele.me takeout delivery service, Freshippo supermarkets, and the Sun Art grocery chain (6808.HK) to join the war.

Meituan’s CEO of core local business Wang Puzhong said that instant retail has been booming in recent years, with Meituan fulfilling over 18 million non-food orders per day. He provocatively claimed, “The rise of instant retail is unstoppable. It will eventually push outdated, oversized warehouse-logistics systems into the dustbin of history.”

According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, the instant retail market reached 650 billion yuan ($89 billion) in 2023, and is expected to surpass 2 trillion yuan by 2030, growing at 28% annually — far outpacing the 11% growth of standard online retail.

Instant retail is also reshaping consumer habits. A NielsenIQ report shows that 72% of instant retail users are under 35, with Gen Z making up a dominant share. This new generation values speed and experience more than price. Saving time and having instant access to goods is becoming critical in purchasing decisions.

The rise of instant retail also reflects a deeper logistics transformation. It relies heavily on community-based warehouses and nearby merchants, greatly improving fulfillment efficiency and breaking the traditional “central warehouse–trunk line–last mile” model. More local small businesses — community stores, fresh markets, and convenience shops — are reintegrating into emerging platform economies. For tech platforms, long-term competitiveness lies in their warehouse coverage, merchant integration and data-driven logistics.

More than just faster delivery, instant retail represents a decentralized, localized evolution of e-commerce. It depends on dense urban layouts, mature local logistics infrastructure, and consumers’ deepening reliance on mobile apps. It’s reshaping consumer expectations and pushing platforms to shift from a “store-based” to a “scenario-based” logic — reshaping supply chains and fulfillment systems.

This retail revolution, born from food delivery, is now redefining the future landscape of Chinese e-commerce.

Lee Shih Ta is an editor at Bambooworks.

You can contact him at shihtalee@thebambooworks.com

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