Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
As the Double 11 pre-sale kicks off, the e-commerce industry is experiencing a turning point driven by the takeaway market.
During the National Day holiday, leveraging Taobao Flash Purchase’s overall traffic advantages, Malanji’s average daily orders surged by over 240% year-on-year and nearly 30% month-on-month. Lucky Cup’s daily orders grew more than 10 times year-on-year, maintaining double-digit month-on-month growth. This sudden growth trend is also reflected in non-food sectors: in July, 1,205 categories on Taobao Flash Purchase saw over 100% month-on-month order growth, and 260,000 stores doubled their orders year-on-year.
If we summarize the e-commerce consumption mindset of the past decade as: comparing prices, waiting, and stockpiling, today, timeliness and experience are becoming unprecedentedly important. This year’s Double 11 will be the first time we see deep collaboration between instant delivery networks and long-distance e-commerce platforms.
To deeply analyze this takeaway-driven transformation and explore new growth paradigms for future commerce, Yicai Business School released the 2025 Takeaway Market Trend Observation report by analyzing merchant operation cases and survey data from Taobao Flash Purchase since its launch nearly six months ago. The report finds that the instant consumption wave triggered by takeaway subsidy wars is no longer a simple redivision of platform shares but a profound business paradigm shift—moving away from “traffic competition” to embracing refined “operational efficiency.” Takeaway is becoming the entry point for digitalization in the catering industry and the “new infrastructure” reshaping the e-commerce industry.
Platform Competition Escalates, Bringing New Business to Merchants
Rise of Taobao Flash Purchase and Multipolarization of Takeaway Market
In 2025, the rise of Taobao Flash Purchase completely rewrote the competitive landscape of the takeaway market. The market is no longer dominated by a single player but has formed a new stable structure with Meituan, JD.com, and Taobao Flash Purchase as the three pillars. Data shows that during the peak order period in August, the combined market share of Taobao Flash Purchase and Ele.me once exceeded Meituan, presenting a pattern close to “4.5:4.4:1.1.” The core of this platform war has shifted from short-term subsidy volume battles to long-term ecological collaboration and operational efficiency competition.
As China’s largest comprehensive e-commerce platform, Taobao Flash Purchase’s entry has brought cross-segment synergy effects to Taobao. A previous report by Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management shows that for every 1 yuan of Flash Purchase subsidy consumers use, they generate about 6.8 yuan of additional consumption, with 3.1 yuan flowing to online e-commerce physical consumption. Financial data also confirms that Taobao Flash Purchase is willing to solidify its share in the takeaway market, so the takeaway market is expected to remain multipolar for a long time.
Positive Significance of Multi-Platform Ecology
The positive significance of this multi-platform ecology lies in the return of merchants’ right to choose. Benign competition between platforms not only brings merchants greater exposure and order flexibility but also drives the improvement of the entire industry’s service capabilities, allowing merchants to embrace the dividend period of multi-platform layout.
Heytea, a leading brand in new tea drinks, fully launched all its over 4,000 stores nationwide on Taobao Flash Purchase in August, which is a typical example of this trend. Previously, Heytea had not accessed Ele.me and JD Takeaway. However, the new customers brought by the new platform are tangible: on the day of Liqiu (Start of Autumn) this year, the number of new customers for tea drink merchants on Taobao Flash Purchase increased by 255% week-on-week. Cooperation with Taobao Flash Purchase helps Heytea continue to expand high-quality new users including 88VIPs.
The multipolar competition among platforms not only helps merchants start in-depth multi-platform cooperation but also reversely improves the platform’s overall service capabilities and operational support, injecting new vitality into consumption across the country.
Catering Industry’s Operational Reshaping Starts with Takeaway
Takeaway Becomes Digital New Infrastructure for Catering Merchants
Benefiting from Taobao Flash Purchase’s online activities during the National Day holiday, the online orders of Meigui Street, a traditional late-night snack street in Wuhan, surged by 40%. Lao Zhuanyao Huafan, a 30-year-old store, receives more than 70% of its morning peak orders from Taobao Flash Purchase, significantly expanding its service radius.
Sanzhen Minsheng Sweet Food Hall sells over a thousand catties of hot dry noodles a day; Qiqi Dumplings, which just launched on Taobao Flash Purchase during the National Day holiday, saw Flash Purchase orders exceed half of its daily orders in just a few days. As the proportion of takeaway in the catering industry’s revenue continues to rise, it is no longer an “auxiliary channel” but has become the digital new infrastructure driving industry growth, bringing opportunities for digitalization of the entire industrial chain.
First, the digital-driven model enables online member operations. For example, Xiaogu Jiejie Malatang added 1 million members within one month through Taobao Flash Purchase, equivalent to the increment of the past six months. This explosive member growth not only brings considerable repurchase potential to the brand but also precipitates a large amount of private domain traffic.
By analyzing user consumption trends, merchants can more accurately grasp market trends. Similarly, digital systems can help merchants optimize inventory management, intelligent scheduling, and automated order processing, thereby improving overall operational efficiency. The digital transformation of the catering industry is not “accessing platforms to do takeaway” but a systematic upgrade from products, organizations, decisions to marketing. Stores have transformed from single sales points to instant fulfillment centers, and operating indicators have shifted from “table turnover rate” to “fulfillment efficiency + member repurchase rate,” forming a new generation of operating systems.
Equal Opportunities for Small and Medium Merchants and Sinking Markets
In this digital wave, platforms like Taobao Flash Purchase have brought unprecedented “equal opportunities” to small and medium merchants and sinking markets. Countless local brands and street shops have rejuvenated with new vitality through Taobao Flash Purchase’s instant delivery network and platform tools. Yixin Rice Ball, a new catering brand founded in 2023, continuously optimized its operations and supply chain with the help of Ele.me’s real-time data SaaS capabilities, rapidly opening 7 new stores from March to July this year and seizing the traffic dividend.
In Jinan, Qiaoxia Bazirou (Braised Pork) saw a 145.7% increase in orders after participating in Flash Purchase activities, with single-store daily turnover jumping from 8-9 thousand yuan to nearly 20 thousand yuan; in Tianjin, the time-honored Deshun Pastry House saw a 50% increase in customer traffic after opening Taobao Flash Purchase. During this large-scale subsidy activity, catering orders in 623 counties (excluding municipal districts) nationwide increased year-on-year. These cases fully prove that Taobao Flash Purchase is bringing tangible incremental opportunities to merchants of different scales and regions.
Consumption Logic Changes: From “Planned Consumption” to “Instant Gratification”
The emergence of Taobao Flash Purchase is profoundly changing consumption logic, driving consumption behavior from planned consumption to “instant gratification.” When next-day delivery becomes “30-minute delivery” and from “stocking up” to “immediate ownership,” instant consumption has gradually covered all consumption scenarios. Holiday gifting, seasonal consumption, business travel… these seemingly scattered life moments are becoming gold mines for instant retail. This year’s Qixi Festival (Chinese Valentine’s Day), flower orders on Taobao Flash Purchase surged 132% year-on-year, three times that of 520 (May 20), meeting consumers’ current gifting scenarios. “Haoxianglai” chose to launch “ice cup + alcohol” sets in different seasons, seizing the seasonal consumption scenario of summer frost. In these consumption scenarios, consumers want not just discounted prices but “satisfaction at this moment.”
From “E-commerce Logic” to “Instant Network”: Supply-Side Reconstruction
Behind this transformation is the reconstruction of the supply side. Many retail brands are reconstructing their instant supply networks with the help of Taobao Flash Purchase. They have digitized offline stores into “forward warehouses” serving communities, realizing the new model of “online ordering, store delivery, and hour-long delivery.”
– Decathlon synchronized products from 208 stores nationwide to its Tmall official flagship store, and consumers can choose “Flash Purchase” delivery, with monthly transaction volume exceeding 10 million yuan.
– Liangpinpuzi (Bestore) connected inventory from over 2,000 stores nationwide, and its order volume increased by 285% year-on-year 4 months after accessing Taobao Flash Purchase.
– CHANDO adopted a complementary model of “long-distance flagship store + near-field Flash Purchase store” and ranked among the top five in platform beauty category transaction volume within two weeks of launch.
In the face of the consumption impulse of “want it now,” traditional distribution levels are compressed, inventory flows from warehouses to neighborhoods, and users shift from “comparing prices and waiting” to “instant decision-making.” Instant retail represented by Taobao Flash Purchase is not just a new channel but reshaping the division of labor system of “where goods come from, how to get to users, and who bears timeliness and experience.”
Next Stage of Takeaway Wars: Ecological Collaboration and Efficiency Revolution
Ecological Collaboration: When Large Consumption Platforms Welcome “Double 11”
In Alibaba’s big consumption strategy, Taobao Flash Purchase is an infrastructure that can efficiently collaborate with other business segments. Especially at key nodes like “Double 11,” its ecological collaboration value is amplified:
Taobao Flash Purchase previously announced that it will launch Double 11 heavy benefits: 88VIPs enjoy 50% off takeaway every day, and the number of free order red envelopes exceeds 10 million.
– Member system integration: 88VIP, brand members, and platform subsidies are on the same path, unifying high-frequency instant consumption and long-distance e-commerce into the same member system, precipitating global member assets.
– Integration of near-field and long-distance: Long-distance e-commerce provides rich choices of “more, better, cheaper,” while Taobao Flash Purchase provides the ultimate “fast” fulfillment experience. The two complement each other to jointly improve user conversion and repurchase.
– High-frequency drives low-frequency: Use high-frequency businesses such as catering to attract traffic to the platform, thereby driving low-frequency but high-margin e-commerce consumption. Jiang Fan revealed in the earnings call that Taobao Flash Purchase, as a high-frequency entry point, drove a **20% increase** in Taobao’s DAU (Daily Active Users) in August.
This “Double 11,” Alibaba’s multi-scenario collaboration advantages will be. Amap completes local scenario content and traffic distribution, Flash Purchase completes transactions and fulfillment, and Alipay and Taobao complete payment, members, and repurchase. Data, tools, users, and scenarios are connected one by one, and the puzzle of the big consumption platform is thus completed.
Efficiency Revolution: Merchants Transition from Traffic Dividend to Operational Dividend
The traffic flood brought by platforms is forcing merchants to shift from passive access to active efficiency revolution. Merchants no longer rely solely on traffic dividends but begin to reconstruct their business models with data to tap new growth points.
Catering has grown into a new form. Grandma’s Home (Wai Po Jia) ran through the “satellite store” model on Taobao Flash Purchase. This low-cost, high (per-square-meter efficiency) store achieved a **230% monthly business growth**, allowing brand expansion no longer dependent on heavy asset investment. Hongxing Restaurant established an exclusive production process to cope with the surge in takeaway orders, with refined operations from human resources, supply chain to packaging design.
Non-food merchants have also moved from simply accessing the instant delivery network to actively exploring consumers’ instant needs: MINISO focused on developing new categories such as disposable travel supplies and IP toys for Taobao Flash Purchase users, achieving incremental effects. Taobao Flash Purchase has become a new field for traditional retail brands and stores to innovate products, test new products, and amplify traffic. This transformation led by Taobao Flash Purchase is driving merchants to complete a profound transition from “traffic competition” to “operational competition.”
This “Double 11,” Taobao Flash Purchase will not only bring consumers the ultimate experience of “buy now and get now” but also open the door to future growth for countless merchants. It allows the (street vitality) of urban corners to resonate with national consumption (carnival), and enables century-old time-honored brands and innovative new brands to accelerate on the same track. When millions of merchants convert every “current” demand into business increments through Taobao Flash Purchase, what we see is a more efficient, more balanced, and more vibrant new business ecosystem.