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On September 24, Meituan Flash Sale officially launched the “Brand Official Flagship Flash Warehouse” project, deploying a shared warehouse network in core cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Changsha to directly compete with Taobao Flash Sale. Currently, the project is in the internal testing phase and uses an invitation system to onboard the first batch of merchants. Top 10 brands in their categories, such as L’Oreal, Schwarzkopf, Anker, and Banana Umbrella, have already joined in advance.
The core of this model is that Meituan leads warehouse operations, and brands enter the warehouse through a two-level link of “central warehouse → flash warehouse” to share services and split costs. Meituan provides standardized operation support: twice-weekly product shelving, restocking within 48 hours, monthly inventory checks, and merchants can launch operations in as fast as 7 days.
The charging mechanism uses “commission vs. minimum guarantee, whichever is higher”: the monthly minimum guarantee per shelf group is 600 yuan in first-tier cities and 500 yuan in second-tier cities, with a 10% commission based on total merchandise transaction volume. Brands that enter before the end of 2025 can enjoy a limited-time free warehouse rent policy. On the consumer side, settled stores have “official certification” and “24-hour” labels, relying on dedicated riders to achieve 30-minute delivery, and some merchants can cover city-wide delivery.
Key Move for Meituan: Responding to Instant Retail Competition
This move is regarded by the industry as a key step for Meituan to respond to instant retail competition. Earlier, Taobao Flash Sale claimed that the scale of its flash warehouses exceeded 50,000, while Meituan builds a differentiated advantage through the brand official flagship model – using a light asset solution to solve the pain points of high costs for brands to build their own warehouses and difficult channel management, while strengthening the genuine product mindset.
From Warehouse Quantity to Brand Resources: The New Competition Focus
Analysis points out that instant retail has moved from the 1.0 phase of mom-and-pop store flash warehouses to the 2.0 phase of branding. The competition focus between Meituan and Taobao is shifting from the number of warehouse networks to the competition for brand resources. This “official flagship battle” may reshape the industry supply pattern.