The pneumonia outbreak has stimulated consumers’ demands for online grocery shopping and generated development opportunities for online retail stores, Shanghai Securities News reported.

(Photo/People's Daily Online)

The average daily users rose by over 40,000 on the online food platform Dingdong and Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) on the platform increased by six times during this current period, said a manager with Dingdong.

Data from MissFresh, also a fresh food e-commerce platform, suggests that the actual volume of transactions on the platform grew by 321 percent during the Chinese new year holiday compared with what was seen at the same time last year.

The mounting orders and shortage of deliverymen have posed great pressure on all of these online platforms. Although Dingdong prepared certain goods and maintained 75 percent of its staff members during the holiday period, it still couldn’t fully satisfy the needs of the consumers. The platform has worked together with Shanghai Farm under the multinational food manufacturing company Bright Food for purposes of filling its inventory needs, according to the manager of Dingdong.

To grasp the opportunity provided by consumers’ increasing demands, Better Life Group launched its food platforms within 48 hours during the Spring Festival to provide wholesale products for communities. Within one hour after it was launched, the platform received over 1,000 orders.

Yonghui Superstores, which owns 27 distribution centers across the country, introduced grocery delivery service during the Spring Festival. It also promised that it wouldn’t increase the prices of necessities such as vegetables, masks and more.

The epidemic will usher in a golden period of development for online stores, said Li Guo, president of Yonghui superstores, adding that the company will strengthen its digital transformation through related technologies.