With its innovative retail model, Qiandama (QDM) is the #1 fresh produce retailer in China. The country’s massive fresh produce market is worth over $1 trillion USD and rapidly growing. However, the industry is largely composed of small, highly fragmented stores with low operational efficiency.
QDM's breakthrough was pioneering its "100% sold daily" model, ensuring daily guaranteed freshness to customers. The origins of this model began with the company’s founder, Mr. Feng Jisheng. In 2012, Jisheng operated a booth selling pork in a traditional Chinese wet market. He began experimenting with a new sales model that used escalating discounts to fully sell out his inventory every day. The model quickly proved popular with his customers, who gravitated towards the guaranteed freshness of his product.
The gambit worked so well it increased his booth’s daily sales to 5X of other stands in the same market. His competitors were less enthused, and he was asked to leave the market. That gave Mr. Feng the opportunity to try his model in a store format. Today, Qiandama operates nearly 4,000 stores in 30+ cities in China, generating $3.5bn USD in sales annually.
Vision
Our data-driven approach and access to proprietary data gave us an edge in finding this emerging brand, at a time when Harvest sought to establish its initial online sales channels. While other investors saw rice as a commodity with little growth, we saw the potential for Harvest to shake-up an otherwise stagnant industry. Understanding and sharing this vision ultimately helped secure our partnership. Harvest has been one of the most prominent deals sourced through GenBridge’s data-driven method of selecting investments.
Partnership
Harvest is a model example of how new generation brands break the mold of traditional players. Agricultural companies are not known for their digital prowess. Our work with Harvest’s management is to strengthen its partnership with JD.com and become the #1 online rice brand. At the same time, we are supporting its offline efforts with branded stores, creating a powerful omni-channel model, and establishing itself as a leading national food brand in China.
Consumers
Consumers are attracted to Harvest for its reputation as a “seasonal” rice producer – able to deliver rice fresh in-season, as opposed to last year’s crop. Their vacuum-sealed packaging is compact and locks in freshness, a departure from traditional rice packaging. Additionally, the idea of rice delivered to your door is novel and has saved customers the heavy work of carrying sacks of rice from supermarket to home.