This is largely because of Hema—Alibaba’s all-in-one supermarket, fresh market, restaurant and fulfillment center. The Chinese conglomerate said it expected to have roughly 100 Hema stores by the end of 2018.
What About the EU-5?
Both Amazon and Alibaba are gaining clout in key markets across Europe as online grocery shopping continues to grow. “Grocery is just one sector in which Amazon is reshaping the European shopping landscape. In other product areas, it is already a dominant force,” said Karin von Abrams in her report, “Western Europe Ecommerce Trends in 2019: Holiday Shopping Patterns, Digital Grocery and the Rise of Alibaba," which published earlier this year. “Alibaba, too, has designs on Europe, but its priorities relate chiefly to its China-based businesses, and to tourists and other travelers from China visiting stores in Europe. The offering for residents of Europe is comparatively limited.”
Nearly one-third of digital grocery shoppers in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and France had groceries delivered at least weekly in 2018, according to January 2019 data from Capgemini. By 2021, more than half of respondents in the Netherlands, the UK and Germany said they will have groceries delivered once per week, as did 49% of respondents in France.