(Yicai) July 22 -- Chinese e-commerce giant JD.Com has opened its first self-operated physical restaurant that offers only food delivery and pick-up services, with no dine-in option.

7Fresh Kitchen, located on the ground floor of a building in Beijing’s Dongcheng central district, received 800 orders on opening day yesterday. It took JD.Com a long time to select this location, staff members told Yicai during an on-site visit.

The restaurant has an open kitchen, equipped with cooking machines aiding chefs in tasks, such as stir-frying, and a pick-up area for both delivery riders and customers, Yicai learned. It is available only on JD Takeaway, JD.Com’s food delivery app, with prices ranging from CNY10 to CNY30 (USD1.40 to USD4.20) per dish.

The food delivery market is huge, and JD Takeaway will adopt a completely different business model than its rival Meituan in a month, JD.Com’s founder Richard Liu said at a conference over a month ago. This new business model will be able to thoroughly address food safety problems, he added.

However, JD.Com has not yet provided any details about this new business model Liu mentioned earlier.

The food delivery business will have a more differentiated development trend in the future, Zhuang Shuai, founder of Bailian Consulting, told Yicai. JD.Com should strengthen its self-operated and home appliance business, including computer communication products and consumer electronics, as well as its supermarket chain 7Fresh and omni-channel retail experience store chain JD Mall, while enhancing the synergy between its offline and e-commerce business, he added.

Meituan has already begun strengthening its offline group-buying business, improving its Xiaoxiang self-operated fresh food supermarket chain, and opening physical supermarkets to further differentiate its competitive advantages, Zhuang noted.

Meanwhile, Alibaba Group Holding’s instant retail arm Taobao Flash Buy will reinforce its advantages in the clothing and beauty categories, expand instant consumption in non-catering areas, and tighten cooperation with its affiliate e-commerce business, Zhuang pointed out.

Editor: Futura Costaglione