(Yicai) June 20 -- The on-demand retail sector has experienced significant growth during this year's 618 shopping festival, becoming a main contributor to platforms' operations.

Over 100 million users placed orders on Meituan Flash Buy between May 27 and June 18, according to the instant retail business of Chinese on-demand services platform Meituan. The transaction volume of more than 60 product categories on Flash Buy doubled from a year earlier, with that of high-value items, such as smartphones, premium liquor, infant formula, and home appliances, tripling. Nearly 850 retail brands achieved double-digit growth in the period.

Daily orders on Taobao Instant Commerce, the instant commerce service offered by Alibaba Group Holding's Taobao online marketplace and its on-demand delivery platform Ele.me, exceeded 40 million within a month of its launch, Taobao said on May 26. Non-beverage items accounted for 75 percent of the orders, and growth in non-food categories exceeded expectations, it added.

On-demand retail sales of Aux Air Conditioning surged 60-fold during this year's 618 shopping festival from a year earlier, while those of Gree Electric Appliance climbed nine-fold from last year's Double 11. XTC, a popular smartwatch brand for kids, sold 90,000 units via on-demand retail channels in the period, exceeding expectations by 60 percent.

Prices remained the main consumption driver during the mid-year shopping gala. In addition to government subsidies, platforms and brands offered greater discounts than last year, according to an executive from XTC. This resulted in overall lower consumer electronics prices than in previous editions.

On-demand retail and traditional e-commerce have different competition patterns, the XTC executive noted. Traditional e-commerce mainly competes for market share, resulting in fiercer competition. Meanwhile, on-demand retail focuses on incrementality by lowering consumer barriers through promotions and subsidies.

Ninety percent of XTC's on-demand retail users were first-time buyers, demonstrating the effectiveness of market education, the executive added.

The core advantage of on-demand retail lies in providing consumers with certainty. From the logistics perspective, nearby store fulfillment enables rapid delivery and ensures consumers access to fast after-sales support. Flash Buy has an average delivery time for high-value goods of 28 minutes, with 70 percent of the orders delivered within 30 minutes.

On-demand retail better meets young customers' fragmented and personalized consumption needs, while its diverse product categories complement traditional e-commerce, Bai Jingming, co-founder of Chinese alcoholic beverage retail chain Jiu Yitao, told Yicai.

Jiu Yitao participated in the 618 shopping festival's on-demand retail activity for the first time this year.

From an operational perspective, on-demand retail poses higher requirements on merchants. Unlike traditional e-commerce's simple 'one warehouse serves the nation' model, on-demand retail requires multi-channel coordination, rapid replenishment, greater logistics capacity, and internal coordination capabilities, according to industry analysts.

Editor: Futura Costaglione