Digital innovation boosts China’s Pinduoduo during pandemic

Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo (PDD) has doubled the gross merchandise value (GMV) of its agriculture business in just a year after launching digital initiatives aimed at helping farmers and rural businesses who were most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Pandaily, the Nasdaq-listed company secured GMV worth 270bn yuan (US$42bn) from the agriculture sector in 2020, up from 134bn yuan in 2019.

Digital initiatives

• Lockdown regulations encouraged more consumers to embrace digital agricultural services and many turned to PDD’s “Help the Farmers” channel to promote sales of fresh farm produce from heavily affected areas.
• PDD launched Duo Duo Grocery, a next-day pick-up service, in August 2020, enabling farmers to sell directly to local consumers in a more cost-effective way than premium same-day delivery services.
• After raising $6.2bn in November 2020, PDD invested heavily in a logistics network to handle perishable goods. The company is also exploring global opportunities in areas such as food safety, alternative proteins and precision farming.

Key quote

“Agricultural produce is our bread and butter and we will continue to make groceries affordable and available to everyone whenever they want. Digital agriculture increases the efficiency of food supply chains and ensures food quality at the same time” – Chen Lei, CEO of Pinduoduo.

Sourced from Pandaily

_{[Image: Pinduoduo]}