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China: Hema NB opened 400 stores in 80 days

Discount Retail Chain NB stands for Neighbourhood Business. As the third division of the Hema business group, it is regarded as an important move for Hema to enter the community e-commerce. Hou Yi also placed high expectations on Hema NB, and defined the project as "Hema's People's Livelihood Project" in the internal letter.


Hou Yi revealed that Hema NB started to form a team in March this year, and opened its first store in Shanghai on April 28. Up to now, there are more than 400 self-pickup stores operating in 10 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and Wuhan.


At present, the person in charge of Hema NB project is Gong Ye, reporting directly to Hou Yi. Gong also started his own business with Hou Yi since the founding of Hema Xiansheng. He was born after 1985, representing the youthful, highly educated and high-level talents cultivated by Hema himself.


In-store employees told reporters that from the perspective of the busiest opening hours, 8-10 am is also the time period when the number of pick-ups is the largest in the day.


From a format point of view, Hema NB is more similar to the fresh e-commerce Dairadish. Hou Yi also said that he had previously made a special trip to "three visits to Europe" to learn the advantages of his business model.


Hema once tried the "Hema Xiaozhan" pre-storage model, and then gave up turning to Hema mini, but the experience of "live delivery" accumulated by Hema Xiaozhan was retained and copied to the Hema NB.


Each self-pickup store in Hema NB is equipped with a water tank to store fresh food. It also provides products in four temperature levels: room temperature, refrigerated, frozen, and live fresh, to ensure the freshness of the ingredients to the greatest extent. This is also the big advantage emphasized by Hema NB.


No price war, long-term quality is the first choice

A person familiar with the matter said, “The goal of this business is to achieve 100% coverage of Hema products and services in cities with high coverage of Hema's housing. It is a supplement to Hema Fresh. From the user's point of view, it is of a more inclusive nature and extension of it."


Self-pickup stores currently play two major roles. In addition to providing consumers with orders, it also undertakes the early push and pull of new tasks.


In Hou Yi's view, the Hema NB values ​​the long-term product quality first, the richness of the product and the consumer's service experience, and finally the price.

"Relying on market support to bring low prices is not sustainable." Hou Yi said, Hema neighbourhood competition is retail efficiency and service experience.


It is understood that there are less than 2,000 SKUs in the Hema NB, covering all fresh products of Hema Xiansheng and all fast-moving consumer products of Hema Yunchao, covering daily life and daily meals. Customer Aunt Li told reporters that the abundance of goods is an important reason for her choice to repurchase in the Hema NB: “There are as many things you can buy in Hema supermarkets, and many products are cheaper than other supermarkets.”


Hema's "Troika"

"The mission of Hema NB is to solve the unsolved problems of e-commerce today."

The problems mentioned by Hou Yi include how fast-moving consumer goods can achieve home delivery of heavy goods such as water and beer and fresh food on the basis of low logistics costs, and establish trust between people, people and brands through offline sites relationship.


To this end, Hema NB has adopted a completely new self-built complete logistics system, so that consumers can pick up the goods from the familiar and trusted self-pickup store at the door every day, and enjoy the unreasonable return service. "After the business is formed, it will bring huge commercial value," Hou Yi said confidently.


At present, Hema NB has also begun to try to join franchise, and does not rule out the possibility of opening this model in the future.


Hou Yi said that Hema's NB model is very light and expands quickly. Hema can make full use of Hema's existing supply chain and product advantages, and continue to innovate and iterate.


"During the trial run for more than two months, the reproducibility and sustainability of the new model have been verified." Hou Yi revealed that Hema NB is confident of achieving profitability within six months.


Nowadays, Hema Xiansheng, Hema X Member Store, and Hema NB form the "troika" of Hema. Compared with the big store format that focuses on the middle class in second-tier cities, Hema NB has undertaken the heavy responsibility of "sinking".


"Why am I so excited about the Hema NB project? Because this is the first time Hema has seen the opportunity to go from the city to the whole country. I hope Hema NB can let people all over the country live a good life in the box area." Hou Yi said.


Recently, Hou Yi, President of the Hema Business Group, accepted an interview with media answering on the following questions:


Q: Why do you want to be a Hema NB? What is its strategic position in Hema?

Hou Yi : Hema's "troika" is Hema Xiansheng, Hema X member, and Hema NB. Hema NB is equivalent to our third growth curve.


As China becomes more and more wealthy, China's 300 million middle class needs the best products and the best prices. Hema X member store assumes such a function, and Hema Xiansheng is also going in this direction. However, most consumers in China, especially those in the sinking market, still do not enjoy the goods and services of Hema.


Hema NB has taken on the sinking function, which is why I am so excited-Hema has seen the opportunity to serve consumers from cities to consumers across the country for the first time.


We believe that only when there is a substantial change in retail efficiency and customer service can real innovation be brought about. Hema NB is just such a brand new business model.


We have also made Hema mini before and have achieved full profitability, but its model is too heavy and it is difficult to make profit; while Hema NB model is very light and expands quickly, which can make full use of Hema's existing supply chain. The advantages of commodities, and continuous innovation and iteration.


Hema NB is a strategic project for Hema in the next ten years. We hope that the people across the country can enjoy the inclusive "box house".


Q: How is Hema NB doing? What are your plans for the future?

Hou Yi : On April 28 2025, Hema NB opened its first store. Today (July 19), there are 400 stores nationwide, and we are rapidly advancing in stages. The first batch has entered 10 cities including Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Xi'an. In the future, it will enter all prefecture-level cities, even county-level cities and towns in China.


Hema NB is a new flower that blooms on the shoulders of giants. Hema has a strong brand capability and a complete supply chain procurement system, product research and development system, base and logistics system. The accumulation of these systems cannot be achieved by a startup company.


We have done Hema Xiaozhan and Hema mini. The core business of Hema Xiaozhan is warehouse, and Hema mini is a small store. On this basis, we are the combination of Hema Yunchao and Hema Xiaozhan, Hema NB. The original team comes from the original Hema Xiaozhan team.


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