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Ed Sander (艾德)'s Recent LinkedIn Posts
Ed Sander (艾德)
@edsander
Sharing insights into China’s digital retail companies through reports (China Digital Retail Report), keynotes (ChinaTalk) and study tours (ChinaTechTrip).
Posts
Ed Sander (艾德)
Tech & AI
3mo
A RANT ABOUT JOYBUY
That's me back in April 2022, presenting at the Industributiedinner of Distrifood. I was invited to share my thoughts on Chinese e-commerce players, specifically the new entrant Ochama, an initiative by the Chinese giant JD.
I didn't pull any punches and made it clear that, based on what I had seen in the previous 3 months, Ochama would be a failure. Some people in the audience said I was too harsh. Distrifood had been the only media outlet to be critical. The reason? Like me, they had tried it out themselves.
Three years later, Ochama had become a niche player, used mostly by the Asian diaspora because it sold Asian food products. Some Dutch people I knew also used it, mainly to buy large quantities of instant noodles that were not available elsewhere. I have described the many things Ochama did wrong in an article I published on China Digital Retail Report yesterday (link in comments).
A year ago, JD launched a new iteration of their Joybuy website, and in August, Ochama rebranded to Joybuy in NL, BE, FR, LUX and DE. In a second article I will publish soon, I will show how Joybuy repeated many of the same mistakes that Ochama made. In the countries where it replaced Ochama, I consider this unacceptable and disrespectful to the niche group of customers it had been serving.
Yesterday, after being in 'beta' for a year in the UK and over half a year in the other countries, Joybuy officially launched. And I see the same thing happening as in early 2022. The media are copy-pasting Joybuy's press release, and I see few mentions of Ochama or the 'beta sites' and little critical thinking. The only exception is a handful of e-commerce magazines questioning the feasibility of some of Joybuy's claims.
While Joybuy has polished up some of the biggest errors (and, as I suggested, removed some disastrous YouTube videos that I will analyse in the second article), the whole thing feels the same as Ochama's launch. JD might be throwing more resources at it this time, but localisation of communication is still flawed, even after the 'beta' phase was closed. And significant grocery categories, such as fresh dairy products, are missing. Joybuy claims to be a one-stop-shop player, but nobody is going to buy half of their groceries with Joybuy and half with Albert Heijn, Picnic or Jumbo. And same-day delivery USP is unavailable to most consumers.
It might seem that I'm on a crusade against Joybuy, but I'm not. I would much rather see JD succeed than some other Chinese players that I write about. In China, JD is a much more trustworthy player. But that doesn't come across on Ochama and Joybuy. So, if I'm on a crusade, it is against mediocrity, failing to deliver on what you promise, disrespecting consumers by not localising enough, and the media just eating up everything they receive in press releases.
And I sincerely hope that Joybuy has proven me wrong in a year or so when I say that this will go the same way as Ochama.
20
Ed Sander (艾德)
Tech & AI
3mo
A RANT ABOUT JOYBUY
That's me back in April 2022, presenting at the Industributiedinner of Distrifood. I was invited to share my thoughts on Chinese e-commerce players, specifically the new entrant Ochama, an initiative by the Chinese giant JD.
I didn't pull any punches and made it clear that, based on what I had seen in the previous 3 months, Ochama would be a failure. Some people in the audience said I was too harsh. Distrifood had been the only media outlet to be critical. The reason? Like me, they had tried it out themselves.
Three years later, Ochama had become a niche player, used mostly by the Asian diaspora because it sold Asian food products. Some Dutch people I knew also used it, mainly to buy large quantities of instant noodles that were not available elsewhere. I have described the many things Ochama did wrong in an article I published on China Digital Retail Report yesterday (link in comments).
A year ago, JD launched a new iteration of their Joybuy website, and in August, Ochama rebranded to Joybuy in NL, BE, FR, LUX and DE. In a second article I will publish soon, I will show how Joybuy repeated many of the same mistakes that Ochama made. In the countries where it replaced Ochama, I consider this unacceptable and disrespectful to the niche group of customers it had been serving.
Yesterday, after being in 'beta' for a year in the UK and over half a year in the other countries, Joybuy officially launched. And I see the same thing happening as in early 2022. The media are copy-pasting Joybuy's press release, and I see few mentions of Ochama or the 'beta sites' and little critical thinking. The only exception is a handful of e-commerce magazines questioning the feasibility of some of Joybuy's claims.
While Joybuy has polished up some of the biggest errors (and, as I suggested, removed some disastrous YouTube videos that I will analyse in the second article), the whole thing feels the same as Ochama's launch. JD might be throwing more resources at it this time, but localisation of communication is still flawed, even after the 'beta' phase was closed. And significant grocery categories, such as fresh dairy products, are missing. Joybuy claims to be a one-stop-shop player, but nobody is going to buy half of their groceries with Joybuy and half with Albert Heijn, Picnic or Jumbo. And same-day delivery USP is unavailable to most consumers.
It might seem that I'm on a crusade against Joybuy, but I'm not. I would much rather see JD succeed than some other Chinese players that I write about. In China, JD is a much more trustworthy player. But that doesn't come across on Ochama and Joybuy. So, if I'm on a crusade, it is against mediocrity, failing to deliver on what you promise, disrespecting consumers by not localising enough, and the media just eating up everything they receive in press releases.
And I sincerely hope that Joybuy has proven me wrong in a year or so when I say that this will go the same way as Ochama.
20
Ed Sander (艾德)
Tech & AI
3mo
A RANT ABOUT JOYBUY
That's me back in April 2022, presenting at the Industributiedinner of Distrifood. I was invited to share my thoughts on Chinese e-commerce players, specifically the new entrant Ochama, an initiative by the Chinese giant JD.
I didn't pull any punches and made it clear that, based on what I had seen in the previous 3 months, Ochama would be a failure. Some people in the audience said I was too harsh. Distrifood had been the only media outlet to be critical. The reason? Like me, they had tried it out themselves.
Three years later, Ochama had become a niche player, used mostly by the Asian diaspora because it sold Asian food products. Some Dutch people I knew also used it, mainly to buy large quantities of instant noodles that were not available elsewhere. I have described the many things Ochama did wrong in an article I published on China Digital Retail Report yesterday (link in comments).
A year ago, JD launched a new iteration of their Joybuy website, and in August, Ochama rebranded to Joybuy in NL, BE, FR, LUX and DE. In a second article I will publish soon, I will show how Joybuy repeated many of the same mistakes that Ochama made. In the countries where it replaced Ochama, I consider this unacceptable and disrespectful to the niche group of customers it had been serving.
Yesterday, after being in 'beta' for a year in the UK and over half a year in the other countries, Joybuy officially launched. And I see the same thing happening as in early 2022. The media are copy-pasting Joybuy's press release, and I see few mentions of Ochama or the 'beta sites' and little critical thinking. The only exception is a handful of e-commerce magazines questioning the feasibility of some of Joybuy's claims.
While Joybuy has polished up some of the biggest errors (and, as I suggested, removed some disastrous YouTube videos that I will analyse in the second article), the whole thing feels the same as Ochama's launch. JD might be throwing more resources at it this time, but localisation of communication is still flawed, even after the 'beta' phase was closed. And significant grocery categories, such as fresh dairy products, are missing. Joybuy claims to be a one-stop-shop player, but nobody is going to buy half of their groceries with Joybuy and half with Albert Heijn, Picnic or Jumbo. And same-day delivery USP is unavailable to most consumers.
It might seem that I'm on a crusade against Joybuy, but I'm not. I would much rather see JD succeed than some other Chinese players that I write about. In China, JD is a much more trustworthy player. But that doesn't come across on Ochama and Joybuy. So, if I'm on a crusade, it is against mediocrity, failing to deliver on what you promise, disrespecting consumers by not localising enough, and the media just eating up everything they receive in press releases.
And I sincerely hope that Joybuy has proven me wrong in a year or so when I say that this will go the same way as Ochama.
20