Helping consumers prepare food at home

In early 2020, Missfresh started the sales of ready-to-cook, ready-to-heat and ready-to-eat products, which comprise cooked food and pre-prepared ingredients. Missfresh's bestselling products include instant meals from big-name chain restaurants such as Xibei Group and Meizhou Dongpo.

Last year, Missfresh saw total sales of ready meals grow more than 300 percent year-on-year, and it plans to further expand this category. By the end of 2021, more than 40 percent of its customers had bought ready meals, and the strong sales of the category demonstrated consumers' growing appetite for ready meals and a notable food consumption trend in China this year, the company said.

In March, Missfresh launched eight new ready-to-cook dishes, including Japanese-style curry beef, Fotiaoqiang, a traditional thick soup made of a variety of seafood and meats, and braised sea cucumber, with an option for individual servings. These ready meals will be produced in central kitchens, undergo rapid freezing at-38C, and go through quality inspection.

In November last year, the company debuted a batch of high-end ready meals, including Beijing-style lamb spine soup and beef bone broth flavors. They were sold off as soon as they were available online.

"As the consumer awareness of the product category and popularity of ready meals skyrocketed in the past two years, Missfresh has invested in developing its own in-house brands of the products," Chen said.

"We see the ready meals offerings not just as a way to meet the 'consumption upgrade' trend, but also as an important category to optimize our gross margins and improve profitability. We are confident that ready meals are poised to become an important driver for the company's operational efficiency," she said.