Shanghai residents hungry for Ele.me

Shanghai residents eat the most takeout on Alibaba’s on-demand delivery site Ele.me and offline lifestyle service platform Koubei, recent data shows. 

Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou are the top three cities in terms of spending on delivered food, according to Ele.me data. 

On-demand delivery spending and offline expenditure through Koubei’s dining and payment service both surged over the past year. 

Late night eateries also emerged as an important part of daily life, and Shanghai topped the list again in terms of total spending. 

One Shanghai Ele.me user put 2,074 orders through the platform during the past year, and the top spender bought 253,000 yuan (US$37,205) worth of delivery orders. 

The average number of times Shanghai consumers visit pastry and desert stores was 1.8 times that of the nationwide level over the past year, and Shanghai residents are also the most frequent visitors to Western-style restaurants. 

Alibaba’s lifestyle service Koubei and delivery unit Ele.me currently connects with 3.5 million merchants in 676 cities around the country. 

Beauty salons and leisure activities also picked up, and Shanghai consumers’ spending on massage ranks second place, following those in Wuhan. 

Ordering fresh flowers and greenery are also popular among urban dwellers and office workers. Shanghai’s female residents contributed 70 percent of delivery orders for greenery in the city. 

Internet platforms and service providers are encouraging consumers to order from digital menus through smartphone applications, with the number of orders nearly quadrupling in the past six months. 

Other delivery services such as ordering over-the-counter drugs and fresh fruit and vegetables are also being adopted by an increasing number of consumers who rely on smartphones, not only for physical goods but for everyday life services.