Community group buying resembles a summer thunderstorm - it arrives with intensity, departs swiftly, and leaves clear skies behind.

The most dramatic moves in 2025 have been MEITUAN-W's sudden braking and JD.com's quiet acceleration in this space.

**MEITUAN-W's Strategic Retreat**

Starting last year, MEITUAN-W's attitude toward community group buying shifted dramatically. First, "TuanMaiMai" ceased operations entirely under the banner of "business adjustment." Then MEITUAN Select suddenly suspended orders in multiple cities, citing "partial adjustments," while redirecting resources toward flash sales and Xiaoxiang Supermarket.

The strategy is clear: concentrate all efforts on "instant retail" - 30-minute delivery, front-end warehouses, cold chain logistics, and dense offline networks. This approach plays to MEITUAN-W's strengths, generating rapid order volume growth and boosting morale. In contrast, MEITUAN Select has been losing money consistently. Despite narrowing losses, profitability remains distant. After years of persistence, management concluded this slow, heavy business model was damaging financial statements, making strategic withdrawal the rational choice.

**JD.com's Calculated Re-entry**

JD.com presents a different narrative. After "JingXi PinPin" retreated to just Beijing and Zhengzhou, it seemed like planting a flag to signal survival rather than growth.

However, since last year, JD.com has reorganized community group buying under "JD PinPin," appointing leaders with stronger frontline experience and adopting a less aggressive approach. Like a veteran learning to take measured steps, JD opened its first store in Beijing's Fangshan district and recently expanded to multiple Beijing communities, with pickup points appearing in Hebei, Anhui, and Jiangsu.

The product mix focuses on daily necessities without frills - leafy vegetables, eggs, rice, flour, cooking oil, tissues, and cleaning supplies. Rather than opening flagship stores, JD leverages existing infrastructure by partnering with courier stations and convenience stores, simply hanging "JD PinPin Group Buying Store" signs to save costs.

This iteration of JD PinPin appears stable on the surface but represents fundamental change:

First, it avoids cash-burning expansion to prevent repeating past mistakes.

Second, it emphasizes sourcing - direct procurement from origins, industrial belt partnerships, and private labels to minimize intermediaries and reduce prices.

Third, it combines logistics with self-pickup through refrigerated cabinets, shelving, and next-day collection to control spoilage. While these concepts aren't revolutionary, success in community group buying ultimately depends on mastering this trinity.

**Different Strengths, Different Calculations**

Why does JD.com return to a path MEITUAN-W abandoned? The companies have different advantages and strategic priorities.

MEITUAN-W excels at hyperlocal information efficiency through delivery networks, front-end warehouses, and offline touchpoints, winning customers with minute-level service. JD.com's strength lies in supply chain depth - warehousing systems, direct sourcing, private brands, and procurement capabilities, enabling it to fight endurance battles through cost-quality stability.

Community group buying's essence - "low margins, high turnover" - naturally suits JD.com's playing field. Previous attempts at rapid expansion revealed JD wasn't built for sprinting, so this time it's changing tactics: fewer stumbles, slower pace.

**The Competitive Landscape**

JD.com faces formidable competition from Duoduo Maicai, PDD's community e-commerce platform. Inheriting PDD's traditional approach, Duoduo Maicai focuses on price sheets and fulfillment rates rather than narratives. Its logic centers on extreme low prices and density, making group buying the default option for daily grocery shopping. Once habits form, users lose motivation to switch platforms.

Duoduo Maicai immediately filled gaps left by MEITUAN Select's retreat. Team leader order volumes doubled, warehouses added staff and vehicles, and suppliers flocked to PDD's platform.

For JD.com, every new pickup point represents competition for user habits and repeat purchases.

**Operational Requirements and Model**

According to JD PinPin internal personnel, partnership requires meeting specific thresholds: residential communities must exceed 600 households, and stores must provide approximately 10 square meters for refrigerated cabinets and shelving. Primary targets include licensed tobacco shops, convenience stores, and courier stations within communities.

Under the cooperation model, merchants receive 5% commission on online sales revenue, while offline they purchase at wholesale prices and set their own retail prices. Products come from discount supermarkets and JD's procurement system.

Essentially, this repackages the "supply chain + neighborhood store" approach into low-cost delivery nodes.

**Critical Success Factors**

Three challenges prove most difficult:

First, product selection must be low-price without compromising quality to avoid damaging reputation.

Second, fulfillment must be punctual, as fresh produce spoilage exceeds expectations.

Third, subsidy intensity requires careful calculation to avoid growth-driven losses.

**JD.com's Prospects**

Honestly, short-term success shouldn't be the focus - stability should. JD must stabilize repeat purchases in pilot cities, maintain enthusiasm among team leaders and stores, and ensure reliable supplier settlements while controlling the "price volatility - fulfillment volatility - reputation volatility" triangle.

Only after this system operates stably can expansion be considered. JD's trump card lies in its controllability across the "source - warehouse - city distribution" chain, determining whether low prices can become routine rather than promotional fireworks. Establishing "cheap today, reasonably cheap tomorrow" certainty will gradually bring users back.

**Industry Dynamics**

From a broader perspective, why is community group buying so challenging? It must simultaneously satisfy three seemingly contradictory requirements: cheap, stable, and convenient.

Cheap demands squeezing every penny from supply chains; stable requires organizational capability to manage complex chains; convenient demands network coverage to users' doorsteps. Failing any one element causes the others to collapse.

Many players died from "greed for speed" - expanding citywide without supporting systems, hemorrhaging money. Others died from "greed for savings" - avoiding end-point investments, causing experience degradation. Today, everyone has learned: either achieve "low-price strong mindshare + high-density networks" like Duoduo Maicai, or follow JD's "slow is fast" approach, using supply chain stability for reputation compound returns.

**Consumer and Platform Perspectives**

Ordinary consumers care about three things regardless of platform battles: Is it good and useful? Is it on time? Is it reasonably cheap?

For platforms, don't treat group buying as "promotional zones" - it's "service infrastructure" that becomes more valuable with stability. Companies embracing "long-termism" succeed in this space by focusing on value rather than gimmicks.

**Future Outlook**

Community group buying won't disappear - it will gradually become part of daily life: picking up vegetables at the door, adding milk before dinner, stocking tissues on weekends. Whoever does these small things well earns survival rights. MEITUAN-W's contraction reflects rationality, PDD's dominance demonstrates execution, and JD.com's return shows patience.

Markets don't lack sprint champions - they lack runners who can complete ten laps without getting winded. Making simple things stable and long-term things solid creates cycle-resistant "low prices."