Quick commerce in China 2025

Over the past 10 months, China’s “quick commerce” — once a niche delivery segment — has exploded into everyday infrastructure, serving hundreds of millions of consumers.

Platforms like Meituan, Alibaba, and JD are locked in an intense subsidy war, but beneath the competition lies something much deeper — a decade-long transformation in logistics, consumer behaviour, and retail operations that has turned instant delivery into a core part of China’s urban economy.

For global businesses, China offers a preview of where on-demand retail is heading. From Riyadh to Jakarta, the same infrastructure — riders, warehouses, and algorithms — is starting to take shape. The lessons from China’s rapid evolution reveal what it takes to scale quick commerce sustainably: dense networks, consumer trust, and operational precision.

Yet, this growth also raises important questions: How will retailers adapt when consumers expect everything instantly? What happens when automation and AI redefine “speed”? And how might these Chinese models reshape retail competition worldwide?

Momentum Works’ new report, “Quick Commerce in China 2025: How instant retail became everyday infrastructure,” unpacks these dynamics — from the billion-dollar subsidy battles to the quiet systems powering them, and what they mean for markets beyond China.

The 43-page report covers the following sections and topics:

1. The quick commerce war in 2025
   • The 2025 quick commerce war in China is fought at an unprecedented scale
   • It is the most costly subsidy war ever fought by tech platforms in China
   • The different roles of the three protagonists of the war: JD, Meituan & Alibaba
   • The war broke the balance of value propositions of major Chinese platforms
   • Meituan's introduction of “Instashopping” changed the calculus of JD & Alibaba
   • A brief timeline of the war 
   • The subsidy war has shifted market share - but will it last?
   • Weapons: intensive voucher subsidies supported by algorithms and precise targeting 
   • Case study: how Meituan spends less than rivals for the same vouchers
   • What looks like a subsidy war is actually a systems war
   • How is this war going to end? A few possible scenarios

2. Quick commerce development in China 
   • China’s quick commerce sector took a decade of building and iterations to get to here
   • China’s vast food delivery network provides the infrastructure for quick commerce
   • Quick commerce is now taking shape - still small but growing fast
   • China’s quick commerce players are part of a larger ecosystem
   • Dynamics in the ecosystem also help lay the foundation for quick commerce surge

3. Key players & business models
   • 3P is a much larger piece of China’s quick commerce pie
   • 3P case study: Meituan Instashopping
   • We visited many (types of) dark stores during Momentum Works China Immersions
   • Meituan has built supply chain tech solutions to enable/strengthen the ecosystem 
   • 1P case study: Xiaoxiang & Dingdong Maicai’s dark store model
   • 1P case study: Sam’s Club’s store + satellite warehouse model
   • 1P case study: Freshippo’s store-warehouse integration model

4. Implications of this growth
   • Behind the quick commerce development is the cutthroat competition in retail
   • Many of these players are also expanding globally
   • Asia’s competitive quick commerce landscape has global implications
   • The next phase: drones, autonomous supply chain and AI

5. Conclusion & perspectives