O2O fruit shop a hit with students

Inside the store. Photo provided to China Daily

Xiao Chen said that her shop sold 30 boxes (over 300 kilos) of bananas on that day, that she is "crazy busy" and barely has time to pick up her phones.

Currently, there are 19 Xuxian Fruit stores scattered in Beijing, 14 of them adjacent to universities and the other five in the CBD. There will be more fruit stores opening in the months to come.

"Our goal is to make fresh fruit available to one-tenth of the university students in a year's time," said a spokesman for Xuxian Fruit in an interview with haiwai.net.

Across the street is a traditional fruit store, where the owner is rubbing his hands together to warm them in the chilly early April wind. Asked whether he feels threatened by Xuxian Fruit, he said he doesn't think so. "The students go because online selling seems interesting, most people prefer to buy on the spot," he said.

But he also admits the bargains offered by O2O business owners are quite attractive to customers.

Last year, Taodiandian, an online platform affiliated with Taobao.com that offers services specializing in catering, sent people to persuade him to open a shop online. He decided not to try at that time, "afraid that it was a trap", he said.

But this February when the fruit store next to his agreed to join in, he changed his mind. And he said sales have actually gone up because of the customer refunds offered by Taodiandian.

"Now we have less fruit left to rot, because more people come to buy fruit, and they buy more online," he said.