Aug. 21 (NBD) -- All 7-Eleven stores located in Beijing have launched online services on the food delivery app Meituan, Beijing Business Today reported on Monday.

The new move indicates 7-Eleven's further deployment online. In early 2016, the Japanese convenience store brand partnered with JD Daojia, the food ordering and delivery service of JD.com. Some 7-Eleven stores on JD Daojia posted sales growth of up to 400 percent in January of this year. 

Apart from 7-Eleven, other convenience stores and supermarkets have also started cooperating with online food delivery platforms. 

In February this year, Japanese convenience store chain FamilyMart said its 212 stores have opened online shops on JD Daojia.

Later in March, FamilyMart announced tie-up with Ele.me to provide food delivery service in 9 cities in China. 

According to the news portal Tencent Yixian, 150 stores of Chinese brand Today in Wuhan, 15 shops of Yonghui FMarts in Shanghai and 84 Watsons stores in Guangzhou have online shops on Ele.me. 

Retail giant Walmart began to team up with JD Daojia early in 2015 and the two sides jointly launched a new type of delivery service last month by which products can be delivered within 1 hour after a consumer placed an order. 

As of July this year, a total of 200 Walmart supermarkets in 30 cities around China sell goods on JD Daojia and offer the new delivery service to customers.

Following the trend of online/offline integration, lifestyle service platforms seek to outrival their counterparts by collaborating with convenience stores. 

By February of 2018, about 4000 stores of different brands are available on JD Daojia. 

Unlike traditional retailers which were struck by expansion of e-commerce firms, convenience stores are growing faster than any other offline retailers.

Last year, China's convenience store industry registered a 23 percent growth compared to the previous year, a report on development of Chinese convenience stores in 2018 from China Chain Store and Franchise Association and Boston Consulting shows. The number of stores reached 106,000 and the market size hit 190 billion yuan (27.8 billion U.S. dollars). 

In addition, another report released by Ministry of Commerce of China in the fourth quarter of 2017 revealed prosperity index of Chinese convenience store industry for the quarter was 71.28, rising 2.03 compared to the metric for the third quarter of 2017, with increase of both number of newly opened shops and same store sales.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn