Home cooking, home storage, and home care services... "Home economy": Even if you open the door, you must guard it carefully. Personalization | Consumers | Economy

With the improvement of people's living standards, the "door-to-door economy" represented by door-to-door cooking, door-to-door sorting and storage, and door-to-door elderly care is becoming increasingly popular. It not only meets the diversified and personalized needs of consumers, but also expands employment channels, enriches service scenarios, and makes consumption patterns more free and flexible. However, at the same time, the "door-to-door economy" also faces problems such as regulatory blind spots, difficulties in consumer rights protection, and difficulties in evidence collection and tracing, and needs to strengthen regulatory guidance.

The "door-to-door economy" is becoming increasingly popular, and new business models are emerging

"Proficient in home cooked dishes, with six dishes and one soup for 88 yuan. Additional payment can be made to purchase ingredients and clean the kitchen on behalf of others..." On a social media platform, Xiao Chen, a "post-95s" freelancer in Nanning, Guangxi, posted information on providing on-site cooking services. She said she is not a chef but enjoys cooking. After working part-time as a door-to-door chef, she can handle over 10 orders per month.

Some e-commerce platforms have also taken advantage of this opportunity and launched value-added services for kitchen services. Some fresh product purchase pages offer value-added services such as private kitchen cooking and cleaning at the bottom. Cooking service prices are charged based on the number of dishes cooked, with service fees ranging from 600 yuan to 900 yuan for 6 to 14 dishes.

Currently, more and more consumers tend to spend money on services to improve their quality of life. And with the increasing diversification of consumer demand, the emerging professional division of labor derived from the "door-to-door economy" has become more refined. New formats such as door-to-door cooking, door-to-door storage and organization, door-to-door housekeeping, door-to-door massage, and door-to-door elderly care are constantly emerging.

Yao Hua, Director of the Sociology Research Institute of Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the maturity of the digital economy and e-commerce has provided industry support for the convenient "door-to-door economy" of spending money, and is also a reflection of the refinement and specialization of social division of labor.

Facing consumer pain points and regulatory difficulties

According to the provisions of the E-commerce Law of the People's Republic of China, e-commerce operators shall register as market entities in accordance with the law, except for individuals who use their skills to engage in convenient labor activities and sporadic small transaction activities that do not require licenses in accordance with the law. This provides legal support for the "door-to-door economy", but also poses challenges for regulatory traceability, rights protection, and evidence collection.

"We always passively 'put out the fire' after receiving consumer complaints, and sometimes we can't find anyone," said Zhang Hongjie, Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Reform Department of the Market Supervision Administration of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Traditional industry operators need to be registered, but service providers in the 'door-to-door economy' only need to contact consumers point-to-point. Once a labor dispute occurs between the two parties, it is difficult to efficiently resolve the relevant infringement liability determination and rights protection.

At the same time, the professional skills and service level of some practitioners have not been effectively recognized and reviewed, and the rights and interests of consumers are also vulnerable to infringement. For example, the above door-to-door kitchen service providers are explicitly prohibited by relevant laws and regulations from engaging in food production and operation without obtaining a health certificate. However, currently, some door-to-door kitchen service providers only work part-time without obtaining a health certificate, posing a potential threat to food safety and consumer health.

In addition, some platforms have inadequate qualification review and supervision of service providers, and most operators do not have offline stores, ultimately becoming a gray area for market supervision.

Standardize guidance and promote healthy development

The interviewees believe that in order to promote the healthy development of the "door-to-door economy", it is necessary to strengthen the functions of regulatory authorities, strengthen standardized guidance for the "door-to-door economy", optimize platform services, and provide high-quality services to consumers.

Yao Hua, Zhang Hongjie, and others suggest timely introduction and improvement of relevant regulations and documents, providing clear and more operational industry standards, and avoiding regulatory gaps. Relevant service operators should be included in the regulatory scope, effectively control platforms, and improve threshold access and qualification review mechanisms.

At the same time, relevant management regulations should be introduced for service platforms and service providers, clarifying the recognition standards for such labor relations, standardizing the employment procedures of online platforms, and strictly establishing and improving contract systems. Relevant platforms should effectively fulfill and strengthen the responsibility of service qualification review, do a good job in the filing and inspection of various qualification certificates and health certificates, and link the qualification review of on-site services with customer evaluation to make up for the shortcomings of qualification review.

In terms of rights protection, service platforms should smooth channels for resolving consumer disputes and improve complaint and evaluation mechanisms; Market supervision departments can strengthen communication and cooperation mechanisms with relevant industry regulatory departments such as public security and commerce, forming a more powerful unified rights protection network, and providing channels for consumers and on-site service personnel to protect their rights.