Virtual supermarkets in the Shanghai underground

Shanghai is following in Seoul's footsteps by creating more shopping opportunities for metro commuters.

Yihaodian, China's leading online grocery store, introduced “virtual supermarkets” to Shanghai's metro stations earlier this week. Large LED screens advertising everything, from diapers to raw meat, have been posted at nine metro lines across the city.

The time-saving idea is inspired by the subway supermarket in Tesco Homeplus in Korea, where active mobile users are among the highest in the world. But Yihaodian and Tesco Homeplus are two separate entities, and are not related to each other at all.