(Yicai) April 18 -- Freshippo, Alibaba Group Holding’s supermarket chain, will start accepting new membership subscriptions from next week, ending a four-month halt.

Freshippo will resume new member subscriptions on April 24, the firm announced yesterday. It halted the service on Dec. 13.

The e-grocer introduced a paid membership system in 2019. The annual fee was CNY218 (USD30) back then, but the price was raised to CNY258 in 2022. Freshippo had three million paid subscribers as of the end of 2022, bringing in an annual revenue of CNY588 million (USD82.3 million). Members can enjoy a 12 percent discount on some product categories on selected days.

Freshippo will adjust the bottom price of free online delivery to CNY49 from CNY99 in 26 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Changsha, the firm noted yesterday. This way, the threshold will become unified across the country, a source told Yicai.

The discontinuation of the paid membership subscriptions was because Freshippo was promoting a discount transformation, a source from the company said. Buyers can enjoy low prices without buying memberships after the transformation is completed, the source added.

Last October, Freshippo launched a reform, lowering sales prices of over 5,000 products at its physical stores, trying to differentiate its sales channels, as 70 percent of its revenue comes from online stores.

Yan Xiaolei, chief financial officer of Freshippo, succeeded founder Hou Yi in becoming the new chief executive officer of the company last month.

Editor: Futura Costaglione