Recently, the Chinese bottled water market has been filled with smoke of price wars. Nongfu Spring, with ultra-low prices, has sparked a new round of price wars in the market, causing some channels to drop prices to around 0.74 yuan per bottle. Competitors Wahaha, Yi Bao, and Kang Shifu have had to follow suit by lowering their prices.
According to reports from mainland Chinese media such as Daily Economic News and Red Star News, “9.9 yuan per pack, two packs for 19.8 yuan, including postage.” In Nongfu Spring’s official Douyin live stream for home water delivery, a pack of 12 bottles of 550ml purified water costs only 9.9 yuan, equivalent to about 0.83 yuan per bottle. In Beijing, some supermarkets and channels even advertise packs for 8.9 yuan, around 0.74 yuan per bottle.
In several supermarkets and convenience stores in Changsha, brands like Nongfu Spring, Wahaha, and Yi Bao have started promotional sales for packaged drinking water, with prices as low as 0.8 yuan per bottle. Online, brand discounts and promotions continue without stopping.
In the Yonghui supermarket’s online mini-program, after applying discounts and coupons, the price of Nongfu Spring’s green bottle purified water can go as low as 7.92 yuan per piece, or as low as 0.66 yuan per bottle.
The product information for Nongfu Spring’s drinking purified water shows that a pack of 24 bottles of 550ml is priced at 48 yuan, equivalent to 2 yuan per bottle under normal circumstances. During the promotion, this is discounted by 4.1 times, and consumers can have the water delivered to their homes through Nongfu Spring’s over 1,000 “home water delivery” stores across China, without restrictions on floors, stairs, elevators, or extra fees.
The decrease in the price of Nongfu Spring’s purified water has forced competitors like Wahaha and Yi Bao to also reduce their prices.
Supermarket price tags indicate that Wahaha’s 596ml pack of 12 bottles of purified water is priced at 11.9 yuan; Yi Bao’s 555ml pack of 12 bottles of purified water is also 11.9 yuan; and Kang Shifu’s 380ml pack of 15 bottles of Liangbai water is 9.8 yuan, reaching as low as 0.65 yuan per bottle. In the purified water market, Nongfu Spring and Kang Shifu have a clearly visible price advantage.
Additionally, some netizens have pointed out that Pure Source purified water, as well as Hema NB softened purified water, are selling a 24-bottle pack of 550ml for the same 9.9 yuan, averaging at 0.41 yuan per bottle.
Regarding the intense “water war” in 2024, Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng told the Daily Economic News that this year, Nongfu Spring’s launch of purified water products and their low-price strategy have made them a disruptive force in the purified water market.
Renowned strategic positioning expert and founder of Fujian Huace Brand Positioning Consultation, Zhan Junhao, stated that lowering prices is not a long-term solution and could lead to “market confusion and damage to brand image.”