Spatial Distribution of Freshippo Villages under the Digitalization of New Retail in China

Freshippo villages (Hema villages) that develop a typical digital agricultural economy with new retail are distributed in most provinces of China, and the rules of their spatial distribution are important for systemically carrying out current sustainable digital agriculture practices. This paper conducts a study of the spatial distribution of Freshippo villages mainly based on Freshippo data and kernel density estimation, and the results show that Freshippo villages have a spatial cross-regional distribution and form three latitudinal and two longitudinal distribution belts. In particular, there is one main latitudinal distribution belt named the 30° N latitudinal belt and two main longitudinal distribution belts named the eastern coastal longitudinal belt and the longitudinal belt of the Heihe–Tengchong Line. Regionally, several spatial cores formed in the Yangtze River Delta, Shandong, Hubei, and Sichuan. We used linear regression and official provincial statistics to analyze the important relevant factors. Freshippo stores show the highest gradient/y-intercept of 0.2133 and correlation coefficient 0.4599, and all gradient/y-intercepts and correlation coefficients of grain crops are less than those of fruits and vegetables, which reveals that the agricultural product and market are two important factors. In addition, we discuss the spatial effect on agricultural villages under the digitalization of new retail. As the first study of the spatial distribution of Freshippo villages, our paper provides a significant case for the economic geography of digital agriculture.