On February 18, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued the "Several Policies on Promoting the Recovery and Development of Difficult Industries in the Service Industry" to help the catering and other industries recover from the epidemic faster.
Nowadays, takeaway has become a key business for food and beverage merchants. In the past, the merchant service fee of the takeaway platform was about 20%-25%. In May last year, Meituan and Ele.me carried out rate reform for merchant service fees. Taking Meituan as an example, the commission for some close orders has indeed been reduced, but the commission for some long-distance orders has risen. In the context of the epidemic, the pressure on merchants does not seem to have eased much.
To this end, the National Development and Reform Commission is guiding takeaway platforms to reduce business service fees to help catering businesses tide over the difficulties. After the commission of the platform is reduced, the merchant can use the extra money to subsidize the rent of the store, etc., and the ability to resist risks is higher. Some merchants who are relatively focused on takeaway platforms may also reduce the unit price of goods and carry out a small profit and sell, and consumers may also benefit from it.
For merchants in medium- and high-risk areas, the NDRC hopes to give targeted preferential service fees. During the epidemic in Xi'an last year, Ele.me launched a closure protection mechanism for more than 10,000 merchants. Compared with the simple closure protection, the service fee reduction is a step further, and merchants in the epidemic area can choose to continue to operate, so that they can maintain a certain income.
Guiding takeaway platforms to reduce merchant service fees is also good for the platform in the long run. If the platform maintains high rates and commissions, more catering merchants are bound to close down under the epidemic. Among them, there are many high-quality merchants, and after losing these high-quality merchants, consumers order takeout on the platform less often, which is also not conducive to the development of the platform.
Domestic takeaway platforms are currently mainly competing with Meituan and Ele.me. Like Meituan's business has gradually diversified, even if the revenue of takeaway is less, other businesses can create a lot of profits. Instead of donating money to support the protests, it is better to carry out targeted measures to reduce the support of some difficult merchants according to the big data of their own platforms, so as to better support the country's fight against the epidemic.
Another key policy is not to shut down restaurants, supermarkets, etc. at will. Take the recent epidemic in Guangzhou as an example, there are positive cases who have shopped in Guangzhou Taikoo Hui shops, and the relevant departments have conducted nucleic acid tests on close contacts for the first time, all of which are negative. The relevant departments have not taken measures to shut down the merchants near Taikoo Hui, and the precise epidemic prevention measures will not affect the normal operation of more merchants.
In general, the new policy focuses on supporting merchants to tide over the difficulties, which is a win-win situation for merchants and platforms in the long run. The platform's revenue may decline slightly in a short period of time, but the original high-quality merchants have been able to survive the difficulties. Xiao Lei also hopes that this policy can be effectively implemented, so that consumers can also benefit from it.