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Image source: Oriental IC
On February 21, the reporter ordered a breakfast on the takeaway platform, and without using any full coupons, he paid 20.69 yuan, and the order showed that the merchant's estimated income was 12.29 yuan. In other words, $8.4 was taken away by the platform.
In recent years, the rise of the takeaway economy, while consumers enjoy the convenience brought by takeaway, merchants are "love and hate" for the platform, on the one hand, sharing the traffic dividend brought by the platform, on the other hand, they are bearing the pressure brought by high service fees and subsidy expenditures.
On February 18, the National Development and Reform Commission and 14 other departments issued a notice on "Several Policies on Promoting the Recovery and Development of Difficult Industries in the Service Industry", proposing to "guide Internet platform enterprises such as takeaway to further reduce the service fee standards for catering businesses and reduce the operating costs of catering enterprises".
The introduction of this regulation will have a profound impact on both takeaway platforms and merchants.
01
High service fees, starting at 20%.
"The service fee of Meituan and Ele.me is 20%." Mr. Fan, who runs two coffee shops in Shanghai, told reporters.
In 2017, Mr. Fan opened his first coffee shop in Zhujiajiao Ancient Town, focusing on takeaway. The store is located in both Meituan and Ele.me, and both platforms require a 20% service fee. During this year's Spring Festival, he opened a second store in Qingpu, and this time he chose to settle in Meituan, "mainly considering that many young people like to find a store with Dianping, and Meituan takeaway can directly place orders through Dianping." "This time, the service fee given by the platform is also 20%.
The service fee of the takeaway platform is not a uniform price, and the percentage of different merchants in different regions varies.
In Shanghai, a restaurant owner who opened near a residential area told the IT Times: "The service fee of Meituan takeaway for us has become 18%, and there may be room for negotiation." "Generally speaking, the larger the traffic of the store, the greater the number of takeaway orders, and the greater the bargaining space.
A shopkeeper who runs a coffee shop in a fourth-tier city told reporters that the service fee charged by the local Ele.me platform to merchants is generally about 20%, and the service fee charged by Meituan is higher, with a minimum of 23%.
Some shopkeepers told reporters that according to the type of store and the different agents approached, the proportion of service fees and the rules of the commission are also different.
For example, in Mr. Fan's shop, if the consumer only orders a cup of coffee, then each order is settled by a fixed percentage of 5.2 yuan, and more than one cup is 20% per order.
There are also some places that divide the service fee into a guaranteed and non-guaranteed component. A catering industry practitioner told reporters that her last store opened in Chengdu, and after meeting the delivery fee of 15 yuan, she drew 4.2 yuan per single guarantee, and the part exceeding 15 yuan was calculated as 22.5%. But in the city where she now opens a store, there is no guaranteed draw, which is calculated according to 23% of the order price.
02
Behind the subsidy war, the merchant bears half of it
Meituan's financial report shows that between 2018 and 2020, the average number of transactions per transaction user per year has risen from 23.8 to 34.4. In addition to being affected by the epidemic, the frequent red envelopes issued by takeaway platforms are also stimulating the increase in transaction frequency.
Almost every once in a while, takeaway platforms will play the slogan of "ten billion subsidies" and issue large full discount coupons to consumers. On many social platforms, consumers can see the strategies and information for receiving large extra coupons.
In the perception of many consumers, this is the platform "paying money" to send benefits. In fact, this is also the merchant involved in paying the bill.
"Generally speaking, the platform and the merchant are half one person." Mr. Fan explained that as long as the store allows the use of full discount coupons, the merchant needs to take out the money to make up for it. For example, if the consumer uses a 10 yuan coupon, then the merchant needs to bear 5 yuan of it. The takeaway fee is the same, if the free 3 yuan, the merchant out of 1 yuan, the platform paste 2 yuan; free 5 yuan, then the merchant out of 2 yuan, the platform sticker 3 yuan.
"For individual small businesses, the cost of making takeaway is too high." Mr. Fan sighed. He calculated an account for the reporter, if the consumer used the 5 yuan member red envelope to buy coffee, then a cup of Australian white with a price of 22 yuan, after deducting the 5.2 yuan basic commission and the 2.5 yuan red envelope subsidy, the actual income of the merchant is only 14.3 yuan. That is to say, without considering the cost of coffee production, the cost of the takeaway platform alone accounts for 35% of the whole cup of coffee.
Although the platform's full reduction activity is not mandatory, the platform will give some traffic support to participating merchants. "If you don't participate, customers will definitely choose a merchant with a lower price." A catering practitioner said rather helplessly.
03
"Lack of weight less than two", consumers are hurt
Merchants caught between traffic and revenue try to use some means to alleviate the pressure caused by platform commissioning.
In order to attract more consumers to the store, Mr. Zhu, who runs a coffee shop in a fourth-tier city, chose the "price adjustment" measure, and the unit price of the takeaway platform is 1 to 2 yuan higher than that of the store consumption. "In this case, consumers will feel that the store is more cost-effective when they see the price."
Raising the unit price of the takeaway platform and passing on part of the cost to consumers is only a way for stores to share the cost of the platform. What's more, after participating in preferential activities, some merchants have "lost two pounds" in order to reduce costs, hurting the interests of consumers. There are also some merchants who ask consumers who get large coupons to cancel their orders after placing orders, and one user mentioned that after purchasing the fried chicken package at the original price of 35 yuan at a price of 12 yuan, he received a call from the store to cancel the order, the reason is "not enough cost".
Image source: Network
"As a merchant, it is almost impossible to maintain quality and quantity in this situation." Boss Zhu thinks.
Although the National Development and Reform Commission and other ministries and commissions issued the "Several Policies on Promoting the Recovery and Development of Difficult Industries in the Service Industry", it is proposed to guide Internet platform enterprises such as takeaway to further reduce the service fee standards of merchants in the catering industry and reduce the operating costs of relevant catering enterprises. However, there is no clear rule on how much the service fee should be reduced to be reasonable. In the eyes of some catering practitioners, 10% is a relatively reasonable number.
In March 2021, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce submitted relevant proposals to the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, believing that the takeaway platform commission is acceptable in the range of 10%-15%, otherwise it is difficult to achieve profitability.
04
The two ends are difficult, and the takeaway platform is looking for a third way
While merchants are struggling because of service fees and commissions, the takeaway platform itself is also facing a dilemma.
According to the data compiled by the Prospective Industry Research Institute, in the first quarter of 2021, the Meituan takeaway market accounted for 67.3%, and Ele.me accounted for 26.9%. As two takeaway platforms with a combined market share of 94.2%, the commission of the catering takeaway business is the majority of its revenue.
According to Alibaba's third-quarter financial report, for the six months ended September 30, 2021, local life service revenue was mainly derived from Ele.me's platform commissions, service fees charged for providing delivery services and other service fees, totaling RMB18.27 billion.
Meituan's financial report shows that since 2018, the revenue of the takeaway delivery business has accounted for about 60% of meituan's total business. Although in recent years, Meituan has been trying to develop other businesses, from the third quarter of 2021 financial report, the revenue of the catering takeaway business was 26.485 billion yuan, which still accounted for half of Meituan's total revenue, reaching 54.24%. Among them, the commission income of catering takeaway was 18.251 billion yuan, accounting for 68.91% of the revenue of catering takeaway business.
Meituan's third quarter 2021 financial report
Compared with Hungry Mo, which is backed by Alibaba, Meituan itself, as the leader of the takeaway leader, faces more severe challenges. According to the data, meituan's takeaway business revenue in the third quarter of last year increased by 28% year-on-year, but compared with the 116% increase in the first quarter, the momentum slowed down significantly.
While the revenue growth of the takeaway business, which accounts for the majority of total revenue, has slowed down, the cost of sales of Meituan has risen sharply. According to the financial report data, Meituan's cost of sales in the third quarter of 2021 reached 38.1 billion yuan, a substantial increase of 54.8% over the same period last year.
On the one hand, the slowdown in revenue growth, on the other hand, the substantial increase in the cost of sales, which has led to a significant reduction in the earning power of Meituan's takeaway business. According to the financial report data, the net profit of Meituan's catering takeaway business in the third quarter was only 880 million yuan, and the profit margin was only 3.3%.
In July 2021, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and eight other ministries and commissions issued a document calling for improving the welfare of delivery workers. This also means that while the business volume of the takeaway platform grows, it is difficult to obtain higher profits by reducing operating costs. Perhaps, the takeaway platform will further reduce its "takeaway" attributes, and then seek a third way of development.
Author/IT Times reporter Fan Xinru
Editor/Qian Lifu Kicked Sister
Typography / Ji Jiaying
Photo/ Meituan Hungry It Times Oriental IC Network
Source/IT Times public account vittimes