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Under the circumstance that the actual commission rate has been within a reasonable range, Meituan continues to introduce preferential rates to difficult merchants, but for catering merchants, open source is actually more important than throttling, how can Meituan help them?
This article was originally published by Wumiancaijing
Author: Begonia
Editor: Chen Jian
Design: Lan Sheng
Intern: Luo Wan'er
The restaurant industry continues to be turbulent.
Haidilao is expected to lose 3.8 billion yuan - 4.5 billion yuan, the founder stepped down as ceo of the company on March 1; Chayan Yuese urgently closed 87 stores, Lele Tea "retreated" to East China; Xicha, Wenheyou were exposed to layoffs; the new elements of light food chain brands pressed the "pause button" and announced that they had entered the bankruptcy liquidation process.
The head brand is in deep trouble, and more small and medium-sized restaurants are struggling.
According to the statistics of enterprise investigation and investigation, in 2021, a total of more than 1 million catering-related stores were cancelled, of which nearly 400,000 fast food restaurants were cancelled, nearly 350,000 milk tea shops were cancelled, and nearly 100,000 hot pot shops were cancelled.
Soul questions can be seen everywhere: In the post-epidemic era, what is the origin of the "generally bad life" in the catering industry? Can it still be resurrected with blood, and by what means to save it?
Reduce the burden on difficult merchants
At one point, the controversy went straight to the cost of takeaway commissions.
On February 18, the National Development and Reform Commission and 14 other departments issued a notice on several policies to promote the recovery and development of difficult industries in the service sector, which mentioned a number of bailout measures for the catering industry, including rent, taxation, etc., and also guided Internet platform enterprises such as takeaway to further reduce the service fee standards for merchants in the catering industry.
10 days later, Meituan announced that it would implement takeaway commission discounts for some merchants.
▲The picture is taken from the WeChat public account of the US group.
Specifically, from March to December 2022, for small and medium-sized catering merchants with operational difficulties in high-risk areas of the epidemic, the commission will be halved and capped at 1 yuan per single; for other difficult catering merchants who have completed the transparency of the rate, the commission will be capped at 5%, and the rate transparency will be covered nationwide in 2022.
The day after the initiative was released, the US group rose short-term, up 4.84% to 181.8 Hong Kong dollars per share, with a turnover of more than 900 million Hong Kong dollars.
Similar to the optimism of the capital market, in the eyes of industry insiders, meituan's "precision poverty alleviation" is a win-win measure, and small and medium-sized micro businesses effectively alleviate pressure and jointly prosper the takeaway market.
In fact, compared with foreign counterparts, the current domestic takeaway platform commission is not high.
In May 2021, Meituan takeaway launched a reform of rate transparency, subdividing the service fee into technical service fees and performance service fees, of which the technical service fee is what we often call "commission", and the performance service fee is mainly used to pay for delivery costs, which will only occur when merchants choose Meituan delivery.
According to Haitong Securities' calculations, the actual commission rates of Meituan's takeaway in 2019 and 2020 were 12.6% and 12.0%; after the implementation of the "rate transparency" reform, the actual commission rates of 2Q21 and 3Q21 takeaways were 11.7% and 11.8%.
▲ Meituan commission rate changes, the picture is from Haitong Securities Research Report.
The "2021 Catering Takeaway Merchant Research Report" released by Aurora Big Data Agency shows that after the implementation of the rate reform of Meituan Takeaway, more than 90% of merchants paid commissions, that is, technical service fees were less than 8%, and the proportion of merchants with commissions in 6%-8% reached 66.3%.
According to the study of Yiou, the commission rate of the Us GrubHub, Uber Eats and the British Deliveroo platform is generally more than 30%, and even the Indian takeaway platform Swimggy has a commission rate of 21.6%.
In the case of Grubhub, its revenue is mainly composed of three parts: more than 20% of the delivery fee, 12.5% of the basic commission, 0-17.5% of the 4 promotion fees, and the sum of the three fees is more than 40%.
The commission rate space is limited, so it seems that the sincerity of the US group can be seen in one or two.
A two-pronged approach to "hematopoiesis"
"When the merchant has no income, the commission is directly reduced to 0%. Some people believe that if you only focus on commissions, it is not the optimal solution.
For merchants, only when the business is continuous, it is enough to cover the high cost pressure and get out of the difficulties faster - the truth that open source is more important than throttling is more practical at present.
"Rent, manpower and raw materials are the three mountains that really weigh on our catering industry." For the online controversy, Bao Yi, the owner of Dongguan April Cafe, has a different view, "Compared with the level of takeaway commissions, I am actually more concerned about the price increase of raw materials and the increase in rent." ”
According to its disclosure, the recent price of fruit has risen sharply, and the cost of its signature strawberry milk tea and succulent grape lemon tea has been rising, and the price of imported animal cream has also been rising; in addition, the landlord said that he would increase the rent by 10% per year.
A chain of large stuffed dumplings in the northeast of Nanchang has also suffered.
Taking a new store in Wuhan as an example, it was said that 3800 yuan was signed for a year, and as a result, only half a year later, the landlord asked for a rise to 4200 yuan, and at the end of the year, it was going to rise to 4500 yuan. In just one year, it's up 20 percent.
Trapped by the epidemic, income has dropped sharply, and the "three highs" problem of the catering industry - the cost of rent, raw materials and labor accounted for 30%, 40% and 30% respectively - have become more prominent.
Compared with takeaway commissions, there are not a few restaurants that are crushed by these three mountains.
Takeaway platforms that can create more orders have become a new position for merchants.
"In 2020, due to the inability to open dine-in, some employees had to rest at home and take turns to work. We were forced to find a way to open up a second growth curve – takeout. According to Baoyi, dine-in and takeaway are the most important revenue methods for cafes in April, with monthly sales increasing by about 20% compared with before, of which takeaways can deliver more than 2,000 orders per month on average.
For the "Baoyi", the order volume of the platform is more important than the commission.
Guotai Junan believes that takeaway produces food costs on the margin, platform deductions, dilution of rent, manpower, store discounting, extension of business hours, increase of coverage radius, and marginal improvement of operating profit margins.
To put it simply, from the original 1 km of shopping mall life to today's 5 km, takeaway directly expands the customer radius of catering merchants, increases customer orders, dilutes offline fixed costs, thereby generating revenue, which is the largest open source revenue path.
"Even if the 6.6% takeaway commission is reduced to 0, the saving is less than 3,000 yuan a month, which is not enough for the salary of a clerk, far less than the pressure on raw materials and rent, and if the 6.6% takeaway commission is reduced to 0, if the platform operation cannot continue, my branch will not be able to open." Bao Yi said bluntly.
This is also the reason why Meituan's move is not limited to commissions. Provide free takeaway cloud printers to small and medium-sized merchants in high-risk areas of the epidemic, donate 30,000 sets of food treasures to small and medium-sized merchants with difficulties in operation nationwide, and hold more than 100 merchant earnest talks in 2022... A number of initiatives launched by Meituan Takeaway on March 1 are expected to bring more "Baoyi" to a certain extent.
Among them, Meituan Takeaway also plans to expand the scope of takeaway butler services in 2022, providing 100,000 "takeaway butler service" places for small and medium-sized merchants in difficulty free of charge to help merchants improve their ability to resist risks.
The 2021 data shows that merchants who have used the service have a 39% higher survival rate than those who have not. In addition, the service has had a significant effect on increasing merchant revenue, with data showing that the average monthly transaction volume of merchants who have used the service has increased by 79%.
Throttling open source has taken a two-pronged approach to help the catering industry out of the predicament, and the role of Internet platforms such as Meituan has been highlighted.
Stretching the horizon is a win-win path for platforms, merchants, riders and consumers through technology itself to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
A new paradigm of recovery
On March 2, due to the impact of the epidemic, all dining venues in Futian District of Shenzhen suspended the supply of dine-in food, involving Huangting Plaza, Liancheng Xintiandi, Cocopark, Shopping Park and other core business districts located in Shenzhen's CBD.
Shenzhen's catering industry has once again entered the darkest moment, and what is still running is the packaging and takeaway services, supporting the hopes of merchants.
Similar scenarios have been played out from time to time over the past two years, across the country.
Under the epidemic, takeaway has become a new growth scenario for catering businesses.
"During the worst period of the epidemic, takeaway became the only source of revenue for Xianggui restaurants." Zhou Xingjie, the person in charge, was quite emotional, "Not only to make the business pressure a little less, but also to have work for employees, and the ingredients can be constantly updated to keep fresh." ”
After surviving the hardest months, after the recovery of dine-in, the proportion of takeaway in restaurant operations is still much higher than before. Zhou Xingjie said that since the epidemic, nearly a quarter of the restaurant's revenue has come from takeaway.
For Xiangguiren Restaurant, takeaway is already an indispensable part. Zhou Xingjie explained that although the rent has been basically flat in the past two years, the cost of recruitment and ingredients in Beijing is higher, and the profit of dine-in is thinner than before, "the front desk attendant used to be able to recruit 4,000 yuan, and now it is difficult to recruit at 5,000 yuan, and the purchase price of millet pepper is also nearly 20 yuan." ”
When dine-in is frequently limited, takeaway has become a new breakthrough for catering businesses, and by doing a good job in digital operation, in order to make up for the loss of dine-in business, the second curve of the restaurant has been achieved.
▲ The takeaway business has become a breakthrough in the revenue growth of the catering industry, the picture is from Aurora Aurora.
"Dine-in was completely closed during the epidemic, and if it is a store that usually operates takeaways with care, it will be of great help during the epidemic." Merchants who usually do not pay much attention to takeaway will suffer a lot during the epidemic because they usually do not accumulate. Mr. Xiong, who runs a number of catering stores in Shaoguan, has a deep understanding.
He said bluntly, "During the complete closure of dine-in during the epidemic, our tea restaurant and puff shop have more than 2,000 orders per month, and takeaway has helped us survive the most difficult stage." At present, our stores have more takeaway turnover than dine-in. ”
The pandemic has catalyzed the rapid growth of takeaways.
The data shows that in 2020, the overall revenue of the catering industry fell by 16.6% year-on-year, the first decline in nearly a decade, while online takeaway revenue rose against the trend, an increase of 13.3% year-on-year.
The proportion of takeaway business in food and beverage revenue also increased significantly. According to the National Information Center, in 2021, the revenue of this sector will account for 21.4% of the national catering industry revenue, an increase of 4.5% year-on-year.
"In addition to helping us deliver food, takeaway is also a platform to broaden the popularity of the store, consumers do not have to go to the store to taste our food first, which is equivalent to an advertising entrance with huge traffic." With the deepening of his understanding of the takeaway economy, Mr. Xiong has become more and more aware of the more benefits it brings to the catering industry.
The golden age of the catering industry is far away, rent, manpower, raw materials "three cost mountains" is still difficult to shake, close to the hand-to-hand combat, takeaway is a major weapon for merchants to fight.
On the one hand, takeaway brings incremental supplements and becomes a gripper for catering businesses to tide over difficulties; on the other hand, it has evolved into part of brand marketing, opening up new channels for merchants to promote - more importantly, in the post-epidemic era, this function is still continuing.
While the epidemic has brought challenges to the catering industry, it has also buried new development opportunities, and under the heavy force, the catering industry is recovering.