There has been a new development in the matter of takeaway platform commissions.
On March 1, Meituan announced preferential commission policies and gave commission reductions to some small and medium-sized catering merchants in difficulty. At the same time, several initiatives to help merchants do a good job in takeaway operations, including "takeaway butler service", were also announced.
Meituan's move is related to a notice issued by 14 departments, including the National Development and Reform Commission half a month ago. The notice mentions a number of bailout measures, including rent and taxation, including guiding Internet platform enterprises such as takeaways to further reduce the service fee standards of merchants in the catering industry.
In the third quarter of last year, Meituan's takeaway revenue was 26.5 billion yuan, but the takeaway business has long been burdened by costs, and the operating profit margin is extremely low, if the commission continues to be reduced, the takeaway business will naturally be under pressure. Because of this, this notice inevitably raises market concerns about Meituan's profit margin and valuation model.
Balancing the relationship between social responsibility and corporate management is a difficult problem that Meituan has to face. At present, Meituan has given a solution:
For small and medium-sized merchants in high-risk areas of the epidemic and the districts and counties to which they belong, the technical service fee (commission) will be halved and capped at 1 yuan per single after the halving; for difficult merchants who have completed the transparency of the rate, a 5% cap of the technical service fee (commission) will be implemented; and the pilot work of rate transparency will continue to be implemented.
It is not difficult to see that the Meituan New Deal is mainly for small and medium-sized businesses. According to the "2021 China Catering Big Data White Paper", in the first half of 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the number of catering stores in China dropped from 9.06 million in 2019 to 7.75 million; Aurora survey shows that the participants in the catering takeaway industry are mainly small and medium-sized micro and medium-sized businesses, and nearly 70% of catering takeaway merchants are self-employed.
It is conceivable that small and medium-sized micro and medium-sized businesses with weak financial strength and poor anti-risk ability have become the most affected groups in the catering industry affected by the epidemic. However, can the adjustment of the takeaway commission rate by the takeaway platform really save the small and medium-sized businesses in the catering industry?
A
To understand the impact of Meituan's adjustment of takeaway commission rates on merchants, we must first disassemble the platform's current takeaway rate rules.
In May last year, Meituan launched the reform of the transparency of takeaway rates, and the platform service fee charged to merchants was clearly divided into two parts: technical service fee and performance service fee.
Among them, the technical service fee is often referred to as the "commission", and the performance service fee is the fee paid by the merchant to the platform when the merchant chooses the platform delivery, which is billed according to the distance, the unit price of the customer and the delivery period.
In the past two years, there has been a controversy over the rates of takeaway platforms, and takeaway platforms have often been accused of excessive commissions. Meituan's earnings data is clearly closer to the truth. In the third quarter of last year, the GMV of Meituan's catering takeaway was 197.098 billion yuan, and the commission income was 23.222 billion yuan, which calculated that the rate of Meituan's takeaway was about 11.78%.
From a business model point of view, takeaway is not a high-margin business. On the contrary, due to the higher delivery costs such as rider wages, the operating profit margin of Meituan's takeaway business fell to 3.3% in the third quarter of last year.
Merchant operation, rider welfare, and platform operation are the triangular problems that Meituan wants to solve. In the face of the current operational difficulties of small and medium-sized catering merchants, the platform must of course take action, and it must be more effective "precision assistance".
According to the data given by Meituan, in February 2022, the number of merchants with takeaway transactions less than 5,000 yuan expanded to 540,000, which is why Meituan launched targeted commission reductions for small and medium-sized merchants. For merchants who are difficult to complete the transparency of the rate, the 5% cap on the technical service fee will be implemented from March this year to the end of December, and more than 1 million merchants will benefit from it, and the operating pressure of these merchants will be alleviated.
Small and medium-sized businesses are the main force of takeaway platform merchants, obviously, to alleviate the pressure of small and medium-sized business operations, small and medium-sized businesses ecological prosperity, the type and scale of the platform merchants are guaranteed, and the takeaway ecology can also operate better.
B
In fact, the takeaway platform commission does not account for a high proportion of the cost of many merchants.
"In fact, I am more concerned about the price increase of raw materials and the increase in rent than the level of takeaway commission." The owner of the April café in Dongguan said that 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 me by raw materials and rent.
The shopkeeper is recently worried about the rise in fruit prices, you know, the store's signature is highly dependent on fruit strawberry milk tea, succulent grape lemon tea, also in the continuous price increase of imported animal cream, "we certainly will not reduce the quality, but also do not want to increase the price to hurt the user experience, but the price of raw materials rose too fiercely." ”
Since October last year, consumer goods have set off a wave of price increases. In October, Haitian Flavor Industry adjusted the ex-factory price of some products such as soy sauce, oyster sauce and sauce, ranging from 3 to 7%. According to the analysis of Everbright Securities, the cost of soybeans in Haitian flavor industry accounted for 17%, and in October 2021, the domestic spot price of soybeans rose by 50.1% compared with the beginning of 20 years.
After Haitian Flavor Industry, Seasoning Enterprises such as Lee Kum Kee and Hengshun Vinegar Industry have also announced price increases. The continuous price increase of ingredients and spices will naturally transmit the negative impact to catering enterprises, and Tea Beauty, Luckin Coffee, starbucks have successively announced price increases.
In addition to raw materials, rent is a mountain pressed on the catering enterprises, and even Haidilao, which has always enjoyed preferential rents, is inevitably affected by rising rents. In the first half of 2021, Haidilao incurred property rent and related expenses of RMB199 million, an increase of 125.2% year-on-year.
The owner of a northeast dumpling in Wuhan said that he had negotiated with the landlord for 3800 yuan to sign for a year, and as a result, only half a year, the landlord saw that our business was good, and asked to 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. "We can't do anything, and now we're ready to move out to a cheaper place."
Zhou Xingjie, who runs the Xiangguiren Restaurant in Beijing, sighed that the cost of recruitment in Beijing has also been higher in the past two years, "the front desk attendant used to be able to recruit 4,000 yuan, and now it is difficult to recruit at 5,000 yuan."
In the short term, these three mountains are obviously difficult to move. A more viable option for merchants is to find new revenue growth points.
C
At the moment of repeated epidemics, it is obviously too risky to focus on the main focus offline. If the store happens to be located in a medium- and high-risk area, and dine-in is forced to close, the takeaway platform becomes an important source of income for merchants in special periods.
Therefore, how to improve the operating efficiency of the takeaway platform and cover the soaring cost with the high increase in revenue has become the top priority of many merchants.
This is also the reason why Meituan's move is not limited to commissions.
For catering merchants whose business focus is on takeaway, their rigid costs such as rent and manpower expenditure can be compressed, and the overall profit margin can be increased by about 10% compared with dine-in.
However, small and medium-sized businesses often have insufficient online business capabilities, the operation is relatively extensive, and there is a big gap with chain merchants in terms of membership system, customer recall and other aspects that require refined operation, etc., because the management is not fine enough, it is easier to cause the waste of various resources.
For example, in the process of taking out orders, small and medium-sized businesses often encounter problems such as wrong orders, lost orders, and conflicts in food delivery, and the reality of limited funds also restricts their online marketing. It can be said that compared with the commission, it is more important for small and medium-sized businesses to establish a scientific business philosophy, improve operational efficiency, and form long-term operating capabilities.
Because of this, Meituan will provide 100,000 "takeaway butler service" places for small and medium-sized merchants in difficulty for free, and will be serviced by special personnel to give optimization suggestions from the aspects of online store design, business status analysis, takeaway meal development, marketing activity planning, etc.
In 2021, Meituan Takeaway launched a takeaway butler service, according to the data provided by Meituan, in 2021, merchants who have used takeaway butler services will increase their transaction volume by an average of 79% per month, while their ability to resist risks has been significantly enhanced, and the survival rate is 39% higher than that of merchants who have not used butler services.
In addition, Meituan provides free takeaway cloud printers to small and medium-sized merchants in high-risk areas of the epidemic, and gives 30,000 sets of meal treasures to small and medium-sized merchants with difficulties in operation across the country, which can just solve the various accidents encountered by small and medium-sized businesses mentioned above in the process of receiving orders.
It is conceivable that in 2022, when raw materials, rents, and labor costs continue to soar, small and medium-sized catering businesses are still facing a lot of survival pressure, but the optimistic side is that the takeaway platform has already extended a hand first.