From Chongqing to the whole country, from franchise to self-management, Sister Pei's old hot pot has realized the transformation from Internet celebrity to ever-popular.
Recently, at the 10th birthday party of Sister Pei's old hot pot, the founder Yan Dongsheng announced the business data for the first time: the Beijing store achieved a daily turnover rate of 7.7 times, and the monthly turnover of a single store in Hangzhou could reach 4 million yuan. Sister Pei's old hot pot has achieved tens of millions of transactions in Meituan, and has been listed in the top 3 of Dianping hot pot for four consecutive years.
On November 15, Yan Dongsheng made his debut in the Meituan live broadcast room, describing Sister Pei's old hot pot entrepreneurial experience. The chef stir-fried the bottom of the pot on the spot, and the manager responded to the comments of diners, and the single live broadcast was watched by more than one million.
In November this year, the live broadcast sales of Sister Pei's old hot pot on Meituan increased by 8 times month-on-month, and more than half of the orders in the live broadcast room will be sold in one month.
"Sister Pei has been popular for ten years, from Chongqing to the whole country, from joining to self-management, and has realized the transformation from Internet celebrity to long-term popularity. According to the analysis of industry insiders, there are three keys to Sister Pei's "Changhong": first, the store's insistence on self-operated quality, second, the courage to expand stores and financing in the cold winter, and third, to capture market demand and actively embrace the openness of emerging channels such as hot pot takeaway and local life live broadcast.
01. Adhere to self-management and go to the whole country
In 2013, Sister Pei's Old Hot Pot opened in the core area of Chongqing, with 11 tables and 24-hour operation. Consumers who come back from other places can get a discount of 88% with their plane and train tickets. In 2018, Sister Pei's Jiefangbei business district store increased its online promotion, and cooperated with Dianping's group buying, reservation, queuing, store promotion and other functions to form a closed loop of transactions.
A month later, the store topped the Chongqing food hot list, and the store's turnover increased by 20%. Another long-established store in Jiaochangkou can turn over up to 10 units a day, queuing from 10 a.m. to 5 a.m. the next day. Sister Pei also has the name of "Chongqing Queuing King" in the hot pot rivers and lakes, which makes Yan Dongsheng firm in his determination to get out of Sichuan and Chongqing.
No. 185, Maoming North Road, Jing'an District, Shanghai, is the first store of Sister Pei's old hot pot in Shanghai, and the first stop from Chongqing to the whole country. As an "Internet celebrity" restaurant on Dianping. In the first half of this year, the revenue of the Shanghai store increased by about 20% compared with the opening of the store in 2019, and the average monthly sales of bullfrog and hairy belly exceeded 10,000 copies, and they began to queue up at 6 o'clock on weekdays.
In 2020, Yan Dongsheng completely stopped joining and went all out to direct sales. "Shanghai was followed by Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Guangzhou, and basically in two or three years, it expanded across the country. No matter where we are, we are self-operated, and the stores and products are guaranteed to be of the same standard and quality. ”
Yan Dongsheng added in the live broadcast room that Sister Pei's feature is "caviar-like hot pot bottom", "Take a picture with your mobile phone and enlarge the picture, you will find that this is a grain, not oily, this is called a caviar-like pot bottom." There are no spices, natural fermentation, and there is no taste on the clothes the next day after eating. The live camera then turned to the kitchen, and Sister Pei's executive chef Wang Xuan fried the base on the spot.
With this determination to insist on self-operation and quality assurance, Sister Pei's old hot pot will get 80 million yuan in financing in 2022, fully opening the road of expansion, and the store has even opened overseas. Yan Dongsheng revealed that in the next step, the main battlefield of Sister Pei's old hot pot is in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, and the second round of financing is about to start, and it is expected to be listed in 2026.
02. The epidemic relies on takeaway, and now we are testing the waters for live broadcasting
Sister Pei has been expanding rapidly since its inception, and has maintained good performance even during the epidemic, which is not only due to the merchants' insistence on quality, but also thanks to the timely online transformation, including the normalization of in-store group buying and takeaway channels during special periods.
Yan Dongsheng introduced that now Sister Pei is fully online on the online platform, and the third-party channel with the most store sales is Dianping, and the popularity of the Chongqing store has ranked in the top three for six consecutive years. He revealed that the first thing all the store managers of Sister Pei do when they go to work every day is to send a screenshot of the negative reviews of Dianping the day before to the group, write a summary, and let the stores across the country improve.
In the years when Sister Pei expanded rapidly, just in time for the epidemic, Yan Dongsheng also used extraordinary means - online hot pot takeaway. He said frankly that at that time, the sales of Sister Pei's takeaway were higher than dine-in, and now that the dine-in business has recovered, the take-out channel has been suspended, "Hot pot or dine-in has an atmosphere, but it is also a good thing to establish a take-out system as soon as possible." ”
As the first hot pot brand to start operating online, Sister Pei has been exploring new channels to reach consumers, such as the popular local life live broadcast this year. On the eve of Sister Pei's 10th birthday party, Yan Dongsheng appeared in the live broadcast room of Meituan's "Boss Please Eat", inviting netizens to eat hot pot and review the entrepreneurial process. It is understood that "Boss Please Eat" is Meituan's first self-made vertical screen variety show, which aims to help merchants promote new products and new stores and reduce the path of consumer content planting.
A 4-hour live broadcast of "Boss Please Eat" shows how to make food on the spot, and the boss describes his entrepreneurial journey and takes consumers behind the deliciousness. In addition to content planting, merchants can also hang goods in the official live broadcast room to achieve sales growth. Some merchants who value private domain traffic will also conduct self-broadcasting to maximize the value of long-tail traffic on the platform.
Meituan data shows that in November this year, Sister Pei's old hot pot in Meituan's store orders increased by 38% year-on-year, and the live broadcast brought greater brand exposure and conversion, and the 10th anniversary live broadcast room saw more than one million, and the monthly live broadcast sales increased by 8 times month-on-month, and more than half of the orders in the live broadcast room will be written off in one month.
"Offline stores reach more users with clear consumption intentions through live streaming of local life, which is a low-cost and more flexible marketing channel. Industry insiders said that the main evaluation indicators of local life live broadcast are the accuracy of traffic and the final conversion rate, not only the hot pot format, it is expected that more local stores will broadcast live on Meituan in the future to acquire nearby users with clear consumption intentions and convert them into repeat customers.