More and more merchants, Tucao Meituan
In special times, offline business can’t be carried out normally. The owner of the beverage store who puts his hopes on the takeaway has recently been under more pressure.
Commissions for takeaway platforms make many bosses in a dilemma.
Author ｜ 懿 珏
During the epidemic, the platform suddenly received a 1,000 yuan deposit?
“Someone on the takeaway platform suddenly charged us 1,000 yuan as a performance bond, or we could adjust it from 18% to 23%.” The day before yesterday, a message in the background caught my attention.
After many understandings, this fan named Zhang joined a 2 beverage store in a prefecture-level city in Shanxi. Because of the backlog of stocks, he urgently hoped to digest the inventory when the epidemic improved, so he took it out A series of promotional activities were launched on the platform.
“It may be that I have a lot of orders recently. The US Mission City Manager may be eyeing me and call me to pay a performance bond of 1,000 yuan. If I do n’t pay the commission, it will increase from 18% to 23%. Group activities and platform discounts are not given, and customers can not find my store, which is equivalent to being blacklisted. “Zhang Zhang told me angrily.
“I started to think about negotiation, but think about the backlog of goods, if we really mentioned the 23% discount, we would not earn a penny, and we still paid it.” Zhang Zhang said helplessly.
Due to pressure, the performance bond is still paid
Regarding the interpretation of the performance bond, the city manager of Meituan has never given the shopkeeper any official documents. What exactly is this bond for? Is it paid once a year or is it permanent? Under what conditions can I retire? Did not make it clear, “ordered” over the phone. Then Zhang boss inquired from all sides, the same cityOther colleagues in the city, some received, and some did not, “the original deposit is still treated differently.”
And such a thing is not an example. Mr. Xiang, who opened three directly operated milk tea shops in the small county of northern Henan, also received a similar call for “margin” in October 2019, but the amount was 600. yuan.
“Kaimei group has not paid a security deposit for a few years, and I don’t know if it was a mess last year, and suddenly let me pay 600 yuan.” In desperation, Mr. Xiang also paid a security deposit.
The boss Zhang sent me a picture of a takeaway flow order. From the list, it can be seen that in more than a week, the actual turnover of his store was 8,289 yuan, but deducted commissions, distribution fees, event subsidies, etc. After various expenses, only 5764 yuan was in the hands of the boss-basically losing more than 30% of the profit.
Facing the high commission on the platform, the boss has plans. “We now plan to build a group by ourselves, buy electric vehicles and distribute them ourselves. A store gives more than 5,000 platforms a month, and we can raise more employees.”
Giveaway to takeaway platform, enough to raise more employees
This plan is not an exception. In Hunan, a boss has already put into action. He has found a way to build a platform by himself, and it is expected to be implemented by the end of March.
Take away more than 3,000 cups, and the profit is only 1,000 yuan?
Cheng Han is in the coffee business. He opened 4 cafes in Hunan, 2 of which are take-away stores. These two stores rely heavily on the platform. Meituan and Hungry are both on.
Unexpectedly, after the opening, the profit on the platform was so low that he was speechless. “It’s pretty good to be able to protect the capital on takeaway. We are in the capital protection stage.”
He calculated for me. “Take one of our takeaways as an example. On the Meituan and Hungry Me double platforms, there can be more than 1,500 orders in a month, one order of 2-3 cups, average By the day, it is more than 100 cups, but after deducting the various commissions of the platform, 3 employees make more than 3,000 cups of coffee a month, and can only make more than 1,000 yuan. “
He also used an example of an order: This single customer actually needs to pay a delivery fee of 3.1 yuan, and we bear 2 yuan. Our event discount bears 7.2 yuan, the guest actually pays 43.9, we actually receive 32.64,43.9-32.64 = 11.26 yuan, this money will flow to the platform, after comprehensive calculation, the take-out platform actually has a 25.6% “draw”.
Higher take-out platforms
So he couldn’t “hang a tree” on the take-out platform. He decided to find another way to use the method of membership replenishment, and silently accumulated more than 2,000 members.
He also found a software supplier to connect his cash register system and membership system, so that members can place online orders directly through their WeChat public account, pay with prepaid cards, and collect them at the store. If delivery is needed, he is going to use the local errand platform for a fee of 4-8 yuan.
“This software development has a large investment in the early stage, but it is more cost-effective in the long run. The software service fee and distribution fee will be reduced by half compared to the take-out platform’s commission. I will gradually abandon the promotion activities of the takeaway platform, only as a window display. “Cheng Han said.
Commission rises again and again, many small shops “can’t afford it”
A small cafe owner in Beijing has been thinking from the beginning of the store. Instead of going to a take-out platform, build his own customer community, make take-away coffee, and sell coffee beans and hangs among old customers. Retail products such as ears and coffee appliances.
“I have calculated that there is no profit at all. The takeaway platform is too expensive for a small store like ours, so I thought of another way when I opened the store,” said the boss.
It is understood that starting from 2016, the platform commissions have entered the rhythm of “both rising again”, from 5% to 10% to more than 20% at present. In addition, Meituan also launched a business similar to Baidu’s “bid ranking”, allowing businesses to “spend money to buy higher positions with higher traffic.”
Commission news is also often seen
The Impact of New Coronary Pneumonia on China’s Catering Industry released by the Chinese Cooking Association shows that during the epidemic prevention and control period, the food service in the catering service decreased sharply. However, 91% of the catering companies said that the platform’s commission rate was not discounted, and 2% of the companies said that the platform’s commission rate had increased.
According to China Business Daily, Meituan Takeaway currently charges 18% and 23% commissions for large-scale chain catering and small and medium-sized catering respectively, and once merchants enter the hungry food delivery platform at the same time, the commission rate will increase by 3% 7%.
At the same time, the commission rate will increase, and the picture comes from the Internet.
“The dinning income is currently almost zero. For a 60 yuan takeout, the platform will draw nearly 15 yuan from it. The takeout platform’s drawdown is higher every year, and now let us bear a portion of the distribution costs. Do n’t The take-away business can only sit back and eat, and doing take-out business is to a certain extent equivalent to working for the platform. “A boss said.
Whether it is a chain or a small store, You should establish a “brand equity view” from the beginning
From a rational point of view, the takeaway platform does provide convenience for catering businesses to expand their businesses, allowing them to only serve dinning restaurants around 1 to 3 kilometers away from their stores, breaking through space constraints and radiating to a wider consumer group.
At the same time, the platform has also expanded the consumption scene of meals and drinks, helping the catering industry to take a wider track.
For new brands and new stores, the huge flow of take-away platforms will undoubtedly greatly shorten the store maintenance period, increase visibility and turnover.
Whether it is brand exposure or business improvement, take-out platforms have helped the catering industry. It is true that many brands have quickly emerged through the help of takeaway platforms to achieve long-term sales success.
Pursuing profit is the essence of any business, and takeaway platforms are no exception. For beverage stores, it is meaningless to go blindly to the Diss platform; it is not a good idea to choose to abandon the platform.
Whether it is a big brand or a small store, there should be a reasonable view of brand equity from the beginning.
On the one hand, we gather our own customer traffic pool, establish “traffic sovereignty”, and actively develop retail products to achieve customer order enhancement. On the other hand, we must also use the platform’s traffic resources to optimize the cost structure and reduce costs and efficiency., Seize the brand exposure and business improvement that can be seized.
(The text is a pseudonym)
Coordination ｜ Zheng Yu, Editors ｜ Golden Language, Vision ｜ Jiang Fei
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