Data empowers large-scale operation of catering, Meituan helps high-quality development of catering industry

The National Bureau of Statistics recently released data showing that in July, with the economy recovering and the relationship between supply and demand gradually improving, the retail sales of services rose by 20.3% year-on-year from January to July this year. Driven by summer travel, the retail sales of transportation, accommodation, catering and other services grew rapidly.　

The consumer market is becoming more and more active, and new consumption trends are beginning to emerge. The "2023 Consumer Trend Insights Report" shows that "affordable", "grouping", "flat replacement", and "making up" have become new consumption methods for young people. In order to further meet the increasingly rich consumption needs of consumers, Meituan has piloted the "group buying version" of the takeaway product "good meal" in many places across the country, allowing consumers to enjoy cost-effective meals. At the same time, it effectively improves the production and distribution efficiency of merchants and riders, and further promotes the high-quality development of the catering market.

"Group" to improve cost performance, a new way of takeaway consumption is quietly coming

Gao Ye from Shandong is a veteran "takeaway foodie". In 2020, he returned to his hometown of Junan from Qingdao. To Gao Ye’s surprise, he used to order takeout in Qingdao, which could cost 20-30 yuan. Now, by ordering a "good meal" with colleagues in Junan, you can often eat a quality takeaway for less than 10 yuan. Although the income is not as good as before, it has achieved "takeaway freedom" in his hometown.

This cost-effective takeaway consumption method through "grouping" is in line with the needs of current consumers. According to the "2023 Consumer Trend Insights Report", "affordable", "grouping", "flat replacement", and "grouping together" have become new consumption methods for young people. According to Meituan’s research data, many office white-collar workers and service industry practitioners prefer to solve the problem of eating through takeaway because of the irregular meal time and location, and also hope to enjoy certain discounts and discounts. As one of the innovative models of takeaway, grouping together meals provides consumers with cost-effective meals delivered to their doors, effectively meeting the differentiated consumption needs of different groups.

Platform data empowers catering merchants to improve quality and efficiency

Behind the "cost performance" is the exploration and innovation of both the supply and demand ends of takeaway food.

Today, consumers’ demand for takeout is increasingly diverse, but the business categories of each merchant are constrained by cost, making it difficult to cover all aspects. Moreover, due to the lack of data support, it is also difficult for merchants to gain timely insight into consumer needs. In response to the above pain points, "Meituan Good Meal" adjusts the restaurant display to a meal display. According to the characteristics of consumer demand in the region, it effectively integrates the same dining needs of consumers, and provides centralized selection suggestions for merchants. Merchants can filter out one or several meals for good meal management according to business data, consumer ordering preferences, etc., so as to effectively improve the efficiency of merchant selection and meal preparation. Through the centralized ordering of consumers, the centralized delivery of meals by merchants, and the centralized delivery of riders, the entire takeaway chain can be operated on a large scale, maximizing the production efficiency of merchants and reducing consumer costs. At the same time, since consumer order addresses are similar or the same, riders can also further improve delivery efficiency and obtain more stable income.

Located in Wu’an City, Handan, Hebei Province, "Flaming Mountain Northeast BBQ" is a well-known local barbecue shop. Previously, the store relied only on night business and could not continue for a while. In order to make the store generate income during the day, at the suggestion of Meituan takeaway operators, the store owner launched "Putting Good Meals" and specially developed two barbecue rice sets suitable for daytime sales. After the launch, there were 1,500 orders per month for Putting Good Meals, which not only expanded the utilization rate of the store, but also increased the number of jobs in the store.

Yun Cheng, president of the Beijing Cuisine Association, said that this year’s government work report further clarified that it will promote the recovery of consumption of life services such as catering, culture, tourism, and sports. Focusing on expanding domestic demand, promoting consumption recovery as soon as possible, and strengthening the basic role of consumption are the important focuses of current economic work. The takeaway platform optimizes the efficiency of all links of takeaway through technological innovation, so that consumers, merchants, and riders can benefit. At the same time, the optimization of takeaway supply methods can further activate the consumption demand of different income groups, and feed back the supply side, forming a scale effect at both ends of supply and demand, and promoting the high-quality development of catering.

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