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jimu news reporter zhou dan

how can the catering industry innovate and change? on september 3, the 2024 catering industry conference with the theme of "crossing the cycle" was held in shanghai. the conference was guided by the shanghai municipal commission of commerce and the people's government of pudong new area, and hosted by the shanghai catering and cooking industry association and meituan.

shanghai municipal party committee member and deputy mayor hua yuan, shanghai municipal people's government deputy secretary-general liu ping, cppcc national committee political participation and consultation talent pool special expert jia kang, meituan core local business ceo wang puchong, meituan vice president and meituan in-store catering division general manager wei wei, meituan takeaway division general manager xue bing and thousands of catering business leaders gathered together. shanghai municipal people's government deputy secretary-general liu ping delivered a speech, welcoming catering companies from all over the country to gather in shanghai to jointly explore the future and development of the industry.

a lao xiang ji "satellite store" in xiaoshan, hangzhou has a sales per square meter of up to 6,600 yuan; cha baidao and meituan have created a new "instant pickup" experience, driving an increase of 280,000 monthly orders; a "must-eat" husband-and-wife store in changsha has opened 4 stores... from brands to small shops, all kinds of innovative models were fully presented at the conference, bringing valuable experience and showing a new atmosphere of high-quality development in the industry.

meituan announced at the meeting that it will upgrade its "prosperity plan" for catering businesses, through hundreds of billions of yuan in consumer investment promotion, the "brand satellite store" 10,000 store commission rebate plan, the new catering store support plan, digitalization special projects and other measures, to jointly promote industry innovation, release demand potential and enhance business confidence.

upgrade the "prosperity plan" to jointly build a digital catering ecosystem

food is the primary need of the people, and people's passion for "eating" remains the same. at present, the total catering consumption in society has developed steadily. according to the data of the national bureau of statistics, from january to july 2024, the national catering revenue increased by 7.1% year-on-year.

outsourcing of family dining needs is still the general trend, and the scale of social catering provided by catering companies will continue to grow. wang puchong, ceo of meituan's core local business, said at the meeting that according to meituan data, the proportion of urban residents eating out will increase from 16.6% in 2023 to about 24% by the end of 2030, which means that each urban resident will eat out 5 to 6 times a week.

meituan’s core local business ceo wang puchong (photo by correspondent xu li)

"the catering industry is an industry with long-term resilience and a desire for change and prosperity. it is facing a major change that has not been seen in 30 years and has officially entered an era of deep cultivation." wang puchong said that in the new cycle, demand has entered the stock stage, and deep cultivation of customer base and improving customer experience are the ultimate goals of businesses. at the same time, the previous extensive management is no longer effective, and full-scenario operation online and offline is a basic and necessary capability.

"in the new cycle, we will strive to become a little helper for catering businesses in all scenarios, help them accumulate more data, do a good job in full-cycle consumer management, and delve deeper into the catering ecosystem." wang puchong said that meituan has always provided catering companies with long-term and stable customer sources, and through the integration of catering group buying and takeaway, it has helped merchants achieve double growth through "dual home field operations."

at the meeting, wang puchong announced that meituan will continue to upgrade its "prosperity plan" and give back to the industry. specific measures include investing tens of billions to promote user consumption and promoting products through brand marketing and joint merchants; upgrading the "brand satellite store" 10,000-store commission rebate plan to provide catering merchants with 6 to 12 months of commission rebates; shortening the group purchase operating account period to improve the cash flow efficiency of merchants; launching a digital project to open the better customer growth management model, ai site selection, business compass and other business products to all catering practitioners, as well as upgrading meituan's catering data asset operation services.

catering companies jointly draw a "panoramic picture of business operations", with more than 1,000 high-growth satellite stores

browsing to find restaurants, making decisions based on rankings, placing orders, dining in, ordering takeout, reviewing and repurchasing... more and more consumers are accustomed to completing dining choices and service purchases on the platform. meituan data shows that every week, 275 million people meet their dining needs on the platform, and they open the meituan app 7.34 times per person.

high-frequency demand portals make meituan an inevitable choice for catering merchants to build their brand online positions. this summer, mcdonald's and meituan explored the "321" growth model, creating refined operations of three live broadcast venues and two distribution venues, and achieved a year-on-year growth of 151% in meituan group purchase transactions in stores within one marketing cycle.

after attracting diners from other places through meituan and dianping, the former husband-and-wife restaurant "lu ge restaurant" in changsha has continuously innovated its dishes to meet new demands based on reviews. the proprietress said, "good taste brings more good reviews." now "lu ge" has 4 stores in changsha and has been on the dianping must-eat list for 7 consecutive years. in order to help more types of businesses grasp the full-cycle demand and achieve high-quality growth, wei wei, vice president of meituan and general manager of meituan's in-store catering business unit, publicly disclosed the "panoramic view of in-store catering operations" for the first time at the meeting, dismantling new business ideas from three levels: business infrastructure, marketing growth, and data assets.

at the same time, takeaway has become a lifestyle for more and more people, and the "dual-main" trend of dine-in and takeaway is constantly strengthening. so far, 150 catering brands have opened more than 1,000 satellite stores based on dine-in stores.

compared with dine-in takeaway stores, the brand satellite stores jointly built by these platforms and brands have reduced store rental and decoration costs by 60%, increased exposure by more than 30%, and increased order conversion rate by 5 percentage points. single-store orders are 1.74 times the number of new store orders in the same period, and the average profit margin is 14.8%. xue bing, general manager of meituan's takeaway business unit, said that brand satellite stores have become a new type of store for takeaway growth, and are rapidly lighting up more cities at a rate of 100 per week. the platform will help merchants build a new home through measures such as ai site selection, tens of billions of exposure, rebates from 10,000 stores, and official agency operations.

chain brands are expanding steadily, and deepening digitalization is ushering in high-quality growth

it took luckin coffee only 13 months to expand its stores from 10,000 to 20,000; cha baidao’s national stores increased to 8,385, a year-on-year increase of more than 20%... driven by the high-quality development of the catering industry, chain operations and sinking have ushered in new opportunities, and large chain brands have become the main engine of growth in the catering industry.

meituan data shows that in july this year, the number of chain stores with more than 1,000 stores increased by more than 25% year-on-year, and the expansion speed was significantly faster than that of the social catering market and other scale brands. in terms of regional distribution, the sinking market showed the characteristics of "more new openings and fewer closures".

faced with the new situation, the participating brand guests reached a consensus that the catering industry has shifted from a new cycle of "incremental" to "stock", and cost control and efficiency improvement driven by digital operations have become the key to high-quality development.

in his speech, xibei catering chairman jia guolong encouraged catering people to stick to the original intention of the brand, not to blindly follow the trend, and to deeply cultivate the industry development. li hong, chairman of country style group, said that "slow growth is a mentality" and the pursuit of perfection and efficiency improvement is the way to deal with it. guan yihong, chairman of jiu mao jiu group, also believes that the era when simply opening a store can do well is over. the tai er pickled cabbage fish he operates is actively exploring new models such as takeaway satellite stores. guo jinyi, co-founder, chairman and ceo of luckin coffee, emphasized technology-driven and supply chain improvement at the meeting.

after the main meeting, a government promotion meeting for the 2024 catering industry conference was held to provide participating catering companies with policies and resources for development in shanghai. it is understood that shanghai has officially issued "several measures on promoting the high-quality development of the city's catering industry", proposing a total of 10 measures around cost reduction and burden reduction, capacity increase and traffic diversion, scene innovation, and environmental optimization.

jia kang, a specially appointed expert of the cppcc's talent pool for political participation and consultation, said that policy guidance and technological innovation will prompt catering companies to actively build a digital ecosystem, thereby improving operational efficiency and consumer experience. the entire industry will inevitably prosper through innovative development.

(source: jimu news)

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