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"hoteliers are tasked with selling 10,000 mooncakes. oem factories are short of orders and work three days a week and rest one day. high-priced gift boxes are starting to disappear..." the mid-autumn festival is approaching, and the mooncake market, which should have been bustling, has unexpectedly cooled this year. "mooncakes are not selling well" has become a hot topic.

"the mooncake factory, which has been operating offline for more than 30 years, has live-streamed over 10 million worth of goods for 30 hours, but no one is interested." qin lu (pseudonym), the sales manager of a long-established mooncake oem factory in zhongshan, guangdong, could not hide her frustration. she said that the number of orders this year is significantly less, and even with the help of live-streaming, it is probably just a drop in the bucket.

qin lu's feelings are not an isolated case. in recent days, chao news reporters have learned from their visits that discounts and low-price sales have become the main theme of the mooncake market this year, whether it is online sales platforms or offline supermarkets and hotels.

mooncakes and mooncake sellers are stuck in sales. "at present, the demand for mooncakes for personal use is definitely declining, while the demand structure for mooncake products is upgrading," said hu qimu, deputy director of the strategic emerging industries research center of tsinghua university. this is an inevitable trend as the living standards of domestic residents improve and the concept of healthy diet strengthens. "the demand for mooncakes with high sugar content, excessive packaging and small brands faces greater competitive pressure, but classic brands with great influence and rich cultural heritage, as well as innovative products with high cost performance, will still have good demand space."

moon cakes sold in offline supermarkets. photo by gu sirui, an intern at chao news

promotional discounts, low price sales

offline supermarkets: mooncakes are no longer the most "glorious"

recently, a reporter from chao news visited a hema fresh store located in the west lake cultural plaza in hangzhou. although the supermarket had various mooncake signs hanging, there were not many shelves actually selling mooncakes, with only two shelves outside. one of the shelves was also filled with snacks such as egg yolk crisps, nuts and egg rolls. many mooncake gift boxes were already labeled with "red labels" indicating price cuts, but there were still very few customers.

compared with the exquisite gift boxes, the fresh mooncakes made by the supermarket are more popular among consumers. customer auntie guo got up early that day just to buy the freshly baked fresh meat mooncakes. "this freshly baked one is delicious. other mooncakes are too sweet and we don't like them."

on the side, the staff responsible for packing the mooncakes introduced that the price of a box of six freshly baked meat mooncakes ranges from more than ten to twenty yuan, and two to three hundred pieces can be sold a day.

freshly baked mooncakes from hema fresh. photo by gu sirui, an intern at chao news

century lianhua qingchun store is a long-established supermarket in hangzhou. during this mid-autumn festival, the mooncake shelves at qingchun store maintained their "bustling" scale in previous years - there were nearly ten shelves of mooncakes of different brands, neatly stacked in the most conspicuous position at the elevator entrance on the second floor. each shelf was also equipped with one or two sales staff, and the mooncake gift boxes were piled up to two meters high. even so, some sales staff joked: "the most 'glorious' time for mooncakes has passed in the past two years."

"the mooncakes on the shelves now have already gone through the first round of small price cuts. the second round of price cuts, which used to start on or after the mid-autumn festival, has also started earlier this year," said wu lianlian, duty manager of century lianhua qingchun store. this year, even the internet-famous mooncake "maxim's" has reduced its price, with the same gift box reduced from 368 yuan to 279 yuan, offering an unprecedented discount. at the same time, the local government also issued relevant consumer coupons to boost mooncake sales during this year's mid-autumn festival, with a 20% discount on purchases of 100 yuan or more, equivalent to a 20% discount.

mooncake shelves at century lianhua qingchun store in hangzhou. photo by gu sirui, an intern at chao news

there are many promotional activities, but mooncakes are still hard to sell, and low- and medium-priced mooncakes have become the main sales force. wu lianlian said that "good appearance and old brand" are still the key points when people choose mooncakes. currently, the best-selling mooncake gift boxes are priced between 100 and 200 yuan, and "the highest-end gift box will not exceed 500 yuan." wu lianlian said that old brands such as zhiweiguan and louwailou, which are deeply favored by locals, not only work hard to innovate in packaging styles every year, but also dare not set prices too high.

traditional supermarkets are also affected by group purchase orders. wu lianlian explained that in previous years, group purchase orders were mainly for enterprises, but now many tend to order mooncakes with their own corporate logos and corporate culture. "group orders are declining year by year, and it is difficult to reproduce the situation in the past when salesmen were so busy that they had no time to rest."

some five-star hotels no longer "carry" mooncake indicators

large oem orders fell 20%

in addition to offline supermarket channels, hotel sales also feel that "mooncakes are difficult to sell." according to reports, a manager of a five-star hotel in hangzhou revealed that mooncakes are not selling well this year. last year, the hotel's mooncake sales target was 800,000 yuan, but this year it has dropped to 150,000 yuan.

mooncakes are not selling well, and some hotels have reduced or even cancelled their mooncake sales targets. an employee of the catering department of a five-star hotel in shanghai told chao news that the hotel allocates targets by department, and the catering department has always been the main force in mooncake sales. "a few years ago, our department's target was 7,000 boxes, but this year we were only given 1,500 boxes. some other departments simply don't have to bear (sales targets)."

on social platforms, many users are reselling mooncake gift boxes from five-star hotels such as hilton and intercontinental at low prices. custom mooncake gift boxes that originally cost three or four hundred yuan are being sold at a discount of 20% to 30% - "official 318, discounted price 68; official 368, discounted price 88." during the consultation, a user claimed to be a salesperson at a high-end hotel in shenzhen. he had a lot of surplus stock, so he put it online to "boost sales." after the purchase, the stock can be directly mailed to the customer. "the cost is only a few dozen yuan, who would really buy it from the official website?"

on social platforms, many users are reselling mooncake gift boxes from five-star hotels at low prices. photo provided by the interviewee

the change in hotel sales was directly transmitted to the mooncake production source, the oem factory. according to media reports, some large mooncake oem factories have seen a 20% drop in orders and sales this year, and the sales speed is also slowing down. some oem factories have even started to "work three days a week and rest one day" because they cannot receive orders.

qin lu, who has been running a mooncake oem factory for many years, can no longer keep her "old customers". she is miserable about this: "now there are more substitutes for mid-autumn festival gifts, and the choice is becoming more and more diverse. many bosses used to order mooncakes from me, but now they would rather choose to order seasonal fruits, hairy crabs and other gifts."

liu wang (pseudonym), another person in charge of mooncake oem business in taizhou, zhejiang, said that the mooncake market has been declining in recent years. "it is not just starting this year. last year's shipments were already declining significantly." liu wang said that the factory has taken early control of production costs this year and laid off some front-line workers. however, there is no holiday for workers at present.

chao news reporters noticed that wufangzhai's (603237.sh) mooncake business in 2023 showed that both the revenue and gross profit margin of its 2023 mooncake series declined year-on-year.

mooncake market returns to rational and healthy

how to break the deadlock of “unsellable mooncakes”?

at present, it has become a common consensus in the industry that mooncakes are difficult to sell. according to data released by the china bakery and confectionery industry association, due to the short sales cycle and rational consumption, the production and sales of mooncakes in this year's mid-autumn festival are expected to be about 300,000 tons and 20 billion yuan, which may be slightly lower than last year.

"the mooncake market is not really 'unsalable', but has returned to a more rational and healthy state." jiang han, a senior researcher at pangu think tank, said in an interview with the media that in the past, an important support point of the mooncake market was its attribute as a high-end gift. in business dealings, gifts from relatives and friends, and other occasions, exquisite mooncake gift boxes often carry heavy emotions and commercial value. however, in recent years, with the change of consumer concepts, the gift market has gradually moved from "luxury" to "practical".

many industry insiders pointed out that the changes in the mooncake market are attributed to the severe crackdown on "sky-high" mooncakes and excessive packaging by the state in recent years, which has made luxury mooncake gift boxes lose their living space. as early as june 2022, the national development and reform commission, the ministry of industry and information technology, the ministry of commerce, and the state administration for market regulation jointly issued an announcement to curb "sky-high" mooncakes, requiring key supervision of boxed mooncakes with a unit price of more than 500 yuan. on the other hand, as people's attention to health continues to increase, they are more and more inclined to choose low-sugar, low-salt, low-fat and nutritious foods. the production of mooncakes usually contains a lot of sugar, oil and flour, which make the mooncakes high in calories and sugar content.

various types of customized mooncakes on the market. photo provided by the interviewee

"after a period of high-end and gift-oriented development, the mooncake market is gradually returning to its essence - that is, as a traditional food for family consumption during the mid-autumn festival. the emergence of this trend is not only a correction to past market distortions, but also an inevitable requirement for the healthy development of the mooncake industry," said jiang han.

"the mooncake market actually has two main attributes: one is the food market, and the other is the cultural and creative market. these two attributes have not disappeared, but are constantly upgrading." hu qimu believes that mooncakes, as traditional food, are an important carrier of chinese traditional culture. how to better reflect its cultural value puts higher demands on design and creativity. "therefore, businesses should conduct in-depth research on changes in consumption trends, and innovate and adjust product production processes, materials, and packaging designs in a targeted manner to bring better experiences to consumers and better support the inheritance of chinese traditional culture."

sun qingzhou, associate professor and doctoral supervisor at the school of management of zhejiang university of technology, believes that "saving" the mooncake market and allowing it to develop healthily and sustainably is a joint effort of the government, enterprises and all sectors of society. for example, the government can provide more venues or platforms to hold a series of mooncake tasting activities during the mid-autumn festival to create a strong atmosphere for the mid-autumn festival and awaken more consumers' good memories of traditional festivals. "in this way, consumers' consumption of mooncakes will gradually change." sun qingzhou said that at the same time, in the face of consumption upgrades and the impact of alternative products, mooncake merchants must continue to innovate to meet the increasingly diverse needs of consumers. for example, mooncake merchants can adopt combined sales and launch a "mooncake +" sales strategy. "mooncakes + red wine, mooncakes + hairy crabs are sold together, which not only meets the various needs of consumers, but also sells mooncakes by the way." sun qingzhou said.