Forty or fifty yuan a barbecue meal for two, 99 yuan instead of 100 yuan vouchers, as low as 1% off flash sales ......
Recently, merchants on platforms such as Meituan and Douyin have launched discounted group meals. While consumers are "woolling", they also encounter consumption traps such as frequent changes in ordering information and false labels from time to time.
How long can ultra-low prices** go?How can catering businesses break the competition in the "volume discount"?
"Wool" and "traps" coexist
Four servings of barbecue, one serving of Yanji cold noodles, one plate of soup, and two servings of drinks only cost 40 yuan. Recently, Ms. Lu, who works in Beijing, once again grabbed a barbecue double meal with an original price of 188 yuan in the **seckill. "Very good consumer experience, the restaurant environment is good, the food is not less, and it is not treated differently because of **. Ms. Lu said.
Ms. Lu has bought more than a dozen ** meals on Meituan, Douyin and other platforms, and most of the ** meals she buys are as low as three or four discounts. She introduced that there are now a lot of ** meals on various platforms, and there is no need to grab them, and they will buy them when they occasionally want to buy them or when they see them.
Ms. Xu, who is interning in Beijing, has bought nearly ten times**, she introduced that so far, the **consumption experience is good, the same food can be obtained at a cheaper **, and after consumption in the store, some merchants will also remind you to use coupons.
On Dianping, many ** consumers are also sharing the surprise experience of "wool": "The 39 yuan meal for two is amazing" "9The meal for two people at 9 yuan can't be eaten at all", "The bullfrog with the original price of 168 is very happy to pay 42 yuan".
However, there are also consumers who complain on social platforms, encountering **merchants who do not redeem when they go to the store for consumption, ** meals are smaller than normal meals, etc.
A barbecue restaurant I had booked changed its address three times in four days, getting farther and farther away from me, and finally I didn't want to go. Ms. Lu has also encountered the ** consumption "trap", and she has encountered more than one similar experience of changing information, including changes in dishes, changes in unavailability dates, etc. When she went to a hot pot restaurant to consume, she also found that the ** on the menu in the store was lower than the original price of the dishes in ***.
Can small profits be achieved but quick turnover?
In the early days, as the word suggests, it is necessary to reach a certain number of purchasers before it can be used*** If it is not reached, the merchant will refund the consumer. The number of people and the strength of the discount are measured by the merchant, and they can achieve profitability through small profits and quick turnover.
But today's ** is more like a synonym for discounts, no matter how much ** sales, it can be used, ** is also in the competition with the lower the "volume".
Ms. Li, manager of a barbecue chain store, introduced in an interview with China News Service that there are more new barbecue restaurants opened this year, and the customer flow is dispersed. Recently, the store joined the live broadcast, and the discount was as low as the discount, and during the live broadcast on Friday, two or three hundred orders could be sold, and the drainage effect was good.
In the fierce competition, some restaurants began to attract traffic at low prices in order to gain customers, and some restaurants were forced to join.
Mr. Men, manager of a Lu cuisine catering company, introduced, 3The ** price of 1% off is set according to the discount of similar stores, before the discount is launched, the daily sales of the ** are about ten orders, and after the launch, there are thirty or forty sales per day. He said: "If the price is not reduced, the sales volume will not be able to go up, so we can only give up the profits of the first and count on the compound consumption of consumers, such as buying drinks and ordering other dishes." ”
Nowadays, on the food shopping platform and the short ** platform, many merchants have launched a 3% to 9% off**, and in the live broadcast room, there will even be a limited-time spike as low as 1% off**.
The F&B industry is highly competitive
Many catering novices 'cross-border' join the catering industry, and the competition in the catering industry has intensified. ”Wang Hongdong, founder of Dining Treasure and an analyst in the catering industryIn an interview with China News Service, the threshold for entry in the catering industry is low, but the threshold for profitability is not low.
Tianyancha data shows that as of now, more than 3 million new catering enterprises have been added in China this year, an increase of 19 compared with the same period last year2%。
On the supply side, the competition in restaurants has intensified, and they have begun to attract traffic at low prices.
On the demand side, food and beverage consumption expectations are still cautious. According to market research, consumers' food and beverage consumption expectations will remain cautious in 2023. 46.3 of consumers expect to spend the same amount on food and beverages, at 326 of consumers "increased slightly."
The product is still the magic weapon
"Low price is not a long-term strategy after all, and if restaurants want to win in the fierce competition, the product is still the magic weapon to win."
Xu Minbo, an associate professor at the School of Economics and Business Administration at Beijing Normal UniversityIn an interview with China News Service, he said that once restaurants start to compete viciously at low prices, food safety, taste, and quality cannot be guaranteed. If you want to win in the competition, the key is to get out of the differentiation and branding route. For example, he said, several distinctive brand roast duck restaurants in Beijing still can't grab a spot even if they don't cut prices.
Wang Hongdong also believes that restaurants can cater to the mainstream consumption trend and be delicious and inexpensive, but they can't blindly "roll discounts". In his opinion, whether it is a chain store or a small restaurant, food safety is the foundation. Small restaurants have "fireworks", which can combine the preferences of surrounding customers, work taste, grasp the taste buds of target customers, innovate dishes, and make characteristics.
For chain stores, while optimizing the best chain and reducing costs, it is necessary to pay attention to the long-term accumulation of word-of-mouth and increase customer stickinessAt the same time, we should seize the current mainstream customer group - young people, innovate marketing methods, and increase the number of customer orders, such as Mixue Bingcheng and Haidilao, the marketing effect is very good.
*: The country is a through train.