The Spring Festival has passed, and the construction officially started today. Weakly ask, how many families choose to have Chinese New Year's Eve dinner in restaurants on Chinese New Year's Eve this year? Are the major hotels as crowded as in previous years? Just ask yourself and your friends.In the first half of last year, under the general trend of economic recovery, offline catering became the first track to recover. Bursting full, waiting, and performance soaring, it seems that it will become the main theme of the catering industry in 2023 for a while.
However, it backfired, and it was geared upBefore the catering industry could usher in the fruits of a bumper harvest, closures, store closures, and thunderstorms followed.
In the past, there would be a wave of restaurant closures at the end of each year. In 23 years, the tide of restaurant closures has been advanced to the month, and even the new industry of "specializing in second-hand catering equipment" has become popular
Millions of entrepreneurs, taking out their savings or even all their belongings, entered the catering industry, and finally quit dismally in just a few months;
Xu Liushan, a time-honored Hong Kong dessert brand established for 60 years, has closed stores in many places in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and only a small number of stores are left for business....survived dozens of years, but fell in the first year after the epidemic was released;
Once financed hundreds of millions, the representative brand of new Chinese baking with unlimited scenery - Hutou Bureau, only the Wuhan store is still in business, and its Shenzhen Wanwu Catering Management *** was filed for bankruptcy review, which is embarrassing.
Everyone says that the threshold for catering is low, but they don't know that the threshold for catering is "behind the door". From the perspective of market competition, the wave of bankruptcy of the catering industry in 23 yearsThere is not only the market change of the fittest, but also the "accidental injury" of "bad money driving out good money".
According to Qichacha data, as of December 21, 2023, nearly 3.11 million catering-related enterprises have been registered, and 1.27 million catering-related enterprises have been cancelled, compared with 600,000 in the same period of 22. What's even more terrifying is that in the first half of 23 alone, the number of new restaurants opened exceeded 2 million, exceeding the whole of 2019. This may be related to the influx of small whites into the catering industry in the first half of the year.
In 2023, the number of unemployed people in China may be nearly 100 million, and some entrepreneurs who are taking rich compensation from large Internet companies and "looking for the next outlet" before the threshold of 35 years old have chosen the catering industryAnd with the low price of "40 yuan double hot pot", he "injured" some old restaurants with random punches. And in the second half of the year, when the entrepreneurial novice who fought the low-price war was overwhelmed, some old restaurants "take advantage of your illness to kill you"., also rolled up the "** war", so a group of catering entrepreneurs were dismissed.
In addition to that,At the merchant level,The competition on the track is fierce, and due to the increase in the number of catering players, the rent often rises several times, compressing the living space of small and medium-sized restaurants. In addition, China's chaining rate is also increasing, such as Luckin and Cudi crazy store opening, killing many coffee peers.
From the consumer level,After several years of the epidemic and consumption downgrade, the middle class has "returned to poverty", and the original brand of "consumption upgrading" has lost its customer base. Moreover, young consumers who "ride a bicycle to visit a bar, the province should spend money" pay more attention to the quality-price ratio, and some inflated restaurants have fallen, which is also a natural elimination of the business world.
As the saying goes, the people live on food. 2023 has come to an end, and the catering consumption market will not fluctuate much in the economic environment. However, homogenization competition is still fierce, and the peak of the closure of the catering industry has not yet arrived. In 2024, the high rents highlighted by the Matthew effect are likely to be the last straw that crushes restaurants.
In the face of such a dilemma, the catering industry needs to constantly innovate and adjust its business strategies in order to survive the fierce competition and meet a better future.
In view of the opportunities in the catering industry in 2024, the following humble opinions hope to help you.
1. Enhance digital empowerment and strengthen transaction trust
With the gradual weakening of the offline growth momentum of China's catering industry, online traffic has become an inevitable choice for the development of catering enterprises. In this context,Digitalization has become an important growth point for the industryIt provides key support for enterprises to improve operational efficiency and achieve product differentiation, and is also an indispensable "soft power" for catering enterprises.
For example, in order to attract customers, some merchants who have opened recharge and prepayment for ** discounts can choose a reliable settlement method to set up a "security barrier" for transactions, so that buyers dare to recharge and enjoy discounts, so that merchants can lock more customers to promote transactions, so as to achieve a win-win transaction.
Take chain receipt and payment as an example. Consumers can rest assured that they will pay in advance, and sign a digital contract and set up a payment cycle according to the services or products provided by the merchantThe money is held in the reserve account of the People's Bank of ChinaExecute the settlement according to the instructions issued by the receiver and the payer and the automatic instructions triggered by the digital contractEven in the extreme case of default by either party, the payment is fully controllableIn the event of a dispute, the two parties can enter the friction negotiation procedure, and even if the negotiation fails, they can still have a basis for litigation in the contract details signed by the two parties to the transaction.
Chain receipt and paymentBy using the "third type**" to lock in potential customer groups and solve the problem of incremental recharge customers. In addition, consumers can actively settle the current fee or choose to automatically settle the fee on a regular basis. It can easily help merchants to achieve drainage and locking customers and repurchase and retention in the later stage, leading tens of millions of merchants to "break the volume".
Of course, traffic acquisition is only the first step of catering, and the operation of physical stores requires "all-encompassing" products, chains, and service experiences. Only by constantly updating and optimizing their business models can they stand tall when the "wave of store closures" comes.
2. Realize community-based and sharing economy
The era of profiteering in catering has passed, and the competition between categories and brands has become more and more fierce. The restaurant chain will accelerate its development with the help of brand, capital, chain and other advantages.
The convenience of online shopping and the three-year epidemic have changed consumers' consumption habits in physical storesCommunity channels with high stickiness will become the first choice in the catering industry. At present, some fast food brands and highly standardized categories have begun to sink into the community. For example: Nancheng Xiang and Ziguangyuan in Beijing, Lao Shengchang in Shanghai, Chaoyixing in Jinan, etc.
In addition, in July last year, the General Office (Office) of 13 departments including the Ministry of Commerce issued a notice on the issuance of the "Three-Year Action Plan for Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of a Convenient Living Circle in a Quarter of an Hour (2023-2025)". It is proposed that by 2025, it will be fully rolled out in cities above the prefecture level with conditions across the countryPromote the construction of various types of quarter-hour convenient living circles
In order to respond to the call of the policy, build a smart application service system, and provide residents with one-stop livelihood services, Twin Shell Technology bravely undertakes the development mission, not only relocating the line of defense and completely strangling the problem of prepaid runaway in the cradle, but also actively building a "quarter of an hour convenient service circle" smart service platform to give full play to the role of the general entrance
Entering the "Prepaid An" applet, not only the catering industry, but also the platform involves ten major life services, with a complete range of categories, rich consumer choices, convenient recharge, and supports consumers to actively settle the current expenses or choose to automatically settle the expenses on a regular basis.
Prepaid Ann Early Bird Trial Edition
Prepayment is assured, business is assured, payment is assured, and delivery is assured.
The prepaid security circle "circles" the "acceleration" of the service, and also circles the sense of security of consumption.
In addition, under the economic environment, catering consumption has declined as a whole, and opening up sources and reducing expenditure has become the basis for the survival of catering. Next, more popular products will appear in the form of finished products, semi-finished products, food, raw materials, etc., to meet customers' consumption scenarios such as dine-in, take-out, and take-out in restaurants. Omni-channel, full-time, different scenes, and different types of catering stores are the development direction of community catering.
3. Actively innovate and create personalized catering
The development of the catering industry has entered a new stage, and small and medium-sized catering enterprises must break the traditional mode of thinking and seek innovation if they want to stand out in the fierce market competition.
1. Environmental innovation
For different consumer groups, creating suitable scenarios and providing unique dining experiences will become the key for catering companies to compete for market share;
2. Track innovation
In the fierce market competition, catering companies need to find their own characteristics and provide consumers with a unique dining experience. For example, in response to the consumer trend of health preservation, healthy foods such as vegetarian and low-fat foods have been launched; In response to the demand for convenient travel, we launched a fast delivery delivery service;
3. Theme innovation
Creating unique themed restaurants for different consumer groups will further enhance the competitiveness of catering enterprises. For example, romantic theme restaurants for couples; A high-end themed restaurant for business travelers, offering high-quality food and beverage services.
4. Operational innovation
The innovation of the catering industry not only refers to the innovation of products, but also the innovation of organizational structure, and the innovation of operating mode.
For example, the chain of receipt and payment, it is the first to propose and realize the model of trader autonomy, using the rules of digital contracts to resolve the crisis of trust.
As we all know, there are many pain points and difficulties in traditional settlement methods, such as payment and delivery cannot be synchronized, payment is one-way and irreversible, and there is a lack of mutual constraints and guarantees, and these pain points and difficulties interact with each other and ultimately limit transactions.
The digital contract service platform of chain receipt and payment uses the zero-trust settlement method to eliminate the cost of trust verification and trust camouflage, the certainty of transactions has been comprehensively and thoroughly improved, the willingness of society to produce, invest and consume will inevitably be enhanced, and high-quality transactions will inevitably promote the high-quality development of the social economy.
As we mentioned above,At the same time, through the fact that the account does not arrive immediately, consumers take the initiative to release or periodically release after consumption, so as to resolve the transaction pressure between merchants and customers.
Not only the catering industry, if enterprises can use this linked settlement, why worry about no way out, no investment bank's favor?
The business world is changing rapidly, and entrepreneurial stories are emerging one after another, trying to make a lot of money with groundbreaking business models, it is better to make reasonable use of technical resources, enrich cognitive reserves through asymmetric information, and obtain more profits. Seize more opportunities in the industry reshuffle,Find your own blue ocean in the red ocean to achieve sustainable development.