Meituan and Ele.me have successively reduced commissions to help merchants in need.

Meituan and Ele.me have successively reduced commissions to help merchants in need.

Meituan and Ele.me have successively reduced commissions to help merchants in difficulty. The two major food delivery platforms have successively issued documents announcing that they will A series of measures have been introduced to reduce pressure on small and medium-sized catering companies affected by the epidemic and improve their "blood-making" capabilities. Meituan and Ele.me have successively reduced commissions to help merchants in need. Meituan and Ele.me have successively reduced commissions to help merchants in need 1

Following Meituan’s announcement on March 1 to implement commission reductions and exemptions for catering merchants in medium- and high-risk epidemic areas, Ele.me also passed the reduction on March 2 The official WeChat public account issued a statement announcing that the first batch of 20 million will be invested to help merchants bail out, and all merchants in medium and high-risk areas will receive Ele.me commission reductions.

Ele.me stated that it will implement commission reductions and exemptions for all catering merchants in 87 districts and counties listed as medium and high-risk areas from January to February 2022, without setting any thresholds and without requiring additional platform review. . And merchants in medium- and high-risk areas added after March 1 will also enjoy the same commission reduction measures. In addition, Ele.me will continue to launch a special business closure protection mechanism for merchants who are struggling due to the epidemic to ensure that the rights and interests of merchants are not affected during the period of closure due to the epidemic.

Meituan Waimai issued an announcement yesterday, stating that it will respond to the government’s call and help small and medium-sized catering merchants who have been severely affected by the epidemic and have operating difficulties through six specific measures, including reducing costs and increasing revenue. "ability.

In terms of cost reduction, from March to December this year, Meituan implemented a halving discount on technical service fees (commissions) for small and medium-sized merchants in high-risk areas with operating difficulties, and After the halving, each order will be capped at 1 yuan. In terms of revenue growth, Meituan Waimai will also provide free "takeaway butler services" to merchants in difficulty with insufficient online operations, as well as takeout order-taking equipment such as cloud printers and food delivery apps, and will hold 100 merchant talks to continuously improve services. .

Previously on February 18, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued a notice on "Several Policies to Promote the Restoration and Development of Difficult Industries in the Service Sector". It mentioned that among the measures to support the catering industry, Internet platform companies such as takeaways should be guided to further reduce the service fee standards for merchants in the catering industry and reduce the operating costs of related catering companies. Guide Internet platform companies to provide periodic merchant service fee discounts to catering companies in county-level administrative areas where high-risk areas are located.

Once this news was released, it had a great impact on Meituan and Ele.me, the major players in the food delivery platform. The market generally believes that this policy will put pressure on the profitability of food delivery platform companies. In the afternoon of that day, Meituan’s stock price fell in response, once falling by more than 15%.

Reform commission rates to reduce burdens on merchants

Commission issues have always been the main conflict between food delivery platforms and catering merchants. In the past two years, catering associations in many places have publicly criticized takeout platforms, saying that the platform’s commission ratio is too high and calling for lower commissions. Due to pressure from public opinion, in May last year, Ele.me and Meituan successively announced commission reform plans.

Take Meituan as an example. In May 2021, Meituan Waimai launched a fee transparency pilot, calculating technical service fees and contract performance service fees separately. The technical service fee part is the cost incurred by providing information display services, transaction services, business and customer service services, IT operation and maintenance and other services to merchants. The fulfillment service fees are charged in a tiered manner based on distance, price, time period, etc., and are all used to bear the rider’s delivery fees, subsidies and other delivery-related costs.

However, this pilot did not reduce Meituan’s commission rate. The financial report shows that the commission rate of Meituan’s food delivery business in the third quarter of 2021 was 11.78, an increase of 1.27 percentage points from 10.51 in the same period of 2020.

According to feedback from merchants across the country, although Meituan has introduced various preferential rules in the past two years, if we only look at the final results, the general commission ratio is still as high as around 20. In addition, in addition to paying commissions to Meituan, merchants will also pay Meituan for advertising in order to obtain traffic.

The two expenditures are combined with the impact of the epidemic, and merchants are still having a very difficult time.

Therefore, the government has repeatedly issued relief measures, advocating for joint efforts from all parties to help merchants improve their current situation, and has issued new relief policies to guide food delivery platforms to further reduce merchant service fees.

Food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng believes that the current high commission fees on food delivery platforms have put catering companies in a dilemma of increasing revenue without increasing profits. Policies issued by relevant national ministries and commissions are favorable to catering companies, and service fee levels will also be lowered in the future.

Help small and medium-sized merchants improve their operating capabilities

In addition to adjusting commission rates to "reduce costs" for merchants, Meituan and Ele.me have also launched a series of "Efficiency enhancement" measures help merchants improve their operating capabilities. Meituan said, "We have heard feedback from some merchants who are having operating difficulties. Although they hope for a lower commission ratio, obtaining a steady stream of orders is a more urgent need."

Not familiar with online rules , Lack of operational skills is the pain point of food delivery business. Meituan Takeout will provide merchants with “takeaway butler service” free of charge. Provide merchants with six online operation services: store decoration, business diagnosis, meal design, event planning, promotion and marketing, and operation optimization. Data in 2021 shows that the average monthly transaction volume of merchants who have used this service has increased by 79%, and their survival rate is also 39% higher than that of those who have not used it.

Meituan will also provide free delivery cloud printers to small and medium-sized merchants in areas at high risk of the epidemic, and will give away 30,000 meal delivery devices to small and medium-sized merchants in difficulties across the country. While helping merchants save costs, it also solves operational problems such as wrong orders, lost orders, and meal delivery conflicts. In addition, special traffic support will be given to newly launched small and medium-sized merchants to help inexperienced new merchants do business well.

Meituan stated that in 2022, Meituan Waimai will continue to build a communication service mechanism with small and medium-sized merchants, and hold more than 100 merchant talks throughout the year to discuss platform rules and regulations. Merchants fully interact and listen to the demands of small and medium-sized merchants in a timely manner, thereby continuously improving services and promptly solving problems that merchants care about.

It is understood that Ele.me has also launched supporting services to assist merchants. It will provide free takeaway operator training and certification services to merchants in all cities affected by the epidemic, as well as free learning about excellent brands and Online open classes from industry experts to learn about systemic epidemic response plans. After all, bailouts are for emergencies, and only by improving digital capabilities can businesses operate healthily in the long term.

Cui Lili, executive director of the E-Commerce Research Institute of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, believes that "it is very necessary to make rates transparent. Service prices should not be 'bogus', and clear charges are a good thing and should be promoted. At this stage, Internet platforms should focus on empowering physical businesses to use data to drive business operations, and leverage their strengths to earn business value from the perspective of promoting the digitalization of these merchants.” Meituan and Ele.me have successively reduced commissions to help merchants in need 2 <. /p>

In the past two days, the two major food delivery platforms have issued documents announcing that they will introduce a series of measures to reduce the pressure on small and medium-sized catering companies affected by the epidemic and improve their "blood-making" capabilities. Guangdong is expected to benefit tens of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses.

However, large catering companies stated that they are not within the scope of preferential policies and will not benefit from cost reductions for the time being.

Fan Ning, executive director of the Red Food Brand Research Institute, believes that the move by the two major platforms is in response to the "Several Policies on Promoting the Restoration and Development of Difficult Industries in the Service Industry" issued by 14 departments including the National Development and Reform Commission. notification. The notice specifically mentioned that "Internet platform companies such as takeaways will be guided to further reduce service fee standards for merchants in the catering industry." In his view, the epidemic has rebounded in some areas of Guangdong recently, and the assistance measures launched by these two platforms will be applicable to more catering merchants in Guangdong.

The two major platforms have reduced commissions to relieve small and medium-sized merchants

On March 2, the food delivery platform Ele.me issued an announcement stating that in Wuhan, During the outbreak of the epidemic in Zhengzhou, Xi'an and other places, the platform has introduced a series of measures to reduce the pressure on merchants. For merchants where the epidemic is still recurring in some areas, it has decided to further increase its efforts to rescue merchants.

“We will invest the first batch of 20 million yuan in cash to implement commission reductions and exemptions for all catering merchants in 87 districts and counties listed as medium and high-risk areas from January to February 2022, without setting any threshold. There is no need for additional review by the platform. "Ele.me said that small and medium-sized merchants are more affected by the epidemic, so they will make the rules as clear and simple as possible. It also said, "All merchant partners in the above areas will enjoy at least 15 days of commission reduction, and the returned commission will be directly transferred to the merchant account before the end of March."

For new mid-to-high-end merchants added after March 1 For merchants in risk areas, the platform will also provide the same commission reduction measures.

In addition, for merchants who are trapped due to the epidemic, the merchants’ rights and interests will not be affected during the epidemic. After the local epidemic is over, Ele.me will also invest in specialists to help merchants resume operations, actively respond to and invest in local consumption promotion measures, and help merchant operations and user consumption rebound.

Ele.me said that starting from March, the platform will also invest more promotion resources for distressed merchants and launch a series of activities to help merchants increase the number of orders; at the same time, it has cooperated with many local governments on the "Consumption "Shopping Festival" will also be launched one after another to help users in areas affected by the epidemic restore their consumer confidence.

On March 1, Meituan also announced that it would launch a series of measures to help small and medium-sized catering companies that have been severely affected by the epidemic and have operational difficulties.

Among them, in terms of cost reduction, Meituan has proposed measures such as halving commissions for small and medium-sized merchants affected by the epidemic to reduce the pressure on merchants, and further promote the scope of rate transparency. In terms of increasing revenue, it will provide free "takeout butler services" to merchants in difficulty with insufficient online operations, as well as takeout order-taking equipment such as cloud printers and food delivery apps, and will hold 100 merchant talks.

Guangdong Catering Industry: Small and medium-sized catering companies benefited

“We have just received the news and are currently studying the relevant provisions.” On the morning of March 2, the person in charge of a chain catering company in Guangdong According to the information released by the two major platforms, these assistance policies are mainly targeted at small and medium-sized merchants, and are more helpful to small and medium-sized catering enterprises in Guangdong, but are not within the scope of application for chain catering enterprises.

"Currently, the commission charged by the platform is still relatively high, which puts great pressure on our costs. Last week, after seeing the notice issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments, we communicated with Meituan and other platform parties , but the platform said that no relevant preferential policies have yet been covered in Zhanjiang. "The person in charge of an oyster restaurant in Zhanjiang said that the company has not received any notification from the platform.

In his opinion, if the platform has preferential policies, small and medium-sized catering companies will benefit greatly. To this end, the company will continue to communicate with the food delivery platform and inquire about relevant preferential policies.

The commissions charged by takeaway platforms from merchants have become one of the operating cost pressures on the development of the catering industry in recent years.

In the past two years, catering associations in many places have negotiated with takeout platforms many times, requesting lower commissions. In April 2020, the Guangdong Provincial Catering Service Industry Association had a public dialogue with Meituan Waimai, pointing out that the commission for new catering merchants opened by Meituan Waimai was as high as 26, which has exceeded the critical point that catering merchants can tolerate. Since then, food delivery platforms have launched rate transparency pilots in many places in Guangdong. In May last year, Ele.me and Meituan also announced commission reforms, but the results were not obvious.

"Since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, catering has been struggling. It is facing three major cost pressures of raw materials, labor and rent. Moreover, the passenger flow has decreased, and merchants dare not increase prices easily. Faced with this situation, everyone generally hopes that takeout platforms It can reduce commissions. " Fan Ning said that in mid-February, the relevant policies for the resumption of development of the service industry issued by the 14 national departments have received an enthusiastic response in the catering circle.

The two major platforms launched a series of assistance measures this time in response to the notice.

On February 18, 14 departments including the National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice on "Several Policies on Promoting the Restoration and Development of Difficult Industries in the Service Industry" stating that it would guide Internet platform companies such as takeaways to further reduce merchant services in the catering industry. Fee standards; guide Internet platform companies to provide periodic merchant service fee discounts to catering companies in county-level administrative areas where high-risk areas are located.

Fan Ning pointed out that the scope of application of the assistance measures launched by the two major platforms is stipulated: first, for merchants in high-risk areas; second, for small and medium-sized merchants with operating difficulties; third, the platforms need to evaluate , as Meituan mentioned, some burden reduction and assistance measures need to be evaluated by the platform before they can be implemented. He suggested that in addition to providing "timely help" to small and medium-sized merchants affected by the epidemic, "general benefits" should also be provided to other merchants.

The two major platforms help small and medium-sized merchants to improve their "blood-making" capabilities

While reducing costs, the two major take-out platforms believe that bailout is an emergency, and small and medium-sized merchants If businesses want to continue to develop healthily, they should also improve their "blood-making" capabilities and accelerate digital transformation.

Meituan has launched three measures this time to help improve the business capabilities of merchants. According to Meituan Waimai, they will provide merchants with "takeaway butler service" free of charge, providing merchants with six online operation services including store decoration, business diagnosis, meal design, event planning, promotion and marketing, and operation optimization to help merchants improve their resilience. Risk Capacity.

At the same time, we will provide free takeout cloud printers to small and medium-sized merchants in areas with high risk of the epidemic, and give away 30,000 food delivery devices to small and medium-sized merchants in operating difficulties across the country, helping merchants save costs while solving problems. Solve business problems such as orders, lost orders, and meal delivery conflicts, and do a good job in every order.

In addition, Meituan Waimai will also provide special traffic support to newly launched small and medium-sized merchants to help inexperienced new merchants do a good job in food delivery business.

Ele.me has also prepared relevant supporting measures. For example, it provides free delivery operator training and certification services to merchants in all cities affected by the epidemic across the country, and also provides them with free online open courses to learn from outstanding brands and industry experts to learn about systematic epidemic response plans.

According to reports, since last year, the platform has launched merchant assistance measures in Guangdong, Shaanxi, Henan and other places. In addition, it has also increased the launch of smart dining cabinets in many places, and developed "double-sided smart cabinet" products for special scenarios such as universities. Meituan and Ele.me have successively reduced commissions to help merchants in need 3

On March 1st and 2nd, Meituan and Ele.me successively stated that they would introduce commission reductions and exemptions for merchants in high-risk areas of the domestic epidemic. policy.

Specifically, Meituan stated that it will implement a halving discount for technical service fees (commissions) for small and medium-sized merchants in high-risk areas with operating difficulties, and after the halving, each The price is capped at 1 yuan per unit. In addition, Meituan will also provide free "takeaway butler services" to merchants in difficulty with insufficient online operations, as well as takeout order-taking equipment such as cloud printers and food delivery apps, and will hold 100 merchant talks to continuously improve services.

These measures are part of the six measures recently launched by Meituan to reduce costs and increase income, helping small and medium-sized merchants to improve their "blood-making" capabilities from both cost reduction and income increase.

Ele.me stated that it will implement commission reductions and exemptions for all catering merchants in 87 districts and counties listed as medium and high-risk areas from January to February 2022. All merchants will enjoy at least 15 days of commission reduction, and the returned commission will be directly transferred to the merchant account before the end of March. Merchants in medium- and high-risk areas added after March 1 will also enjoy the same commission reduction measures.

In addition, Ele.me will continue to launch a special business closure protection mechanism for merchants who are struggling due to the epidemic to ensure that the rights and interests of merchants are not affected during the period of closure due to the epidemic. It is understood that Ele.me’s first investment in commission reduction is 20 million yuan.

On February 18, 14 departments including the National Development and Reform Commission issued "Several Policies on Promoting the Restoration and Development of Difficult Industries in the Service Industry", which mentioned that among the relief support measures for the catering industry , it is necessary to guide Internet platform companies such as takeaways to further reduce the service fee standards for merchants in the catering industry and reduce the operating costs of related catering companies. Guide Internet platform companies to provide periodic merchant service fee discounts to catering companies in county-level administrative areas where high-risk areas are located.

Earlier in March 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Cultivation of New Consumption", which also mentioned the need to reduce the number of platforms Transaction and payment costs, guide online platforms such as takeout, online ride-hailing, and e-commerce to reasonably optimize the commissions, commissions and other fees charged by small and medium-sized enterprise merchants and individuals for operating on the platform, and use technology to empower operators within the platform to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

The continuous tightening of policies also creates invisible supervision and pressure on the two leading food delivery companies, Meituan and Ele.me.

The commission issue has always been the main conflict between food delivery platforms and catering businesses. In the past two years, catering associations in many places have publicly criticized takeout platforms, saying that the platform’s commission ratio is too high and calling for lower commissions.

Ele.me and Meituan have successively given commission reform plans. In May 2021, Meituan Waimai launched a fee transparency pilot, calculating technical service fees and contract performance service fees separately. The technical service fee part is the cost incurred by providing information display services, transaction services, business and customer service services, IT operation and maintenance and other services to merchants. The fulfillment service fees are charged in a tiered manner based on distance, price, time period, etc., and are all used to bear the rider’s delivery fees, subsidies and other delivery-related costs.

Recently, Hong Mingji, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and executive director and chief executive of Hexing Group Holdings Co., Ltd., said that with the rise of takeout, related expenses have also occupied a certain amount of costs for businesses. In recent years, The cost of logistics, transportation and food raw materials has increased significantly. In this environment, most catering operators are looking for different ways and means to reduce costs. Therefore, merchants need to further negotiate with the food delivery platform to optimize the related cost issues.

Industry insiders said that although the series of measures launched by the platform can help merchants improve their "blood-making" capabilities to a certain extent, merchants also need to continue to develop ideas, actively innovate, and explore effective marketing strategies. We are doing our homework on product quality and other aspects to better weather the current difficulties.