The repeated epidemic has caused a severe blow to offline catering operations, but under the difficulties, there is still vitality. In the post-epidemic era, the combination of online and offline operations is becoming a new growth point for more and more catering businesses.
This article was originally published by Hongqi.com (ID: hongcan18), author: Jian Yuhao.
The epidemic is repeated and uncertain, and the catering industry is still struggling.
Since 2022, many places in the country such as Xi'an, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Suzhou , Harbin, Shenyang have suffered repeated outbreaks. The dine-in starts and stops have caused heavy losses to catering companies. Among them, there are countless restaurants, and it is even more difficult to survive.
But at the same time, we also see that most restaurant companies do not complain, but try their best to save themselves. At the same time, some external forces have also begun to pay attention to the catering industry, continue to add new impetus to the recovery of the catering industry, help the industry break through, and rekindle the confidence of catering people.
For example, the "Help Business and Benefiting the People" launched by Douyin Life Service, the "This is the Harbin I Love" event has helped many local small and medium-sized restaurant companies in Harbin usher in new development opportunities and find new ways out.
These new restaurant companies include community shops that make handmade cold drinks; century-old brands that are determined to innovate; and newly opened baking shops. Today, let’s take a look at their stories.
△Picture source: Photo Network
Community store takes a path and innovates Ice City Memory
"I didn't expect this to be so effective. I still thank the little girl who helped me promote it." Seeing the business getting better, Fu Bingyuan felt delighted from the bottom of his heart. In the "Harbin Urban Recovery Report" released not long ago, Fu Bingyuan's Bingxue Qingcheng's handmade cold drinks topped the local catering hot list and became a small internet celebrity store in Harbin.
Fu Bingyuan never thought that his store would take such a path. At first, Bingxue Qingcheng's handmade cold drinks were just a support she used to make a living. In order to facilitate taking care of children, Fu Bingyuan opened the store downstairs. With the idea of "just not lose money", Fu Bingyuan began to run between career and family.
At the beginning, the store’s business was pretty good. The handmade popsicles with extremely high taste and cost-effectiveness captured the hearts of nearby residents. Many people come to support the small shop every day. But the recurrence of the epidemic quickly affected Fu Bingyuan's business.
During the epidemic, many residents were locked up at home, and the business in the store showed a straight decline. Fu Bingyuan said, "We are a bit biased and can't attract outside customers. After losing regular customers, the business was not very good at that time."
The outbreak of the epidemic hit the store's business and also made Fu Bingyuan see the shortcomings of the store's business. After discussing with her family, she decided to find some new ways to attract new customers for the store.
Fu Bingyuan thought about opening a new store in places with more abortions, but the high cost of opening a store and recruitment issues quickly gave up this idea; she also wanted to send flyers to promote it, but everyone was trapped at home, and the effect of doing so was not obvious. Just when she was at a loss, her family brought her some inspiration.
"Instead of spending money to open a new store, it is better to invest money online to attract traffic." One day when I was browsing Douyin, Fu Bingyuan's family proposed this idea to her.
"I usually like to watch these food recommendation videos, but because I can't operate, I never thought about doing online traffic myself." In the dilemma, Fu Bingyuan finally decided to give it a try. The
process is not as complicated as Fu Bingyuan imagined. After contacting Douyin life service platform , the platform quickly trained Fu Bingyuan. Fu Bingyuan also specially selected a store visitor who he liked very much on weekdays and invited her to shoot expert videos to promote the store. The effect online of
is far beyond Fu Bingyuan's expectations.The 49 yuan package of group purchases sold 1,000 orders in two weeks after it was launched. Bingxue Qingcheng's handmade cold drinks were ranked first in the "Harbin Cold Drink Grass Planting List" in just one week, and 73,000 people planted grass collections. The sales in June were more than five times the total turnover in the past.
The old story is a new interpretation, the old chef's cultural communication journey
has been around for 115 years, and Old chef's has always been Harbin's business card. In 2022, the old chef opened a new store in the landmark block in a affected area due to the epidemic. Under the brand new plaque, the "City Taste Hall" looks extra conspicuous.
Since taking over in 2000, Zheng Shuguo has been trying to find ways to innovate the old chefs. As the fourth generation successor of the old chef, Zheng Shuguo said that the old chef represents the taste of Harbin. No matter what difficulties he encounters, he hopes that the old chef can have higher pursuits.
In 2020, the epidemic hit, Zheng Shuguo saw the weakness offline and began to turn his attention online, for example, opening a Douyin account for Lao Chujia. In November, the account released the first video, which was about the story of Lao Chujia and pot dumpling .
After the epidemic in Harbin worsened in 2021, this century-old store was "hardly hit". Not to mention the impact of suspension of business and dine-in for the old chef, the impact of the sharp decline in the number of tourists alone, only one-fifth of the customers who dined in the store were left in the previous five.
At this time, the disadvantages of Lao Chu’s own operation online began to appear. Simply telling historical stories and conducting cultural dissemination methods cannot directly bring "visible" benefits to Lao Chu’s family. In order to survive, Lao Chu’s operating ideas have also begun to change.
On the one hand, Lao Chujia has reformed the menu and launched small portions; on the other hand, with the help of Douyin's "helping business and benefiting the people" plan, Lao Chujia has settled in the Douyin life service platform and started its own online group buying plan. Zhang Chunlei, general manager of Lao Chujia, said that the sales volume of the group order has exceeded tens of thousands in just 10 days after it was launched, and the store has become the number one in the Douyin local grass planting list, hot sales list and check-in list.
htmlOn June 28, Zheng Shuguo personally cooked and demonstrated the method of making pot buns on Douyin live broadcast. Originally, according to the Zheng family’s ancestral teachings, traditional techniques were not passed down, but Zheng Shuguo broke the ancestral teachings. Everyone joked that the old chef had "changed the taste". But in Zheng Shuguo's view, both time-honored brands and new brands need to keep up with the tide of the times. Through online live broadcast, more people can learn how to make pork buns and meat, and more people can truly understand the old chef.
It is understood that the number of exposures of Lao Chujia in the same city on Douyin has exceeded 45 million, the orders are placed at more than 140,000, and the cumulative sales are more than 800,000 yuan.
Food Music has become the "baked white moonlight"
"I am in the car now, and our new store is open today." Xiaomei, the person in charge of Food Music , said that after entering the Douyin life service platform, food music has become the local "baked white moonlight".
As a well-known baking brand in Daqing City , the food music attracted market attention shortly after it came to Harbin. With the popularity accumulated, the foodie business has always been good. But the arrival of the epidemic has caused trouble for stores. "We are all baked products, and the shelf life is very short. If the products cannot be sold, they can basically be thrown away." Xiaomei said that the epidemic has had an impact on their store business. When it was troubled, the Douyin Life Service Team sent an invitation to Foodie.
"We have always had plans to carry out group buying, but we have always done it ourselves before, and it was the first time we cooperated." Xiaomei said that Gourmet had tried to sell its own bread and gift boxes in the past, but because the number of people in the live broadcast room has always been small, the effect is not ideal.
Taking this opportunity, Xiaomei decided to put the idea of implementing the group buying plan on the agenda, "It just happened to be through the live broadcast of the cooperation to see how the effect was." The final effect of
was beyond Xiaomei's expectations.For the first time, online operations were launched on the Douyin life service platform, and Food Music created a payment peak of more than 2 million yuan, and the mooncake gift boxes were sold out as soon as they were put on the shelves. "I sold 2.4 million in three days, which is many times more than when we were broadcasting ourselves."
Post-epidemic era
Online operation becomes a way to break the deadlock in restaurant companies
There is no doubt that the epidemic has brought unprecedented blows to the entire catering industry, but new opportunities are often bred in crises.
In fact, for all catering companies, it is already a general trend to shift their business layout from offline to online. After the epidemic became normalized, the operation of offline stores was hindered, and many restaurant companies were actively seeking reforms and making efforts to operate online.
However, it is not easy to effectively layout online operations. It is crucial to improve customers' experience, interest and consumption willingness. From the above stories of catering people, we have also summarized the key points of catering companies' online layout.
First, we must determine the purpose and find the correct form
For most restaurant companies that have never been exposed to online operations, what method to operate online is the difficulty. Therefore, when catering companies are planning online, they must find the right form from the beginning.
For example, Bingxue Qingcheng handmade cold drinks are located in a remote location and not many people know each other, so it is difficult to attract customers. Finally, we reached a consensus with Douyin Life Service and began to let experts shoot recommended videos to attract traffic, bring online traffic offline, achieving the purpose of "recruiting new products".
The second is to innovate methods and highlight brand characteristics
. When the online revolving is also accelerated, restaurant companies want to stand out in a crowd of live broadcasts, in addition to persisting, they also need to find their own characteristics. Only when they are different from others can they have better business results.
For example, Lao Chujia tells his store culture and uses storytelling to let customers better understand the Lao Chujia brand. Founder Zheng Shuguo personally taught the live broadcast method of the secrets of pork dumplings, which also made many people come to offline stores to learn, driving the brand's voice while also bringing new customer flow to offline stores.
. In order to better help catering companies, many platforms are also actively promoting the online development of catering companies. Taking Douyin Life Service as an example, in addition to customizing group buying packages for catering companies, they will also build a content platform to complete the online business layout by helping catering companies produce online content.
Small summary
Among the restaurant companies mentioned above, from century-old brands to individual stores, they have been impacted by the epidemic. Even though the difficulties encountered are not the same, they have found new growth possibilities in the crisis through online layout such as Douyin group buying and expert traffic diversion. Overall, online operations have become the idea for restaurant companies to break through.
Standing at the intersection of turbulent times, the entire catering industry still needs to spend more effort to welcome the future. But we always believe that there are always more ways than difficulties. The great future of the catering industry is still promising.
Note: All pictures included in this article are provided by Douyin Life Service, and all are authorized by the interviewees.
