1. Order takeout on Douyin , which is more convenient
Douyin has made another big move for takeout.
Recently, according to "Tech Planet" report, Douyin began testing , an instant delivery service for catering. Different from the previous model where you need to contact the merchant to verify the coupon code, you can now place an order directly on Douyin and enjoy door-to-door delivery service. The "BiuuBiu BBQ Cuisine" mentioned in the
report has three price ranges of takeaway packages on its group purchase page. Users only need to fill in the delivery address and place an order, and the service experience is not much different from other takeout platforms.
(taken from Douyin)
As you can see from the purchase page, compared to the group purchase coupons actually sold by other merchants, there is an official " group purchase delivery " logo on Douyin. Since Douyin currently does not have its own instant delivery team, this function is mainly to simplify the user's operation process and automatically include packaging and delivery fees into the product price. For actual delivery work, merchants still need to contact a third-party delivery team.
For this reason, users are also subject to more restrictions when using this takeout function. For example, because merchants do not have stable delivery resources, the delivery time of takeaways may fluctuate. During the delivery process of the order, users cannot apply for a refund. If they encounter special circumstances, they can only contact customer service.
It is understood that Douyin’s “group purchase and delivery” function is currently only being tested in Shanghai and other places, and not many merchants have obtained permission for this service. At the same time, due to cost considerations such as delivery fees, this function is currently only open to merchants with higher unit prices.
Although Douyin Takeout is still in the exploratory stage, the upgrades and transformations of this business along the way have also been noticed by the public. As the two giants Douyin and Jingdong have successively released signals to enter the food delivery business, Meituan and Ele.me , which were originally divided into "half the country", must also be panicked.
2. Take one step forward in one year
A year has passed since Douyin first explored the food delivery business. In July 2021, Douyin launched the " heart takeaway " service and launched a mini program of the same name on the platform. This move was once considered the beginning of Douyin’s expansion into the food delivery field, and it also caused a sensation at the time.
But unfortunately, this small program was in the internal testing stage for two months after its launch and was not open to external investment. In October, the heart takeaway applet was approved for registration, but there has been no further action. Until now, searching for "Xindong Takeout" on Douyin still shows "Douyin currently has no takeout-related business plans."
(taken from Douyin)
Douyin is very cautious about the food delivery business. When it launched the Xindong food delivery applet, it was mainly just to facilitate merchants to view historical orders. It can be seen from some clues that at that time, some merchants included links in their short videos or live broadcasts, and users could click to jump to the mini program to place orders. These order records will also be synchronized to the Xindong Takeaway Mini Program, which is equivalent to playing a role similar to a takeout live broadcast assistant.
At the beginning of this year, due to the impact of the epidemic lockdown, many restaurants spontaneously used Douyin live broadcast to bring goods to their stores. Douyin may also attract traffic to these merchants for the sake of local life business, but this is more of a spontaneous behavior of merchants.
uses live broadcasts and short videos as carriers, and restaurant operators can easily display their delicious food. Coupled with Douyin's "interest e-commerce" strategy, some viewers who are originally interested in videos such as eating broadcasts and store explorations are more likely to receive promotions from restaurant restaurant videos.
Although the compatibility between takeout and Douyin has been proven, has not yet officially intervened in the platform, making the entire purchase process very cumbersome . At that time, merchants were still selling group buying coupons, and users needed to contact the store for remote verification after placing the order.And since Douyin is not connected to the food delivery system, merchants still need to contact the riders themselves for delivery.
Therefore, many of the takeaways on Douyin at that time were in reservation mode. You needed to communicate with the store about the delivery time first, and it was not possible to wait for a while after placing the order. The cumbersome process and the uncertainty of transportation capacity mean that a meal may need to be delivered on an hourly basis.
The biggest significance of the "group purchase and delivery" function launched by Douyin today is that has improved the user experience of . The process of verifying coupon codes and contacting stores has been omitted, and Douyin has taken a big step towards the model of Meituan and Ele.me.
As for why Douyin suddenly accelerated its deployment in the food delivery field, on the one hand it was to complement its local life business, and on the other hand it also sensed business opportunities in the catering food delivery industry.
According to the first quarter financial report of 2022 released by Meituan, its catering takeout business revenue reached 24.157 billion yuan, and its profit also reached 1.577 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.31%. It can be seen that food delivery is indeed a profitable business.
And statistics show that the market size of my country's catering takeout industry in 2021 has exceeded .8 trillion RMB, and the user group is more than 500 million, accounting for only half of all Internet users. With such a huge market share and development potential, even if it is already a red ocean, the giants can't help but want a piece of the pie.
(Data source: China Business Intelligence Network )
In June this year, Jingdong Retail CEO Xin Lijun revealed in an interview: "Jingdong has considered doing takeout business. As for when to start doing it, it will depend on our capabilities, and When can we build a talent team?" Compared with Douyin, JD.com may not have huge traffic and a sound content ecosystem, but it has been deeply involved in the supply chain for many years and will also become a strong competitor in the food delivery market.
Faced with Meituan, Ele.me, which have been firmly established for many years, and the menacing JD.com, it is still difficult for Douyin to truly develop its food delivery business.
3. Entering into food delivery is an expedition for Douyin
For Douyin, its biggest advantage in food delivery is that it is different from the traditional food delivery platform’s recommendation mechanism .
Platforms such as Meituan and Ele.me have huge customer traffic, but the unit price per customer is actually not high. Because users’ consumption logic on these platforms is mostly based on the psychology of fullness, they regard it more as a work meal rather than an enjoyment that improves life.
Even Meituan has adjusted its commission rules in 2021: the higher the unit price of the order, the higher the commission ratio. It can be seen that Meituan does not encourage merchants to charge too high per customer price, and positions itself more towards the masses rather than high-end.
But Douyin is different. 's interest-based algorithm recommendation makes users willing to pay for to improve their lives. This is why the unit prices of major takeaway merchants on Douyin are very high. At the same time, since merchants still mainly contact riders themselves, high customer unit prices can also make up for delivery costs to a certain extent.
In addition, since Douyin Takeaway is not a search system but a recommendation system, how to generate enough "temptation" for users has become the key. The best-selling takeaways on Douyin today are undoubtedly crayfish and barbecue. On the one hand, both of them can easily make users have the idea of impulsive consumption, and their value of satisfying appetite is higher than the value of satiety - "hungry" requires immediate gratification, but "greedy" can be gratified in a delayed manner . In this way, the problem of slow delivery will be easier to accept.
(taken from Douyin)
On the other hand, crayfish and barbecue themselves have high customer unit prices, which can well make up for the merchant's distribution cost and traffic investment cost.
However, although the high customer unit price can indeed form differentiated competition and is consistent with the platform, a problem that always plagues Douyin e-commerce has emerged: repurchase rate . High-priced takeaways recommended based on interests are most likely a one-time business.No one “improves his life” every day, but everyone has to eat every day. If the unit price per customer remains high, it will be difficult for Douyin Waimai to generate repeat customers.
If you want to expand the scale of your takeout business, Douyin must at least attract more merchants to settle in and provide users with more choices. To achieve this, the current "group purchasing and distribution" alone is not enough. Without the sound service system of and , even if merchants settle in Douyin for a temporary understanding, many problems will still be exposed in the future, which is detrimental to long-term development.
For example, Didi takeout is a lesson learned from Douyin. In order to "revenge" Meituan Taxi , Didi hurriedly launched the food delivery business: reducing commissions for merchants, increasing delivery fees for riders, and increasing preferential treatment for users... All of these things look great, but due to the lack of platform System, various problems have not been solved, and after half a year, Didi Takeaway has become silent again.
Nowadays, Douyin is very cautious in every step of its exploration of food delivery. After all, "expanding advantages" and "compensating for shortcomings" are far from being as simple as words. As Meituan begins to try to build a content ecosystem in the form of live broadcasts and communities, Douyin's advantages are also being caught up. New entrants to the takeout market are destined to face an expedition.
