at the beginning of p>2121, the epidemic broke out suddenly, which brought great impact to all walks of life. The catering industry was the first to bear the brunt and fell into an extremely difficult situation. During the epidemic, the catering industry mainly faced three major dilemmas: first, the number of consumers decreased; Second, the cost is difficult to reduce; Third, the commission of the takeaway platform is too high. Faced with such a severe situation, how should the catering industry break? Increasing the repurchase rate of customers is a feasible way.

Dilemma 1: Reducing consumers

Lack of consumers is the same problem that the catering industry is facing now. Generally speaking, the current situation faced by restaurants is that the boss has not changed, the pavement has not changed, the products have not changed, and the service has not changed, but the number of consumers has decreased significantly, and the turnover has decreased, making it extremely difficult to reach and awaken consumers.

It has been said that after the epidemic situation eases, there will be a wave of retaliatory consumption, and the catering industry can take this opportunity to take a good breath. But now, after the basic resumption of work, most businesses have not waited for retaliatory consumption. The reason is that the epidemic has not only caused the catering industry to lose money for more than a month, but also caused all walks of life to lose money for a long time. Most employees can only get basic wages, and some even lose their jobs, which makes consumers' overall spending power and consumption demand decline, and consumers naturally decrease. Some netizens ridiculed that "compared with retaliatory consumption, I want to save money in retaliation. Although it is casually said, it is a true portrayal of the moment.

Dilemma 2: The cost is hard to reduce

The higher the fixed cost of a restaurant, the smaller the chance of sticking to it. The lower the fixed cost, the greater the chance of sticking to it. Reducing the cost is a way for the restaurant to survive, but it is not easy.

The fixed cost of catering industry is mainly divided into three parts:

1. Rent cost, accounting for about 12%-18%. If the rent is reduced, the loss will be passed on to the landlord. If the landlord is an investment, he will face the pressure of bank mortgage. Under such circumstances, it is almost impossible to reduce the cost by reducing the rent.

2, labor costs, accounting for about 25%. Reducing labor costs is the most common and effective way to reduce expenditure in catering industry. Recently, many catering enterprises have adopted the way of layoffs to reduce costs, and the labor cost of the catering industry has been reduced from about 25% to about 21%. In the past, the staffing was over-allocated, but now it has dropped to the standard. It is undeniable that each department needs a certain number of staff, and layoffs will not cure the symptoms.

3. The cost of ingredients accounts for about 31%. What the catering industry is facing now is the price increase of raw materials, but the price does not dare to rise. Recently, the price increase of Haidilao has been criticized. The reason can be discussed from the rational and irrational mentality of consumers. When consumers buy beef omasum in the vegetable market and see the price increase of beef omasum, they will think that this is the normal state of the whole industry. Although they have grievances, they can only accept this fact and think about it rationally. However, when consumers go to restaurants to spend money and see the price increase of hairy belly, it is easy to vent their grievances to restaurants, especially chain catering enterprises like Haidilao, with a brand in the middle, and consumers will ask enterprises to take responsibility. Consumers will think that it is psychologically unacceptable and difficult to treat this matter rationally because of the decrease in their own income due to the epidemic. In an environment where enterprises are difficult and consumers are also difficult, price increases are easy to lose customers, which is not worth the candle.

catering dilemma 3: the commission of the take-away platform is too high

The epidemic has intensified the contradiction between the take-away platform and the merchants. Last month, the Guangdong Food and Beverage Association issued a joint negotiation letter to the US group take-out, calling on the US group to reduce the take-away commission during the epidemic. Meituan responded that since its birth, Meituan's takeaway has been losing money for five years, and it achieved its first profit in 2119, claiming that it did not charge too much commission. Let's take Meituan as an example to analyze whether the commission of the takeaway platform is too high.

first of all, it should be clear that the relationship between the US delegation and the merchants is inherently antagonistic. The higher the income of Meituan, the lower the income of merchants, and the two are opposite in interests.

Secondly, is the statement made by the Meituan in reply to the Guangdong Catering Association true, or is it crying for poverty? The biggest cost of Meituan is the distribution cost. The core competitiveness of Meituan is not the software or technical team of Meituan, but the delivery team, which is also a barrier for everyone to be a takeaway platform. 81% of the commission income of Meituan is spent on the labor cost of the delivery team, but the delivery cost is fixed, which is mainly supported by the commission of the merchants. On the one hand, there are 6 million merchants, and on the other hand, there are 4 million take-away riders. If the commission of the merchants is reduced, the income of the riders will be reduced. As an enterprise, Meituan must ensure the salary of its employees, not to mention that the delivery team is the core competitiveness of Meituan, and Meituan must ensure the salary of the riders.

Furthermore, the high elimination rate is the industry characteristic of the catering industry, and many restaurants are constantly closing down, which has nothing to do with the US Mission. Because the catering industry is constantly iterating, Meituan can't make a one-shot deal, but it needs to be constantly innovated. At the same time, Meituan's income model is in an unhealthy state because of the high elimination rate of catering.

The infighting between platforms and merchants has never stopped, including now, the game between merchants and platforms in Taobao, JD.COM and Pinduoduo still exists. In the face of interests, both sides have room for negotiation. Even if the merchants are angry with the US delegation, they need to rely on the US delegation to conduct online drainage. The best situation is that the two sides coordinate and find a balance point between them, otherwise they will lose both sides.

the way to break the situation of catering industry: increase the repurchase rate of customers

increase the repurchase rate of customers, that is, increase the frequency of customers' spending in stores. Theoretically, the repurchase rate of restaurants is low, only 21%-31%, but the reality is even more cruel. In fact, the repurchase rate of most restaurants is less than 11%. It is precisely because the repurchase rate has not risen, catering needs a lot of marketing publicity, and consumers are constantly diverted to the store from the outside.

to improve the repurchase rate of customers, you need to pay attention to two points:

1, yes and no; The question of more and less

yes and no, more and less, refers to the question of whether and how much profit. Most catering bosses will think that it is very difficult not to raise the price now that the cost of ingredients has increased and the passenger flow has decreased, and it is even more impossible to reduce the price, because the profit will be reduced after the price reduction. But now the catering industry is facing the problem of whether it can make profits, not whether it can make more or less profits. If you think about this clearly, you won't be entangled in the problem of more or less. The goal of catering now may be to survive all year round. Under the premise of ensuring the balance of payments, you can appropriately reduce prices to retain customers.

2. Problems of external marketing and internal marketing

Before the epidemic, the catering industry mostly used incremental thinking, relying on marketing and advertising to get a steady stream of external customers. However, after the epidemic, the external passenger flow was greatly reduced and the catering industry became a stock market. The game of stock thinking is to ask restaurants to seize existing customers and change the focus from external marketing to internal marketing, that is, to make customers who have already arrived at the store and know the location of the store and the price of products serve well and increase repeat customers. If the repurchase rate of customers is high, they will not continue to worry about reaching and retaining customers.

not only during the epidemic period, catering needs to increase the repurchase rate, but also needs to have the awareness of increasing the repurchase rate in peacetime to retain customers. In this way, you can cope with the crisis in the next time.