However, in recent years, the commission rate of foreign sales platforms is quite controversial. A common saying is: "The commission rate of the takeaway platform is too high. A single order will give the platform about 20% commission, and the platform bloodsucking merchants will lose money with the takeaway. " Is the takeaway rate really as high as 20%?
As a leading platform for online take-out, Meituan first made clear the commission income of foreign sales in its financial report, and separated this income from the delivery fee (delivery service income), which restored the real commission level of online take-out industry in China at the data level.
In 20021year, Meituan's revenue was 179 1 billion yuan, up 56% year-on-year, of which take-away contributed 96.3 billion yuan, up 45.3% year-on-year. In 20021year, the cost of takeaway riders of Meituan was 68.2 billion yuan, up 38% year-on-year, accounting for 7 1% of its food and beverage takeaway income. This means that 70% of all the takeaway income of Meituan is spent on takeaway riders, most of which are paid to riders, in addition to the cost of rider training.
What is the real business commission income, that is, the technical service fee? In 20021year, the commission income (technical service fee) of Meituan takeaway through merchants was 28.5 billion yuan, accounting for 29.6% of the total income of 96.3 billion yuan. The calculation of commission rate is simple: commission income/platform transaction amount. 202 1, the GMV of Meituan is 702 1 billion yuan, which shows that 28.5 billion yuan /702 1 billion yuan is the real commission rate of the take-away platform, which is about 4 1%.
In the past, people thought that the take-away commission rate was high, and the version widely circulated in the industry was about 20%. Why is there such a misunderstanding? Because the biggest difference between the takeaway platform and platforms such as e-commerce and easy car is that it has a team of millions of riders, which is an important ecological component of the takeaway platform. Because the takeaway platform has a team of riders, the overall trading system is very different.
The transaction of the online car platform is easy to understand: the platform charges the user the taxi fare, then draws the commission, and the rest is the driver's.
The trading rules of e-commerce platforms (Taobao, Tmall) are very clear: the platform charges the user's commodity cost and logistics cost, and the rest belongs to the merchant after extracting the commission and other expenses, and the merchant decides whether to package the mail. In any case, the logistics service is a third party, and the express delivery and related expenses do not need to be paid by the platform. All the money collected by the platform can be counted as commission.
The transaction of take-away platform is much more complicated: users need to pay for goods and some logistics costs, and merchants can choose delivery or platform delivery (most choose platform delivery). If the platform distribution is adopted, the distribution fee will be paid by the merchant and the user respectively.
In 20021,there were 654.38+0.44 billion takeout transactions, of which 654.38+0p (take-out by the US delegation) accounted for 67%, and 654.38+0p orders were 9.648 billion. According to the US Mission's 68.2 billion yuan take-away rider cost, the cost of each rider is around 7 yuan, which makes users or businesses bear too much alone. Now it is actually a part of the burden of platform users and businesses, and the platform subsidy is insufficient. In 20021year, Meituan collected 54.2 billion yuan from merchants and users, while the annual rider distribution cost was 68.2 billion yuan. As a result, the direct subsidy cost of Meituan to riders reached 65.438+0.4 billion, and the average subsidy per order (65.438+0.4 billion /96.48) was about 654.38+0.45 yuan.
In fact, the earlier the take-away development, the higher the proportion of platform subsidies, because users, merchants and riders were not fully developed at that time. Whether it is user habits, business sources or rider strength, the platform must be cultivated through subsidies.
In the early stage of takeaway development, the cost structure
In May, 20021,Meituan take-out started the transparent rate reform, which completely separated the technical service fee (commission) from the performance service fee. The former has a fixed rate, mainly including business information display service, transaction service, business service and customer service, IT operation and maintenance, etc. Service fee; The latter is a "ladder pricing" based on order price, delivery distance and delivery cycle, which is mainly used to pay the rider's salary, subsidy, personnel training management and other expenses. Note that only merchants who choose "Meituan Takeaway" need to charge. If the merchants feel that the fees are high or they have the ability of independent distribution, they can choose different distribution methods such as self-service distribution and third-party distribution. The transparent rate model allows riders to work harder and earn more, and also allows merchants to "settle accounts" when taking out food. In 2023, the transparency policy of the US group's take-away commission will cover the whole country.
Based on the exploration of semi-annual rate transparency reform, Meituan 202 1 financial report can only disclose new data. The real platform commission, that is, the technical service fee, is clear at a glance. The financial reports of listed companies are audited by strict accounting firms, and these data are very convincing. The real take-out commission rate is 4. 1%.
Let's look at other countries abroad. The commission rate of mainstream American takeaway platforms such as Doordash and Uber Eats is 30%, and some of them do not include delivery fees. Compared with other industries horizontally, the commission rate of online car rental in China is about 20%, that of physical e-commerce platform abroad 10% or more, and that of domestic 5% or more. For example, 202 1, Baidu e-commerce adjusted the platform technical service fee to 5%.
In fact, the takeaway platform is no less than the online car calling and e-commerce platform. It is reasonable to charge "technical service fee" for businesses to provide multiple services such as online entry, decoration, operation, marketing, after-sales and maintenance. What we see is a commission of 4. 1%, but what is not easy to see is the service and value created by the take-away platform for merchants:
1. The takeaway platform provides traffic resources for merchants. Takeaway users are not naturally acquired, and they need the platform to spend money to promote the traffic of platform apps and applets. These flows are finally handed over to merchants to provide online information display services such as store sign-in, product display, brand and preferential exposure. Help businesses comprehensively expand the scope of customer acquisition, reduce the cost of customer acquisition, enrich consumption scenarios and improve the success rate of transactions.
2. The takeaway platform needs to invest a lot of technical costs to provide a stable service system for merchants. Large Internet companies have invested a lot of money in cloud infrastructure such as computer rooms and broadband. The investment and construction cost of a computer room is hundreds of millions, not counting the daily maintenance expenditure. IT investment in take-away platform
The pressure of e-commerce platform is greater than that of physical e-commerce, because take-out has obvious peak characteristics, and a large number of users flock to generate orders near lunch and dinner, which all require performance within a few minutes. This real-time, band service is similar to Spring Festival travel rush's ticket grabbing, which not only puts high demands on the scale, stability and technical ability of the platform server, but also generates a lot of IT resource redundancy during the low peak period. With the growth of order scale, the take-away platform can only continuously invest funds to expand cloud computing resources such as servers, optimize technical capabilities, and improve service stability to meet the service needs of riders, merchants, users and other participants in the take-away ecosystem. In 20021year, Meituan's R&D expenditure was 65.438+0.668 billion yuan, accounting for 9.3% of revenue, up 53% year-on-year, many of which were due to a large amount of IT investment.
4. The takeaway platform provides full link support for merchants. The take-away platform provides online trading services such as taking orders, collecting money, settling accounts, invoicing, etc., and at the same time fully guarantees the safety and efficiency of online trading of merchants through technical means.
5. The takeaway platform provides data analysis services for merchants. For example, Meituan Takeaway provides merchants with transaction evaluation feedback tools, real-time communication tools for users and comprehensive business data analysis tools, so that merchants can operate takeaways more scientifically, improve their management capabilities, enhance their digital level, and achieve profit growth and brand promotion while increasing orders.
The takeaway platform does not mean that it doesn't matter if you build a platform. On the contrary, it still has a lot of work to do, not only to let merchants do take-out, but also to help merchants do take-out from the dimensions of traffic, data, tools, services and security. There is a lot of investment in traffic purchase, server purchase, technology research and development, service personnel and so on. In this way, it is reasonable to charge the platform, and it is impossible to operate without charging the platform.
Judging from the financial report of Meituan, most of the money that merchants give to the platform is spent on riders, and this part of the money must be spent, because instant logistics in the same city is the foundation of the take-away industry, and the take-away rider is the key to completing the order of the take-away platform, so a decent income for the take-away rider is very important for the delivery timeliness and service guarantee.
In 20021year, more than 5.27 million riders earned income through Meituan platform, and the delivery cost of take-away riders reached about 68.2 billion yuan, and the delivery cost of a single rider was about 7.07 yuan. Some take-away orders are made by merchants, but the financial report shows that the proportion of US group take-away orders (1P orders) reached 67%, reaching 9.648 billion. Most of the distribution performance is the responsibility of Meituan riders, and the expenses borne by merchants and users cannot cover the cost of riders, so there are many platform subsidies.
On the one hand, in the past two years, due to rising labor costs and other factors, the cost of riders has increased significantly. The rider's income can't be reduced, and the user can't be charged an exorbitant delivery fee-because only when the logistics cost reaches a relatively suitable price will people be willing to spend money on take-out, and take-out can continue to accelerate its popularization and become people's daily life style; It is also impossible to charge more logistics fees to merchants, and this part of the US group's takeaway collection has also been severely criticized. The platform must subsidize the rider's income to meet it.
On the other hand, the take-away platform "low-priced order" is the foundation. It is understood that orders below 20 yuan account for 40% of the take-away platform, but the rider's single delivery income cannot be reduced because of the small number of orders. After all, his labor hasn't changed much. If the income is too small and the rider is unwilling to match, the business model of takeaway will not run.
According to the financial report, in 20021year, Meituan collected 54.2 billion yuan from merchants and users, but the annual rider distribution cost was 68.2 billion yuan. In 20021year, Meituan directly subsidized riders' expenses of 654.38+0.4 billion yuan.
Where does this part of platform subsidies come from? Of course it didn't happen out of thin air. On the surface, Meituan 202 1 earned 0.43 yuan per takeaway, and its operating profit was 6.2 billion yuan, with an operating profit rate of 6.4%. But in fact, if you count the operating costs such as R&D and services, the US group's takeaway is a loss. In 20021year, the net loss of Meituan Company was as high as15.6 billion yuan. The reason for the loss is that Meituan said that "in order to promote industrial upgrading and help improve the efficiency of total factor production, it will continue to increase infrastructure investment including warehousing and logistics nationwide."
Meituan is also laying out some cutting-edge technologies to explore the further future. The financial report shows that Meituan UAV has landed in Longgang District and Pingshan District of Shenzhen, covering more than 8,000 households and completing 30,000 orders from real users. Magic Bag 20, a new generation of automatic delivery vehicle independently developed by Meituan, has been successfully released and has begun to have mass production capacity. Up to now, Meituan's automatic food delivery truck has been in regular operation in Shunyi District of Beijing for nearly two years, covering more than 20 communities in Shunyi, and at the same time, it has carried out take-away food delivery services in many universities across the country.
In the long run, intelligent delivery methods such as drones and automatic delivery vehicles will help the take-away industry reduce logistics costs, but in the foreseeable future, the take-away industry will have to rely on the support of millions of riders. Ensuring the income and rights of riders, improving the logistics efficiency of the platform, controlling the logistics cost of the platform, expanding the order scale of the platform, helping businesses grow healthily and improving the consumer experience are the keys to the sustainable development of the take-away industry.
Related question and answer: What is the rate of the pos machine of Meituan? According to the percentage of the transaction amount, different industries have different deduction rates: 1, general industries 1%, and special industries (such as hotels, hotels, jewelry, handicrafts, etc.) are about 2%. ) .2. For bulk transactions and wholesale transactions, the discount rate is capped, generally 0.5%- 1%, and the single 20 yuan or 50 yuan is capped. Related question and answer: What is the general rate of pos machines? Under the fluctuation of the market, there will always be various rates. In order to control the market, UnionPay will adjust and restore, but why do some POS machines increase their prices when they are used?
Chiyue Bianxiao will make a comprehensive analysis from the following three links:
1.POS price increase mode
People who have worked in the payment industry probably know that cutting leeks is also a way to stimulate the market at low interest rates and quickly withdraw funds at high interest rates.
The early industry market was different from now. At that time, dry POS machines were very popular. You can earn thousands of dollars by operating a POS machine, and these machines are bought by customers.
Customers' consumption concept is recognized, and everyone is willing to spend money to use POS machines; The market industry has reached a certain saturation, and there are more and more POS machines. Everyone competes in the industry, by reducing
The policies of merchants and customers who win through POS charging are also endless, and there is no consistent prescribed behavior. Many companies are still unstable, and it is very exciting to give agents low cost and high cash back.
When the market of the industry has a certain scale, the organization will make harvesting behavior, which is called cutting leeks for users, and it is also a fee charged for users to realize cost recovery.
As for the current POS machine industry, if I act as an agent. For a large POS machine, the cost of the machine is 299. For the benefit of swiping the card in the future, we will give the machine to users free of charge.
If the user does not use it after receiving it, it is a pure loss-making business; If the user thinks it is free, the rate is acceptable at first, but the credit card limit of the user is too small to give.
The company brings income balance; A few merchants have large credit cards, which can bring benefits to the company. But most of them are civilians with limited spending power, so when the company can support the next wave,
Business, you need to quickly return the cost, the way to return the cost is divided into: cutting leek (harvester), Zhang rate.
2. the impact of rising prices 2. Pos machine
After the price adjustment, the company's cost will be recovered, but many businesses and agents can't accept it. In order to open the next wave of market, they will change the product or name.
Agency influence: With the increase of POS probability, merchants' credit cards decrease, their trust decreases, and the distribution of credit cards also decreases. The agents of some POS machines will not be activated and will not be assigned to subordinates. In response to these behaviors, superiors may cut leeks, and subordinates may even act as agents for subordinates, but they have no choice but to complain bitterly.
Customer influence: the price of POS machines has increased, which has affected the enthusiasm of machine use and increased the cost; I am not loyal to POS machines and want to use machines with different rates.
Generally speaking, Chi Yue thinks that the gameplay of POS machine industry is to stimulate the market at a low rate and harvest at a high rate; Make a makeover-new products continue to cooperate. However, at present, there are several good payment institutions, the rate has reached stability, and after-sales service is also guaranteed. Such as Lacarra, remittance to the world, etc.
Finally, Chi Yuebian Xiao put forward a suggestion: choose and use POS machines.
1. Don't choose a low-cost POS machine, which may affect various situations such as credit card withdrawal, points, and sub-control, which are beyond personal control.
2. Choose a payment industry for a long time with excellent qualifications. You can check the company's vouchers and materials at the People's Bank.
3. Choose a large organization with after-sales service. If there is a funding problem, it can be solved in time, and the security of funds is guaranteed.
4.POS machine industry is a long-term industry. POS agents need to keep insisting and choose the right leading organization, otherwise the gains will fall from the sky.