Recently, the news that catering merchants in many places in Ningbo have collectively removed products from mainstream food delivery platforms such as Meituan, Ele.me, and JD.com and terminated cooperation has attracted widespread attention in the industry. This collective action, dubbed by netizens as “the first shot against high platform commissions in the catering industry,” stems from merchants’ long-term dissatisfaction with the platform’s high commissions and severe squeeze on profits. It also reflects the current imbalance of interests between physical catering and takeout platforms.
The reporter verified from many Ningbo catering practitioners and industry related people that a large number of local catering stores that focus on dine-in have completed the take-out platform removal operation, involving Chinese food, hot pot, snacks and other categories. "It's not the individual actions of one or two companies, but the joint actions of a large number of merchants." A person in charge of a catering store who participated in the operation told reporters that the platform's high commission was the core reason for their determination to "get tough." According to him, the current commission ratio of mainstream food delivery platforms to catering merchants is generally between 25% and 30%, and even higher in some popular business districts. Add in the full discount activities and promotion and investment fees that the platform requires participation in, and the comprehensive cost has exceeded 30%.
The person in charge calculated an account for the reporter: for a takeout order priced at 30 yuan, the platform charges a commission of about 7.5 yuan. After deducting 3-5 yuan for packaging boxes, tableware and distribution costs, the merchant actually gets less than 20 yuan. The overall gross profit margin of the catering industry is only about 60%. After deducting basic costs such as ingredients, rent, and labor, the takeout business is almost unprofitable, and some orders are even at a loss. "In order to cover costs, we can only be forced to increase online selling prices, and consumers will ultimately have to foot the bill." He said that this is contrary to the original business intention of the catering industry, so many merchants have reached a consensus and choose to close takeout channels and directly transfer the costs originally used to pay platform commissions to dine-in consumers.
In this collective action, the core demands of the merchants are clear and clear: resist the unreasonable high commissions charged by the platform, get rid of the passive situation of "working for the platform", and revitalize the offline physical store business. An owner of a Hunan restaurant told reporters that in order to maintain the volume of takeout orders, he had to continue to invest money in platform promotion. "If you don't invest, there will be no exposure, and the order volume will be cut in half; if you invest, profits will be further compressed, and you will fall into a vicious cycle." In his view, after closing the takeout platform, although some online customers may be lost in the short term, reasonable profit margins can be guaranteed by re-attracting consumers to the store through dine-in discounts and improving the quality of dishes.
This collective action also triggered multiple chain reactions. A takeaway rider reported to reporters that when receiving orders recently, it was obvious that many familiar stores have disappeared from the platform, and the order volume has been adjusted, while orders from pure takeout stores have shown a periodic increase. There are also different voices among the consumer groups: some consumers who are accustomed to dine-in express their understanding of the merchant's situation and are willing to go to the store to support the store; but there are also consumers who rely on takeaways who frankly admit that after some regular stores were removed from the shelves, there are fewer dining options, which has caused inconvenience.
There are also different predictions about the prospects of this action within the industry. Supporters believe that the collective voice of Ningbo merchants is expected to promote the optimization of commission structures by food delivery platforms and strive for a fairer operating environment for catering merchants across the country. At present, catering associations in Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan and other places have begun to pay attention to this matter, prepare regional merchant alliances, and explore the possibility of collective bargaining. However, some people point out that the lasting effect of the action depends on the unity of merchants. Some small stores or pure takeout stores may be difficult to participate in the long term because they are more dependent on the platform. If a "small number of merchants reinvest" occurs, the overall results may be affected. In addition, the consumption habit of takeaway has been deeply formed, and it still faces challenges to guide a large number of consumers to return to dine-in in the short term.
In fact, the toughness of Ningbo merchants is not an isolated case, but a microcosm of the plight of the catering industry across the country. Previous surveys by the State Administration for Market Regulation have shown that the actual comprehensive costs of food delivery platform merchants generally account for 20%-25%, of which opaque additional costs account for more than 10%, and 60% of catering stores are in a state of loss. Merchants in Yinchuan, Shanghai and other places have previously launched sporadic actions to boycott high commissions, but the collective scale and intensity of actions by Ningbo merchants this time are rare.
As of press time, the mainstream food delivery platform involved has not publicly responded to the collective withdrawal of Ningbo merchants. Industry analysts pointed out that this incident marked the transformation of catering merchants from passively accepting platform rules to actively fighting for the right to speak. It also forced the food delivery industry to re-examine the balance of interests among the four parties of "platform-merchant-consumer-rider". In the future, if regulatory guidance, platform reform, merchant grouping and other multiple forces can promote the transparency and rationalization of commissions, it may push the industry from a "price war" to a "value war" and achieve a win-win situation for all parties. At present, the collective actions of Ningbo merchants are still continuing, and the subsequent progress of the incident deserves attention.