For many merchants, Meituan’s settlement process and fee composition may still be full of doubts. This article will provide an in-depth analysis of the settlement mechanism of Meituan’s group buying merchants, from merchant settlement, product listing, user consumption to the final settlement link, and interpret the key points and cost composition one by one.
In the grand territory of today’s Internet business, Meituan is like a shining star. After years of rapid development and transformation, it has successfully built a comprehensive local life service platform covering multiple fields such as eating, drinking, playing, entertainment, housing, and transportation. At this moment, let’s deeply analyze Meituan’s starting business, group buying, and explore its unique charm and mystery of its operating model in the market.
Looking back at the “Thousand Regiments War” filled with gunpowder, Meituan successfully stood out with its excellent strategic insight and efficient operational strategy, establishing a leading position in the field of group buying in one fell swoop. The subsequent deep integration with Dianping has made Meituan stand out in the local life service market, with unlimited scenery, and its market position is difficult to shake for a long period of time.
For consumers and merchants, group buying has long been a well-known concept. With the help of group buying, merchants can attract a large number of users to the store to consume; Consumers can not only enjoy convenient operation by buying their favorite packages or coupons online, but also enjoy price discounts, and group purchase coupons support automatic refunds after expiration, which is favored by both parties.
Meituan mainly divides the local life business into three major sectors:
- In-store business:It is defined as a business model in which consumers go to offline physical stores for consumption experience. Common formats cover many fields such as catering, beauty salons, leisure and entertainment, and hotel accommodation. Consumers browse and screen merchants through the Meituan platform, purchase group purchase coupons or packages online, and then go to the store to enjoy the service.
- Home Business:It mainly focuses on the direct delivery of goods or services to consumers’ homes, such as takeaway catering delivery, fresh fruit and vegetable delivery, etc., which greatly meet the consumption needs of consumers without leaving home.
- To the comprehensive business:This is a comprehensive concept that includes various life services in addition to catering and takeaway, such as parent-child, education and training, wedding services, sports and fitness, etc., and is committed to covering the diverse life service needs of consumers in an all-round way.
1. Business process
1. Merchant entry process
When merchants intend to enter the Meituan platform, they need to open a store and sign a detailed cooperation agreement with Meituan. The agreement covers a number of service terms such as group buying, payment, queuing, reservation and promotion, and Meituan and merchants will agree on service rates and settlement-related terms.
2. Product listing and event participation
After the merchant successfully settles in, he can list a variety of group buying products on the platform, such as carefully matched packages, practical vouchers, and set up pay discounts. In addition, merchants can actively participate in various marketing activities organized by the platform, but the costs incurred by the activities are usually shared between the merchant and the platform according to the agreed rules.
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3. User consumption process
Users can open the Meituan platform and browse and choose their favorite merchant stores and dishes according to their personal preferences. They can either buy packages or coupons in advance and then go to the store to consume; If you decide to consume temporarily, you can also choose to pay online when you arrive at the store to pay and enjoy the payment discounts provided by the platform. If you are unable to go to the store for various reasons after the group purchase, the system will automatically refund you when the group purchase ticket expires. When the user goes to the store to consume, if the actual consumption amount exceeds the group purchase prepaid amount, the excess part of the balance must be paid separately offline.
4. Merchant settlement link
When the user completes the consumption in the store, and the order meets the established settlement conditions, and reaches the pre-agreed settlement cycle, the Meituan platform will accurately settle the payment to be settled to the merchant’s account on the platform. After the money arrives, merchants can easily withdraw cash to the previously bound bank account.
2. Main expenses
1. Group purchase commodity price system:
There are three main forms of group purchase products, vouchers, packages, and secondary cards.
Original price: The merchant background marks the price of the goods, which is used to compare with the sales price to make users feel the discount, common underlined price, retail price, and face value of the voucher;
Selling price: the actual price and actual sales price of commonly displayed users’ goods;
Discounts: product discounts, preferential promotions, group purchase discounts, divine coupons, platform coupons, etc.;
Actual payment: the actual amount paid by the user when placing an order, actual payment = original price – discount;
2. Main expenses of the merchant’s backend:
selling price
The sales price of the goods, the price before enjoying the discount.
Promotional fees
The amount of discounts given by merchants to users for marketing activities (flash sales, instant discounts, etc.) is generally shared between the two parties in accordance with the agreed rules (merchants need to bear part of the cost and the platform needs to bear part of the cost).
God Member Promotion Allocation Rules
Background actual expenses are extracted
service charge
Platform technical service fee, after each transaction is completed, the platform will take a commission for the transaction order (technical service fee, Meituan distribution fee, service provider profit sharing, commercial support service fee, etc.).
Service fee = ROUNDDOWN ((Meituan bears the promotion fee + customer actually pays) * commission ratio, 2)
For example: the price of an order package is 100 yuan, the discount of God members is 10 yuan, and the user pays 90 yuan, according to the preferential group purchase price X<100 yuan, the merchant will share 5 yuan, the remaining platform will share 5 yuan, and the commission ratio is 5%, then the service fee = (90+5)*5%=4.75 yuan;
Other Expenses:
The cost of donations from merchants participating in public welfare activities or the insurance costs of eating with peace of mind
Merchants deserve it
After deducting the expenses that the merchant should spend, Meituan should settle the amount to the merchant.
Merchant entitlement = selling price – promotion fee – service fee – refund borne by the merchant – other expenses
For example: an order package is priced at 100 yuan, the God member discount is 10 yuan, and the user pays 90 yuan, according to the preferential group purchase price X<100 yuan, the merchant will share 5 yuan, the remaining platform will share 5 yuan, the commission ratio is 5%, the service fee is 4.75 yuan, and the merchant should receive = 100-5-4.75 = 9.25 yuan;
Background actual expenses are extracted
3. Merchant settlement
Normal
Settlement cycle: According to Meituan’s standard service agreement, merchants are settled on a weekly basis, and can apply for withdrawal after issuing the account, settled in 2 account periods, if the merchant does not withdraw cash for 4 consecutive weeks, it will automatically withdraw cash on behalf of the merchant;
Settlement caliber: the amount after the order is completed (vouchers, packages, and time-counted products) after verification is excluded from the refund amount;
Invoice application: After the bill is issued, the merchant can apply for an invoice for part of the service fee, insurance premium and other related expenses, and the platform will issue the corresponding invoice to the merchant according to the service provider and the merchant’s tax qualifications.
Abnormal situation
User complaints or user compensation may cause the platform to settle more to the merchant, and the platform will deduct the amount from the merchant’s pending settlement, and if the deduction is insufficient, the merchant needs to make up the corresponding amount within the specified time. Failure to make up for it will limit merchant transactions.
If a merchant applies for invoicing and a refund occurs, it needs to apply for invoice redwashing or deducting part of the redwash amount for the invoiceable amount in the next settlement.
summary
As a leader in the field of local life services, Meituan has many aspects worth learning and learning from. In essence, Meituan’s business model is not much different from online e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba and JD.com, Meituan focuses on the offline market and has accumulated rich experience in physical operation and promotion; Alibaba and JD.com have been deeply involved in online for many years and have accumulated profound operational heritage. With the development of mobile Internet and communication technology, the trend of online and offline integration has become more and more obvious, and the boundaries between the two are no longer clear.
Through the analysis and research of multiple platforms, it can be seen that the settlement mode between the platform and the merchant is roughly similar, basically the merchant pays a deposit when he settles in, the platform charges promotion and marketing service fees, transaction commissions, performance warehousing and distribution service fees, provides financial services such as payment, supply chain finance, insurance, etc., and settles to the merchant according to the agreed settlement cycle after the transaction is completed. If the merchant has any questions about the bill, he can communicate with the platform to solve it, and after the platform collects the merchant’s fee, the merchant can apply for an invoice.
However, there are also differences in some links between different enterprises of similar businesses. For example, in the field of local life, Douyin charges a deposit, but Meituan does not; The settlement cycles of Alibaba Local Communication, Meituan, and Douyin are also different. These differences need to be analyzed and designed according to the actual situation of the enterprise, and there is no one-size-fits-all standard answer, only the best choice is suitable for one’s own development.
