Meituan takeaway channel operation skills!

When the mini program was not yet launched, and when Meituan and Ele.me were on par with each other, how did Meituan Takeout’s WeChat entrance achieve new customer acquisition and retention?

We all know that WeChat has 1 billion users, and its traffic is inexhaustible. The payment page on the WeChat personal homepage includes Tencent services and third-party services, commonly known as WeChat’s “own sons” and “godsons.” It can be seen that these applications have a special relationship with WeChat and also benefit from WeChat traffic.

The author had the honor of working in Meituan’s food delivery channel operations for a period of time. Before the mini program was launched, the page connected here was developed with H5, which can be said to be a simplified version of the APP. It only supports the completion of the core process of the product. Its main purpose is to help companies attract new customers and expand WeChat payment scenarios.

Here, I would like to talk about the new channel acquisition ideas that have been used in recent times.

1. Background

First of all, based on the overall background analysis, the user scale of the online food ordering market continued to grow in 2017, but the growth rate slowed down. At that time, the market share of Meituan and Ele.me was almost the same. In 2017, Meituan Waimai’s development strategy focused on strengthening channel coverage and expanding consumption scenarios, continuously expanding territory and seizing users.

Each traffic leader is also secretly making efforts, with Meituan Takeout entering WeChat to counter Ele.me’s entry into Taobao. Takeout is a high-frequency, low-price, and decision-making business with a large market and rapid user growth. Supporting takeout can boost the number of mobile payment users for both companies.

2. Channel Analysis

1. User attribute analysis

Channel operation must first understand the characteristics of this channel. Through data analysis and user research, we can understand the user characteristics of this channel.

The entrance to WeChat Wallet is backed by WeChat and has just been online for a short time. It has a high proportion of new users and a low overlap with the APP. The remaining users are mostly entrance users and replacement users.

2. Usage scenario analysis

The WeChat entrance is developed using H5, and its functions are relatively simple, which compromises the user experience.

The frequency of use of this channel is lower than that of the APP, and according to the data, it is half of that of the APP; in terms of motivation, the purpose is clear, emphasizing speed rather than browsing; there are also differences in usage scenarios: the peak of "collective activity" of WeChat users is 10 o'clock every night, and the number of dinner and supper orders on the WeChat channel is higher than that of lunch.

Users of this channel are also less sensitive to discounts than those of the APP. In the early stages of the launch, only the core functions of the product are available, there are no subsidies, and it is purely a natural conversion of traffic.

3. Channel SWOT analysis

The SWOT analysis of channels helps us better understand the characteristics of channels and give full play to their advantages.

Based on the channel characteristics and channel advantages, it is deduced that the operational focus of this channel is to leverage the traffic advantages of the WeChat channel to quickly attract new customers and convert more new users for takeaway products.

3. Operational Strategy

Breaking down goals using formulas can help us know more clearly what to do next and in which direction.

As can be seen from the figure below, there are mainly two things: first, directing WeChat traffic to the channel, and second, making efficient use of the entrance traffic and improving conversion results.

IV. Key Projects

1. Red envelopes fall from the sky

The red envelopes that fall from the sky solve the problem of conversion rate. Here we will focus on the design ideas of the pop-up red envelopes.

Pop-up red envelopes (red envelopes that fall from the sky) are a widely used subsidy tool. Although the product seems simple, the corresponding logic can still be broken down.

For example, the main function of my pop-up red envelope is to convert entry traffic into orders, so the process of converting orders needs to be split into steps.

From the perspective of attraction-understanding-action-sharing, users first enter the entrance and are attracted by the red envelope, then are asked to log in when clicking to receive it. After logging in, they receive coupons and copywriting of different amounts based on different user identities. After receiving the coupon, an order button appears on the page to guide users to take action based on their understanding of the product process.

Of course, it is also based on the fact that the order conversion rate of logged-in users is higher than that of non-logged-in users. Especially when the user experience of the page developed by H5 is not very good, improving the login rate is a very important topic, and the same is true for various APPs.

Of course, some people may ask, why must it be a pop-up red envelope? Not sharing red envelopes or other forms of red envelopes?

So, here we consider the scenario. This product must hold the first level of the product and take over the traffic. Sharing red envelopes is a product after placing an order. Push or SMS red envelopes are point-to-point and suitable for scenarios of precise distribution.

According to the product design pyramid model (element layer - capability layer - presentation layer), the following decomposition can be done:

Subsidies are not achieved overnight, but are constantly calculated and adjusted based on the sensitivity of different users and the time period of market supply and demand adjustment.

Here are the steps:

2. WeChat Ecological Traffic Cooperation

WeChat ecosystem cooperates to obtain traffic and its purpose is to attract traffic.

First, we need to sort out the resources in the WeChat ecosystem that are worth exploring. Secondly, we need to formulate a cooperation strategy based on the fit and value between these resources and our channels, so as to discuss the entry point for cooperation.

Thinking clearly about the goals of the cooperation will also make it easier to use corresponding indicators to evaluate the benefits of the cooperation after the cooperation begins, and to measure the quality and efficiency of the traffic brought about by this cooperation.

Summarize

Things that seem simple actually involve important logical thinking.

Constantly challenging our own thinking, breaking down and clarifying the principles can help us take our operational capabilities to a higher level and also motivate ourselves.

Author: Qian Xia Qiu Qing

Source: Review of Operations