Article | Sina Technology Zhou Wenmeng

Number of issues: No.34

Guest: Zhao Xiao, co-founder and CEO of American Food

“In the digital economy era, enterprises have no choice but to evolve.”

This is the answer given in the book “Digitalization of Enterprises” when talking about the topic of digitalization and enterprise growth. In addition, the book also describes two types of future enterprises. One is a digital native enterprise, an enterprise that operates and develops according to digital and intelligent methods from the beginning; the second type is an enterprise that has been reborn through digital transformation.

However, in an age where digitalization is fully popularized, compared to retail and financial industries, the digital progress of the catering industry lags slightly behind. If we focus our attention on the group meal industry in the catering sector, this situation is even more remarkable.

In the era of comprehensive digitalization, how can catering companies carry out digital reforms, and how can digitalization become the driving engine for the growth of catering companies? Recently, Sina Technology's “100 Science Innovators” had a conversation with Zhao Xiao, co-founder and CEO of American Food.

During the conversation, Zhao Xiao shared the idea that “digitalization will reshape the group meal industry” and further pointed out that “digitalization+group meals are an important engine for transforming products and services.”

Digitalization will reshape the group meal industry, and companies must make timely adjustments

Founded in 2011, Mei Mei is a digital group meal platform, which covers the two major business segments of platform catering and technology empowerment. At present, American Food has completed the E2 round of financing, making it one of the companies with the largest cumulative financing amount in the domestic group meal sector.

The Chinese group meal market has faced several problems in its development in the past. The resource relationship is greater than marketization, weak corporate brand awareness, low industry concentration, and the level of openness and development is lagging behind, let alone the transformation and development of digitalization. Of course, in terms of the development process of the entire group meal market, this kind of problem still exists today.

“The group meal industry needs new technology and new innovative solutions. This is also an opportunity for American food to change and surpass,” Zhao Xiao said. According to him, since its inception, Meishu has provided differentiated catering solutions to the industry through data-driven and digital tools.

Zhao Xiao believes, “Digitalization will reshape the group meal industry. When a new economic wave comes, both the consumer side and the enterprise side will generate changing needs in a complex business environment. Enterprises must make timely adjustments to ensure business effectiveness and continued competitiveness.”

In terms of the development of group meals, market demand and infrastructure construction have clearly changed in the past ten years.

For B-side commercial users, managers and decision makers from various organizational units in society have clearly felt the efficiency improvements brought about by changes in supply models. For example, group meal companies use digital means to bring diverse catering brands into employees' meals to enhance employees' dining experience; dispatching operators to efficiently distribute meals and resolve food complaints; and helping enterprises solve reconciliation problems through digital management methods. For C-end consumers, their needs are being upgraded, and the requirements for the dining experience and dining environment are being upgraded. At the same time, consumers' mentality is also gradually changing, and young people's consumption is becoming more rational.

At the same time, the infrastructure for group meals has also undergone significant changes. Social catering brands are becoming more diversified, logistics construction has improved performance capabilities, mobile internet has made online payments more convenient, and merchants are hungry for online traffic.

“Behind these changes, group meal companies need to adopt new solutions to improve and transform to adapt to new needs.” Zhao Xiao said.

Digitalization+group meals are an important engine for transforming products and services

According to reports, American Food is currently improving efficiency through digitalization, speeding up the flow of information, and providing more flexible solutions for employees' meals, thereby improving the pain points of declining employee meal satisfaction and inefficient business operations brought about by a single supply. In addition, American Food is also actively promoting in-depth cooperation with catering companies to help traditional catering companies achieve digital transformation.

Take Southwest Aviation Vocational College as an example. According to Zhao Xiao, through the multi-terminal food system and products, all dining scenarios for the college's teachers and students are online, greatly saving time in line. At the same time, through flexible solutions, the college has helped expand consumption scenarios and consumption methods such as takeout on campus, and has also generated more revenue for restaurant operators.

In building more offline smart restaurants, while helping consumers save the time and cost of ordering and picking up meals through online ordering, American food also analyzes consumer preferences, optimizes production, and improves consumer dining experience and restaurant operation efficiency by helping catering operators form digital portraits of consumers and digital transaction orders.

In addition, Meishu helps traditional catering companies digitally upgrade all aspects of the restaurant operation process, create efficient business processes and models, and provide better products and dining services.

“With the advent of the digital age, the digital transformation of the group meal industry has become an inevitable trend, and digitalization has long become the undertone and core solution for fine dining.” Zhao Xiao said that in his view, “Digitalization+group meals bring not only the digitalization of front-end consumption and transactions, back-end operation management, and the digitalization of the supply chain, but also an important engine for reshaping the new catering ecosystem and transforming products and services.”