During the “May Day” period, the Commerce and Trade Statistics System of the Ministry of Commerce monitored the key retail and catering enterprises in Guangzhou and found that 40 key retail enterprises in the city achieved a retail sales of 3.22 billion yuan, and Wal Mart, a department store and convenience store, and Guangzhou Friendship both showed double-digit growth. Online consumption growth is good, with companies such as Pupu and Jingdong achieving double-digit growth.
Meiyijia, a chain convenience store brand with over 35000 stores, has also strengthened online marketing during the May Day holiday period, expanding revenue through models such as instant retail and live streaming sales. Three years ago, Meiyijia entered the real-time retail platform to expand its business scope. During this year’s May Day holiday, Meiyijia seized the sales peak of travel scenes and launched real-time retail live streaming with “ice products” and “night time” as the two main focuses, once again expanding its service scenarios.
According to Meituan data, from May 1st to 5th, Meiyijia’s real-time retail order volume was nearly one million, and Meituan Live became a new growth point, with live broadcast room orders increasing by 36% compared to the end of April. On May 1st, the order conversion rate in the live broadcast room was as high as 45%, which is equivalent to one person placing an order for every two people entering the live broadcast room. Throughout April, the average order conversion rate of Meiyijia live streaming rooms was 38%.
During the May Day holiday, Meiyijia continuously broadcasted, and the order conversion rate in Meituan’s live broadcast room reached as high as 45%. Image source: Meituan App
“The weather in Guangdong is very hot, and every time I pass by a convenience store in the summer, I have to go in and buy an ice cream.” Xiao Yan, who is currently studying at a university in Guangzhou, had been following the Meiyijia live broadcast room for a long time, and ordered takeout directly when she was hungry or craving it at night. During the May Day promotion, he ordered 70 yuan of ice cream to share with his roommates. “If it’s over 69, you’ll get 20 yuan off. It’s very cost-effective and the delivery is fast,” he said
It is understood that in July last year, Meiyijia joined Meituan Live and successively tried various forms of live streaming, including nighttime live streaming, brand specific live streaming, and store wide live streaming. The stable traffic growth and high conversion rate of Meituan Live have led Meiyijia to decide to normalize daily broadcasting in Meituan and form a live streaming team of more than ten people for this purpose.
According to He Liyan, the Marketing Director of Meiyijia Delivery Headquarters, Meiyijia’s live streaming is mainly based on three considerations: first, creating new consumption scenarios, leveraging the advantages of Meiyijia’s store quantity, and stimulating the consumption demand of users near the store throughout the time; Secondly, it is more proactive and efficient in acquiring customers. In the past, Meiyijia mainly relied on shelf e-commerce to attract traffic, and live streaming marketing methods were more flexible and had higher conversion rates; The third is the sales and reviews brought by live streaming, which is conducive to long-term accumulation of brand credit.
“Live streaming has rebuilt a human goods store: consumers go from actively searching to being attracted, products need to be rearranged and priced, and the store has also shifted from offline to live streaming rooms.” He Liyan said that the two main elements of local life live streaming are local merchants and nearby users, and the live streaming room is an extension of the physical store. “The basic logic of entering live streaming is the more than 30000 stores of Meiyijia, and efficient customer acquisition and conversion are the biggest features of Meituan Live.”
Last year, Meiyijia’s live streaming on Meituan was just a trial and error, but this year it is clear that it wants to operate for a long time. At present, night time and ice products are the two main focuses of Meiyijia’s live streaming. In addition, Meiyijia also launches various themed live broadcasts every month. Now, in early April, it launched the “Ice Festival” live promotion and collaborated with brands such as Mengniu and Yili to launch large discount coupons. “The summer season in Guangdong is relatively long, and after the Spring Festival, it is also a convenient off-season for supermarkets. Therefore, we are promoting in advance to create the mentality of Meiyijia takeout ordering ice cream.”
Industry insiders say that the cultivation of consumer live shopping habits has activated the demand for local merchants to operate live broadcasts. Dedicated to exploring local consumer demand, expanding business scope, and increasing store orders, local life live streaming has become an important driving force and growth point for the transformation of traditional supermarkets. As the earliest local convenience store in China to try instant retail and live streaming, Meiyijia has achieved stable sales in Meituan Live. It is expected that more physical supermarkets will use live streaming as a long-term operational tool in the future.