To get the best deal on Meituan, buying a membership is the worst option

In order to eat cheaper or buy cheaper, many consumers will try to find ways to "get the best deal". For example, some users have found that if they want to eat cheaper on Meituan, the way is not limited to buying Meituan membership. What are the specific ways? What can we see behind the dazzling ways to get coupons?

A college student and a middle-aged man, what common "hobbies" could they have?

Then I'm afraid the only way is to take advantage of others, especially from takeout, such as how to eat cheaper on Meituan.

However, a senior Meituan freeloader recently told the IQ Tax Research Center that buying a Meituan membership is a complete scam, and there are countless ways to eat cheaper.

Experienced freeloaders mainly use the following three methods.

The first is to join the official food welfare group and directly enter the mini program shared in the group to receive coupons; the second is to follow various coupon public accounts, "copy notes" from various social platforms and make them your own, but the operation steps are relatively complicated; the last is to buy the official membership coupons.

Behind these dazzling coupons is a set of user "algorithms" that are difficult to evaluate.

1. Membership coupons are good, but other channels for getting coupons are even better

Getting coupons on the official account or in the community is free, but Meituan membership requires money. "It's a bit like playing games. According to the experience value (time and effort), we who get coupons can be divided into beginners, intermediate players and advanced players," Xiao Zhi laughed.

Recharging Meituan membership to get coupons is often the choice of "honest" beginners. After purchasing Meituan membership, these users only need to choose the food they want to eat when ordering takeout and use the coupons directly. It is most appropriate to describe it as a "lazy way of playing".

The official food welfare group is the "hiding place" for mid-level players. This group is established according to different regions, and the group name often carries a specific location. There are special welfare people who distribute community welfare red envelopes. Users can enter the mini program shared by them in the group to receive coupons. If you just joined the group, you may be able to enjoy a wave of "exclusive favors" from the welfare person and get a few large coupons for new members.

Advanced users often browse various coupon public accounts and need to find coupons themselves before ordering takeout. In addition to Meituan’s official “Meituan Takeout Daily Divine Coupons” and “Meituan Takeout Savings” public accounts, they also go to other unofficial public accounts to get coupons, which often consumes more time and energy.

In order to compare which method is more cost-effective, Xiao Zhi selected two restaurants in Zhengzhou, and based on the coupons received from official accounts and communities and Meituan membership coupons, to see how much money they can save him respectively.

It can be seen that the original price of the food in the same store is 21.9 yuan, plus the packaging fee and delivery fee, a total of 24.4 yuan. After using the official account coupons, the price is the highest, 20.4 yuan. After the Meituan member red envelope is converted into a member merchant red envelope, the price is the lowest, a total of 8.5 yuan is deducted, and the final price is 15.9 yuan.

Does this mean that it is more cost-effective to order food with Meituan membership? Not necessarily.

At dinner time, Xiao Zhi chose a set of dishes from another store with an original price of 52 yuan. In addition to the store's instant discount of 8 yuan, the total price including the packaging fee was 45 yuan.

After using the coupon received from the official account, the meal cost 33 yuan, which is the lowest price; the second is the merchant red envelope converted from Meituan member red envelopes, and the meal cost 36 yuan, which is 3 yuan more expensive than the official account coupon; after using the community red envelope discount, the price of this meal is relatively the highest, and the meal cost 37 yuan.

It can be seen that which coupon is more favorable needs to be determined according to the specific situation. There are also different ways to play for different products. Although the face value of Meituan membership coupons is fixed and sometimes not as high as other coupons, experienced players are well aware of the rules and will convert their membership coupons into member merchant red envelopes, which often have greater discounts.

If you can get a large coupon on the official account, and the food you want to buy just exceeds the coupon usage threshold, it is more cost-effective to use the official account to get the coupon and order takeout. It is worth noting that the coupons in the official account are not applicable to all Meituan stores.

On the contrary, when you can only get small coupons on the official account and the total amount does not reach the usage threshold, it is more cost-effective to recharge the Meituan membership, but the premise is that you can buy the Meituan membership for only a few dollars.

2. All kinds of wool should be gathered

During the summer vacation, Han Lu interned at a company. There were few restaurants nearby, so she could only order takeout. In addition, she could not enjoy "takeout freedom" at present, so she ordered takeout in the most cost-effective way. At first, she only received coupons from the official account, and later she opened memberships for Meituan and Ele.me.

As Xiaozhi's food friend, Han Lu often shares her discoveries with him. "I used the official account more often before, so now I only get coupons for 30 yuan off when I spend 30 yuan, which is not very useful to me. I don't use the official account to get coupons recently." This is also the reason why she chose to open a Meituan membership.

According to the information displayed on the Meituan APP page, Meituan membership includes 11 privileges, the most common of which is the takeaway red envelope rights, including 6 5-yuan no-threshold coupons, with a total value of 30 yuan. Normally, Meituan will give discounts to users who have not opened memberships, allowing them to buy membership coupons with an original price of 15 yuan at a single-digit price; but if the membership is renewed in the second month, the price is 15 yuan.

Han Lu, who used Meituan membership last month, joined the Ele.me membership camp this month. "I only spent a few yuan on Meituan membership in the first month, but if I renewed it in the second month, I had to spend 15 yuan. I felt that the cost-effectiveness was not as high as before. So this time I opened an Ele.me membership, and only spent 2.5 yuan in the first month."

Xiao Zhi did not claim coupons on the official account very often before, so he was able to get coupons with larger discount amounts; but for Han Lu, since she had frequently claimed coupons on the official account before, her chances of getting large coupons became smaller, so she had to open a membership to seek more discounts.

Li Yan, a Meituan Black Gold user, also mentioned his experience of using coupons. He found that "the threshold for getting coupons on Meituan was relatively low before, and you could use them when ordering food. But I personally feel that the threshold for getting coupons from Meituan seems to have become higher now, and sometimes you need to make a lot of orders to use the coupons."

Once you get into takeout discounts, it’s hard to get out. Currently, the discounts on takeout on Douyin and various free dining mini programs are quite large. On Xiaohongshu, there are also a lot of posts teaching people how to get the best deals.

Netizen Pepe said, "I have ordered takeouts with single-digit prices, one or two yuan, a few cents, and 0.01 yuan many times. This is called taking advantage of your own strength."

Under the relevant posts on Xiaohongshu, many people recommend the free meal platform. "I only spent 5 yuan on fried chicken at (Happy Three Meals)," "There is a Xiaocan app that is very useful, you can get 10 yuan back if you spend 15 yuan, and" "Since I downloaded the free meal app, I have been eating takeout for a few yuan every day." Of course, some people are advertising in disguise.

Out of curiosity, Xiao Zhi tried to open the Xiaocan King Meal mini program and found that large cash back activities such as 9 yuan back for purchases over 20 yuan and 12 yuan back for purchases over 18 yuan were not surprising. There were even some that offered 10 yuan back for purchases over 10 yuan. As long as you were fast enough, you could grab a free king meal.

3. Use coupons to activate the stickiness of each user

Xiao Zhi found that whether it is free coupons or paid Meituan membership, new users often get greater discounts. This is not difficult to understand. If Meituan wants to attract new users, it must show some sincerity.

First of all, for new users and those who do not often use Meituan to order takeout, it is easier to get large coupons by going to the official takeout public account. This can not only achieve the purpose of attracting new users, but also stimulate "zombie users" to become active.

If you don’t order takeout often, is it more cost-effective to use Tiantian Shen Coupon? Xiao Zhi got a positive answer from Meituan customer service. In addition, the customer service reminded that “Tiantian Shen Coupon is free to receive, but the membership has a validity period, and it will expire if not used in time.”

Li Yi has personal experience of this. Having bought Meituan membership many times, she feels that "spending money is better than not spending money." But in fact, she found out after buying the membership that every time she ordered food, the coupons she got from the official account were almost the same as the discounts for Meituan membership, and sometimes the coupons from the official account were even cheaper, so she put the Meituan membership aside. When she remembered that she had bought a membership coupon before and was ready to use it, she found that the coupon had expired.

Secondly, issuing coupons also helps merchants increase sales.

In the Meituan APP, the "Join Meituan" section shows that joining Meituan Takeout can achieve double growth in profits and customer volume. On the one hand, starting takeout is equivalent to opening an online store; on the other hand, opening a new online home can achieve order growth.

The reason behind this is not difficult to understand. With large coupons, users are more willing to order online, which naturally increases sales. In addition, Meituan customer service said that the merchant red envelopes redeemed with member red envelopes can set the amount by the merchant, ranging from 6 yuan to 15 yuan.

Will merchants lose money by setting up large coupons? In this regard, Li Shan, a merchant at Meituan, said, "If the volume is large, you can still make a little money."

Using large coupons, on the one hand, allows consumers to get a bargain and eat more expensive meals at a lower price. On the other hand, it can help businesses win more customers and retain new and old customers. Why not do it?

Source of pictures in this article: Screenshots by the author and netizens

Author: Yuan Zhiling

Source: WeChat public account "IQ Tax Research Center (ID: gh_c55b3561ece1)"