How is Douyin's "takeout"? We tried it out

Douyin has expanded its e-commerce business to include food delivery, and has recently launched pilot operations in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. The domestic food delivery market is split between Ele.me and Meituan. What changes will the entry of Douyin bring? The author personally experienced the use of Douyin to order food delivery and shared his experience.

Not long ago, the news that Douyin began to develop food delivery business attracted attention. Recently, Douyin's food delivery service also began pilot operation in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai.

Based on its e-commerce business, Douyin has added a food delivery service, allowing users to enjoy the convenient experience of “watching videos while ordering food”.

At present, the domestic food delivery market is divided between Ele.me and Meituan. After the entry of TikTok, can the situation of "three kingdoms" be reproduced?

Today, Sanyan personally experienced the takeaway service using Douyin.

1. The entrance is not obvious and there are not many choices for the time being

Strictly speaking, Douyin’s “takeout service” is a general term that is easier for everyone to understand. According to Douyin’s official description, the service is actually called “group purchase delivery.”

First, let’s understand the steps of using Douyin’s group buying delivery service.

There is no obvious direct entrance to group buying and delivery in the Douyin App. Users need to manually search for "group buying and delivery" or "takeout" in the search bar to experience it.

In the search results for the keyword "group purchase and delivery", the first two results are a list of merchants that support Douyin's food delivery service; the rest are short videos related to it.

If you only want to view takeaway businesses, you can click the "Places" tab in the upper tab bar, and all takeaway businesses will be displayed.

In addition, you can also enter the interface of merchants providing group purchase and delivery services through "Same City - Food, Drink and Entertainment - Nearby Food" in Douyin.

Currently, most of the merchants that provide Douyin takeaway services are various restaurants and beverages. At the same time, there are not many supported merchants. Although there are many merchants to choose from, I noticed that there are only a handful of merchants within 1 kilometer of the author.

In contrast, the number of restaurants within a 1-kilometer radius that can be viewed on Meituan and Ele.me platforms is much greater than that on Douyin. Of course, this is because it is still in the pilot stage.

On the other hand, the reason why Douyin calls its food delivery business "group purchase and delivery" is because it is different from the food delivery services provided by Ele.me, Meituan, etc.

At present, most of the food sold by merchants on Douyin are in the form of group purchase packages. For example, many Douyin merchants sell various 2-person or 3-person packages, unlike Ele.me and Meituan, where you can order dishes individually.

2. You can choose to have it delivered on the same day or stock up first and have it delivered later

The ordering process for Douyin group purchase delivery service is similar to other platforms. You can place an order after selecting the package items. It should be noted that you should pay attention to distinguish whether the product you are purchasing is a takeaway product.

Each Douyin merchant provides two services: group purchase coupons and home delivery. Among them, "in-store group purchase" actually sells group purchase coupons, not takeout; while "home delivery" is takeout delivery.

In addition, Douyin’s group buying and delivery service also supports “stock up first and deliver later”. If users are not in a hurry to use the goods on the same day, they can pay first and then arrange for delivery when they need it later.

3. Support Douyin payment and Alipay payment, and delivery is provided by third parties such as SF Express and Dada

In order to test whether Douyin’s food delivery service is different from other platforms, the author ordered three different products from the same merchant on Ele.me, Meituan Waimai and Douyin at the same time.

At present, Douyin's merchant food delivery service only supports Douyin payment and Alipay payment, and does not support WeChat payment. At about 1:30 pm today, the author purchased three different items from the same merchant on the Douyin, Ele.me and Meituan platforms.

In order of order time, Douyin placed the order first, followed by Ele.me, and finally Meituan Waimai; but in the end, it was Meituan Waimai that delivered the order first, followed by Ele.me, and finally Douyin.

In terms of delivery time, although Douyin did not exceed the time limit, it was the slowest among the three, taking about 43 minutes in total; Meituan Takeout was the fastest, taking about 26 minutes in total; and Ele.me delivery took about 36 minutes.

In terms of delivery service providers, the takeaway meals I ordered on Douyin were not delivered by Douyin’s own delivery platform, but by Dada Express. After receiving the meals, the guy from Dada Express told me that Douyin did not have its own delivery platform, but distributed the services to third parties.

In order to further confirm the Douyin food delivery service provider, the author placed an order for a yogurt meal on Douyin at 14:18 in the afternoon. The order showed that the delivery time was approximately between 14:35 and 14:55.

At 14:54, the second takeaway I ordered was delivered. This time, the delivery was no longer provided by Dada Express, but by SF Express.

IV. Overall evaluation: There is differentiation, the entrance needs to be more obvious, and competitors need to be vigilant

As for the overall experience of Douyin's food delivery service today, the author believes that it is average. Compared with platforms such as Ele.me and Meituan, Douyin has certain product differentiation; but at this stage, it is not enough to compete with other market giants.

For merchants, Douyin's group purchase and delivery business provides a new monetization portal for brands. For example, in a restaurant's promotional short video, users can directly order takeout and have it delivered to their homes through the link in the video without having to jump to a third-party platform.

However, Douyin's takeaway experience needs to be improved mainly in terms of business entrance, delivery time and number of merchants. In addition to directing traffic to the merchant page through short videos, the Douyin App currently lacks a more obvious "group purchase and delivery" direct entrance, which must be searched manually to use.

Secondly, the delivery time is relatively long. In today's experience, although the delivery time of Douyin, Meituan and Ele.me did not exceed the time limit, Douyin took the longest time and was the first platform to place the order.

In addition, the number of merchants supporting Douyin’s group buying and delivery services is currently less than that of platforms such as Meituan and Ele.me, and needs to be enriched.

Douyin’s food delivery business is still in the pilot stage, and it still has a long way to go before it can gain a foothold. However, Douyin is constantly improving its food delivery service.

According to reports, in August 2022, Douyin and Ele.me announced a partnership. Ele.me will provide local life services to users based on the Douyin open platform and using mini programs as a carrier. Currently, the service has been launched in pilot cities such as Nanjing. When users order takeout on Douyin, they will be redirected to the Ele.me mini program, and Ele.me will provide delivery services.

In December 2022, Douyin reached cooperation with instant delivery platforms such as SF Express, Dada and Flash Express, achieving an average of 1-hour delivery of group purchase packages across the city.

The elements of food delivery are user traffic, delivery capacity, number of merchants, and connectivity. Douyin’s traffic is not to be mentioned; delivery currently seems to have introduced external resources, such as Dada and other users who need Douyin, and it is unknown whether Douyin has built its own delivery;

Douyin actually has no shortage of merchants. According to reports, Douyin's life service target for 2023 is 150 billion, and its life service business includes in-store group buying of food.

Connectivity is the core underlying logic. The logic of pure food delivery platforms is to want to eat, find the location, find the merchant, and place an order. Entertainment platforms represented by Douyin drive consumption through scenarios, such as visiting stores and videos, which can easily make a store popular. This is what competitors fear.

The food delivery market has seen a situation of crazy money-burning subsidies, but at present, the price subsidy war has not been repeated after Douyin entered the market. But in 2022, JD Retail CEO Xin Lijun revealed that JD is studying the possibility of entering the food delivery field.

This seems to mean that a new round of competition in food delivery is about to begin. We will have to wait and see how the market develops in the future.

Author: DorAemon

Source public account: Sanyan Pro (ID: sycaijing), providing cutting-edge information on new technology, new consumption and new future.