Text | Sina Finance Luo Ning

The number of small stores that are open 24 hours a day is proliferating. Many restaurant chain brands are breaking through bottlenecks and expanding consumption scenarios through 24-hour full-time operations.

Recently, Sheng Wenming, founder of Qixiao Snail Powder, proposed in an interview, “In the future, Qi Xiaoluo will have a 100% layout of operations 24 hours a day, and at the same time carry out a more diversified layout to shape the brand into a hexagonal fighter with excellent products, scenarios, marketing, supply chain, digitalization, and organization.”

Freshly soaked and cooked fresh rice noodles. Fresh snail chicken soup is available for a limited time. It costs about ten yuan per person. Qi Xiaonuo snail powder, which is open 24 hours a day, is loved by night owls on social platforms because of its quality and price ratio. Since November, the number of searches for Qi Xiao Snail Powder Meituan has increased 266% year over year.

Sheng Wenming once mentioned his thoughts on 24-hour business in an interview. 24-hour business can not only increase brand exposure, strengthen consumers' brand memory, build a better single-store profit model, and increase turnover at the same time.

For catering businesses, when rent costs are fixed, extending operating hours can be described as maximizing the use of rent costs and an effective way to improve the floor efficiency ratio. However, the night market racetrack has always been a world of husband and wife stores, mobile stalls, and convenience stores. In the early days of the 24-hour layout of Qixiao Snail Powder, it didn't go well.

Sheng Wenming recalled, “The brand did not have much advantage when we first tested the waters. During the business process, we made quick adjustments, mainly using the Meituan takeout platform to increase volume and orders through takeout. At the same time, online, great emphasis is placed on the consumer service experience. For example, the matching tableware package uses single chopsticks, a separate soup bag, comes with a warm branded handwriting paper, and an insulated bag is also added to guarantee the taste in winter.”

According to reports, the 24-hour business model of Qixiao Snail Powder was initially verified for 3 months, and it was determined that the snail powder category had takeout attributes, and dine-in was highly compatible with this model. Meituan data showed that since November, the sales growth rate of Qixiao Snail Powder takeout food has increased 74.66% year-on-year

“The 24-hour business model requires us to pay more attention to whether the product matches the brand's business model, including considering which core business platform to choose. Qi Xiaoluo is mainly group buying and takeout, and secondly, it is also very important for the operation side to formulate detailed online and offline operation strategies.”

Sheng Wenming believes that the 24-hour business has now become a unique memory point for Qi Xiaoluo. In the future, revenue channels will also consider diversified layouts such as dine-in, takeout, and retail. In addition to operating 24 hours a day, Qi Xiaoluo Snail Powder is also targeting online management, starting experiments in emerging fields such as live streaming.

Sheng Wenming felt that live streaming is also a current trend, providing an opportunity for catering companies to explore more possibilities.

“The live streaming format is very difficult for catering companies or caterers to change their mindset, especially in the face of an unknown field. It is also difficult to estimate the final revenue results at the 1.0 stage. The co-founders must be firm enough, persistent enough, and willing to invest in costs. Live streaming requires a high level of professionalism, and requires brands to be closer to youth, innovation, and changes in the times. This also places higher requirements on restaurant management for us,” Sheng Wenming said.

Efficiency is the life of a restaurant, and it is a top priority that determines the survival of a restaurant brand. Especially in the current competitive market environment, online operation to create extremely efficient stores has become one of the core tasks of many catering brands. As mentioned in the book “China Catering Observation and Big Data 2024”, specialized competition will become the main theme in the catering industry, the degree of chain integration will further increase, and the pace of digital transformation will continue to accelerate.