On December 2nd, McDonald's announced that McDonald's will launch a new pricing model for its food delivery service on December 9th: the delivery fee will be adjusted from 9 yuan to 6 yuan, and a packaging service fee will be charged based on the number of meals (the new pricing model also applies to group meal channels). Maijin card members will continue to enjoy discounts on delivery and packaging service fees when their orders are fully booked.
At present, Maile Express charges an external delivery fee of 9 yuan, with no packaging fee.
McDonald's is not the first enterprise in the Western fast food industry to implement this model.
In February of this year, the official price of KFC's home delivery fee was lowered from 9 yuan to 6 yuan. At the same time, KFC stated that it will charge packaging service fees at its discretion. KFC stated that this move is aimed at improving the service experience of its delivery products. It will upgrade the insulation of its delivery bags and provide dedicated packaging services.
For orders with an actual payment amount of less than 200 yuan for meals, the maximum packaging fee per order is 2 yuan; For actual payments of 200 yuan or more, the maximum packaging fee per order is 6 yuan; For actual payments of 300 yuan or more, the maximum packaging fee per order is 9 yuan (excluding delivery fees).
That is to say, as long as the actual payment amount for the meal is less than 200 yuan, the total amount of delivery and packaging fees will be less than the previous delivery fees; More than 200 yuan will be spent.
The specific charging model for McDonald's packaging fee still needs to be further announced by the company.
A practitioner in the Western fast food industry told reporters that both McDonald's and KFC have lowered their delivery fees, hoping to become affordable in all aspects, not just the food itself.
As early as 2021 to 2023, many fast food brands had several rounds of price increases, such as McDonald's, which raised prices on average once a year.
This year, the pricing of top brands has been retreating, with some directly lowering prices during promotional periods, while others have launched some discount packages.
In August of this year, Burger King China launched the "Signature Burger, 9.9 yuan per week" promotion. During this period, Burger King will launch a premium 9.9 yuan quality burger every week. In February of this year, KFC launched "designated burger coupons" in some cities, with an average purchase price of 10 yuan per burger. In July of this year, McDonald's launched a daily "10 yuan Burger King" campaign for several consecutive weeks.
When Burger King launched the above-mentioned promotional activities this year, Burger King Chief Marketing Officer Tang Junzhang said that it is a good opportunity for the burger category to quickly penetrate the Chinese catering market, hoping to make more people willing to try Western style chain fast food. Currently, Western style chain restaurants account for less than 3% of the entire catering market.
In Tang Junzhang's view, promotions during the period of consumption upgrading are symbolic "discounts" based on high unit prices, while now the promotional prices given to consumers by catering enterprises have already disregarded costs. Especially for Western style chain fast food that originally had a low average order value, the prices after the big promotion are even lower than the cost of cooking at home.
Some industry insiders believe that promoting "high cost-effectiveness" is a healthy model for catering brands to lower prices, while price wars are not.
Shouwen, General Manager of Visual Hammer Consulting, believes that price wars and "high cost-effectiveness" strategies are two different things. Price wars will educate consumers that when there is no promotion or discount, I will not consume. The "high cost-effectiveness" strategy is a strategic project that comprehensively designs a series of cost, supply chain, operation, etc. to create a long-term and sustainable cost-effective brand. Even under the trend of consumption downgrading, consumers will still choose the products, services, and brands they believe are the best in a category. The same goes for mass catering. Therefore, what brands need to consider is not joining the price war, but rather thinking about 'what sets me apart from others'.