WeChat can be used in very different ways depending on your industry. Here are 10 examples to inspire WeChat Food & Beverage business.
1. Delivery service: Order on KFC’s WeChat Official Account (肯德基宅急送官方网站) and get food delivered at your place
10 WeChat Food & Beverage industry case studiesKFC has a WeChat official account dedicated to delivery. The bilingual WeChat website offers online ordering promotion, as well as the usual menu.
For first-time order, you have to log in with a phone number or an email address. Then, choose your delivery address and time, confirm and start ordering. All these functions are within the app; therefore there is no need to leave WeChat. (WeChat ID: beijing_kfc)
2. Menu display: Discover YunShanMaLa menu (云膳麻辣 )
YunShanmala is currently using a WeChat shop, accessible through its official account, to display its menu.
This simplifies the sales funnels both from a business and a customer perspective. As so, users can easily navigate from the menu to their cart and confirm their order in few clicks. (WeChat ID: yunshanbooking)
3. Location-based function: Find the closest Pizza Hut restaurant
Eating out? With the map and locator function of Pizza Hut, users can find the closest restaurants based on their current location.
The feature is integrated within the company’s WeChat account. It works pretty much like a mini-site, on which users can navigate without leaving WeChat. Besides, the location-based function enables business to reach users who are nearby and push relevant notifications to them. (WeChat ID: bishengkehuanle)
4. Waitlist Management: Shop nearby until you table is ready at Hai Di Lao Hot Pot Restaurant (海底捞火锅)
Eager to always improve its quality of service, Hai Di Lao has turned toward its WeChat official account to eliminate the organizational challenges and decrease the wait time for walk-in diners.
The Chinese Hot Pot restaurant chain is enabling its customers to check the queue times by tracking the number of people in the queue and put their names on the wait list before they’ve actually arrived. Customers can also check their place in line at any point during their waits, which is changing the whole dining experience. (WeChat ID: haidilaohotpot)
5. WeChat In-store Wi-Fi: How Bottega is connecting with consumers?
Bottega restaurant in Beijing is using the WeChat Wifi function connect to its users. The principle is simple: users are connecting to Wifi via WeChat and are invited to join the official account of Bottega after connecting.
Photo credit: Grata.co
The Wifi function also enables to push offers and discounts to users automatically each time they enter the store and connect to the wi-fi.
6. Social Contest: Starbucks Cold Cups
Starbucks is using WeChat to organize exclusive contests for their followers. This is one of the various ways to engage with followers on WeChat.
Here’s how the Starbucks contest works:
- Follow Starbucks official account on WeChat
- Enter the challenge
- Post a picture that contains the following elements: 3 people and 3 Frappuccino
- Fill in the contact form and submit it
Through contests, businesses can also encourage sharing on WeChat Moments in order to spread out the word about their products and therefore get more followers. (WeChat ID: xingbakezhongguo)
7. O2O Viral Marketing: Burdigala drives offline sales via WeChat
Shanghai Wine Bistrot chain Burdigala has experimented with online promotions that drive users in-store. How does it work? People have to share the official account name card to their friends and 5 of them have to follow the account in order to get a free bottle of wine in one of Burdigala’s venues (of course only if they buy lunch or diner too).
The operation enabled the account to gather thousands of new followers, drive offline traffic and generate revenue (as winners had to purchase food in order to get their complimentary bottle of wine).
8. WeChat Shop: Pick your wine and French food on Qiechihe企鹅吃喝指
WeChat Shops can be developed into your WeChat micro-APP or can be set-up on third party services like Weidian (the WeChat equivalent of Amazon or Taobao). It enables to provide your customer a simple and mobile access to your products or services and a convenient way to handle payments.
Qiechihe, as a verified service account, is selling its products directly through its WeChat account. It has also a payment function integrated, which allow users to purchase products which one-click payment. (WeChat ID: qiechihe)
9. Loyalty program: Geek Salad (极客沙拉）gives you access to immediate discounts with its member’s card
One feature that many businesses don’t use in WeChat Food & Beverage industry is its support for shopping loyalty card. Brands can put their loyalty cards directly on the WeChat app. The virtual member’s card, safely kept inside the user’s WeChat account, is basically a CRM tool from which brands can send promotions or coupons to their customers.
Geek Salad, on top of offering a wonderful WeChat e-commerce experience, offers discounts through this channel to keeps its members engaged.
(WeChat ID: geeksalad)
10. Flash sales: Save with BenLai’s (本来生活网) special offers
BenLai, the Chinese provider of safe and healthy food, is attracting consumers with flash sales through its WeChat account.
There are three flash sales sessions per day and a countdown index is set to indicate the time remaining before the end of the promotional event. This concept allows F&B industry’s businesses to generate excitement and drive impulse purchasing on a limited stock of goods. Though, this function requires the company to have a logistics capability. (WeChat ID: benlaifuwu)