The catering industry is the heart of our economy. It beats not only for itself but the upstream and downstream industry chains as well. Since the  coronavirus outbreak in 2020, catering industry has experienced constant challenges both in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Repeated re-openings and shutdowns are still bumps on the road to recovery.

Helping catering industry to recover from disruption had become the focus of the 2022 Report on the Work of the Government in China. The report urged catering enterprises to consider seriously on digital transformation which will help streamline operation, enhance customer experience and empower restaurants to manage intelligently to save cost and improve efficiency.

One of the ways to speed up digital transformation of restaurants in China is to integrate POS with WeChat mini program. The integration will optimize online and offline customer experience, connect internal and external interactions and most important help restaurants to achieve the core goal – cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

Leveraging WeChat’s huge user base, restaurants with POS linking to mini program expect the connection will lead to significant increase in daily orders, immediately help boosting turnover. The self-order solution of mini program automates the ordering process, requiring no staff member to stand by. Restaurants therefore save manpower cost and at the same time decrease wait times and enhance customer experience.

Another important advantage of mini program is its varied sales promotion capabilities. Creative catering enterprises combine restaurant themes with mini program games to attract customers, sending out coupons and vouchers and offering privileges. Due to WeChat’s unique ability on social connection, customers can forward these coupons, vouchers and privileges to friends or people they connected with. The circulation of discounted offers brings both new and repeated customers to restaurants that will help improve bottom line.

It is glad to learn about the favorable policies in China which strongly encourage catering enterprises to explore how to transform and upgrade in the midst of adversity. This provides an intriguing insight into how Hong Kong restaurants should make digital transformation decisions.