1m steamed buns sold online amid quarantine

Restaurants are looking for ways to sell amid a lack of walk-in diners caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The restaurants of Nanjing-based Jinling Hotels & Resorts have upped their online game, previously a secondary form of trading for the 37-year-old brand. Customers could place orders on its online store or via takeout delivery platforms such as Ele.me.

Its one-month online sales campaign, launched on Feb 21 to help its restaurant business survive these trying times, brought sales to an all-time high.

By March 21, Jinling Hotels & Resorts had sold 1 million steamed pork buns, its signature product that has captured the taste buds of generations. It normally takes a year to sell 1 million steamed pork buns, the hotel said.

But the sales feat was not merely the result of pent-up demand. Behind the spike was an all-out marketing offensive and customer word of mouth built by the quality of its products, according to the hotel.

To reach customers cooped up at home due to COVID-19, Jinling Hotels & Resorts called on its employees to post links to online sales channels on their WeChat accounts.

Each employee was assigned a sales quota and rewarded according to the number of buns sold. By Feb 29, 12,141 employees had joined the marketing campaign. The top performer sold some 10,000 steamed buns, the hotel said.

The hotel also approached the hosts of community-based chat rooms who might be interested in buying in bulk for their communities. They were also rewarded based on sales, said Zhou Hai, marketing director of Jinling Hotels & Resorts.

To expand its online presence, the hotel took to popular short video app Douyin to promote its offerings. Hosts' contacts of the hotel also promoted the food for free to their large online followers during livestreaming sessions on Douyin, Zhou said.

News stories about the hotel's COVID-19 relief efforts and marketing campaign were also published on Xuexi Qiangguo, a widely used mobile app run by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Bus Co of Foreign Affairs and Tourism of Jiangsu, a subsidiary of Jinling Holdings, formed a car fleet to deliver online orders. More than 50 hotel staff-turned-food couriers brought the buns to the doorsteps of customers.

Jinling Hotels & Resorts also worked with delivery company ZJS Express, which helped raise efficiency and reduce costs, the hotel said.

On top of takeout food, the hotel group also offered laundry services and one-day stays－"everything we can sell amid the outbreak," said the hotel's senior executive Jin Meicheng.

The restaurant sector in China is slowly shaking off the effects of the pandemic, as the number of locally transmitted cases has substantially decreased.

As of March 30, all the restaurants in Jinling hotels had reopened for business.