January-November 2022 Report: China's Haidilao Online Market Analysis

Key Finding 1

Haidilao (海底捞) extended its hotpot brand beyond dine-in during 2022 by selling a growing range of products online, from seasoning bases and dipping sauces to self-heating hotpot kits and instant soups.

Its online portfolio, sold through China's leading marketplaces from January to November 2022, covers hotpot soup bases in spicy, tomato, mushroom and specialty broths, sesame-based and oil-based dipping sauces that recreate the restaurant's condiment bar, portable single-serve self-heating hotpot meals for convenience and outdoor dining, and premium hotpot ingredients such as pre-sliced meats, fish balls and tofu. The range lets one brand serve home cooks who want to recreate the restaurant meal and consumers who want a quick one, and we believe it rests on the trust in food safety and quality that diners already place in the restaurant brand.

Key Finding 2

Through its "Future Food Laboratory", Haidilao launched an instant hot Cantonese soup in a self-cooking box, taking self-heating technology into regional cuisine beyond hotpot.

The self-cooking format builds on the self-heating technology popularised in China's ready-to-eat market by digital-native brands such as Mo Xiaoxian (莫小仙) and Zihaiguo (自嗨锅), and the product draws on the supply chain the company built for its restaurants. The laboratory serves both as a product development engine and as a way to present the brand as a food company as well as a restaurant operator. Digital-native competitors bring marketing agility, fast product iteration and keen pricing, and the report finds that in 2022 the brands best placed in ready-to-eat combined quality credentials with active marketing on social and content platforms, where food content drives purchase intent.

Key Finding 3

China's hotpot and ready-to-eat market in 2022 was shaped by pandemic disruption to dine-in traffic, which pushed consumers towards online food retail and drew restaurant chains and packaged-food brands into the same ready-to-eat segment.

Hotpot restaurants depend on social dining and fast table turnover, so lockdowns, including Shanghai's two-month lockdown from April to June 2022, made online retail a way to steady revenue. Consumers who had learned to cook at home during lockdowns looked for branded meals of restaurant quality, and the report finds a growing willingness to pay CN¥ 30 to 50 a serving for branded self-heating meals, against CN¥ 10 to 15 for traditional instant noodles. Restaurant chains including Haidilao and Xiabu Xiabu (呷哺呷哺) widened their retail ranges at the same time as e-commerce-native brands competed on price, social media marketing and frequent launches, and food content on social platforms drove impulse purchases and brand discovery in ready-to-eat.