Meituan Offers Free AI Store Manager to Restaurant Merchants Nationwide

Meituan Waimai General Manager Xue Bing said at the conference that in the first half of 2026, takeout revenue growth for catering merchants exceeded the national average revenue growth for restaurants. Xue said the takeout industry was improving and that Meituan would help merchants improve store formats, operations and product innovation to achieve growth with more substance.

Miaoshou Waimai Edition is an AI operations product that Meituan Waimai developed for merchants. It covers business diagnosis, store inspection, product operations and new store operations. The product combines Meituan and merchant data to provide analysis and suggestions, and it helps merchants carry out actions and follow up on results, according to the report.

Tens of thousands of small and medium-sized merchants have already used Miaoshou Waimai Edition in daily operations. A chicken clay pot restaurant in Yuanshi County, Hebei Province, used the product for store diagnosis and adjusted its menu and promotions; weekly order volume then rose more than 30% from the previous week. More than 200 chain brands, including Guming, Yihotang and Lanxiangzi, have also cooperated with the product. For Yihotang, first-month output per new store rose 25% after use.

Meituan said its long experience serving catering merchants and its data allow Miaoshou Waimai Edition to apply AI to the business of each store. “We hope that through AI, professional takeout operation capability can reach every store, so that every store can receive more detailed and more suitable operating support,” Xue said.

Xue described product innovation, store-format innovation and AI innovation as a “takeout efficiency triangle” and said Meituan would help merchants turn growth into profit. In store formats, Meituan launched Super Kitchen, a new professional takeout store type with larger space and a broader product range. Meituan provides support in trade-area site selection, product selection, kitchen layout and flow design, and uses a production scheduling system to connect meal preparation, cooking and sorting. Data show that a Super Kitchen can handle several thousand orders a day. At a partner store of Guangzhou Restaurant, meal preparation time fell from 18 minutes to about eight minutes, and monthly profit reached 65,000 yuan. Xue said Meituan Waimai plans to build the first 1,000 Super Kitchens with more full-service restaurant brands in the next year.