Recently, a news about the "Barrier-Free Day" has caused heated discussions on the Internet, and many netizens have asked: What is the "Barrier-Free Day"? The reporter learned that Ele.me recently announced that August 7 will be designated as the "Barrier-Free Day", and will send benefits to visually impaired users every year from this year.
On the day of the free-order festival, the platform offers free-order for visually impaired users: no need to guess the answer, no need to grab time, and no total quota. The first catering order of the day can be free of charge for up to 39 yuan. This is also the second consecutive year that Ele.me has launched a special free-order event for visually impaired users.
The sense of participation of minorities, that is, the responsibility of marketing activities
According to the data released by the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, the total number of disabled people in our country has exceeded 85 million. The number is huge, but they are rarely seen – because they rarely go out. Because of this, the issue of disabled people has always been a hot topic of attention from all walks of life in the country and society.
According to data, more than half of visually impaired people choose to order takeout to solve their daily diet, and more than 70% of visually impaired users use Ele.me. The large visually impaired group relies heavily on takeout apps, so Ele.me has always paid great attention to the experience of visually impaired users, gained insight into the needs of the disabled group, and carried out many benefits and activities for visually impaired users to send warmth to everyone.
Barrier-free environment is an important basic condition for facilitating the full participation of special groups such as the disabled, the sick, the elderly, and the young in social life. At the same time, it is also a key factor in improving the quality of life and service level in urban environments.
"Will there be free Ele.me this year? There was one last year, and now it’s almost that time again." A user named "Star Magic" posted a question on the Zhidu forum, an online community for the visually impaired. Their discussion has been followed by Ele.me.
According to the relevant person in charge of Ele.me, this year’s free-order rules are similar to those of last year. Since Ele.me cannot directly identify visually impaired users, users who have opened the Ele.me App using screen-reading software between July 5 and August 5 (this is the operation of visually impaired people using mobile phones) will automatically enjoy free-order eligibility.
Zhao Zhiguo, spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, recently mentioned that we will continue to promote the results of information accessibility construction and guide 1,735 mainstream commonly used websites and mobile apps to complete the senior-friendly transformation. The implementation of a series of relevant policies and regulations has provided a strong guarantee for the construction of a barrier-free environment in our country, helping all sectors of society to actively participate in the construction of a barrier-free environment and improve the well-being of the people with disabilities.
The benefits are not closed, and the care is not stopped. "Last year’s free-order activity for visually impaired users received a very enthusiastic response. Recently, we also saw some netizens concerned about the situation this year in the forum for visually impaired people." The original intention of the free-order activity is to make more people happy, and we will not forget visually impaired users this year, and plan to stick to it every year. "
Welfare is one aspect, and more importantly, visually impaired people believe that they are cared for and valued, which is the reason why they are happier.
In recent years, our country has continued to introduce relevant policies to promote the construction of barrier-free facilities and services. On June 28, at the third meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People’s Congress, the Barrier-free Environment Construction Law was officially voted and will come into effect on September 1, 2023, providing a strong legal guarantee for the construction of barrier-free environment in our country.
From a business perspective, due to the small user base, most companies rarely launch targeted product launches and activities for visually impaired people, making it difficult to customize activities that suit their experience.
Therefore, in some large-scale marketing activities, under the conditions permitted by the platform or enterprise capabilities, it is a useful exploration to integrate activities that are more convenient for visually impaired users to participate in. When more and more enterprises join, they can enhance the consensus of disadvantaged groups in social care.
As some netizens said in a message, the social treatment of minorities is a silhouette of the degree of civilization in a society. To pay attention to them is to pay attention to everyone, because anyone may become a minority.
From helping popular science to supporting merchants, the sense of social responsibility of "playing" free of charge
In fact, although giving benefits is a public welfare activity, it hides the attribute of "popular science" behind it. Since the main activity of free shopping is "guessing the answer and free shopping", Ele.me invited many professional institutions, experts and scholars to pose questions, and developed it into a large-scale popular science platform with the help of the traffic of the event itself.
For example, on July 20, "China Aerospace News" was invited to publish a popular science project about China’s lunar exploration project, and Shanghai Fire Protection also published a popular science topic about the "trivia" that cannot be placed in the home at will, which is easy to cause fires.
Aerospace experts pose a popular science question about China’s moon landing plan
There are also institutions such as Qingdao Anti-Fraud Center, Jinan Ecological Environment Bureau, and China Packaging Federation, which have been invited to provide happy popular science for netizens in the form of questions. The fields are diverse enough, the content is practical enough, and the interaction is interesting enough, so that the participants can sow the seeds of knowledge and curiosity in an unconsciously happy atmosphere.
This type of activity exploration has given special groups a sense of inclusive participation, allowing platform companies to root their business development in social needs. This has undoubtedly opened up avenues for other platforms and brands, providing an excellent reference sample.
At the same time, free shopping also effectively promotes consumption and drives the growth of merchant orders. Last year’s free shopping activities led to the recovery of orders from a large number of merchants in Shanghai, Changsha and other places. This year, Ele.me invited the Jinzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce to issue a question to promote Jinzhou BBQ. The topic of Weibo #Jinzhou is the ceiling of the barbecue industry #boarded the hot search, and the reading volume exceeded 110 million that day.
Compared with last year, the number of merchants benefiting from free orders this year has increased significantly. The latest disclosure data of Ele.me shows that since the opening of the free order activity on June 21, the participating merchants have exceeded 1.50 million, which is 2.5 times more than last year’s 600,000.
The inspiration of free-order public welfare: looking forward to many parties working together to "create festivals"
In addition to targeting visually impaired groups, Ele.me also collaborates with merchants to provide benefits to outdoor workers in many places through free-of-charge activities. For example, starting from July 15, Ele.me started a series of cool-off activities in Guangzhou, going to the construction site of Guangzhou Metro Fangbai Intercity Rail Project in Baiyunrenhe to distribute free cold drinks to subway workers who are struggling on the front line. At the same time, Ele.me also set up "cool stations" in many places in Guangzhou, distributing 10,000 free ice drinks for outdoor workers to receive for free; in order to allow workers to survive the hot and hot summer season, on July 23, Ele.me and Zhengzhou Federation of Trade Unions sent hundreds of watermelons weighing about 1,000 kilograms to outdoor workers to relieve the heat and so on at the Huaibei Community Love Station of Huaihe Road Street Office, Erqi District.
In fact, the free-order form has a certain appeal to any consumer. It allows consumers to intuitively see the discounts and profits on real money, and there are no extra routines, so it is a success for brands. And if you want to achieve long-term benefits through the free-order economy, you must also focus on higher social value dimensions. The plan given by Ele.me is to combine its own business conduct with social responsibility, and drive merchants to invest in it, laying a solid foundation for the long-term sustainability of its model.
As a platform enterprise in the field of local instant e-commerce, Ele.me pays attention to the product experience and well-being of visually impaired people. It can be seen that it has always rooted its business value in social needs, and has therefore harvested good social feedback and market data. Sorting through media reports in recent years, it can be seen that Ele.me is not a whim to create a festival for visually impaired users. In March 2023, Ele.me App was awarded the first batch of excellent cases of Internet application senior-friendly and barrier-free transformation. In addition, Ele.me continues to realize the dreams of visually impaired users by supporting blind school teams and holding blind e-sports competitions.
Making benefits for visually impaired users fixed as a festival not only allows more visually impaired people to be seen, but also expresses Ele.me’s firm determination to appeal for the rights and interests of visually impaired people. This can not only drive more brands to participate, but also play a demonstration role in society and build a broader consensus. Perhaps we can imagine that there will be a large number of brands in the future to create a lifestyle consumption festival for visually impaired people.
Ele.me said that only when the government, platforms, merchants and other parties work together can the value of the festival be maximized and a sustainable state of long-term development be formed. Ele.me will continue to work with all partners in the ecological chain to make more visually impaired people visible and valued through technological innovation, unique business gameplay and other forms.
Reporter | Han Donglin
Intern reporter | Tian Mi
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