The food and beverage industry is a typical channel-driven and labor-intensive sector, featuring a long industrial chain, multi-level distribution channels and a large proportion of field personnel. Business travel runs through the entire value chain, from raw material procurement and production to brand operation and terminal sales promotion. According to industry research, travel expenditure of above-scale food and beverage enterprises usually accounts for 1.5% to 3% of revenue, and field sales teams spend an average of 15 to 20 days on business trips per month. The use of personal vehicles for business purposes is also a widespread industry practice — over 60% of FMCG sales representatives use private cars to visit terminal stores, making mileage subsidies, fuel expense reimbursement and compliance management persistent pain points for enterprises.

Although different market segments have their own characteristics — for example, dairy and frozen food industries focus more on cold chain inspection and shelf life control, while the beverage industry has stronger seasonality and denser terminal outlets — the core pain points in travel management are highly consistent: a large field sales workforce, deep channel sinking, frequent exhibitions and trade fairs, and prevalent personal vehicle use for business. These pain points cannot be effectively addressed by the traditional manual model, and are the core drivers for the digital upgrade of travel management in food and beverage enterprises.

I. Six Typical Pain Points of Business Travel Management in the Food & Beverage Industry

Pain Point 1: High-frequency and dispersed field sales travel brings heavy advance payment and reimbursement burden

The core travel group in the food and beverage industry is the field sales team. A national food enterprise often has thousands of sales staff, each taking business trips for more than ten days a month and generating dozens of scattered expenses. During peak seasons, beverage sales representatives work nonstop, visiting over a dozen stores per day, with taxi fares, meals and accommodation all paid out of their own pockets first.

Under the traditional model, employees pay in advance and submit receipts for reimbursement afterwards. A reimbursement application usually takes 7 to 15 days from submission to payment. Sales representatives may advance thousands of yuan per month, and new hires even rely on credit cards to cover expenses in their first few months. A more hidden impact is that when reimbursement becomes a burden, sales staff will subconsciously reduce necessary business trips — "Since reimbursement is such a hassle, I'll skip a couple of store visits this week."

Performance also varies across segments: sales staff in the food industry stay longer at each store with relatively lower visit frequency; in the beverage industry, store visits are shorter but more numerous, resulting in a larger volume of scattered receipts for small taxi fares and meal expenses, which puts greater pressure on financial review.

Pain Point 2: Prevalent personal vehicle use for business leads to chaotic mileage and expense management

The use of private cars for business is common in the food and beverage industry — it is more flexible and efficient for sales representatives to drive their own cars to visit terminals and distributors. However, managing such practice has long been an industry challenge:

· Difficult mileage verification: Mileage self-reporting by employees is prone to overstatement, which is hard for enterprises to verify.

· Chaotic expense reimbursement: Receipts for fuel, tolls, parking and maintenance are scattered with inconsistent standards.

· High compliance risks: Tax compliance and liability definition for traffic accidents in personal vehicle use are potential hidden dangers.

· Large management blind spots: Enterprises cannot confirm whether employees are actually visiting clients, as driving trajectories are untraceable.

Many enterprises have tried GPS tracking and fuel card top-ups, but these approaches either suffer from poor user experience and employee resistance, or entail high management costs that outweigh the benefits.

Pain Point 3: Difficulty in unifying travel standards across multiple scenarios leads to a dilemma between over-regulation and cost runaway

The food and beverage industry has extremely diverse travel scenarios, with vastly different travel standards for different positions and types of business trips:

· Production side: Quality control stationing at factories, production line commissioning and cold chain inspection take place at factories and industrial parks, with pragmatic accommodation standards.

· Procurement side: Raw material origin inspection and supplier visits often involve remote producing areas with limited transportation conditions.

· Channel side: Distributor visits and terminal store patrols extend to county-level towns, with varying consumption levels.

· Brand side: Events like the China Food & Drinks Fair, industry forums and distributor receptions require high reception standards and involve concentrated group travel.

A one-size-fits-all travel standard either leads to cost runaway if too loose, or hinders business operations if too strict. Under the traditional model, travel standards are constrained by policy documents, and enforcement relies on employee self-discipline and post-event financial review, resulting in frequent over-standard cases.

Pain Point 4: Concentrated travel for exhibitions and trade fairs poses dual challenges in cost and efficiency

The food and beverage industry hosts numerous exhibitions — the China Food & Drinks Fair, Food Expo, new product launches, distributor order fairs and year-end appreciation galas. When hundreds of employees travel together in a short period, enterprises face multiple challenges:

· High costs: Airfare and hotel prices surge sharply during exhibition periods, and individual bookings cannot enjoy group discount rates.

· Difficult management: Dispersed bookings lead to inconsistent flights and hotels, which is inconvenient for team management and event coordination.

· Chaotic accounting: Expenses are scattered under individual names, making post-event aggregation difficult and the true travel cost of a single event hard to calculate.

During the China Food & Drinks Fair, travel costs are usually 1.5 to 2 times higher than usual, with tight availability of rooms and tickets. Administrative staff often have to make arrangements one to two months in advance.

Pain Point 5: Channel expansion to county-level markets faces travel guarantee challenges in remote areas

In recent years, food and beverage enterprises have been sinking their channels and expanding into county-level markets. From first- and second-tier cities to counties and even townships, sales representatives cover markets at all levels. However, resources of traditional business travel platforms are mainly concentrated in core business districts of first-tier cities, with insufficient coverage in sinking markets.

When traveling to counties, sales representatives often struggle to book suitable hotels or hail taxis, and have to find resources offline and claim reimbursement afterwards. This not only affects work efficiency, but also creates management blind spots — the compliance and price rationality of offline consumption are difficult to control.

The beverage industry has even deeper channel penetration: many beverage brands have established outlets in every township and placed freezers in every village, requiring sales representatives to visit townships and even village-level outlets, which further increases the difficulty of travel support.

Pain Point 6: Dispersed travel data fails to support business decision-making

For many food and beverage enterprises, travel data is scattered across various systems and regions. Head offices only see a total expense figure without a clear breakdown of where the money is actually spent. Most enterprises cannot answer the following questions:

· Which region has the highest travel ROI?

·Has travel investment during new product promotion delivered expected sales growth?

·How to evaluate the input-output effect of the China Food & Drinks Fair?

·What are the patterns of travel expenditure in peak and off-peak seasons?

Travel data has not been transformed into management insights, let alone support business decision-making. Travel management remains at the level of "how much is spent", without advancing to the analysis of "whether the money is well spent".

II. Solutions by FANJIA Business Travel

01 Full-scenario Corporate Payment — Solving the Pain of Advance Payment and Reimbursement for Field Staff

Corresponding pain point: High-frequency and dispersed field sales travel with heavy advance payment pressure and long reimbursement cycles

FANJIA Business Travel covers all travel scenarios including flights, hotels, train tickets, car services, meals and personal vehicle use for business, all supported by unified corporate payment. Employees do not need to pay in advance or submit receipts for reimbursement — bookings are settled directly through the corporate payment channel, consumption data is automatically synced to the financial system, and all expenses are aggregated upon trip completion.

· Mobile-first design: Tailored to the on-the-go work style of field sales, the Fanjiaxing App features simple operations, allowing sales representatives to complete bookings and approvals quickly during store visit breaks or waiting time.

· Full coverage of car service scenarios: Integrating resources from mainstream ride-hailing platforms including Amap, Caocao and Shouqi, the platform meets all taxi needs for client visits and terminal store patrols, all settled via corporate payment.

· Convenient field dining: Directly connected to the full range of dining resources on Meituan, working meals and overtime meals of field staff can be booked online and settled by the enterprise, eliminating the need to collect meal receipts and claim reimbursement.

· Unified reconciliation and invoicing: All consumption is reconciled and invoiced in a unified manner. Instead of processing hundreds or thousands of scattered receipts, the finance team only handles a few summary invoices, drastically reducing workload.

Client practice: A leading domestic dairy enterprise with a sales team of over 3,000 people previously relied on manual reimbursement for all staff, with the finance team processing over 20,000 receipts per month. After adopting FANJIA Business Travel, all scenarios realized corporate payment, freeing employees from advance payment and reimbursement, reducing financial receipt processing volume and shortening reimbursement cycles.

02 Digital Management of Personal Vehicle for Business — Standardizing Mileage Subsidies and Expense Accounting

Corresponding pain point: Prevalent personal vehicle use with difficult mileage statistics, chaotic expense management and high compliance risks

FANJIA Business Travel provides a complete digital solution for personal vehicle use for business, realizing full-process online management from mileage recording to expense accounting, compliance invoicing and data statistics.

Industry-specific adaptations for food and beverage:

· Flexible subsidy standards: Supports setting different mileage subsidy standards by position level, region and vehicle type, as well as differentiated unit prices for in-city visits and cross-city business trips.

· One-click expense calculation: The system automatically calculates mileage subsidy expenses, which is integrated with the travel system for unified aggregation, settlement and invoicing.

· Compliance risk control: Traceable driving trajectories and verifiable mileage data completely eliminate mileage overstatement. The unified invoicing model avoids tax compliance risks of personal vehicle use for business.

· Employee-friendly experience: No need to paste fuel and toll receipts or calculate mileage. Employees simply submit records after trips, and subsidies are automatically credited, ensuring high employee acceptance.

Client practice: A national beverage group with over 2,000 sales staff, more than 80% of whom use personal vehicles for business, previously relied on employee self-reported mileage with high overstatement rates and chaotic fuel expense reimbursement. After adopting Fanjia's personal vehicle solution, mileage is automatically recorded and subsidies are automatically calculated, reducing overstatement rates, cutting financial review workload and greatly improving employee satisfaction.

03 Multi-dimensional Travel Standard Control System — Solving the Dilemma of Inconsistent Standards Across Scenarios

Corresponding pain point: Diverse travel scenarios with difficult standard unification, and the dilemma between over-regulation and cost runaway

FANJIA Business Travel supports highly flexible travel standard configuration. Differentiated standards can be set by multiple dimensions such as position level, department, job type, trip type and city tier, accurately matching the complex organizational structure and business scenarios of food and beverage enterprises.

Industry-specific adaptations for food and beverage:

· Standards by city tier: Supports setting separate accommodation and catering standards for first-tier, new first-tier, second-tier, third-tier and county-level cities, better matching actual consumption levels of markets at different levels.

· Standards by trip type: Differentiates between factory visits, client visits, exhibition participation, distributor reception, cold chain inspection and training, with matching travel standards and approval processes.

· Standards by project dimension: Separate budgets and control rules can be set for projects such as new product promotion, channel expansion, production line renovation and exhibition participation, with expenses automatically aggregated to the corresponding project.

· Intelligent over-standard handling: Travel standards are automatically verified at the booking stage. Over-standard orders can be handled flexibly — mild over-standard triggers automatic reminders, moderate over-standard initiates approval, and severe over-standard is directly blocked.

· Flexible approval mechanism: Compliant orders are automatically approved, while abnormal orders are individually marked and approved according to preset processes, greatly reducing unnecessary approval workload for management.

Client practice: A listed grain and oil enterprise with a complex organizational structure had separate travel standards for headquarters, factories and sales companies. Previously, travel standard enforcement relied entirely on post-event financial review, with an over-standard rate as high as 25%. After adopting Fanjia Business Travel and configuring tiered city travel standards with pre-booking automatic verification, the over-standard rate decreased and travel costs dropped by 12%.

04 Integrated Group Travel Services — Addressing Challenges of Concentrated Exhibition Travel

Corresponding pain point: Concentrated travel for exhibitions and order fairs with high costs, difficult management and chaotic accounting

In response to the frequent exhibitions and order fairs in the food and beverage industry, FANJIA Business Travel provides integrated group travel services with end-to-end management from booking to settlement.

Industry-specific adaptations for food and beverage:

· Batch booking management: Supports bulk booking of flights and hotels, allowing administrative staff to book the same flight and hotel for all participants with one click.

· Centralized procurement price advantage: Leveraging the platform's large-scale procurement capacity, it secures negotiated discount prices for group travel. During major events like the China Food & Drinks Fair, rooms and seats can be locked in advance to avoid price surges.

· Supporting conference services: Provides local resource docking in exhibition cities, including negotiated hotels around venues, conference vehicles, guest reception and meeting room booking.

· Unified expense aggregation: Travel expenses of the entire event are aggregated by project, clearly calculating the true travel cost of each exhibition or order fair for ROI evaluation.

· Dedicated account management: Large group travel is equipped with a dedicated account manager to coordinate itinerary changes and emergency handling throughout the process.

Client practice: A well-known frozen food brand participates in the spring and autumn China Food & Drinks Fair every year, sending a team of over 100 people each time. Previously, administrative staff started arranging bookings two months in advance but still often faced price hikes and full occupancy. After adopting Fanjia Business Travel, dedicated account managers coordinate fair travel in advance, locking in prices and rooms early, and per capita travel costs have dropped significantly.

05 In-depth Coverage of Sinking Markets — Guaranteeing Travel Demand for Channel Expansion

Corresponding pain point: Channel expansion to county-level markets with insufficient resources in remote areas and difficult travel support

With 17 years of supply chain accumulation, FANJIA Business Travel's resource layout is not limited to core business districts of first-tier cities, but extends deeply to cities, counties and industrial parks across the country.

Industry-specific adaptations for food and beverage:

· Region-wide hotel coverage: Covers over 760,000 hotel resources nationwide, ranging from high-end chains to budget hotels, ensuring compliant and quality hotel options even in county-level cities.

· Car service guarantee in sinking markets: Integrates resources from mainstream ride-hailing platforms, covering more than 400 cities nationwide, ensuring timely response even in third- and fourth-tier cities and counties.

· Industrial park supporting facilities: Special layout of negotiated hotels and car services around major national food industrial parks and production bases, supporting long-term negotiated rates and factory point-to-point transfer services.

· Emergency support in remote areas: 24/7 customer service ensures quick response and coordination for travel problems in remote areas.

Client practice: A leading snack food enterprise with channels covering more than 2,000 counties across China previously faced frequent difficulties in booking suitable hotels for sales representatives in county-level areas, who had to find small local guesthouses offline with inconsistent reimbursement standards and poor compliance. After adopting Fanjia Business Travel, county-level hotel coverage has increased to over 85%, and all business trips are booked online with corporate payment, ensuring both travel experience and unified management.

06 Multi-dimensional Data Analysis Empowerment — Turning Travel Data into Business Decision Support

Corresponding pain point: Dispersed travel data that fails to support business decision-making

FANJIA Business Travel provides comprehensive data analysis capabilities to help food and beverage enterprises transform travel data from "financial figures" into "business assets".

Industry-specific adaptations for food and beverage:

· Multi-dimensional cost breakdown: Refined breakdown of travel costs by region, department, position, trip type and project.

· Channel efficiency analysis: Combines enterprise sales data to analyze the correlation between travel investment and sales output in each region, identifying high-efficiency and low-efficiency regions.

· Event ROI evaluation: Aggregates travel expenses by project to calculate the travel ROI of events such as the China Food & Drinks Fair, new product launches and distributor conferences.

· Peak and off-peak pattern analysis: Analyzes travel expenditure patterns in peak and off-peak seasons to provide data support for budget allocation and staffing adjustment.

· Cost optimization insights: Identifies cost optimization opportunities through data analysis — which hotels still have room for negotiated price reduction? Which department has the highest over-standard rate?

III. Key Considerations for Travel Platform Selection

Facing numerous travel management platforms on the market, how should food and beverage enterprises choose? It is recommended to focus on the following five dimensions:

1. Industry adaptability Prioritize platforms with service experience in the food and beverage or FMCG industry, especially those with case studies of leading enterprises. Industry experience means the platform better understands your business scenarios, travel standard logic and management pain points, enabling faster implementation and better adaptability.

2. Personal vehicle management capability Given the prevalence of personal vehicle use for business in the food and beverage industry, whether the platform has a mature solution for this scenario directly determines the management efficiency and compliance of the field sales team.

3. Resource coverage Focus on examining resource coverage in sinking markets and industrial parks, rather than just the number of hotels in first-tier cities. For enterprises implementing channel sinking strategies, the depth of resources in county-level markets is directly related to the practical usability of the platform.

4. Control flexibility Whether travel standard configuration is flexible, approval processes are customizable, and differentiated control for multiple scenarios is supported — these directly determine whether the platform can adapt to the enterprise's complex organizational structure and business scenarios.

5. System integration capability Whether it can seamlessly connect with the enterprise's existing OA, finance, ERP and HR systems to achieve data interoperability and process closure, avoiding new data silos.