While the COVID-19 epidemic has put a burden on full-service restaurants, food sales through online platforms have experienced a jump in growth rates. The new climate has compelled customers to move to online food delivery services via well-known aggregators, owing in part to the customers’ efforts to prevent COVID-19 exposure. As a result, many restaurants have moved their attention to delivery and takeout, which have become the primary drivers of sales and revenue development.
For the modern restaurant, an on-demand delivery solution is essential. It adds to increased client satisfaction and sales volume. According to the numbers, the potential is still substantial and appealing. Approximately 60% of customers order meals online at least once a week, with another 31% ordering twice a week. When buying food online, roughly 34% of these clients spend at least $50.
The restaurant industry’s management practices are evolving as the times change. Restaurant operators are dealing with more than simply health and safety issues as a result of recent reforms affecting food service. Even before the epidemic, customers were changing the way they got and ate their meals.
According to industry news state trends, food delivery apps usage in. The United States will top 44 million individuals by 2020. By 2023, that figure will have risen to over 60 million. (2019, emarketer)
As a restaurant owner, you may want to improve your game by launching a robust food delivery solution comparable to UberEats or GrubHub. Let’s go through some aspects of on-demand food delivery app development that will help you stay ahead of the competition.
Food and beverages outlets under pressure
Smaller, family-owned restaurants, for example, may now need to take their initial steps into the online delivery sector after previously offering take-out for curb side pickup. Businesses that already have an online delivery presence may wish to up their game by utilising popular ordering apps or marketing their services on social media.
In what appears to be a Darwinian “adapt or perish” scenario, food and beverage retailers are being driven to re-evaluate their approach beyond shifting from dine-in to dine-out.
COVID-19 has increased the need for food delivery
With many governments preventing food and beverage establishments from opening. Their doors to dine-in customers, the meal delivery industry is gaining traction. With the two probable caveats of customers wanting to avoid needless spending at this moment of economic uncertainty and a potential lack of transparency on how food is made (particularly a lack of hygienic monitoring in the case of third-party delivery platforms), buying meals online appears to have become a little window into the delights of food we had become accustomed to before lockdown.
There are several reasons to utilize on-demand food delivery solution, like avoiding the human interaction that comes with going to the supermarket or corner store or having your favourite cuisine delivered to your house.
In the case of the latter, the motive for placing that order may be a lack of culinary skills or a lack of time — we all know working from home can be unproductive. At the best of times, let alone when you have toddlers running around your kitchen table (excuse me, “desk”).
It might be a desire to replicate the lifestyle we formerly took pride in, a need for diversity, or an appreciation for professionally prepared cuisine. We may be ordering meals online to show solidarity with our local economy. we may just accept that we are unable to cook owing to a handicap, old age, or frailty, paired with the absence of sons and daughters to assist.
How Online Ordering and Delivery is beneficial
For both restaurants and customers, having online ordering available on your website or food delivery software or app has various advantages:
Streamlined restaurant operations
Online ordering can help you optimise your kitchen operations. When clients place their orders online, it reduces the amount of time that employees must spend on the phone. Instead, the crew can execute the processes required to ensure. That every meal is ready for your consumers on time, such as cooking, packing, and delivery.
More customer control over orders
Small order details might easily fall between the cracks while you’re busy during the evening rush. Because your employees don’t have a lot of time to devote to phone calls, hasty talks and information are common.
Customers may handle their orders, giving them the flexibility to get exactly what they want — including specific instructions. Which is one of the advantages of online ordering for restaurants.
Being on top of current trends
To stay relevant in the market, you must keep up with the trends. What does it say about your restaurant if you don’t have a website but your competitors do? You must stay competitive, which necessitates having an internet presence and the ability to accept digital orders.
High Conversion Rate
You are accessing a demographic group that is eager to buy and highly suggestible to your offers if you have an online ordering system. Many restaurants report a conversion rate of 40% or more during peak hours. Which means that 40% of visitors to an online ordering-enabled site will place an order.
When you consider that “average” conversion rates for other e-commerce businesses are about 2.35 percent, this data is quite appealing.
Powerful marketing tools
Consumers may be notified about promotions and discounts, promotional pricing can be scheduled. By day and time, and a loyalty programme can provide your best customers with more of what they want.
In a Nutshell
People’s shifting behaviours and increased expectations for comfort have fuelled the growth of on-demand app development. Restaurants have a clear sales channel with an on-demand food delivery solution.
Customers use the restaurant app or website to explore menu items, choose what to eat, place their orders, and pay. The restaurant makes the meal and delivers it to the specified client location after receiving the order. This allows the restaurant to capture a larger market share and serve clients without them having to visit the eatery.
