Reliable and equipped vehicle · 3. Track drivers’ performance over time · 4. Assign orders and track delivery using technology · 5.As areas reopen and customers have the option to eat there once again, the trend of ordering online is likely to become permanent. According to the National Restaurant Association’s State of the Restaurant Industry report, 53% of adults say that buying takeout or delivery is now essential to their way of life.
From the customer’s point of view, the ability to place an order from a computer or mobile device, then process the payment and receive a delicious meal without having physical contact with another person is a great convenience that they are unlikely to give up. It’s practical because the platforms manage everything for you, except food. However, the cost can sometimes be prohibitive, since applications charge fees and fees of up to 30% per order, especially if you don’t place large volumes of orders. Whether you’ve chosen to do it directly or use third-party apps, here are 10 ways you can optimize your online ordering software to increase efficiency and sales.
Eliminate dishes that don’t travel well and those that aren’t as popular from your menu, as they affect your final results. COVID-19 has especially boosted the sale of comfort foods in grocery stores, and you might notice a similar trend in your restaurant. Integrating online orders, whether with a third-party integration or a direct order system, allows you to streamline the process, receive more orders and stay organized. It also minimizes order errors and could result in an 11 to 20% increase in revenues (or even more in the case of Esmeralda’s 2.0).
Good photos of food can tempt customers to order, add ambience and create expectations. In fact, some studies have found that using high-quality food photographs in online menus can improve menu conversion rates by 25% and increase total food orders by more than 35%. In addition to high-quality images, be sure to include attractive menu descriptions. Strong menu descriptions should capture the senses of guests, but they should also be simple and straightforward.
As a general rule, keep food descriptions fairly concise (ideally between 140 and 260 characters) and use simple language (aim for an eighth grade reading level). Even with widespread COVID-19 vaccines, safety must remain a priority. The packaging of your food is an extension of your brand. If your containers leak or don’t keep your food warm, your customers may think twice before ordering from you again.
Among those who order takeout and home delivery, 84 percent agree that packaging is an important consideration when placing an order. Attractive and thoughtful packaging design can also help you increase sales: 72% of US consumers say that packaging design influences their purchasing decisions and nearly a quarter of consumers are willing to pay up to 20% more for products with eco-friendly packaging. Shopping online is an option, especially when it comes to grocery stores, which offer a unique shopping experience with different quantity and quality requirements: the average number of items in a grocery cart ranges from 35 to 45 and, in the case of fresh products, you always have to look for the best ones. The average storage capacity of a supermarket is just one day of fresh produce, so ensuring that it is delivered correctly is in the best interest of the customer and the grocer.
These efficient boosters could be a boon to online food delivery applications and grocery delivery application solutions. When you choose to hire your own delivery drivers and lease or purchase a fleet of delivery vehicles, as well as to update your website to add online ordering capabilities, you own the entire last mile delivery service from start to finish. However, the online food and grocery ordering service has taken the entire industry by storm and has put delivery services at the forefront so that they work flawlessly without any flaw. Grocery giants like Target and Walmart had experimented with e-commerce technology and had started designing their online shopping strategies.
With a direct system, instead of using a third-party delivery application, you could make additional profits by avoiding service fees and minimizing the need to fire your employees by keeping them as delivery drivers for your own fleet. This includes online grocery providers that prioritize technology with a very short history and little or no grocery experience. In online food delivery services, technologies have become the right hand when it comes to managing business processes, ranging from assigning the order to delivery agents to tracking the delivery status of the order once it is shipped. The company’s recent partnership with IBM and the purchase of 250 patents for voice recognition, nutritional data, fraud detection, an autonomous vehicle programming system and more, could mean that the company is preparing to fully take over the direct-to-consumer delivery and grocery space.
Search engine marketing, including local SEO and location-based Google advertising, are powerful ways to increase the visibility of your restaurant delivery service and online orders for customers when they search for terms such as “restaurants near me”, “food delivery near me”, etc. Here are some of the crucial factors that online food delivery apps, online grocery delivery services, and other e-commerce companies must recognize in order to maintain their shipping operations:. Evidently, with the evolution of technological trends, online food delivery apps and grocery delivery apps generate most of their orders through online mode and are adopting third-party delivery services to ensure fast and timely delivery. Many grocery and delivery service retailers struggled to keep up with the increase in online demand, with extended wait times for delivery and pickup.
In addition, if you opt for simpler dishes, you ensure that your menu is optimized for portability and fast delivery, which means more orders and more deliveries. Having well-organized and planned delivery services can be the best trick in the book to increase sales, revenues and generate profit margins from your food and grocery delivery services. Let’s identify the reasons why on-time delivery is important and what strategies can be followed to improve the efficiency of grocery and food delivery application services.