With the ever-rising costs associated with running a restaurant, it takes a skilled approach to run a restaurant without bleeding cash. One way to cut costs is to reduce the dependence on third-party aggregators for all your delivery orders since they charge a hefty commission fee. Although, they offer your restaurant more reach in terms of the number of orders coming through those platforms. Joined by the fact that the majority of the customers are now at home and have no intention to cook food. New restaurants can benefit from these applications since they extend an unmatched range in terms of visibility. As the restaurant grows, it might be wise to slowly build a unique brand for themselves and not depend upon third-party aggregators for their survival.
The reason why third-party aggregators are popular is because of the choices they give to customers. Customers are indecisive and, they want to try something new for the first time. Hence it makes sense for a small size restaurant that does not have a delivery team in place to partner up with these third-party aggregators. The main downside of using these applications is that they charge anywhere from 20 to 30% in commission charges that might be too much for the restaurant owner. With all said and done how do you encourage customers to order from your own restaurant's online ordering system.
Initially, it would be wise not to cut out the third-party aggregators completely. You can leverage their services by placing an advertisement pamphlet along with the food that is to be delivered to the customer. This advertisement can have an opening offer for your online ordering website combined with it as an incentive to the customer to order from your restaurant's website.
The other way you can promote your restaurant's online ordering website is through social media marketing campaigns. By taking into consideration, a sizeable budget, you can market your website on social media which, in turn, will offer more reach to potential customers. By doing so you open the doors to more customers knowing about your website and order from it.
Once you have processed some initial orders on the website you can use the data collected from the customers to know their preferences and what they are ordering. Using this, you can create another campaign and target customers whose details you have on your database. In the long run, you can aim to achieve the bulk of your delivery orders from your website for you to be profitable.
The advantages of having your own restaurant online ordering system are many. The main this is it gives you control over the entire process and, you don't have to consider other factors. The main reason why items on third-party aggregators are overpriced is due to the commission that is to be paid to them. Without the dependence on them, pricing can be independent and more affordable to the customer. There are times when a sudden influx of orders cannot be processed due to unforeseen reasons. It could have been avoided if the restaurant had control over the ordering platform and choosing to pause online ordering while dealing with a large backlog of orders. You have all the data in your hands which, can be used for marketing and campaign purposes.
Check out our upcoming article for a detailed description of an online ordering website for your restaurant.
If you liked this article, check out some of our other articles. If you need more information, feel free to contact us. We also have other solutions like Contactless Food Ordering for Dine-In customers and Inventory Management System for all restaurants
, DiNAMIC
17th May 2021