6 Ways to Grow Your Restaurant’s Online Food Delivery Orders
Published February 3rd, 2022
It is well known fact that online food delivery has been booming since the spring of 2020. Here are a few nuggets of knowledge that provide an excellent overview of the current and future of the online food ordering and delivery market:
- Over half of adults now say that purchasing takeout and delivery is essential to the way they live
- Online food delivery revenue is expected to grow by over 9% each year between 2022-2026
- By 2025 30% of all restaurant orders will be placed through digital sales channels
- 42% of restaurant operators say they have added delivery services since the spring of 2020
It is quite clear to everyone involved in the restaurant world that digital ordering, and consuming a wide variety of restaurant food at home, is now the norm. This is an expanding sales avenue that cannot be ignored.
With the online food delivery market expected to exceed 9% growth in each of the next 5 years, many restaurant operators are wondering how they can get a slice of this digital revenue pie. Which online food ordering services can a venue, or restaurant group, add to their arsenal to enhance their ability to take advantage of this societal shift toward online ordering?
Integrate with Order with Google
Google processes over 1 billion restaurant related searches every month, and in 2019 they released Order with Google. Order with Google is an online food ordering system for restaurants that is built directly into a venue’s Google My Business results, alongside their reviews, images and menus. Meaning that, in one click, a customer can order right from the Google search results page.
Order with Google provides a simple cost model to restaurants, whilst providing users with an easy to use and recognizable interface that they will be confident using to order food online. The “Order Food” button can also be found on a restaurant’s Google Maps result, and Google Maps is used by more than ⅔ of the nation’s map users. A restaurant opening themselves up to this audience can easily have a positive impact on their online food delivery order.
Integrating with Order with Google not only means that customers who find a venue via Google My Business can place an order for pickup or delivery both quickly and conveniently, but it also means that digital orders go straight through the venues POS system and into the kitchen. This removes the human, error inducing, element associated with phone-in orders that also saves on staffing and food costs.
Google processes over 1 billion restaurant related searches every month, and in 2019 they released Order with Google. Order with Google is an online food ordering system for restaurants that is built directly into a venue’s Google My Business results, alongside their reviews, images and menus. Meaning that, in one click, a customer can order right from the Google search results page.
Order with Google provides a simple cost model to restaurants, whilst providing users with an easy to use and recognizable interface that they will be confident using to order food online. The “Order Food” button can also be found on a restaurant’s Google Maps result, and Google Maps is used by more than ⅔ of the nation’s map users. A restaurant opening themselves up to this audience can easily have a positive impact on their online food delivery order.
Integrating with Order with Google not only means that customers who find a venue via Google My Business can place an order for pickup or delivery both quickly and conveniently, but it also means that digital orders go straight through the venues POS system and into the kitchen. This removes the human, error inducing, element associated with phone-in orders that also saves on staffing and food costs.
Google processes over 1 billion restaurant related searches every month, and in 2019 they released Order with Google. Order with Google is an online food ordering system for restaurants that is built directly into a venue’s Google My Business results, alongside their reviews, images and menus. Meaning that, in one click, a customer can order right from the Google search results page.
Order with Google provides a simple cost model to restaurants, whilst providing users with an easy to use and recognizable interface that they will be confident using to order food online. The “Order Food” button can also be found on a restaurant’s Google Maps result, and Google Maps is used by more than ⅔ of the nation’s map users. A restaurant opening themselves up to this audience can easily have a positive impact on their online food delivery order.
Integrating with Order with Google not only means that customers who find a venue via Google My Business can place an order for pickup or delivery both quickly and conveniently, but it also means that digital orders go straight through the venues POS system and into the kitchen. This removes the human, error inducing, element associated with phone-in orders that also saves on staffing and food costs.
Website Ordering Platform
77% of diners visit a restaurant’s website before deciding to place a food order. So giving them the opportunity right there on the website seems like a no-brainer. Today it is highly important that a restaurant’s website is user friendly and visually appealing. This is especially true for a website’s mobile version, with 72% of food and beverage related searches being made from mobile devices.
The convenience of website ordering as an online food delivery system cannot be understated in today’s digitally orientated world. 94% of diners say that reading a restaurant’s reviews influences their ordering decision. This underlines the importance of managers owning their venue’s presence on review sites and linking out to their website where users can then easily and conveniently place a food order.
77% of diners visit a restaurant’s website before deciding to place a food order. So giving them the opportunity right there on the website seems like a no-brainer. Today it is highly important that a restaurant’s website is user friendly and visually appealing. This is especially true for a website’s mobile version, with 72% of food and beverage related searches being made from mobile devices.
The convenience of website ordering as an online food delivery system cannot be understated in today’s digitally orientated world. 94% of diners say that reading a restaurant’s reviews influences their ordering decision. This underlines the importance of managers owning their venue’s presence on review sites and linking out to their website where users can then easily and conveniently place a food order.
77% of diners visit a restaurant’s website before deciding to place a food order. So giving them the opportunity right there on the website seems like a no-brainer. Today it is highly important that a restaurant’s website is user friendly and visually appealing. This is especially true for a website’s mobile version, with 72% of food and beverage related searches being made from mobile devices.
The convenience of website ordering as an online food delivery system cannot be understated in today’s digitally orientated world. 94% of diners say that reading a restaurant’s reviews influences their ordering decision. This underlines the importance of managers owning their venue’s presence on review sites and linking out to their website where users can then easily and conveniently place a food order.
Branded Mobile App
Having a branded mobile app for a venue comes with multiple benefits:
- It removes the venue from the clutter of 3rd party order and delivery platforms
- It gives the proprietor freedom of design
- It is instantly editable (for both the removal and addition of items)
- It can be used to send notifications to users: customized by both content and time
- It helps to increase customer loyalty
- It allows users to easily reorder previous orders
70% of customers would prefer to order directly with a restaurant instead of a 3rd party. Combine this fact with the knowledge that branded apps increase customer loyalty (with branded app users ordering up to 2x as often as on other platforms) and it is easy to see why offering a branded app can increase a restaurant’s online food delivery orders.
Having a branded mobile app for a venue comes with multiple benefits:
- It removes the venue from the clutter of 3rd party order and delivery platforms
- It gives the proprietor freedom of design
- It is instantly editable (for both the removal and addition of items)
- It can be used to send notifications to users: customized by both content and time
- It helps to increase customer loyalty
- It allows users to easily reorder previous orders
70% of customers would prefer to order directly with a restaurant instead of a 3rd party. Combine this fact with the knowledge that branded apps increase customer loyalty (with branded app users ordering up to 2x as often as on other platforms) and it is easy to see why offering a branded app can increase a restaurant’s online food delivery orders.
Having a branded mobile app for a venue comes with multiple benefits:
- It removes the venue from the clutter of 3rd party order and delivery platforms
- It gives the proprietor freedom of design
- It is instantly editable (for both the removal and addition of items)
- It can be used to send notifications to users: customized by both content and time
- It helps to increase customer loyalty
- It allows users to easily reorder previous orders
70% of customers would prefer to order directly with a restaurant instead of a 3rd party. Combine this fact with the knowledge that branded apps increase customer loyalty (with branded app users ordering up to 2x as often as on other platforms) and it is easy to see why offering a branded app can increase a restaurant’s online food delivery orders.
Loyalty Program
Members of a loyalty program will spend almost twice as much as their non-loyalty member counterparts, and some reports have found that increasing customer loyalty by just 5% can increase profits by up to 95%. Loyalty programs should be incorporated into all restaurant delivery systems, as well as dine-in services. It could be as simple as using dynamic QR Codes on packaging or other customer touchpoints to get customers to sign up for a loyalty program. Doing this almost always has a positive impact on a restaurant’s digital delivery orders.
Before 2020, in a NRN survey, 45% of respondents said that offering mobile ordering or loyalty programs would encourage them to use online ordering systems more often. It is important that a venue’s loyalty program is not generic and can be programed, through the use of data analytics, to suit the venue’s offerings and even the customers themselves.
Members of a loyalty program will spend almost twice as much as their non-loyalty member counterparts, and some reports have found that increasing customer loyalty by just 5% can increase profits by up to 95%. Loyalty programs should be incorporated into all restaurant delivery systems, as well as dine-in services. It could be as simple as using dynamic QR Codes on packaging or other customer touchpoints to get customers to sign up for a loyalty program. Doing this almost always has a positive impact on a restaurant’s digital delivery orders.
Before 2020, in a NRN survey, 45% of respondents said that offering mobile ordering or loyalty programs would encourage them to use online ordering systems more often. It is important that a venue’s loyalty program is not generic and can be programed, through the use of data analytics, to suit the venue’s offerings and even the customers themselves.
Members of a loyalty program will spend almost twice as much as their non-loyalty member counterparts, and some reports have found that increasing customer loyalty by just 5% can increase profits by up to 95%. Loyalty programs should be incorporated into all restaurant delivery systems, as well as dine-in services. It could be as simple as using dynamic QR Codes on packaging or other customer touchpoints to get customers to sign up for a loyalty program. Doing this almost always has a positive impact on a restaurant’s digital delivery orders.
Before 2020, in a NRN survey, 45% of respondents said that offering mobile ordering or loyalty programs would encourage them to use online ordering systems more often. It is important that a venue’s loyalty program is not generic and can be programed, through the use of data analytics, to suit the venue’s offerings and even the customers themselves.
POS Integrations
Integrating orders that come through the many channels of a restaurant’s food delivery system directly into the venue’s POS system has multiple benefits. The main one is that the ordering process is streamlined, and that this integration removes the human element from the process and thus reduces the quantity of human induced errors. This means that the customer always gets the right food and, therefore, has the best digital ordering experience possible with that restaurant. This, in turn, increases the chance that they will return and become a loyal customer.
Removing the human element by integrating orders into a POS system also means that there can be less food wasted on re-makes, which can lower a venue’s food costs by as much as a few percentage points.
Integrating orders that come through the many channels of a restaurant’s food delivery system directly into the venue’s POS system has multiple benefits. The main one is that the ordering process is streamlined, and that this integration removes the human element from the process and thus reduces the quantity of human induced errors. This means that the customer always gets the right food and, therefore, has the best digital ordering experience possible with that restaurant. This, in turn, increases the chance that they will return and become a loyal customer.
Removing the human element by integrating orders into a POS system also means that there can be less food wasted on re-makes, which can lower a venue’s food costs by as much as a few percentage points.
Integrating orders that come through the many channels of a restaurant’s food delivery system directly into the venue’s POS system has multiple benefits. The main one is that the ordering process is streamlined, and that this integration removes the human element from the process and thus reduces the quantity of human induced errors. This means that the customer always gets the right food and, therefore, has the best digital ordering experience possible with that restaurant. This, in turn, increases the chance that they will return and become a loyal customer.
Removing the human element by integrating orders into a POS system also means that there can be less food wasted on re-makes, which can lower a venue’s food costs by as much as a few percentage points.
Delivery Service
Offering a delivery service adds a whole new element, essentially a whole new business-arm, to a restaurant. Doing this requires owners and managers to learn the ins-and-outs of the laws regarding, amongst other things, the hiring, insuring, and liability of delivery drivers.
A restaurant’s food delivery system cannot exist without drivers, but there are, thankfully, last mile delivery services that remove the stress associated with managing the intricacies of a delivery service. This then allows restaurant managers to focus wholly on their venue and their product. Such 3rd party delivery services are not associated with the ordering of the food, like Grubhub and UberEats are, and often charge a substantially lower fee for the services they provide.
Offering a delivery service adds a whole new element, essentially a whole new business-arm, to a restaurant. Doing this requires owners and managers to learn the ins-and-outs of the laws regarding, amongst other things, the hiring, insuring, and liability of delivery drivers.
A restaurant’s food delivery system cannot exist without drivers, but there are, thankfully, last mile delivery services that remove the stress associated with managing the intricacies of a delivery service. This then allows restaurant managers to focus wholly on their venue and their product. Such 3rd party delivery services are not associated with the ordering of the food, like Grubhub and UberEats are, and often charge a substantially lower fee for the services they provide.
Offering a delivery service adds a whole new element, essentially a whole new business-arm, to a restaurant. Doing this requires owners and managers to learn the ins-and-outs of the laws regarding, amongst other things, the hiring, insuring, and liability of delivery drivers.
A restaurant’s food delivery system cannot exist without drivers, but there are, thankfully, last mile delivery services that remove the stress associated with managing the intricacies of a delivery service. This then allows restaurant managers to focus wholly on their venue and their product. Such 3rd party delivery services are not associated with the ordering of the food, like Grubhub and UberEats are, and often charge a substantially lower fee for the services they provide.
The Takeaway
ActiveMenus is a digital restaurant service provider that provides everything from digital food ordering systems to last mile delivery services, allowing restaurant owners and managers to focus on the things that matter to them the most inside their venue. ActiveMenus can integrate digital ordering platforms with over 40 POS systems, meaning that there’s no messing around transferring orders from an iPad, email, or printout to a POS system; a process which introduces a costly human error factor.
Reach out to us today to schedule a consultation and to learn how ActiveMenus can take your venue’s digital ordering experience to the next level for both you and your customers!
hello@activemenus.com
3902 Henderson Blvd
Tampa, FL 33629
© DeliverLogic, Inc. 2024