S4D, the innovative restaurant and order management software platform explains the potential for accelerated growth for British restaurant chains when switching to omnichannel cloud-based software.
Delivery service used to be a nice-to-have for restaurants. By now, it became imperative to meet customer expectations. That counts especially for restaurant chains and franchises as they are competing for market share.
In the past year, the UK’s online food ordering and delivery industry increased faster than the economy overall. However currently, it is not restaurants that benefit the most from the trend.
Third-party delivery platforms such as UberEats, Just Eat Takeaway, and Deliveroo are the main players in the online delivery market and are especially active in urban areas. The tech companies are backed by huge investment power to engage in marketing campaigns and to invest in easy-to-use order experiences for consumers. For the service, they charge restaurants margins of up to 30% for orders placed through the platform.
That is why at this year’s Takeaway and Restaurant Innovation Expo in London, Benjamin Kool, CEO of S4D, was invited to discuss how Londoner restaurant chains can leverage food delivery and generate higher profit margins.
Website and mobile app act as digital direct order channels
Independent research shows that 63% of customers want to order directly from restaurants vs only 18% from third-party, while the rest remain indecisive. That is why the first step to leveraging delivery is for restaurant owners to establish direct sales channels for online ordering. The focus on online order channels is higher than ever and with their easy-to-use apps, third-party delivery providers set the standard.
Restaurants should therefore find a software partner that can set up a website as their online web shop in the branding of the restaurant as well as a mobile app that matches the standard of delivery platforms. In a fast-paced and digital environment like London, going digital in addition to offline order channels is key to reaching more customers.
Clear benefits motivate consumers to order directly from restaurants
Restaurants should provide clear benefits to order directly from their sales channels and establish a direct relationship with customers. Restaurant owners have several tools to make customers want to order directly from them in the highly competitive food delivery market of London.
- Own delivery equals increased food quality. Drivers of restaurant-owned fleets have a bigger incentive to deliver the orders with care than to deliver with speed as usually there is no commission involved. This leads to better food and service quality ultimately resulting in higher customer satisfaction.
- Monetary incentives, such as promotions, discounts, and free delivery when ordering directly attract more customers and increase their order frequency. Especially in times of recession coupons are a method to reach customers when budgets are tight.
- A digital loyalty or reward program is the glue to strengthen the customer relationship. Customers who are part of a loyalty program order up to 4 times more frequently than non-loyalty members. Especially in high-cost and dense cities such as London where consumers have plenty of food choices and low barriers to switching after a costly or bad order experience these are even more relevant.
- Restaurants should be aware of the power of information sharing. Delivery status and GPS driver tracking should better be kept from third-party providers. Instead, restaurants can share this valuable information with customers when ordering from direct sales channels. Being able to track every step of the order journey online is a service that busy London consumers demand in the competitive landscape.
UI and UX partnership for a cost-efficient path to competitive online sales channels
Most problematic for many restaurant owners is the last step to leveraging the online delivery market. As mentioned UberEats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat Takeaway continuously invest to offer the best UI and UX. This is to make online ordering easy fun, and quick.
Restaurant owners need to be aware that the expectations of customers coming to the website and app are to enjoy a similar experience. As UX and UI expertise is far outside of the core restaurant business and connected with huge investment costs, website and app optimization should be handled by a specialized partner. There are dedicated software companies that can test, manage and focus on the improvement of the website and mobile app of restaurant chains to have a competitive order experience. Choosing a less experienced partner or a restaurant software provider with an e-commerce focus will show quickly in a low respectively high conversion rate.
Cloud-based software is key to competitiveness for restaurant chains
London is a constantly evolving city. New technologies, new restaurants, and new consumer preferences are the daily reality of the urban population living in the economic heart of England. Benjamin Kool explains that this is a big challenge, especially for restaurant chain owners and franchise owners who manage complex business structures. That is why chains need a scalable software partner that can help to set up, promote and optimize direct order channels but also brings the flexibility to innovate with changing technology and consumer demand. Having a partnership with a specialized software company is the most cost-efficient way to compete with technologically advanced third-party delivery providers.
Cloud-based restaurant management systems bring flexibility, scalability, and actionable data to the restaurant chain industry. Updates can be processed automatically and hardware independence removes the burden of expensive device purchases. Plus, when choosing a true all-in-one point-of-sales system, restaurant chains avoid time-consuming repetitive menu management, dealing with multiple providers, and risking losing data insights. This makes setting up competitive order channels and promoting them as easy as it should be.
Benjamin Kool’s participation in the Londoner Takeaway & Restaurant Innovation Expo 2022 demonstrated the growing relevance of the S4D omnichannel operating system. The system is designed to help specifically restaurant chains to stay agile and flexible in the urban race for the biggest piece of the online food delivery market.
