words Al Woods
Seeing the rapid success of third-party food ordering systems, it is not surprising that restaurateurs, like you, saw an opportunity and started thinking of creating an Uber Eats, Just Eat, and Deliveroo alternative.
As restaurateurs are known to be innovative and progressive beings, you’re always trying to turn every situation to be favorable for you and your restaurant business. It is known how effective and helpful third-party food ordering systems are, but it is also not hidden that it has its disadvantages that can put a restaurant in a bad spot.
This may be the main reason why restaurant technology developers provided solutions that enabled restaurant owners in creating their food ordering system. Learn more about creating your own restaurant food ordering system as you read along with this article.
Benefits of having own food ordering system
While there are great reasons for partnering with the top food ordering system providers, there are also helpful benefits of creating and having your food ordering alternatives. See below what are advantages it will bring to your restaurant business.
- Increase in sales – No need to commit and pay for high-commission contracts, all your revenue will fall right inside your pocket. Creating your food ordering system means all the income from your online ordering service will be yours, no commission to payout and you also control your service and delivery charge.
- Full authority over online ordering service – Partnering with third-party food ordering system providers such as Deliveroo might appear beneficial at first as they will assist and provide you everything you need for your online ordering service. But in the long run, it will take so much from your restaurant business as you don’t have much control over your online orders.
If you create your own and decide to choose food ordering alternatives, you’ll be able to have full control over your online ordering service. Starting from the interface of your platform, branding, packaging, delivery service, and even customer data you have everything under your jurisdiction.
- Lessen costs – If you’re currently trusting your online ordering service to third-party food delivery apps, then you must be paying them 15% to 35% of commission every order. That’s a huge waste especially if you’re still trying to find your footing during these uncertain times. If you have your restaurant food ordering system or app, then the only thing that will cost you every month is the maintenance costs for this solution.
Though that might even be an issue because there are providers who offer maintenance costs as part of their package. Make sure to check all the providers and see if they’re the most suitable ones for your restaurant business.
- Boost in customer engagement – Aside from the fact that you can now reach a wider customer base through your food ordering system, you can also boost your customer engagement as you now own every customer data that you capture. Through this data, you’ll be able to create different marketing and promotional tactics that are carefully targeted to your existing and potential customers.
How to create your restaurant food ordering system – A guide
- Investigate the trends of the current market – Conduct thorough market research and analysis to determine what are the changes and factors that affect the current market. It is important that you have an idea of whom and what type of target audience you’re trying to engage with.
- Choose a food delivery business model that is suitable for your budget – Keep in mind that what may work for others, may not work for you. While listening to your colleagues, staff, and even other industry experts can come in handy, it is still best if you’ll choose according to what’s best for your concept and budget. After all, you’re the one who knows your restaurant business well, therefore, you also know how to treat its needs and demands.
- Identify the objectives of your food ordering alternative – Don’t let the competition get into your head. Take control of every important business decision you’ll be making. You’re the restaurant owner, thus, you’re responsible for how it will function and operate. Once you’ve identified your objectives for your food ordering system, then you have to make sure that everyone, including your staff, will be aligned with it.
- List down the features that you want to offer – Be firm on how you want it to be, and offer your customers a service that’s authentic from you. Trying to benchmark from the industry’s finest is not a bad thing, but you also have to create your name and mark in the long run. Start with your own online ordering food delivery apps. Work with your provider or developer closely and be clear on what type of service and customer experience you want to offer through your Uber Eats, Just Eats, or Deliveroo alternative.
The functionality of food delivery apps is usually divided into three, namely customer functions, drivers functions, and management functions. It is just rational to have different types of functions depending on who’s using the online ordering system.
But here are the most basic features and functions found in a food ordering system:
- Registration and Sign In
- Search
- Order Placing
- Order Confirmation and Check Out
- Payment Processing
- Order tracking and monitoring Page
- Notifications (SMS, Email, or Push)
- Review and Rating Page.
- Customer Care Page
- Work with the right food ordering system developer – Avoid being too hasty and take your time to research these different providers. Though they are considered experts, they still work differently with others. There might be developers who will go against your chosen business model, and others might favor your concept a bit too much. Make sure that you will work with an expert that understands your vision about your restaurant business, and will be friendly to your budget as well.
Listed are the factors to determine the ideal Deliveroo alternative developer for you.
- Has an exemplary portfolio
- Has sufficient knowledge about food delivery and online ordering system
- Has outstanding skills for coding, support, and other technical matters
- Has a basic understanding of your business philosophy and goal
- Has a determination to offer support for your marketing efforts
- Has a willingness to support your social media and other online marketing campaigns
