What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of expanding your food-based business? Certainly, restaurant and food chain owners get into business relationships with third-party food delivery apps with the hope that it will help their business grow, lure more customers, and eventually reform their small restaurant into a brand. But things aren't as easy as it seems. The involvement of third-party apps in your food-based business can do more harm than good. Instead, you should have your own online ordering app.
Here’s why:
1. Negligible Commission Rates
The first legitimate reason that doesn't support getting into business relationships with third-party apps is that they charge extremely high commission rates. This has a direct effect on small-scale businesses and new startups. Food delivery apps like UberEats, Grubhub charge up to 30% commission fees from restaurants and other food businesses, putting them in a place where they earn less profit as most of it is taken away by the third-party apps.
Another disadvantage is that it also affects the relationship with the customers because they too pay high delivery charges on their part just for a beverage or a delicious snack. To cover this up, you can introduce your own online ordering app which will not only help you save a lot of third-party commission but also attract loyal customers.
2. Recover your decline in dine-in customers
A research report by IBISWorld shows that in the last five years the industry growth was 104.9% mainly due to online ordering. While third-party apps may develop an illusion that they are helping you to attract new customers, these platforms can affect the number of dine-in customers majorly. People prefer ordering online anytime over dining out. Third-party food delivery apps take away all the due credit that should go to restaurants because most of the people can recall the app through which they ordered the food and not the restaurant.
While it is a personal choice of ordering online over dining out, the good news is food-based business owners can make use of this too. Loyalty programs and owning an app offering great offers and discounts to customers can be a blessing in disguise. With complete control over customers' choices, owners can increase their business by analyzing the data and improving the services.
AIPOS, the best Australian POS System, is a boon considering the competitive environment. With native app and loyalty programs along with a number of other features, you can easily increase your dine-in customers.
3. Own your customers’ buying history
Using third-party food delivery apps puts the owners in the position where they have no access to the customer database. In simple terms, it translates to the basic fact that restaurants get the order, prepare it, and hand over to the delivery guy, nothing more than that. For your food business to grow, you need to have a close relationship with your customers so that they keep coming back to you.
Customization plays an important role when it comes to marketing your product and services, and when you are associated with apps like Grubhub, UberEats, DoorDash, etc you lose complete control over the database and eventually customization. That's when having an independent online ordering app becomes a necessity. Customization opens new doors to a lot of potential customers and increases sales.
When Starbucks introduced its fully effective application, the customer engagement increased several-folds and mobile ordering helped the world's biggest coffeehouse chain to gain 20% profit on overall transactions weekly in America only, which roughly accounts for $9 million. This happened because the chain sought its own branded application and had better access to databases, choices, and preferences of customers and frequently ordered items.
4. Take Control of your Reputation
Customers generally blame restaurants when they get soiled packaging or soggy food. Seldom is the case when they reach out to third-party apps and confront them for their poor services. This leaves a terrible impression of your restaurant on the minds of the customers. And you can't do anything because you don't have control over the delivery part. With your own mobile app, you get complete control and can manage everything, from the staff to the delivery so that the food reaches safely to the consumers. Thus, you get full access to almost everything concerned with your food-based business.
5. Build Your Own Brand Image
70% of the consumers around the world prefer using restaurant’s own mobile app rather than the third-party food delivery apps, mentions a report by Hospitality Tech. As mentioned, third-party food delivery services create an illusion that they are marketing your products but instead they are the ones who are getting wide recognition. Even if the food tastes delicious, there are low chances that you'll receive the due credit, mainly because people recall the app they used while ordering online. This way, the potential customers are lost, and you don't get the recognition you deserve for your brand.
Using third-party food delivery services imposes a lot of difficulties for food-based businesses but these can be shooed away by getting an online ordering app for your food-based business. AIPOS is the world's first AI-based Point Of Sale system which helps to customize the application according to the needs and gives complete access to the consumer behavior statistics on the backend. The intelligent BURP engine helps you to make real-time decisions and tracks staff performance. All this comes with a low-cost monthly subscription.
The cherry on top, it gets you the recognition you deserve in the industry!
A food-based business should never depend completely on third-party apps. It is the need of the hour to take control in your hands and learn the strategy to grow your business. Let us help you with how you can build your business, increase sales growth, and improve customer interaction all at the same time. Get in touch with us for more info.