How To Set Up An Online Food Ordering System?

Introduction

The online food ordering system has become a crucial support system for restaurants. Over time it has become difficult to ignore the benefits of a food delivery system. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, customers were opting for an online food delivery system to treat their taste buds.

The National Restaurants Association has estimated that in October 2019, most food services and restaurants were making 60% of their revenue from taking outs, delivery, and drive-through services.

With most food services and restaurants being forced to offer off-premise due to the current situation, restaurant owners are forced to think differently. It has been estimated that there has been a significant fall of 68% in the dine-in revenue.

As we move our lives towards the digital platform, consumers are now expecting restaurants to create food ordering apps to get the items. If you have not joined the online food ordering system yet for your restaurants, you miss out on the profitable options of growing your food business exponentially.

When you create a food delivery app, by adopting this new technology as a restaurant or food service provider, you simplify the lives of your patrons.

You are also ensuring the sustainability of your business, mainly amidst the turmoil and unpredictable market, while staying ahead of your competitors.

However, when choosing to build your own food delivery app comes into question, you have to consider quite a few things. Most importantly, creating an app that can reach the right people, be on the right platform, and stay relevant in the market.

Steps to set up an online food ordering system.

Irrespective of the situation in the world, one fact remains constant: people will eat—moreover, the opportunity to have good food without having the burden to cook. With the COVID-19 situation in the play, while people are being forced to stay inside, developing a restaurant online ordering system has proved to be a rewarding decision.

It has been estimated that 34% of online customers spend a minimum of $50 per order when they place online food orders at restaurants.

In the present situation, to stay in business, many restaurants invest in food delivery application development to keep their customers satisfied. So, suppose you are in the business and looking for ways to maintain your restaurant or food service income. In that case, it is time for you to empower your business with food ordering app development.

Primarily there are three ways to set up a restaurant online ordering system.  

1. Build a restaurant website of your own using a website builder that will cater to your needs. You can also use WordPress to create the website of your restaurant and make a restaurant app. Use a third-party app for the ordering of the food from your restaurants like Uber Eats and Grubhub.
2. Use a third-party restaurant online ordering platform like Yelo from JungleWorks.

This section will discuss each of these three ways you can create a restaurant app to grow your service and reach out to more customers- 

Build a restaurant website of your own

Before you jump into developing a food delivery system of your own for your restaurant or food service, there are three crucial points that you need to consider. 

1. What Do you Need: You need to have a stable internet connection, a platform for developing a restaurant management system website. A Team that can deal with the online orders as they come through. 
2. How to Set It Up: You can use WordPress or another website builder to make the restaurant website. Keep it updated with the new specials and menus. Also, ensure that you have set up the payment and delivery options correctly before launching the website. 
3. How much will you be spending: Typically, if you create a food ordering website exclusively for your service, you can build it for free. But to get the best results, you can be looking at spending $6 to $40 per month.

Pros: Benefits of having your website enables you to keep the process entirely in-house. Your customers can order directly from you while you are in total control of the profits. It also allows you to establish direct contact with your customers, thus offering them personalized services.

Cons: You have to do all the work, i.e., from organizing the delivery to managing the payments.

Third-party food delivery app development.

Third-party food delivery apps that many restaurants and food services often use to deliver their items to their customers are like UberEats or GrubHub. Typically, it works via an app on which the customer uses to place the order. The app then forwards the order to the concerned restaurant (you). Once the order is ready, you notify the delivery service, who finally takes the order to the customer.

To avail of this third-party online food ordering software, you would need to think over the following:

1. What Do You Need: Offer the necessary information to the third-party food delivery dispatch software, like the restaurant’s location, type of cuisine, pricing, the approximate number of orders you take weekly, etc. All these need to be provided in the sign-up form. 
2. How to Set It Up: Setting it up is easy. All you have to do is download the application, fill out the required section with your restaurant’s details, and you are good to go. 
3. How Much Will You Be Spending: With these third-party food delivery apps, you do not have to pay any upfront cost. However, for each transaction via the app, they take a percentage. 

Pros: There’s no reason for you to think about the deliveries. It is also the easiest way to start the business by getting your food and items in front of customers. You do not have to worry about setting up the website and managing it all the time.

Cons: You have to share a percentage of your earnings with the third-party. At times there are apps such as UberEats that also change one-time activation fees. This is separate from the portion of your income they take from every order made via their app. 

Third-party restaurant management platforms like Yelo 

There are several restaurant online ordering software in the market. This is different from the third-party ordering app. That app is in integration with the POS system. The system works seamlessly as the app forwards the customer’s order directly to the POS automatically. You do not require staff to fill in the order into the system manually. To avail the benefit of restaurant delivery service software that is integrated with POS, you have to be aware of the following:

Source: Yelo

1. What do You Need: You require a third-party app like Yelo from Jungleworks along with a POS integrated app.
2. How Do You Set It Up: All you have to do is choose an integrated app like Yelo. Once that is done, you have to fill in the required details and touch with the third-party management platform. After the approval, you are all set to start. 
3. How Much Will You Be Spending: Different third-party restaurant delivery management software integrated with POS charges differently. Yelo charges as per their service, and it generally charges per month.

Pros: If you want to use several third-party apps for your service or are swamped with a bucket of orders, integrating the ordering system with POS will be convenient.

Cons: If you need to have a fixed budget when working with such an application, and is worthwhile when you have a large number of orders pouring in from different delivery applications. 

How are the likes of Yelo beneficial for your food ordering service?

Yelo from JungleWorks, as the restaurant online ordering software, you have the opportunity to revamp your sales channel. As a platform for food from the restaurant delivery system with apps like Yelo, you can generate more profit while improving the on-premise organization.

In the last few months, there has been a significant boom in software food delivery applications. It has been estimated that the market will have an immense growth of 79% in 2022. This means online food market service will reach the mark of USD 76 billion. 

Applications and platforms like Yelo are easy to use and convenient for customers.

Additionally, the restaurant order management system will enable you to:

1. Build a customer database automatically.
2. Offer a module that allows you to send SMS, emails, and other push campaigns. It can be done when the customers go online to order food.
3. The opportunity to customize services to customers with different promotions and discount offers when they order food online.
4. Offer you the opportunity for upselling and cross-selling.
5. Enable loyalty programs for existing and new customers, so they keep coming back for more.
6. Automated reviews and options to generate statistics to understand the trends and improve the service.

Conclusion

There are many food delivery app development companies in the market. With the recent development of the market, they will continue to flourish. If you are in the restaurant or food business, consider joining this online food delivery push to stay relevant in the market. To know more about how you can benefit and how Yelo can help you on this journey, contact us now.