How to take your food ordering business online with Yelo?

No matter what’s happening in the world, there’s one thing that remains constant – “people need to eat”. And what’s more, people like to eat “good food”, preferably that they haven’t had to cook themselves. Here, the online restaurants providing the food ordering online, come to their rescue.

People have now adopted the lifestyle of contactless consumable items during the pandemic, especially, food and groceries. This trend doesn’t seem to fade away now from the consumer’s routines. And thus, businesses are moving forward and taking advantage of the current situation and registering themselves online too, so that they can catch the customer’s reach and strengthen their business.

The online food ordering business:

• What describes online food ordering?
• You ain’t online yet? Here’s why you should actually give it a thought
• Top 5 online food ordering businesses in the market that are successful
• Importance of moving the business online
• 4 vital actions to launch your food ordering business online
• Major features of an online food ordering platform
• Launching the food ordering business online with Yelo: A practical solution

What describes online food ordering?

Online food ordering from restaurants is the technology that gives customers the ability to place a home delivery or a takeaway order through a restaurant’s website, applications, either on a mobile device or desktop – often with delivery included.

An online ordering platform collects all the necessary information about the order including customer info, products, payment mode, etc. It also allows a restaurant to receive and process these orders and get them delivered to the customers on time.

You ain’t online yet? Here’s why you should actually give it a thought

• A study on the online ordering systems revealed that 51% of Americans have used a food ordering & delivery service to purchase meals, and 26% order at least once a week.  
• Even when COVID-19 pandemic isn’t keeping everyone safe outside or even at home, having a food ordering business online is indeed a profitable decision. 34% of consumers say they spend at least $50 per order when ordering online.
• Research by the National Restaurant Association shows, that for nearly 1/3rd of all adults and 41% of people aged 18 to 34, the availability of technology options is an important factor when choosing restaurants.
• In the recent era, customers have come to expect that food ordering & delivery will be trouble-free, available at all hours, and at their fingertips. The online food ordering business overall was worth $5 billion for the first two quarters of 2018 alone, and some experts predict that the food delivery market could be valued at $365 billion by 2030. 

Top 5 online food ordering businesses in the market that are successful

• Zomato: It is an Indian multinational restaurant aggregator and food delivery company. It was founded by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah in 2008. Zomato provides information, menus and user-reviews of restaurants as well as food delivery options from partner restaurants in selected cities. Estimated revenue figure is around US$ 350 million.
• UberEats: It is an online food ordering and delivery platform launched by Uber in 2014. Users can read menus, reviews and ratings, order, and pay for food from participating restaurants. Estimated revenue figure is around US$ 2.51 billion.

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• FoodPanda: It is an online food and grocery delivery platform brand owned by Delivery Hero. It is headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Today, foodpanda operates as the lead brand for Delivery Hero in Asia, with its headquarters in Singapore. 
• Swiggy: It is India’s largest online food ordering and delivery platform, founded in 2014. Swiggy is based in Bangalore, India, and as of March 2019, was operating in 100 Indian cities. Estimated revenue figure is around US$ 390 million.
• Grubhub: Grubhub Inc. is an American online and mobile prepared food ordering and delivery platform owned by Just Eat Takeaway. It connects diners with local restaurants. The company is based in Chicago, Illinois and was founded in 2004. Estimated revenue figure is around US$ 1.31 billion.

Importance of moving the business online

• Inclination of customers towards online orders: As the reports say, the average online ordering check size is 23% larger than in-store checks make it a significantly more profitable endeavour if you are able to implement it effectively.
• Increased Demand: 33% of consumers say they’re getting more takeout than before the pandemic as the limited options for what people can currently do is leading them to purchase food with more regularity from online vendors.
• Efficient ordering and paying: You can make your customers order online smoothly and pay the way they want to. Online payments or COD, allow your customers to pay as per their convenience. Online platforms would also allow you to facilitate cashless transactions and track daily transactions too.
• Better customer experience and support: While giving the best food to your customers, you surely want to have their feedback and even complaints entertained. The online platform makes it easier for you to check the customer queries and respond to them in very less time.

4 vital actions to launch your food ordering business online

• Plan: It involves “What to consider before you begin accepting online orders” and includes the following list:
  • Who is your target audience? 
  • How will you adjust your menu according to the consumers?
  • How will you accept orders?
  • What about delivery?
  • How will you market your restaurant online?
• Launch: It involves “Get your food ordering menu online” and includes the following list:
  • Register your business as a restaurant with a hyperlocal platform.
  • Launch your own brand through a D2C platform.
• Growth: It involves “Improve your online delivery service” and includes the following list:
  • Expand your delivery radius.
  • Expand your menu with time.
• Support: It involves “Keep your customers happy and coming back for more” and includes the following list:
  • Customer Feedback.
  • Maintaining a healthy relationship with potential customers.

Major features of an online food ordering platform

Customers-

• Maintain profiles: The customer website and applications should enable the users to create their profiles on the app which would offer a rich and seamless experience.
• Search types/categories: You and your restaurant are just a click away from your customers. Customers can put in their location and then search for the desired food with an elastic search functionality.
• Multiple modes of payment: Allow your customers to make payments as they wish. Cash, Credit card, Debit card, UPIs and what not? Take the payments from the customers during checkout of order or after the delivery of the order.
• Track order: Real-time tracking of the delivery agent on a map allows the customers to keep track of their order along with their delivery agent details.
• Order history: Sometimes, you would like to have the same food or dish you had last night or last week. With the order history feature, you can view previous orders and repeat orders with one tap or click.
• Review And Ratings: Customers can express their gratitude by rating the restaurant and the delivery agent through the star rating functionality within the app and also, provide feedback and reviews.

Food Ordering Business Owners-

• Manage catalog: Keep hygienic management track of your catalog, categories and food items and update them timely to keep it with the latest standards anytime without any hustle.
• Order management and notifications: Simple way to manage incoming orders, filter them by status and receive relevant notifications reduces manual work by 70%.
• Manage prices and inventory: Easy management of food item prices and their inventory.
• Discounts, Marketing and Promotions: Enable your sales occasionally or generally through attractive discounts and promotions.
• Reports and Analytics: Real-time tracking of numbers and figures on a daily or weekly basis is most important to analyse what you’re doing. Filter the data and download the reports easily.

Delivery agents-

• Quick Order Notification: As soon as the order is placed, the delivery agent gets onto the application in seconds to ensure the quick ETAs.
• Complete Delivery Information: Agents can view all the customer and order details needed to fulfil a seamless delivery.
• Share Availability: Easy management of shifts and schedules make the order assignments more efficient.
• Real-Time Navigation: Head towards the restaurant and to the customer’s address through Google maps navigation to ensure fastest delivery.
• Track Earning & Performance: Swift way to check the daily earning report and ratings.

Launching the food ordering business online with Yelo: A practical solution

If you are worried about hiring a developer to get your business online and get a food delivery system developed and designed, then change your thoughts and be smarter today! Exactly zero codings and in no time set up your own SaaS food delivery business and be ready to excel in your business.

With Yelo, you can have the best app features that every on-demand food delivery software should have. Through your own food ordering business, you may help society with social separation while also increasing your profits as you supply food during the COVID-19 outbreak, safely.

• Quick And Easy To Brand: Customizable and fully-responsive mobile apps and websites that allow customer ordering on the go.
• Advanced and Robust: Robust inventory management that ensures you’re never out of food items that are on-demand at a given time.
• Attractive customer interface: Stunning software themes that can be modified as per your requirements.
• Online Payments: Safe and secure payment process that includes over 100 external payment gateways from around the world.

Contact us today if you’d like to address the needs of your community by starting your own food ordering business with Yelo. Book a free demo now!