A survey was conducted in 2019 among the restaurants who had opted for app-based online delivery for the first time or listed with on-demand food app startups. Majority of restaurants said that people nowadays are showing little interest in coming to restaurants and prefer online delivery most of the time. Needless to say that this attitude resulted in increase in sales as reported by 60% of restaurants.
Some restaurants also raised reservations about the increased commission charged by the startups.
Finally, restaurants want delivery startups to revise the charges, improve delivery time, and properly assign delivery agents.
With the evolution of new technologies, it is possible to bring an enhanced version of food ordering apps for the year 2020. Also, one should not overlook the delivery person apps when enhancing the app solution.
Even with some shortcomings, the on-demand food ordering market will grow at a staggering rate every year because of its potential to spread even in tier 2 & 3 areas.
Kitchen display system(KDS)
KDC is an information display screen present in the kitchen backend area. This device is used to get information regarding orders straight from the restaurant admin panel. In order to reduce the communication gap and fasten the delivery process KDC is of much use.
Of late many restaurants are not aware of this amazing simple tech. The latest KDC system comes with a new set functionalities; KDC can get inputs from both sides; inventory details will be displayed so as to decide on the menu. Overall efficiency will increase irrespective of the type of restaurant business model.
More ways to increase profits
Increasing the commission per order will frustrate the restaurants as I said above. And at one point when the increase in sales failed to offset the rising cost, they opt out of the service. Instead, there are more ways to make money in the future.
Try microtransactions for any new offering to earn more. For example, customization of food by the user can be charged a little extra; some fee shall be sent to the restaurant.
Another great idea to make more money is to give optional insurance to every order. The logic is to deliver free if the time is breached. If you do the calculation, you will end up with a net profit even if two orders are delivered free out of 10.
There are many such innovative ideas to earn more without affecting the core customer base.
5G network push
Latency is the time taken to exchange data packets between two devices; Lesser latency, more is the network speed. 5G is said to have the lowest latency and it is expected to be made mainstream in 2020. This can substantially improve the speed at which delivery agents are assigned and orders are approved by the restaurants.
Real-time features like estimated time of arrival(ETA) and time for food pick up will become accurate and refresh sooner so that the time lag is a thing of yesterday. Not to mention that 5G is 10 times faster than the current network technology.
Hybrid cloud approach
Cloud computing is a boon to online food ordering and businesses that handle large data. Since lots and lots of users data are involved in this service, a better way to store it is in the cloud. Cheap cloud data made it possible for many small food app startups to flourish.
Now, hybrid cloud technology has come to the fore. They are an enhanced version of the present system. More emphasis is given on security and data safety. Also, fluctuations in data transfer are effortlessly taken care of.
Scalability is another business factor that arises while expanding the service. Using hybrid cloud it is easy to scale the business with efficiency.
Even traditional restaurants shall take the first step by adopting hybrid cloud technology before completely moving to an online delivery format.
Advanced food ordering
The customer can be freely allowed to order food for a particular date and time. This is called scheduled ordering. There can be also an option for recurring orders; customers choose the start and end date, menu details, address, and time; between that date, the user will get the order delivered.
To ease the user experience, three touch food ordering can be introduced; in the drop-down list, food outlet and menu are selected; payment is done and ETA will be displayed. As simple as possible.
Users who are new to using food ordering apps shall benefit from the three touch food ordering.
Targeting millennials
Millennials don’t mind spending on good food; their spending pattern is also increasing day by day. To cover them and sustain for long, use machine learning techniques to find the tastes and menus liked by millennials; share this data with restaurants to prepare them frequently to attract young users.
Data regarding this can be gathered from the food ordering pattern accumulated over a period of time.
Wrapping up!
With a better food ordering app like ubereats clone, you will have an edge over others in 2020. Advanced technologies are at your disposal now and you have to understand and make innovative use of it.
Bring inclusive improvement covering both customers and delivery agents. Not to mention that the attrition rate of delivery agents is on the rise.