Ordering food on online portals
In recent years, restaurants very often use modern solutions that allow them to increase sales. Among such solutions, there are undoubtedly portals that allow you to place orders online in restaurants. However, this has its pros and cons. On the one hand, there is an opportunity to increase sales through online orders, but at the same time the restaurant becomes mainly a food supplier, one could say the point of serving meals. In the interview, the owner of one of the Kielce restaurants and at the same time a consultant in a large IT company implementing food ordering systems in restaurants, we heard:
When ordering food online, the atmosphere in the restaurant, the decor, service, and even the location of the restaurant become irrelevant, instead the issue of price, delivery time and available promotions becomes more important. This is especially discouraging for restaurants that put a lot of work, money and often just hearts into the arrangement and decor of the restaurant. Now there are times when they are "forced" to compete with premises that were focused on quick sales from the beginning, the so-called fast-food.
Piotr Gessler, Autorska restaurant - online order
Competition in this form does not make sense, premises with an interesting design "with a climate", a good location, and the proprietary menu are rather a loser because these advantages are no longer relevant when selling on portals with the option of ordering food. In order to compete, it would be necessary to focus on other aspects and become junk food in the bad sense of the word. Of course, you can start cooperation with portals on the basis of an additional form of sale, such portals usually settle sales based on commission, so in the case of small sales, the cost will be low. But is it the only option to join the online procurement market by passively participating in platforms that have different goals, priorities and values?
Online food ordering from a restaurant website
There are several companies on the market that offer the implementation of an online food ordering system directly on the restaurant's website. Such a system is an interesting alternative to the well-known online food ordering portals. Ordering food on the restaurant's website is an ideal solution for original restaurants who want to maintain their style, atmosphere and attract customers to the premises at the same time not lagging behind in the field of online orders and the all-encompassing internet. The ordering system on the restaurant's website is basically the same functionality as on online ordering portals, the customer can view the menu, configure the dish and create an order. The whole system is supervised by the system that controls whether the data is correct, calculates prices, preparation and delivery times. It generates appropriate notifications, creates summaries and statistics enabling sales analysis. The functionality of such a system in principle is usually similar regardless of the supplier, the system basically allows you to place an order at a restaurant. The differences are visible in the appearance and applied IT solutions, in commissions and implementation costs as well as in details, and paradoxically, the details are often of crucial importance. negotiated individually, which is an additional advantage.
Which solution to choose?
Of course, there is no clear answer to this question. In the case of restaurants with a proprietary profile, decor and kitchen, focusing on customers in the premises, it is rather advisable to implement orders directly on your restaurant's own website. Fastfood restaurants definitely have a greater advantage by presenting their offer on online food ordering portals. Often, restaurants decide to implement both variants of ordering food online.