How to Successfully Drive Restaurant Online Ordering Sales | RPOWER Blog
Like it or not, the digital age is here, and it’s making its mark on the restaurant industry. Many consumers are looking for more ways to keep up with the changing environment, especially when it comes to food. According to a study by Nation Restaurant’s News, 60 percent of U.S. Consumers order delivery or take-out at least once a week, and a whopping 31 percent say they use third-party delivery services at least twice a week, and it’s only projected to grow from there.
In the wake of the pandemic, online ordering presents a profitable opportunity for restaurants who are able to cater to the heightened demand for convenience and cleanliness in dining. Implemented properly, it can create a new revenue stream and help you stay current with customers’ shifting expectations. Here are five tips to help you successfully drive restaurant online ordering sales.
Build a marketing strategy for online ordering.
It’s no secret that online ordering is more popular now than ever. Restaurants that offer take-out and delivery services can take advantage of this surge in demand to open additional revenue streams and increase their profit. However, in order to stand out from the many other restaurants attempting to capitalize on online ordering, a marketing strategy is crucial.
In-store messaging is essential for getting the message out about your online ordering platform, and is a good way to drive traffic to your website to place orders—especially for customers who already know and love what your restaurant offers. You can utilize the back of your receipt paper to advertise your online ordering platform and offer discounts and promotions. Additionally, it’s important to ensure that your restaurant SEO is in good shape so that you can drive search engine traffic to your restaurant website. Finally, you’ll want to create and manage social media accounts in order to promote the use of your online ordering platform to loyal fans and the broader community.
Leverage data collected from online orders.
Not only are online orders generally larger than offline orders, but they also provide valuable information about your customers. Collecting customer data from your online ordering platform can provide useful insights that help set your restaurant up for success.
By connecting this data with your point of sale system, you can see exactly who your regular customers are, what products they order the most, and what times are most popular for online orders. This info can help you deliver a better customer experience and optimize your restaurant operation. By putting your customer data to work for you, you can also create targeted and personalized promotions in order to further boost your restaurant online ordering sales.
Provide an efficient service.
It’s no surprise that your customers want to be served quickly, and there’s no exception when it comes to online ordering. Regardless of how your customers are placing their orders, providing an efficient service can help you meet and exceed customer expectations and even increase your restaurant sales. Ensure that orders are prepared on time and organized by method of fulfillment (dine in, take out, or delivery) so that they don’t get mixed up and cause delays. Additionally, you can offer curbside pickup so that customers don’t need to walk into your business to interact with multiple members of your staff, which could potentially slow down your operation.
It also helps to keep your customers informed of the estimated time until the completion of their order, whether you’re handling deliveries or takeout orders. This can help you cut down on any frustration or confusion on their part, which may negatively affect their overall experience. At the end of the day, customers just want to know how long they can expect to wait, even if wait times are long. Being able to offer this information can help you provide an excellent customer experience, which helps drive repeat online ordering.
Streamline your online ordering menu.
Just like dining in, your restaurant online ordering menu can directly affect your customers’ experience. While a properly-optimized menu can help you increase restaurant tips and boost sales, a poorly-designed one can create obstacles for your customers. Just as you would with any other menu, make sure your online ordering menu takes factors such as prep time, ingredients, and of course, profit margins into account.
You don’t necessarily need to include everything you offer in-house on your online ordering system. Some items that are popular on-site simply might not work for curbside pickup, take-out or delivery. You might want to remove menu options that don’t travel well or won’t taste good if they’ve sat in take-out packaging for an extended period of time. You can also leverage your restaurant POS system to get sales data that will help you determine which menu items perform best for online orders, and create a menu optimized for speed and profitability.
Choose a POS provider that streamlines online ordering.
The adoption of online ordering is fairly recent, but it’s not as complicated as you might think, even if you’re hesitant to go digital. By choosing a point of sale provider that integrates with online ordering platforms, managing your orders can be smoother than you ever thought possible.
RPOWER integrates directly with online ordering platforms, so when your restaurant receives an online order, it's automatically sent to the RPOWER POS system and entered into the order queue to appear on the kitchen display system (KDS). It gives you more control over your operation and prevents your kitchen from missing any online orders that come through. Plus, just like offline sales, you can optimize your menu and inventory according to ordering data so that you reduce waste and increase profits.
Final thoughts..
Online ordering is more popular than ever, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. It offers a convenient and safe way for customers to enjoy your restaurant, and can help you meet their ever-changing expectations. And with the right point of sale software that integrates directly with your platform, getting started with online ordering is easier than ever.
Discover how RPOWER’s host of integrations and partners can help your restaurant drive online ordering sales.