Online Ordering Revolution – Massive Growth Potential

How many times a day do you actually use your mobile phone to make a call? Now, balance that with how many times a day you use your phone to do an Internet search?

If you’re like most people, you spend more time on your mobile device looking for information than using it as a telephone.

According to several studies, restaurants are the most searched-for category on mobile phones today. This has helped spearhead the online ordering revolution.

Many restaurants worldwide have jumped on the bandwagon of online ordering. In this article, we look at the online ordering revolution and its massive growth potential.

Let’s take a look at the benefits of providing online ordering for your restaurant.

Increase Ticket Order Size

Mobile ordering allows you the flexibility of an interactive menu design. Your online, digital menu can suggest add-ons such as salad, appetizer or dessert. You can prompt users to order a larger meal size for “leftovers tomorrow.”

Online ordering can result in as much as a 20% increase in the average ticket price for most restaurants. (tweet this)

By offering online ordering you recognize the need your customers have to take a long hard look at your menu without feeling the pressure to order quickly.

You let them order in the comfort of their own homes, and they’ll be more likely to order more because they have time to peruse your menu.

Here are a few ways you can encourage the up-sell when it comes to online ordering:

• You can reward your big spenders. For example, you can encourage customers to buy a little bit more because you offer a discount or free delivery at certain price levels. Let’s say you offer free delivery at $50. This helps entice customers sitting in the $40 range to order more for the sake of convenience.
• Online ordering allows you to offer suggestions to your customers as they build their order. You can suggest appetizers, drinks, desserts, specialty breads and more.
• Suggesting add-ons is another bonus to online ordering. You can gently encourage a higher order total by highlighting inexpensive add-ons. For example, you serve Indian food. Add-ons could be naan bread and chutney. A few extra dollars spent by each customer adds up in the long run.
• Online ordering lets you cater to groups. You can provide special offers and complete menus for these groups with appetizer and desert add-ons as well as party platters. Offer special perks such as free drinks to encourage the larger order.
  

Reduce Overhead

Another huge avenue for growth potential with online ordering is your ability to reduce staffing costs.

Phone orders in your restaurant take time. This means additional staff members available to answer the phones. In addition to phone orders eating up staff time, you’ll often find order taking errors.

What’s more, your staff members are likely to forget or be uncomfortable offering additional items, so you lose your shot at the up-sell.

You can increase your daily revenue without having to change your dining room by adding additional seating. You don’t have to hire extra staff. You avoid ordering errors.

You also end up with happy customers who aren’t frustrated waiting for a staff member to answer the phone. Customers are also happier because they didn’t have to deal with a grumpy, time-crunched waitress picking up the call in-between tables.

Overall, online ordering reduces your overhead and leads to more content customers. (tweet this)

Give Your Customers Freedom

Millennials want to be free to do what they want when they want it. They are highly protective of their time and don’t want to waste it waiting for food.

It’s all about instant gratification, and your online ordering options provide that for Millennials.

This group of the population wants everything quickly. They don’t want to come into your restaurant, order and wait to take it home.

They relish the idea of online ordering and then dropping by when it’s convenient for them to quickly pick it up.

And, it’s not just Millennials who appreciate this kind of service. Young and old, millions of people feel the same way. Blame it on the digital age, but today’s diners want the convenience of online ordering and fast pick-up or delivery.

Leverage Email Marketing

Using email marketing in tandem with online ordering provides you with massive growth potential.

Before online ordering, you might send an email with or without a coupon and then wait for the customer to show up at your door.

Once you implement online ordering, you can send an email to your customers and include an order now call to action to encourage your customers to order from your restaurant.

Online ordering enables more people to enjoy your restaurant on their own time. And, it allows you the ability to leverage email marketing to reach your customers on their phones or computers where they are immediately able to order a meal.

Build Customer Loyalty

You’ll increase customer loyalty and trust through online ordering which in turn provides you with growth potential.

Giving your customers an easy to use online ordering service helps you meet their needs and keep them coming back more often.

Since your customers spend hours on their mobile phones, you can tap right into those customers through your website and online ordering system.

You build customer loyalty by allowing customers to order when they want and on whatever device they choose. This also helps keep your restaurant top of mind when the stomach begins to rumble.

Final Thoughts

Online ordering equals instant gratification.

Why? One study shows that more than two-thirds of customers order food online using their mobile device. It’s fast, it’s convenient, and it’s easy.

Many restaurants find that online ordering is becoming a big driver of revenue, and it’s responsible for an increase in sales.

This is because your customers will spend more and visit your restaurant more often when they can order your food online or on their mobile phones.

If you’d like to send your restaurant business into over-drive, add online ordering capabilities to your website today. Don’t forget to make a plan for how to handle the massive amounts of orders as they flow in.

You might find that a dedicated to-go door works well to move your traffic flow and provide an easy way for to-go customers to pick up their online orders while keeping your front doors free for dine-in guests.

Do you have a dynamic menu on your website that can handle online ordering? At Restaurant Engine, we build responsive, mobile-friendly restaurant websites that incorporate menus that intrigue and tantalize your online ordering customers.

Contact us today for your free website consultation. We’d are here to help you stand out in the crowd and stay ahead of your competition with your restaurant website.

Images:  Lauren Manke and Cel Lisboa