Too many ordering platforms & not enough profit

Over the last year we have seen a huge increase in the number of ‘ordering platforms’ that all aim to provide a one-stop-shop for people to order their favourite takeaway.

The result is a local takeaway can now be on 3 major platforms (Just-Eat, Deliveroo & UberEats) as well as 4 or 5 local or small-scale services like Food Hub, local Eats, Feed Me online and several others. 

All these services, list your business with every other competitor in your area, and customers get to pick where they want to order from.  The result is you lose your customer to the ordering platform, and they now receive regular marketing about your competition as much, if not more than, your own business.

The overall effect on orders can be a marginal increase in quantity, but the reality is you will be giving away anything from 5-30% of the order value on your regular customer orders, that would happily order direct if they realised the cost of them ordering via the platforms.

We totally understand why the major platforms can be a positive for your business, although they charge up to 30% of the order value, they can bring you brand new customers and even deliver the food for you, so overall they should be able to add value to your business.  

But the smaller more localised platforms are not able to compete on the same level, so instead they are targeting your regular customers, the people already ordering direct or over the phone, so really you are just shifting existing orders to a different provider, and probably increasing your costs and reducing your profits.

The other downside to having as many as 7 or 8 different platforms is you could end up with your front desk looking like an outlet of Curry’s, with 8 tablets and printers or a myriad of terminals, creating more headaches with different receipt layouts, chargers and various sizes and types of paper to keep in stock.

At App4 we can simplify everything for you, instead of going on the local and small-scale platforms get your own App & Online ordering that provides the same great features as the major services, like quick payment with Apple & Google Pay, re-order your favourite meals and place an order without having to create an account or tell us your life story.

On top of this we will then help you market your business and online ordering to your local area via google and social media, to get new customers and to ensure your regular customers are ordering directly so you’re not giving away a huge percentage on every order.

And to make it even easier, we can even link to your Just-Eat, Deliveroo & UberEats accounts so all your orders come to one place, so you can accept and print the orders in one format, to make life as easy as possible for your staff.

So, stop giving your customers away to the competition, reduce your reliance on the major platforms, and simplify your ordering process and get App4 to provide you with the best solution for your online ordering.  Call us on 01332 418 573 or click here for a callback.