5 tools restaurants can use to accept mobile orders

Sonal Mishra
5 min readMay 5, 2019

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Owning a restaurant is much more than good food and good service. It requires specialization and upkeep with the latest technologies that can ease the whole business-customer interaction process. Moreover, the digital era has completely thrown out the traditional ways, making restaurants to have some serious thoughts about enabling online ordering not just through website portals, but also apps and social media.

Your customers are reaching out for their phones every 15 minutes. But what are they reaching out for? According to a recent survey, 80% of smartphone users use their mobile to order food online, at least 3 times a week. In fact, average tickets at fast-casual restaurants are higher for mobile orders compared to in-store sales. In addition, it was also found that 98% of online users who’ve paid a bill via mobile would like to place their orders on a smartphone or tablet, and 40% actually prefer a mobile payment over other options, especially for food delivery.

Perhaps if having a mobile ordering app for your restaurant is still on your “to-do” list, it’s time to move it to “high-priority”, because clearly, you are losing 60–70% of your business to your competitor who is offering mobile ordering to their customers.

“This new generation of consumers has an insatiable need for convenience that only technology can cure and if your restaurant is not capitalizing on these opportunities, you’re at a risk of losing potential revenue and customers you can earn.”

Increase Profit Margin for Restaurant with Mobile Ordering App

Since the advent of food online ordering system, there’s been a steady growth in both demands, as well as supply of the right solutions. Competition is soaring and to stand out in the market, restaurants are looking to invest in food ordering systems/platforms that can offer targeted solutions. While collaborating with food aggregators seems like an easy option to most QSRs and Fast-Casual Restaurants, the exorbitant fee charged by these white label service apps can make it hard to maximize the profit.

“As a restaurant owner, what if you could double your profits by capturing all of your orders internally? An order placed on your own website or a mobile app will bring in more revenue than an order placed on a 3rd party site.”

Restaurant mobile apps are popular amongst customers because of user-friendliness and convenience they offer. If you are a restaurant owner, a feature-rich and customized mobile solution for your business can offer a plethora of benefits as well as help you expand your business.

Big chains are cashing in on his trend. Starbucks is far ahead of the curve making $1.6 billion i.e 16% of their transactions through food ordering app. The same is true for other popular chains like Dominos, McDonald’s, Chilis and so on.

So what’s holding your restaurant back? We have shortlisted 5 noteworthy online food ordering mobile app platforms so you can start capitalizing on all of the benefits this trend holds for your restaurant.

5 Mobile Ordering Platforms You Can Use to Boost Your Restaurant’s Business

Restolabs

Restolabs is a fully featured online food ordering platform that seamlessly integrates a restaurant’s website and mobile app, making your business accessible at all times, on all devices. This allows your customers to browse, order and pay quickly and easily. The system even allows payment online, so there’s one less thing your front desk staff has to worry about.

It also offers marketing features for promotions such as targeted menu ads, along with social media integrations that allow consumers to order directly through a restaurant’s Facebook page. In addition, they’ll build you custom iPhone and Android apps completely customized to your restaurant brand including logo, color scheme, banners, images, and more!

ChowNow

ChowNow has become an all-in-one solution for restaurants, offering customers a white-labeled branded experience, with mobile ordering apps enabling customers to place orders using their smartphones, tablets, and other handheld devices. With Chow Now, you can also set delivery zones, send push notifications for special offers and make quick changes to your menu.

All information related to customers such as order frequencies, average ticket sizes, and peak order times can be accessed from the app itself, giving you a quick insight to the ongoing trend of online ordering on your platform.

Olo

If you have more than 10 restaurants, Olo could be your choice for mobile ordering requirement. Restaurants can either choose to direct their customers to Olo’s website and mobile apps to place orders or directly integrate Olo’s online food ordering technology into their own website and application. The platform allows you to track behavioral data directly from the administrative dashboards. In addition, features like auto-suggested recommendations, upselling tools, and payment preference options make it a good deal for those looking for robust marketing solutions. What makes it stand apart is that Olo provides delivery component and custom pricing that add to the restaurant’s convenience.

Zuppler

Zuppler’s mobile ordering technology seamlessly integrates into a restaurant’s existing website, mobile app and social channels. It lets you accept payments online and explore new channels so you can increase sales for your restaurant.

In addition to basic features, the online menus are pulled directly from Upserve POS system; and any changes made to the existing POS system automatically sync with the Online Ordering dashboard. The platform also supports loyalty integrations, visual ordering, omnichannel support, and marketing services to help restaurants boost ordering volume.

AllSet

Allset isn’t your traditional mobile ordering platform, but a mobile pre-ordering for faster table turnover. It fills the gap left by food delivery and table reservation services by offering a unique value proposition where users can reserve a table, select their dish and pay in advance from their smartphones. By the time they arrive, their orders are prepared and ready to eat. How does it benefit restaurants? Allset drastically reduces the time between walking in and walking out, helping restaurants acquire new customers and increase table turnover. All orders are received through mobile, making the meal a faster and predictable process.

Add value to your restaurant by making online ordering easy for your customers

There are loads of advice that advocate having a mobile ordering app for restaurants. Obviously, the transition from an offline set up to online set won’t make your restaurant profitable overnight. However, by identifying your restaurant’s weak spots and implementing solutions that remedy these deficiencies, will definitely help you position your business well to cater to the new tech-savvy generation. A restaurant mobile app with cool features can significantly increase your bottom by attracting new customers and retaining the existing ones.

With a restaurant mobile ordering app, you can offer loyalty programs, location-based deals, personalized offers and much more. However, as a restaurant owner, you need to hire experts to develop a mobile ordering app. You can consult a reliable online food ordering system provider to get a customized restaurant mobile app that works best for your business.

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Sonal Mishra
Sonal Mishra

Written by Sonal Mishra

Writer | Digital Marketer | Entrepreneur. Good food and a Good Book keep me sane!

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