Don’t Have Online Ordering? You Should.

Posted: November 14, 2017 | Updated: November 14, 2017

restaurant online ordering

If you’ve ever wondered if you should add online ordering capability to your retail establishment, we’re here to tell you, “Yes, you should.” It’s a no-brainer really. While we’ll get into more particular reasons why in the following discussion, there’s one very basic reason merchants should provide this option for customers – because they expect it. Like it or not, we now live in an Internet world, and those who don’t accept that reality are likely to join the roll call of failed businesses.

Expanded Customer Base

Ask yourself this: “Would I rather have fewer customers at my business or more?” Hopefully, you answered the latter. Online ordering, especially when it comes to restaurants who offer pick-up or delivery options, can greatly expand the number of people who decide to do business with you. As an example, let’s think about pizza. Sometimes the prospect even of making a simple trip to the local pizza pie slinger is too much to contemplate. Embarrassingly, I have actually opted to order pizza I enjoy less because they had an app that made it much easier to get an order in. That’s the power of online ordering, and that’s why you need to have it. Even if you make the best NY style pizza in town, Domino’s is still stealing your business because they have online ordering and you don’t.

What if you could shave minutes off your customers ordering experience? Think your customers would like that and tell their friends how easy it was to place an order? You bet they would! And the signs promoting your new ordering system would attract repeat customers like crazy! This is the kind of convenience that would help local restaurants compete with the name brands that implemented the ability to order online a long time ago.

Beyond attracting more business, the online ordering system in automated meaning you don’t have to hire staff to handle the increased business. The orders that come through the online ordering system cost you less overhead, employees prepare food and get it out the door rather than taking orders. The overall process is much more efficient.

The Wonderful World of Analytics

In today’s frantically competitive world, statistics often stands between a business and profit. When customers can place an order online it allows you to easily collect more precise data than through a traditional point of sale interaction. That means identifying your customer demographics so that you can target more business through advertising. Need a boost in sales? You can utilize your list of previous online customers and send promotional offers that will increase business immediately! Statistically, businesses that collect, analyze, and make decisions based on customer data are shown to increase sales by 26% in the first year.

Final Thoughts

These are only a few of the plethora of reasons for merchants to get an online ordering system up and going sooner rather than later. As the Digital Age marches on, people will only become more insistent that the businesses they choose to patronize offers a robust online presence.

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Categories: E-commerce, Emerging Trends, online ordering, Point of Sale Systems, Restaurant

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