Monthly Archives: January 2019

What consumers look for when ordering food online

Posted on by
Reply

For restaurants, the biggest growth channel right now is online ordering. According to last year’s viral report by investment bank UBS, food delivery sales which was $35 Billion worldwide could rise at an annual average of more than 20% to $365 billion by 2030.

 

A lot of this rise is attributed to the millennial generation, which the report stated could also be killing the personal kitchen. Another report by OrderTalk backs this claim, stating that, in the US, Millennials on average used online ordering platforms 29% more than those above 45 years of age.

 

Food delivery sales, which was $35 Billion worldwide could rise at an annual average of more than 20% to $365 billion by 2030

 

If your restaurant isn’t available on online food ordering platforms, you’re losing out on a big chunk of sales today and it’s only going to get bigger. This is especially true for QSRs and Fast Casual restaurants as according to Datassential, 39% of all online orders were for Quick Service Restaurants.

 

Online ordering has been proven to increase spends as well. According to Deloitte, average online spends were upto 26% more for QSRs and 13% more for fast casual and casual restaurants.

 

So we’ve established that online ordering is essential, but how should restaurants do it, and what are consumers looking for?

 

Easy ordering experience

 

When it comes to online ordering, consumers are looking for easy experiences. First, they want the ability to carry out seamless online food ordering experience from multiple channels and devices. Restaurants today are providing consumers the ability to order from their website, mobile apps, social media through tweets and DMs, through online chatbots, wearables and even from their cars.

 

Secondly, the ordering experience needs to be easy. Menu items need to be properly detailed as upto 20% of users drop off if they have questions about the menu that weren’t answered by the website/app. The user experience must be intuitive without involving too many steps. Having the option of one-click re-ordering also makes a huge difference for returning customers.

 

Customisation and personalisation

 

Customisation of menu items has become a growing want for consumers. Upto 60% consumers wanted to customise their orders, and 21% consumers had abandoned their order because of lack of customisation options. It’s a must to have at least, as many customisation options on an online ordering platform as one would in a physical restaurant.

 

Personalisation of experience is another way through which restaurants can increase sales drastically. Storefront personalisation gives restaurants the ability to populate menu items an individual consumer is more likely to buy. Personalised recommendations and suggestive selling can also help convert more, upsell consumers and increase sales of sides. This also helps consumers feel like the business knows them, which is something millennial consumers value, making them more likely to return. According to Deloitte, upto 70% of consumers seek this.

 

Multiple delivery options

 

Once a consumer has chosen what they want to buy, the restaurant ordering platform must also allow for multiple delivery options. The ability to get food delivered to their home or office, enable curbside pickup, or order ahead to eat at the restaurant can make a huge difference in consumer experience.

 

Ordering ahead has become a trend that is extremely sought after today as more and more consumers are looking for instant gratification. Instead of having to wait in a queue, having food waiting fresh for them to eat or takeaway can be magical. This can be possible with location services, that can track when a consumer is about to reach the outlet and carefully optimise food production.

 

Mobile payments

 

Another benefit of Online Ordering is mobile payments. Gone are the days when you had to run around the house looking for change in order to pay the pizza delivery guy. Today, having the option of multiple payment options such as cash, cards and the most popular mobile wallets is a must have for online consumers who seek the convenience of mobile payments.

 

Faster delivery

 

The experience of placing an order is just one part. The experience after placing the order is what actually makes or breaks the entire experience. Consumers are less likely to order again if they had to wait for a long time before their order was delivered. As consumers want, what they want, when they want it, enabling instantaneous deliveries are a must for any restaurant. One should also set expectations right when it comes to their promise of how long it would take to deliver.

 

Live order tracking and driver tracking can elevate ordering experience on the consumer end while making it easier for the restaurant to deliver quickly. Restaurants must utilise geo-location and trade-zone optimisation to deliver food as fresh and fast as possible.

 

Going forward, robots and drones may take over humans when it comes to the actual delivery, requiring minimal human intervention in the process. Many have already started pilots and trials to make this possible, however when this would be commonplace is subject to regulations.

 

Post delivery engagement

 

40% consumers would like to hear from a restaurant more than once a month

 

The experience doesn’t end once the food has been delivered. Apart from gathering feedback on the food and the delivery experience, consistent engagement post delivery is key to get consumers to order again.

 

Consumers seek communication from restaurants they like. According to Deloitte, 40% consumers would like to hear from a restaurant more than once a month, especially if it’s about special discounts and offers which piqued the interest of 80% of these consumers whereas 34% consumers also looked for personalised communication.

 

Personalising engagement is the most effective at getting consumers to order again. Targeting them with the right menu items and offers at the right time, through the right channel using previous purchase data could further enhance the user experience. Having a restuarant loyalty program in place with the right rewards could also drive consumers to order again and again.

 

The right online ordering platform

 

For any restaurant today, online ordering is hard to ignore. While being available on food aggregators or third-party delivery players can be a good option for restaurants to go online quickly, having your own online ordering platform can help increase unit margins since you don’t have to pay high commissions associated with third party aggregator orders. They also gain from better integration and smoother operations when they have their own ordering platform. This means, restaurants also have more control over their end-user experience and better data on their consumers which can only help them in the long term as well.

Inventory Management Basics for Marketplace Sellers

Posted on by
Reply

Being an ecommerce marketplace seller is not an easy job. You are sandwiched between marketplace regulations and ever-increasing customer expectations for superior buying and fulfilment experience. Thankfully, many of the roadblocks and issues plaguing ecommerce marketplace inventory management can be easily resolved by establishing a solid inventory strategy from day one.

Understanding Marketplace Inventory Management

Inventory Management is the lifeline for marketplace sellers since the success of the business hinges on delivering the right order to the right customer at the right time.

Here are some of the basics of inventory management you should be aware of before starting your journey as an ecommerce marketplace seller :

  • Organize Your SKUs – Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) are essentially unique identifiers assigned to each of your product to streamline the ordering and logistics process. SKUs can be customized as per your wish but they are typically categorized based on product, category, popularity etc. The first step in establishing an effective inventory management system is to have a simple and well-structured SKU system in place.
  • Focus on Product Types – In order to ensure a seamless workflow and minimize time wastage, you should have a thorough knowledge about the product type you are selling on marketplaces. Here are the major product types that ecommerce marketplace sellers usually deal with :

– Item : An individual product or an item that doesn’t require any special storage or shipping considerations

– Case pack : A group of usually similar items clubbed together. They might require special attention during storage

– Assembly : These are items that require assembling multiple parts scattered across your warehouse before shipping. Based on your sales forecast, you will need to organize them based on individual parts or end products

– Family : Similar products that have variations on colour and size. These will also need to be grouped based on your sales and demand forecast

  • Get Serious About Demand Forecasting – Use historical data and other demand forecasting techniques to prevent negative sales impact like stock outs. Also, pay close attention to your sales analytics to understand the rise and fall in demand for your product. Make sure to take into account seasonal variations and other customer behaviours that will impact the sales of your product.
  • Have a Backup Plan – Even the most experienced ecommerce sellers will not be able to predict product demand 100% accurately every time. At some point or the other, a random occurrence or event will disrupt even the most the most watertight strategy. Smart sellers should thus always have a backup plan in terms of surplus inventory of bestselling products or a reserve supplier.
  • Ensure Data Accuracy – Ultimately, inventory management is a case of numbers and data and even minute discrepancies can have a severe impact on your business. Some of the common but easily avoidable mistakes include adding multiple SKUs into a single slot andcounting case packs as a single item instead of the individual pieces

Get these inventory management basics right and you will set forth your ecommerce marketplace business on a solid footing.

Capillary has partnered with Amazon to help marketplace sellers to maximize profits and revenue from their ecommerce business through easy and efficient inventory management. You can benefit from this partnership with a free catalogue service for 1 month to launch your business on Amazon. Now reach crores of customers. Sign-up here.

How technology will shape restaurants of the future

Posted on by
Reply

Food has always been an integral part of our lives, and eating habits of a population has often defined cultures, settlements and society in general. Though the significance of food has remained consistent, the what, how and where we eat has consistently evolved through centuries.

 

As the concept of a “restaurant” becomes more than 250 years old, recent advancements in technology and communication is completely redefining what a restaurant is and can be. Let’s look at a few such advancements, and tech trends that aim to shape the restaurant of the near future.

 

 

 

Going mobile

 

Here, I’m not talking about the rising number of mobile restaurants such as “food trucks” which is also an interesting trend in itself. Instead, I’m talking about the impact mobile phones, especially smartphones are having in the way we consume food.

 

Mobile ordering has truly captured the imagination of consumers who are craving something to eat and need it delivered to them very quickly. Sure, there was always home delivery of some kind and most large chains had their own hotline numbers where their consumers could order from, but never before has ordering food been more convenient than it is on a mobile app today.

 

With interactive menus, integrated payments and live order tracking, consumers can access the food from across their city, on their phone, from the comfort of their homes. Infact, many restaurant chains have started to offer their own app and mobile friendly websites (progressive web apps) to enable their customers to order from them directly. For restaurants, this reduces the dependency on food aggregators to enable online ordering. The restaurant mobile ordering experience that these chains are providing has also become one of the primary differentiators amongst growing online competition they face. Mobile ordering though is just one part of how mobile technology would be used in the restaurant of the future.

 

More and more restaurants are building their own mobile apps to make consumer experience better at their physical outlets as well. These apps also serve as a means for restaurants to offer a ‘VIP’ experience to their best consumers.

 

Whether it is the ability order ahead and skip the queue, or integrated payments, apps can make the buying process that much more seamless and convenient, giving these restaurants a bigger consumer experience edge amongst their competition. This has given rise to the term, “pre-restaurant” experience, where consumers are not just able to reserve tables or order ahead, but can also become part of the production process, being able to track their orders as they are being prepared in the kitchen. Geofencing through GPS and IoT devices has also enabled restaurants to track the arrival of customers, ensuring they can serve the customer at the right time, virtually eliminating any waiting period. Such convenience is especially important as according to Mintel, for 82% consumers, convenience plays an important role when it comes to their dining out choices.

 

 

Personalisation of Experience

 

Apart from the increase in convenience that apps are bringing, Artificial Intelligence technology and the amount of data restaurants have on consumers means that it’s becoming increasingly easy to personalise experiences for consumers. This trend is only going to become more intensive in the future.

 

Many restaurants are already personalising their menus using online food ordering platforms, but going forward, even menus at tables could become digital and highly personalised. Whether it is based on food preferences, dietary restrictions, or even allergies, restaurants would be able to tailor their offerings based on each individual consumer. Personalised product recommendations both online and at the restaurant PoS or through the wait staff can further improve personalisation of experience.

 

More options for customisation

 

Customisation of menu items is already a big trend right now. 72% of consumers expect DIY customisation options at restaurants according to a report by Technomic. The restaurant of the future would present a bigger range of such customisation options to consumers.

 

This could be through a digital jukebox that consumers could control, on-demand entertainment they could enjoy, lights they could configure, etc. In the future some restaurants are going to branch out into realising completely immersive environments for consumers which they can control and personalise.

 

Automating processes

Automation is something that we’re going to see more often in restaurants of the future. This would be mostly driven to increase the efficiency of operations and reduce costs.

 

Modern kitchens are already full of innovative gadgets that help with various processes of food production. The human intervention required in between these processes would also gradually come down with bigger advances in robotics. Food delivery would also be automated in the restaurant of the future through drones that will bring food to customers, with greater speed and efficiency.

 

Service touchpoints have also slowly started to become digital. Many restaurants have been deploying digital kiosks where consumers can place orders themselves. Not only does this elevate queues at the outlet, it also gives consumers an option to place orders at their convenience. Going forward, such kiosk will get smarter, up to a point where they could almost function as virtual waitstaff at a restaurant, even capable of personalised conversations with the customer.

 

Virtual waitstaff could also be deployed at tables where they could trigger menus, assist with orders, refill water etc., automatically.

 

In order for this level of personalisation of experience to work seamlessly, restaurants of the future would have advanced facial recognition capabilities which would allow them to identify consumers walking into their stores, so they could serve them better.

 

Neurogastronomy, the study of how the brain creates perception of flavour, is another trend that could have a big impact in the restaurant of the future. Sure, many restaurant chains today use favourable colors such as red, which is said to induce hunger. Going forward – restaurants may be capable of changing the surrounding environment around diners based on their menu selections, with automatically triggered decor elements, lighting, scent and sound to increase the perceived flavour of their food.

 

Driving sustainability

Sustainability has become a huge concern for consumers today. Nearly half of consumers think that it’s important to consume food and beverage that are made with “clean label ingredients” according to Datassential.

 

As millennials become the biggest consumer group today, they will continue to influence the industry into building brands that stand for something and offer up authentic experiences. Driving sustainable practices of food production, and consumption are going to be big factors influencing consumer choice in the near future. Technology is going to play a big part in making this process easier and more efficient. Whether it is through smarter sourcing, more efficient production processes, and reduction of food wastage, better data and automation are only going to make restaurants more sustainable.