Not only because of the pandemic, which forced many restaurants to close their dine-in options, but also because online ordering has seen a significant surge in recent months, owing to the fact that it is far more convenient. People nowadays prefer to have their favorite foods brought to them, at their doorstep.
Starting with the essentials, a decent website and app provide a solid foundation from which to work. Allowing your consumers to pay for their online purchases directly through your website would further simplify the process. Customers will love the convenience of ordering and paying for food from their computer or mobile device.
The next step, which is quite obvious, would be, to come up with something that would improve the restaurant's sales through online ordering systems, because believe or not, the restaurants out there, are killing it in terms of revenue through their online ordering systems. So pull up your socks and get ready to learn some top-notch ideas and tactics on How To Increase Restaurant Online Ordering Sales.
Customers can use search engines on restaurant online ordering platforms to find food based on cuisine, dish titles etc. SEO might help your business stand out if you use third-party sites. People using certain search terms that you can optimize for, and rank for it at the top of the list as compared to other restaurants that don’t optimize for it. Try to use vivid descriptions with simple words and avoid using vocabulary that normal people like you and me wouldn’t use while searching for food around. For example, name your pasta as “Fettuccine Alfredo” rather than naming it “Pasta al burro e parmigiano”, does it make sense?
To say that the menu for a restaurant is the central component of it’s website would be a complete understatement. Menu is everything. It should be easy to navigate, easy to read through, descriptive, there should be good quality pictures in there and it should be in a proper order. Imagine you go to a restaurant, and they serve you dessert first in place of an appetizer! Similar is the case with online ordering. Proper menu optimization goes a long way and will definitely help you to increase your online orders.
70% of customers prefer to order from a restaurant directly, but they will only do so if you make it simple for them. When someone lands on your website, the user must feel that the process of ordering their food is super smooth. From menu to choosing what to eat to ordering to making payments, it should be super simple and not complicated. And honestly, if my experience as a user is not good, it not only spoils my mood for food, but also, I’ll never order again from that place! Spend some time on working on the user experience.
Integrating your online ordering with your POS is one of the smartest moves ever. You’re not only cutting the time and labor required to put in the orders manually, but also cutting down on the risk of making mistakes while doing so. And no one likes their orders delivered wrongly! Another benefit is that You'll be able to access your online ordering statistics and insights with the rest of your point-of-sale information, giving you the best of both worlds. Just integrate them, and see your sales sky-rocket in no time!
It's no good having a terrific online ordering system if your consumers aren't aware of it, and email marketing is still the most effective way to reach out to your existing customers, with a $42 return on every $1 spent. Make use of beautiful, eye catchy templates and use automation to target your potential audience. Track the insights and check who would be the best person to target and at what time. You really should know for a fact that you don’t need to be an influencer to promote online ordering. Take good quality food pics and tell people about your offers and the dishes that you serve. It’s not just about the number of followers on your business page or the number of people liking your food pictures, social media can be optimized for a plethora of things to increase your online sales. Facebook lets you put an “Order Food” call-to-action button on your business’ page. This button can increase orders by 3-4%. You can also use Messenger chatbots to chat with your customers trying to place orders in real time.
Customers can easily locate you and connect with you if you have a GMB account. Because it's designed to help promote local companies, this free Google service is a terrific approach to improve your internet visibility.
It allows restaurant and takeaway operators to choose how their businesses appear across Google platforms and stand out. Given current consumer behaviors, with massive quantities of local searches conducted through smartphone every day, this is a critical area to focus on. The Google Maps interface's convenient 'Delivery' icons also allow users to navigate straight to restaurants that provide those services with just one click. Just try this hack, you can thank us later by the way!
One fantastic way to increase your online orders is to let people have some incentives on ordering online. When they can get exclusive deals, 60% of customers prefer to order via a mobile app or a website, make use of these stats! You can offer free delivery services for bulk orders and regular clients, some percentage off on a minimum purchase. Customers will return if you offer loyalty programs in which they can earn points. Whatever it is, you make sure that you promote these enough for people to redeem.
Consumers that order online visit 67 percent more frequently than other customers, so whatever you can do to increase that number means more revenue for your company!
There you have it! Use these tips and create the best online ordering strategy ever!