The food ordering industry has revolutionized drastically over the past few years. Whether we talk about the customers or restaurant owners, the online food ordering system has definitely changed.
There are tremendous advantages of online food delivery, whose benefits are enjoyed by both restaurants and customers. We all have noticed the revolution of this system during the post-COVID-19 Pandemic era.
The number of people who prefer to order using such a system has increased. Due to this, many investors wish to invest in the food delivery business and get the most profit out of it. Are you planning to do the same?
If yes, we believe this article is the perfect place to start your journey in this industry. Here, you will know both advantages and disadvantages of the online food ordering system in detail. Read the complete follow-up to grab tons of essential information.
A highly positive forecast of the digital food ordering and delivery industry has grabbed the interest of startups and already established businesses.
However, it is essential to understand that high stakes can invite disruptions. Let’s look at the key trends of an online food ordering system in detail below:-
Do you know about 55% of American adults prefer to order food using an online delivery system? This surge is because Instant delivery platforms love experimenting with various channels for procuring extra orders.
Dominos introduced the feature to order food by tweet, which became an instant hit among customers. It adds an extra sense of convenience while ordering food.
Another popular way to order food is using virtual assistants like Domino’ Dom’s that only take orders and share the latest offers with customers.
You can even find plenty of platforms that allow users to order food using smart TVs. It is something that attracts people instantly towards an online ordering system for sure.
Subscriptions are the next important trend that restaurants should consider adding to their online food delivery app. The companies prefer automated subscriptions to assist customers with repetitive orders.
There is a significant growth witnessed in automatic subscriptions during the past few years. On the other hand, businesses get a chance to make profits consistently and better. They make most of their customers with the help of such subscriptions.
A restaurant’s online ordering system is greatly useful for making things cost-effective and generating tons of revenue. Terrific support is guaranteed in terms of profits with such a revenue system for restaurant owners.
Plenty of food tech startups have introduced the feature to order food using cryptocurrencies. The main motive behind this approach is to boost the customer experience. They can make payments using various digital currencies according to their convenience.
The rise of blockchain technology has impacted the food industry, and people started ordering food online or takeaway with cryptocurrencies.
A few popular platforms that have started accepting this mode of payment are Papa John’s Pizza, Lobster Gram, Feastly, and Takeaway.com.
The availability of cryptos as a payment option removes the risks of financial fraud and ensures a hassle-free experience. However, it is suggested that platforms should try to add as many digital currencies as possible to encourage customers.
People have become more conscious of the environment in the past few years, and the same thing is expected from online food deliveries.
Eco-friendliness and sustainability have become the premier selling points used by platforms working on greener food delivery Services.
It can be used in various forms for online food delivery systems. The businesses work with an approach like food delivery using electric vehicles or bicycles. On the other hand, many platforms deliver food with cars having a low carbon footprint.
People love following the latest trends, and a survey has proved nearly 2/3rd of total Americans prefer buying a product with an environmentally friendly label.
It proves that looking for a sustainable option is the best approach that platforms need to enjoy the advantages of online food delivery at the highest level.
We live a digital life where customers expect restaurants to accept online orders. If you haven’t utilized this opportunity, let us tell you the advantage of an online food ordering system in this part of the article.
As we have already written in the first point, the advantages of online food delivery aren’t limited to just boosting sales. It is extremely useful for enhancing the customer-restaurant relationship by offering end to end CRM system. This system gives access to the complete sales dashboard by providing details regarding lifetime sales, canceled orders, new orders, etc.
You will find order management for streamlining the complete system, ranging from placement of orders to final delivery.
There are notifications sent using email or SMS when the customers place an order. It is beneficial for making the execution quicker and better.
That’s not all; such systems come with GPS systems for finding the address to deliver the orders on time. The restaurant staff gets great assistance while processing the orders quickly.
If a restaurant has a solid online presence, the chances of sales in revenue are pretty much obvious. A brand can stay in front of customers 24X7 without paying too much for media advertising. It is one of the most wonderful advantages of online food ordering that extends a restaurant’s reach.
You can advertise the restaurant on a variety of platforms like Instagram and Facebook by having a user-friendly site. Think about creating a strong profit that attracts people while ordering food online through your restaurant.
Experts even suggest having a dedicated team that allows brands to utilize the marketing opportunities offered by the online ordering system. It will boost customer engagement and help in increasing sales.
We all know how much third-party apps like DoorDash and Zomato charge restaurants. On average, these sites charge between 15 & 25% commission on each order, and payment gateway charges up to 2%. It significantly reduces the profit margin for restaurants that can be used for other purposes.
However, restaurants with an independent ordering system have nothing to worry about. Customers can order food directly instead of exploring multiple restaurants on third-party platforms. Having an in-house system can improve revenue by a great margin.
On top of that, one can enjoy full control over their solutions with their app. It gives complete liberty to modify the menu anytime for adding or removing an item.
How can a restaurant know about its regular customers? What is the most ordered dish, and which has the most positive rating? Well, platforms have plenty of questions while performing their business operations.
The presence of an online ordering system can answer all these questions with ease using insights and analytics. You must understand that data is very important for targeting the desired customers and attracting them to your restaurant. This system does an exceptional job while analyzing ordering trends and preferences of customers.
A platform can also customize its menu and easily work on its weaknesses. For example, if you find people are ordering more non-veg items than veg foods, you can think of reducing vegetarian items and adding extra non-vegetarian foods to the menu with the customer data.
If we talk about the present scenario, less than 5% of the world’s total restaurants give customers online ordering facilities. It proves the present time is the perfect opportunity to enjoy the advantages of online food ordering. You should make your restaurant available at the fingertips of customers as soon as possible.
The number of independent restaurants investing in their own system is increasing due to customers’ demand for a convenient method of ordering food. It built the trust of customers that instantly transformed into sales and revenue.
A perfect example of utilizing the online ordering system is Domino’s Pizza, the first to introduce this system in 2010. They have become one of the world’s largest pizza chains with a stock price of nearly US$ 200.
Know more: Top 10 Successful Food Delivery Apps to Follow in 2023
Online ordering system has provided an innovative method to restaurants for boosting revenue when dine-in services have slowed down after post COVID-19 era. A report from Business Wire has predicted a growth of around 30% for the Indian delivery market in the next three years. It is mainly due to the increased adoption of the online ordering system.
The restaurants can quickly expand their customer base by switching to an online system. They only not cater the dine-in customers but can also serve customers sitting in an office or home. It results in large orders through different channels, ranging from restaurant mobile apps to food aggregators and ordering platforms.
The online ordering system plays a critical role in boosting the sales of restaurants nowadays. It makes the complete system efficient and easier by streamlining in-house operations and adding a user-friendly interface.
The orders can be sent directly to the kitchen once received online. Orders can be tracked by making the delivery efficient for the customers.
A restaurant ordering system is conducive to giving accurate cash flow details. You can very conveniently understand how much your brand has grown recently. For example, users can easily track how much money is invested in delivery orders to consumers.
Also, they can easily analyze monthly and weekly profitability in minutes despite thousands of orders. Such a great system makes examining main food items and ratings easier. It ensures services can optimize services to boost profits to a higher level.
In simple words, understanding the critical aspects of a food delivery app development company become super easier with the presence of a great system. It makes working on the important areas of the restaurant without any trouble.
If someone performs errors while taking the orders, it can turn very costly and result in food waste for the restaurant. For instance, a member of your team is on a phone call while writing orders and mistakenly packs the wrong item. It can cause delivery of incorrect orders for multiple orders, leading to frustration in the long run.
The online food delivery system will ensure customers don’t face such a bad experience. A wrong order can frustrate many customers, which can create a negative reputation for the restaurant in the market.
The availability of such a system makes sure everything stays in writing for double-checking things at any time. It reduces the chances of errors to a pretty high level. Also, restaurants won’t have to deal with negative reviews as people mostly have a quality experience with them.
Everyone will accept that in-dining asks for lots of person-to-person interaction with customers. However, this issue is greatly eliminated with the availability of online food delivery systems to a greater level. It opens the gateway to optimize the standards of the hospitality of customers.
Let’s take the example of adding personalized messages for every customer who orders food from the restaurant. One can even think about giving complimentary food to a customer who regularly orders food.
Many people think the advantages of online food delivery are limited to convenience, but personalization is an excellent thing that it provides to restaurants. The customers will surely appreciate these small initiatives for sure.
A very common issue that in-dine restaurants face is reaching customers living in nearby remote areas. However, a customer-friendly online ordering system increases the reach to remote areas and even allows catering thousands of orders simultaneously.
It ensures catering to a huge audience becomes easier without investing any money. Try to add a well-integrated system that only not increases the reach but also understands the needs of urban users.
It is extremely beneficial and makes doorstep orders possible in rural areas. The orders can get a significant boost through orders from a rural community with ease.
Read more: Top Food Delivery App Development Companies in the World
Although the system offers a great sort of advantages, there are a few disadvantages associated with the online food ordering system mentioned below:
It is easy to get attracted while watching pictures of tasty foods on the apps and a banner featuring a cashback offer. However, restaurants often have to pay quite higher by paying an advertisement fee.
On the other hand, people often forget their magical cooking skills and pay tons of extra money blindly for orders. It is one of the major disadvantages food tech startups face today.
It can be an extremely difficult thing to handle for restaurants that are new to this business. This issue can be controlled when restaurants adequately place banners while customers order food as per needs.
A huge number of restaurants have often raised concerns over the high commission charged by delivery providers from the restaurants. As we have written above, most third-party platforms charge anywhere between 5 & 20% for every order.
It needs to understand every restaurant can’t afford multiple delivery boys and tackle the transport expenditure. Such activity also increases remuneration expenditure in the long run.
Many people say automation solves this issue, but it can’t control everything. The chances of conflicts between the delivery providers and restaurant owners are quite common with the payments.
Whether there is harsh rain in the city or the temperature is at its highest boiling point, a delivery man must pick up the order and deliver it to the desired area. It is one of the significant disadvantages that online food delivery mobile app offer to restaurants.
Although customers often get the convenience of having their favorite food at their convenience, things aren’t the same for delivery boys. Many questions are asked about people forgetting their human rights and putting the life of people in danger.
We have seen instances where restaurants put the life of their deliverymen in danger just to make money by charging high prices during peak times. Such instances should be avoided as much as possible by restaurant owners.
Another disadvantage of having an online food ordering system for customers is accepting lower quality food compared to in-dining food. Orders are usually delivered in plastic bags that aren’t considered healthy.
Additionally, the chances of food getting cold are high as it is delivered from a significant distance. If we talk about eating out in a restaurant, the customers usually get quality food.
It is one of the major reasons customers give bad comments or ratings to a restaurant. Many restaurants have improved the quality of their food after complaints, but you will find many options that don’t care about it.
When we compare it with in-dining eating, there is a significantly higher amount of food wasted in online orders. You will find plenty of instances where people don’t eat food delivered to their homes.
It turns out to be the case of excessive restaurant production and high wastage for customers. Both of them face significant losses in these cases.
This issue can be eliminated by using a little bit of intelligence and only ordering food that one can eat. On the other hand, restaurant owners should cook only the amount of food customers order in a day or two to avoid wastage.
Although having drawbacks, online food delivery systems have helped customers in terms of convenience, and restaurants for generating high revenue. The advantages of online food delivery have solved plenty of issues for everyone.
We have tried to uncover both sides of the coin to make the job easier for the readers. If you have any queries regarding the content of this post, feel free to write about it in the comment section.
Such systems come with many disadvantages like revenue conflicts, unnecessary expense increases, low-quality food, and many more.
If we talk about a rough estimate, a customer-friendly online ordering system costs anywhere between US$ 15,000 & US$ 50,000 depending on the functionality and features of the application. Plenty of factors like the technology used, the provider’s location, and the food delivery app development team’s expertise level also affect the final cost.
The two major components of such systems are a website and an app where customers can access the menu and order food. Everything can be accessed using the interface of these platforms.
Jeeto11
The app quickly earned over 1,000 downloads within two months of launch, and users have responded positively. ARKA Softwares boasted experienced resources who were happy to share their knowledge with the internal team.
Archithrones
While the development is ongoing, the client is pleased with the work thus far, which has met expectations. ARKA Softwares puts the needs of the client first, remaining open to feedback on their work. Their team is adaptable, responsive, and hard-working.
Service Provider
I started my project with Arka Softwares because it is a reputed company. And when I started working with them for my project, I found out that they have everything essential for my work. The app is still under development and but quite confident and it will turn out to be the best.
