Guest Post — The Mobile Order-Ahead Revolution

By Dinesh Saparamadu, CEO and Founder, Apptizer, Inc.

Mobile order-ahead apps enable consumers to browse restaurant menus, order, pay, and pick up food or have it delivered with no waiting from smartphones. These apps drive sales, enhance the customer experience, increase loyalty, attract new patrons, speed up service and cut down on errors.

Popular with younger consumers who embrace mobile technology and a lifestyle of convenience and instant gratification, having order-ahead capabilities is becoming mission critical for many eating establishments.

Mobile order-ahead is still in its infancy, but sales from this channel are expected to reach $38 billion by 2020 according to BI Intelligence’s 2016 Mobile Order-Ahead Report.  Highlighting the opportunity, Taco Bell realizes 30 percent higher average order values from mobile compared to in-store. And, Starbucks’ Mobile Order & Pay app already garners 10 percent of all transactions at high-volume stores while directly contributing rocketing company sales.

With the potential to realize substantial increases in sales, both quick-service restaurants (QSRs) and traditional eateries are adopting order-ahead apps in droves. However, only the giants — restaurant chains—typically have the technological ability and financial means to create and manage mobile order-ahead platforms.

Food aggregator apps like GrubHub, Postmates, OrderUp and UberEats have drastically expanded the variety of food that can be delivered. These apps appeal to consumers thinking, “What do I want to eat?” by providing multiple choices and menus from a pool of restaurants with pricing, ratings, payments and delivery. All it takes is a few swipes of a finger on a smartphone and a payment card, and a customized meal is on its way to your door.

Unfortunately, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) may find it difficult to stand out from in the aggregated crowd. Plus, the commissions these apps demand can significantly cut into already tight profit margins.

So what’s a SMB Restaurateur to Do?

Website building platforms like Weebly, Wix and more have been around for a while now. They enable individuals to develop custom-branded websites themselves without being tech-savvy or design gurus.

Now the same thing is happening with mobile apps. New app building platforms give SMBs the means to quickly and cost-effectively build and deploy in-demand, order-ahead capabilities to compete with even the largest restaurant and QSR chains.

Ideally, order-ahead apps should complement existing restaurant systems and workflows, integrating with existing order placement and tracking, kitchen preparation, payment processing, delivery, loyalty programs and vendors and more.

A Real-World Success Story

A family-run pizzeria with two locations in the Sacramento area started losing business from regulars to national chains with proprietary mobile ordering apps. Lacking time, wherewithal and funds to develop their own app, Jim King from Rolling Stone Pizza Company was frustrated and worried about how to keep the family’s livelihood viable and thriving.

King checked into new mobile app building platform technology that he heard about from his payment processing vendor. He was pleasantly surprised to get an order-ahead app up and running in no time without any coding.

Rolling Stone Pizza’s customers download the custom-branded app from the App Store or Google Play, just like they do for any other app. They then browse menu items, place orders and pay, receiving order status text messages.

The app helps King grow business by promoting new menu items and special events. Via push notifications, King delivers personalized and targeted offers, while leveraging the social networks of the pizzeria’s patrons for new customer acquisition referrals.

“Sales from our mobile app continue to grow every day,” says King. “Our business customers love the convenience because there’s no waiting during pizza ordering and preparation, so they have enough time to enjoy lunchtime with friends and colleagues,” adds King. Using a mobile app builder platform to create order-ahead capabilities is worth every penny of the monthly subscription which we can easily cover with a steady stream of new orders.”

Consumers Expect Order-Ahead Apps

Digital ordering and payment apps are increasingly becoming a consumer expected capability. Studies prove that order-ahead apps intensify customer loyalty with repetitive purchasing, increase average ticket sales through order customization, plus streamline order-taking and checkout.

The mobile channel certainly seems to be the way of the future and critical to restaurant success. With mobile app building platforms, SMBs can now ride the wave of progress too!

Dinesh Saparamadu is CEO and founder of Apptizer Inc., a company focused on delivering innovative mobile app building platform technology. Saparamadu is also CEO and founder of hSenid Group of companies and is chairman of the board of PeoplesHR. 

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