The idea of having a restaurant website has become ubiquitous to the point where it feels like jargon. But it is quite the opposite, If you have spent any amount of time on the internet, then you know how beneficial it can be for your business.
Since 2014, the online food ordering market has grown exponentially at a rate of 300%. The integration of the online and offline world has been happening at a bombastic pace never seen before. Today you might be able to run a decently successful business with an average online presence, but tomorrow you wouldn’t be so lucky.
Hence as a restaurant/bar/cafe owner, what should you do to safeguard your business’s future? The answer is pretty straightforward, invest in taking your establishment on the web. But doing a substandard job at going online is worse than not going at all.
Hence here are the insights we have curated through our research into the matter to give you a holistic understanding of the same:
A Restaurant’s Need For An Online Food Ordering Platform
57% of modern customers say that the online presence of a restaurant impacts their ordering decisions. Ergo, badly designed & developed online food ordering apps and websites can cause substantial amounts of harm. Therefore developing a restaurant website that generates more leads and converts better is the need of the hour for restaurants in 2020!
Alas, a word of caution must be spoken, don’t jump the gun in going online with third-party food ordering apps. These third-party aggregators might promise heaven to you before signing the contract. But once the deal is inked, you are subjected to predatory fees, revenue distribution, and lack of control on business growth and direction.
According to a recent survey done by researchers in the United Kingdom;
“A whopping 70% of customers said that they would order directly from their favorite restaurant if given the chance.”
This goes to show that you don’t need a third-party food delivery platform to act as an intermediary. If you want to ensure future growth then you need your own online personalized food ordering app and website.
Top 7 Tips For Creating An Online Food Ordering Website
Now that we understand the need for creating your own online food ordering website, how should you do it? To develop a website crafted for increasing customer conversions, you must take a multi-factorial approach.
Hence you should incorporate elements of digital marketing, web design, and CRM to the website development cycle. Here are the top seven tips to do just that:
#1 Cultivate An Efficient Mobile-Menu Online Food Ordering & Browsing Experience
In 2018, 52% of global online searches originated from mobile devices. Hence if your website isn’t optimized for mobile screens then you will lose big. Where a good menu can increase conversions, a bad one can triple your bounce rate.
Here are key parameters to keep in mind while designing your websites menu for mobile:
- Navigation – Keep it simple to go from point A to point B on your website.
- Responsiveness – Declutter your website to make it more receptive to user input.
- Performance – Nobody likes to wait, a merger increase 0.2-second increase in load times can see a substantial increase in your bounce rate.
#2 Provide Ample Number Of Payment Options
The modern customer doesn’t have a dearth of restaurant options to choose from online. Thus you mustn’t ever take your competition lightly. If you want to become the go-to platform for netizens for online food ordering, then convenience is the name of the game.
A primary reason for users abandoning their carts is the lack of preferred payment options. Ergo make sure to keep them all, ‘bank transfer, online gateway, credit/debit card, etc’. You can even go forward with contactless cash payments to ensure hygiene standards in the post-pandemic world.
#3 Make Use of Graphic Content
Human beings as a species have evolved from the ancient primates. As a result, sight and visual-perception have become our strongest bodily senses. This fact also translates into the fact that humans receive and react extremely well to visual-stimuli.
This understanding of the human body is corroborated by the National Restaurant Association in their recent study where they found that;
“The inclusion of enticing graphic imagery into the menu increases the chance of sales by a margin of 30%”.
Thus if you want to make your online food ordering apps/websites irresistible to potential customers, then you need to add images into your menu.
#4 Entice Customers With Offers & Loyalty Benefits
As stated previously, you’re not the only service provider that your customer has access to. As a result, you must go above and beyond to entice your customers to be loyal to your brand. The best way to do that is by enriching the customer’s user experience via the use of personalized offers.
You should create your loyalty and reward program that provides special benefits to your customers. You can also take advantage of the average consumer’s FOMO to cultivate specialized time-based discount offers.
#5 Cultivate A Refined User Experience
One of the most important aspects that decide whether your online food ordering apps or websites will fail or not, has to be its UI. A good user interface can elevate customer satisfaction and create brand loyalty. At the same time, a bad user interface can cripple your business’s reach and growth.
Easy to grasp, digest, and place an order is what you should be aiming for. Don’t let over-the-top design choices come in the way of functionality. At the end of the day, you are a restaurant whose primary task is feeding people. Ergo, let the food do the talking for your brand, and create a website that focuses on that one aspect of your business.
#6 Keep Your Website Updated
An error only becomes a mistake when you refuse to correct it. A website is a dynamic platform that has a lot of different elements working simultaneously. While there are certain expectations that your website must meet, you can never be sure what works and what doesn’t. The only way to alleviate such a dilemma is through rigorous A/B testing.
Don’t hesitate to make changes and updates to your website in light of new trends/data. Continuous optimization of an online platform is quintessential to keep it relevant to rapidly evolving times.
#7 Empower Customers Through Reviews
Food is an integral part of human society and culture, as a result, social credibility is an essential factor in creating a robust restaurant brand. 90% of customers in the United States have said that customer reviews have a direct impact on whether or not they will order from a restaurant.
Therefore your online food ordering app/website having client feedback systems is not only a good business practice but a brand building opportunity. You must create systems that enable your customers to voice their opinions, be it positive or negative. Where positive affirmation will lead to increased sales, negative reviews will result in innovation & rectification of bad practices.
In Conclusion
Building your own personalized food ordering app or website can be an extremely daunting task. But you must understand that it is the need of the hour to embrace such new technologies. Hence partnering with companies that enable you to cultivate such capabilities is an absolute must.
