Demand for food delivery is higher than it has ever been.
According to Nation’s Restaurant News, “51% of Americans use delivery services to purchase meals from casual dining restaurants, and 26% order takeout or delivery at least once a week.”
With these high rates of delivery usage, it’s important that your restaurant has an option for delivery.
The Two Types of Delivery:
Third-Party: A third-party delivery service is a company that partners with a restaurant to create a marketplace for their delivery orders. This marketplace will have the restaurants menu, the ability to take orders, and will also fulfill on the delivery. Common third-party services include EatStreet, Uber Eats and DoorDash.
Native: With native delivery, everything runs through the restaurant. Orders are placed through the restaurants platforms, whether it be their website or app, and orders will be fulfilled/delivered by restaurant employees.
Why native?
1 – Save money
Third-party delivery services can be very expensive. Vendors on average take up to 30% of each order. According to Statista, 34% of people say they will pay up to $50 per order. 30% off of a $50 bill is a good chunk of money that isn’t going back into your business.
Hospitality Tech says that 70% of people would prefer to order directly from a restaurant, knowing that all of their money is benefiting the restaurant itself. Not only could you be losing money, you could also be losing customers who would prefer to do business directly through you.
2 – Stand out from your competitors
On a third-party app, what is going to stop someone from purchasing from your competitor over you? These apps are filled with hundreds of food options to choose from, yours being just one of many. Potential customers can’t be swayed to do business with your competitors if you operate delivery through your own website or app.
3 – Gain valuable data
With native delivery, you will better know how to cater to your customers by collecting your own first party data, whether that be from paying customers or someone who just visits your website. With a third-party service, you may not get the data you need. They could be collecting the wrong data, or they may not be collecting any at all. Another downside to third-party delivery and data is that you don’t own any of the data you collect, and your insights could be given to your competitors.
4 – Represent your brand how you want
With native delivery, you can train your delivery drivers and set expectations of how you would like your brand to be represented. If a customer has a bad experience with a third-party driver, though they aren’t affiliated with you, your brand still suffers the consequences. Only with your own delivery drivers can you provide customers with the same customer service provided in-house. Being able to stay consistent with your brand and your customer service will allow for a stronger sense of brand loyalty in your customers.
Delivery is necessary in today’s restaurant world. But even more necessary is a native delivery service. The ability to save money, stand out from your competitors, gain data and represent your brand will only help your business grow.
