How to Grow Restaurant Delivery Sales, without forcing customers to order from Third Party Delivery
Third Party Delivery Giants Aren’t Changing For The Betterment Of Your Restaurants Anytime Soon
In the early days of restaurant delivery apps, there was good, honest reasoning behind the mutual interest between both restaurant businesses and delivery apps in working together. It offered delivery for restaurants without the need to create a dedicated website for online ordering. It allowed great variety to the consumer for online ordering, with greater exposure for the restaurant business. But unfortunately for these restaurant businesses, this added exposure came at a cost so significant, that several have had to close their doors as a result:
Gaslamp Cafe had to close their restaurant business in San Francisco back in February, specifically blaming delivery apps for the cause of their closing. “It does more damage to businesses than it helps. Any profit from sale is stripped away by the fees they charge the restaurant, which leaves only enough to cover the cost of food.”
The commissions charged by third party delivery apps often times exceed 30 percent! Making matters worse, some restaurants claim that not only is it not worth it, these delivery apps are also pulling off some shady moves behind the scenes to try and rip off their restaurant clients even further. As a NY Restaurateur stated in an article in The New Yorker, “Sometimes it seems like we’re making food to make Seamless profitable.”
So “shady” were these moves being pulled behind the scenes by delivery apps such as Grubhub, that restaurants around the country joined together to file a class action lawsuit and fight for their businesses.
Luckily, there are companies such as Say2eat that exist for the sole purpose of counteracting the issues and pain points in working with third party delivery apps. They are experts at proving how to grow restaurant delivery sales, without the issues that come with third party delivery apps. These companies understand the frustrations endured by restaurant owners, alleviating these problems while helping grow delivery in a healthy way with zero commissions surrendered on a single order.
Restaurants fight back with Grubhub Lawsuit
Seeing that Grubhub has been shadily charging them hundreds of dollars more than agreed per month per store, restaurant owners joined together to file a class action lawsuit against the delivery giant. The lead attorney defending the restaurants has said that his clients have been getting charged for simple customer inquiries, questions or complaints. Grubhub has counted these simple interactions as orders, charging their restaurant clients fully.
The lawsuit has yet to come to a conclusion, but one would certainly hope that the reasoning behind the lawsuit is not a reality within the restaurant industry that must simply be accepted.
Again, there are solutions to the many issues that arise when working with delivery apps. The solutions are technologies that counteract these exact issues, by people who understand the issues at scale, while putting themselves in the shoes of restaurant operators.
Additional Issues with Delivery Apps
Putting aside the issues raised in the Grubhub lawsuit, there are several others that must be addressed if restaurants want to survive. Restaurant businesses must still fight to hold onto the massive chunk of business that delivery apps are trying to pry out of their hands. Chris Webb, CEO of ChowNow, says that some third parties now charge as high as 50% commission, with the average commission being around 25–30%.
Making their restaurant clients’ margins even tighter, delivery apps also charge more for added exposure and search results, while hijacking their clients’ branding, phone numbers and customer data. Companies like Seamless, Grubhub, and Ubereats take their restaurant clients’ branding and online sales, and then transform them to be “indirect” and fully controlled by them. They even take control of digital assets and phone numbers, so that calls are routed through them with commissions paid on every single call. These commissions are often paid even if the call did not result in an order placed.
Solutions and Better Options
With so many restaurants literally shutting down because of what third party delivery companies have done to their business, companies like Say2eat have developed a way to eliminate business killing commissions. This allows restaurants to be sustainable for many years to come, as Say2eat also gives restaurants back control of their customer data and relationships, branding, direct online sales, and much more.
Say2eat grows direct online sales for its restaurant clients, as a fully white label, behind the scenes service. Additionally, they offer ordering directly within your customers most frequently used channels such as Facebook Messenger and Instagram. This is where customers naturally are every single day, leading to doubling or even tripling of online ordering completion rates compared to other ordering services. Meeting and transacting with customers where they naturally spend their time is a win-win proposition, leading to happy customers on the consumer end, and a meaningful increase in online sales on the restaurant business end.
Finally, with it’s commission-free “direct” delivery service, Say2eat gives restaurants the solution for how to grow restaurant delivery sales, without the issues that come with third party delivery apps. This is the solution, this is the better way, and this is a better reality to growing restaurant online sales in a healthy and profitable way.
No more surrendering commissions just to offer delivery, no more giving up your branding, and no more giving up your customer data and relationships. Not to mention, no more subjecting your customers to hidden service fees and delivery fees. It is time to take back control of your delivery and overall online sales at the same time! Your customers love your food, and prefer ordering from you direct in a simple, easy way, so let them and enjoy the benefits for your business as well!
Talk to Say2eat today about delivery that makes sense, and does not break the bank in the process — Book a Demo!
