Food delivery has enabled restauranteurs to expand their horizon to a great extent. With people craving for convenience, UAE has seen massive growth in food delivery lately. In the UAE, delivery sales are growing at a rate of six percent annually.
Food delivery is among the fastest growing segments of the restaurant industry, therefore an increasing number of eateries are making use of these services more intensively. However, along with the opportunity, come the competition as well.
Lately, there has been a massive influx of cloud kitchens in the UAE FnB industry. Despite the fact that cloud kitchens have lower experimentation costs and risks involved, the industry is also facing stiff competition in the already saturated market.
If you are looking for ways to increase your food delivery sales this article will tell you how.
Effective Steps To Increase Your Online Food Delivery Sales
The main concern for any restauranteur is to increase their sales with limited seats and food delivery has helped them with the same.
Opting for food delivery service offers a lucrative income, that works for all types of restaurants.
But the critical concern being, using this service to increase delivery sales. These days, there are a number of services available online that can help improve your delivery sales so that it can be the best.
Here are five ways to improve your delivery sales and to make the most of it!
1. Take Orders Through Your Website
Do not have a website that enables online ordering? You might be missing out on huge business opportunities.
Ensure you have a website that has a user-friendly delivery interface. This will allow customers to place an order while surfing through your website.
If people are given the convenience of ordering food with just one click, they are more likely to place an order and this will increase your delivery sales.
Customers can place orders whenever they want, and because they place an order themselves, accuracy is enhanced. The chances of human errors are minimum, which empowers you to deliver what the customer fancies.
Also, ensure your website is SEO optimized. In order to make your website SEO optimized, ensure that you have original and relevant content. Keep updating your website as and when required. This will help your website rank better and show up on the search results. Use relevant keywords, like the restaurant business, Mughlai food, casual dining etc according to your business format and cuisine you are offering. This will ensure your website shows up whenever someone is looking for alike services.
2. Partner Up With Online Food Aggregators
Sites like Zomato, Talabat, Ubereats, etc. are great for partnering up and increasing your delivery sales.
These online food aggregators sites/websites act as virtual food courts where people can easily look for the dish they wish to have.
Listing your restaurant on these apps/website is an excellent idea for increasing your delivery sales. The apps/websites provide the ordering infrastructure and expose you to potential customers, who often are ready to place an order.
These apps/websites make the delivery task smoother for you by picking up the food from your restaurant and delivering it to your customers, ensuring the food reaches the patrons on time.
You can let these online food aggregators handle all of the tech stuff and you can focus on preparing high-grade food.
These services really optimize your business for taking orders online and help increase the delivery sales.
3. Social Media Marketing
In today’s world, customers are more likely to interact with your social media account even before they come across your website.
Because of this, you want your social media page to be as inviting as it can be. An engaging social media account with all the details regarding any offers will entice your customers.
Run offers especially for the people ordering online; offer them a small discount. This will encourage customers to order from your restaurant. You can provide a direct link to your website on your social media account which customers can use to place an order.
The great thing about social media marketing is you can target a particular audience base. This will help plant the idea of your restaurant business in your customer’s mind. They will see your advertisement and they will be directed to your social media page or website that is optimized for taking orders.
4. Be Your Own Billboard
You can use your delivery infrastructure to market your brand to make people aware of your restaurant.
You can modify the delivery vehicle and add your restaurant’s logo on it. This will help in making your restaurant to the people on the streets. Adding your restaurant’s brand on the vehicle will catch the eye of your potential customers.
If you are seeking help from a third-party delivery service ensure you add your branding on the delivery containers, tissue papers, seasoning packets, etc.
Having your brand logo or name displayed will help embed your restaurant in your customer’s mind.
5. Send Out Promotional Emails And SMS
Sending out promotional emails and SMS to your customers will entice them to order from your restaurant.
You can send discount coupons via emails/SMS which can be exclusively used when getting food delivered.
Offers like these entice your customers and encourages them to order from your restaurant. Letting your customers know about upcoming promotions or discounts they can avail is a great way of increasing delivery sales. SMS and emails should include CTAs. They can include links that take the customers to your website to place an order.
You can have a special discount code for your loyal customers and give them all the more reason to order again. Acknowledge their loyalty towards your brand and gives them incentives in the form of discounts.
You can also allow them to collect points every time they order from your restaurant and once they have an ample amount of points they can purchase something using those points they have collected.
6. Have A Delivery Friendly Menu
Having a separate delivery only restaurant menu is very pragmatic, especially for the fine dining restaurants as this helps them appeal a larger customer base who are looking for food on the go and within their budget.
It can be disconcerting for the fine dining restaurant owners to attract customers to dine at their restaurant. This is simply because it can be heavy on the pockets and not everyone enjoys the poised ambiance, therefore, having a separate delivery only restaurant menu comes handy to boost the delivery business.
Along with this, you need to ensure great packaging and quick delivery. Also, provide tracking information for customers. This will help in increasing the credibility of your brand and people would more likely order from your restaurant because of swift service.
Emiratis are fond of food delivery as it provides them with the convenience of ordering food and having it in the comfort of their own house, without having to step out in the scorching heat.
Food delivery has helped restauranteurs in transporting their food to the places where they would have never imagined. Make use the above-mentioned tips and see how your delivery sales increase!
