The Lure of Online Meal Ordering By Julie Ritzer Ross, Contributing Editor, VSR
Increasingly, time-crunched consumers are seeking ways to speed-up the purchase of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner alike. At the same time, hospitality players continue to strive ever harder to overcome financial challenges posed by the recession, as well as to distinguish themselves from the pack. Online meal ordering applications represent a solution VARs may offer to address these issues, and more.
"Restaurants need to provide convenient, fast dining options to keep pace with today's busy consumer," says Marie-Eve Morin, marketing coordinator of Posera Networks, a restaurant POS software vendor. "Online ordering gives restaurants the opportunity to meet consumer needs, while also enhancing profitability and improving operational efficiencies."
Morin and other sources cite numerous benefits to be reaped through online meal ordering solutions deployment, all of which VARs should cite to potential end users in attempting to close a deal. Increased customer satisfaction, spurred by significant decreases in the amount of time needed to execute orders, easy access to menus and specials, improved order accuracy and heightened consumer control over the entire ordering process, tops the list. Other advantages encompass the ability to bolster sales by leveraging the system to intelligently upsell high-margin impulse menu items or other fare based on individual customers' previous orders and/or end user specifications, as well as to cultivate diners' loyalty by collecting customer email addresses and subsequently sending them promotional information in line with specific criteria, such as ordering frequency and location.
Statistics also make a strong case for online meal ordering systems adoption by food-service establishments, as well as for their addition to VARs' technology arsenals. According to results of a recent survey by the National Restaurant Association, 48 percent of adults have used the Internet to visit a restaurant's Web site, and 18 percent have placed orders online, while 75 percent use takeout at least once per month. Meanwhile, estimates from vendor BigHoller, which sells online meal-ordering solutions directly to restaurants, peg the typical number of orders received through dining establishments' Web sites at two to 50 daily, with the average standing at five to 15 orders per day.
While stand-alone meal ordering solutions are readily available in the marketplace, a trend toward integration with restaurant POS applications sold through the channel is rapidly emerging.
In establishments with such technology in place, customers initiate the ordering process by logging on to a restaurant's Web site, placing an order and entering their payment information. From there, the request is directed to an order review screen, signaling restaurant employees to begin preparing the food. An automatic confirmation email is sent to the customer, and transaction details are transmitted to the POS component.
Online App. Integration
Like online ordering systems themselves, integrated ordering/POS solutions streamline the overall Web-based meal purchasing process and increase profitability, notes Jordan Kimberg, president of LetsGet.net. They also yield restaurateurs a better handle on inventory and render it easier to save orders from cancellation should a patron's desired dish be temporarily unavailable for purchase.
For its part, restaurant POS software provider Aldelo Systems, Inc. has certified the integration of online meal ordering offerings from LetsGet.net as well as from Delphis software with its Aldelo For Restaurants application. In conjunction with this development, LetsGet.net has also launched a reseller program geared specifically towards Aldelo's VAR partners. Program participants will be involved in the sales and implementation stages alike, and will have opportunities to earn "both setup income and residual monthly income with their existing customer base," Kimberg notes. LetsGet.net is presently accepting applications from Aldelo resellers that wish to promote online ordering services to their restaurant clients.
In a somewhat different vein, Posera has developed an interface that forges a seamless connection between its Maitre'D POS offering and online ordering solutions developed by ISVs (e.g., Customer2You and LetsGet.net, to name a few) and VARs. The interface enables Maitre D' to support take-out and delivery orders in single- and multi-unit operations alike. Restaurant managers can further improve customer service with the interface's bi-directional communication abilities. If a menu item is unavailable or preparation and delivery is taking longer than expected, managers can log the issue into the Maitre'D interface. A notification is sent to the online ordering system so customers can be alerted to the problem before they place their orders.
Meanwhile, restaurant POS system player Dinerware recently jumped on the interface bandwagon with the certification of DishCloud Online Ordering, a Web ordering service. A DishCloud order system interface works with Dinerware version 2.8.2, via the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), XML-based Application Programming Interface (API) or Virtual Client. The DishCloud technology is flexible and scalable, thereby paving the way for operators to choose customer pickup and delivery options, ticket-wide discounts, and back of house features that integrate with the Dinerware POS system. Any change made to the POS system syncs to DishCloud. "The Virtual Client in Dinerware version 2.8.2 (facilitates) third-party product integrations that allow restaurateurs to select specific functionalities appropriate to their business models and plans for growth," says Jeff Riley, Dinerware's CEO.
Paying Up
In addition to integrating their solutions with restaurant POS systems, some online meal ordering systems providers have begun to incorporate a link with payment processing services and applications. Such integration affords restaurants a centralized, and hence more efficient means of processing payments, states Baird Kleinsmith, director of channel sales at Mercury Payment Systems, a payment processor/merchant acquirer headquartered in Durango, and Englewood, Colo.
"Essentially, we're partnering with ISVs in the restaurant POS and online meal ordering spaces on two levels," Kleinsmith explains. "On one side, we're acting in an integration capacity, working with them to incorporate our payment processing technology into their solutions. We're also assisting them on the referral side" for POS integration. Either way, for VARs, it means being able to sell a more functional, complete online meal ordering configuration." To date, Mercury has facilitated integrations with more than a dozen online meal ordering solutions providers, as well as with more than 250 restaurant POS systems vendors, including Posera.
Besides being integrated with Aldelo Restaurant and Maitre D', Customer2You's online meal ordering software interfaces with the payment processing systems of Mercury; Payment Processing, Inc., Newark, California, and Sterling Payment Technologies, Tampa, Fla.
Opportunity Knocks
Whichever integration route VARs opt to follow in navigating online meal ordering waters, opportunities exist in the quick-service and fast-casual sub-verticals alike, sources say. Kleinsmith cites particularly strong interest among single-unit pizza shops and small pizza chains, as well as among independent sandwich and sub shop operators. "This is an area that's going to explode in the next few years, and those VARs that are ready with a variety of integrated solutions stand to bring in the biggest gains," Kleinsmith concludes. "There's no going back to the fax and the phone."
Increasingly, time-crunched consumers are seeking ways to speed-up the purchase of food for breakfast, lunch and dinner alike. At the same time, hospitality players continue to strive ever harder to overcome financial challenges posed by the recession, as well as to distinguish themselves from the pack. Online meal ordering applications represent a solution VARs may offer to address these issues, and more.
