Gone are the days when you had to make a call to have the pizzas delivered to your home. Since the last decade, third-party aggregators like Foodpanda and Zomato have streamlined the food delivery business, as a number of small, mid-sized, and large restaurants have opted for an online food ordering system. Tech-savvy customers could leverage the benefits of a centralized food delivery process, and the convenience of placing orders either by using websites or mobile apps. 

The ongoing pandemic has strengthened the trend of ordering food online across the world, and many restaurants have changed their strategy to survive in this troubled time. While simplifying the home delivery process, restaurateurs have to ensure the safety of customers and employees alike. In other words, hygiene practices and the convenience of customers are two key areas on which the restaurant owners have to focus. 

Let’s go through some of the obvious changes necessary in the online food ordering system to stay competitive in the years to come. These changes are aimed at simplifying the ordering processes while making your customers give orders in your restaurant frequently. 

• Contactless Delivery

Contactless food delivery is an outcome of social distancing norms enforced by almost all governments to curb the spread of the virus. You need to offer this option to your customers in a way that- they place orders online. The delivery personnel picks the food from the restaurant and delivers it to the customer’s doorstep. But, at the time of delivery, instead of standing in front of the door with the package, the delivery person leaves the food near to the door. In a way, the delivery person and the customer never come into contact. In the year 2020 and beyond, restaurants need to implement contactless delivery to attract more people. 

• Digital is the New Norm

Digital menu and digital experience, today’s challenging time demands both these aspects to attract many people toward your restaurant. Whether it is an order placing or tracking, everything should be in front of the customers. A dedicated mobile app for your restaurant business can meet these objectives effectively. What’s more, people can get a personalized experience through real-time notifications and the convenience of placing orders from anywhere using an app. 

Restaurants can also run a loyalty program and even digital marketing campaigns based on the food ordering app. In the year 2021 and beyond, it is imperative for restaurant owners to make the ordering and delivery processes digitalized to get the maximum benefits. 

• COD Out, eWallet In

Cash on Delivery or COD is one of the most popular and secure payment methods. However, in this age, when all of a sudden social distancing norms are enforced, many companies have started switching to a digital payment solution or offering their customers an eWallet-based online payment facility. Here, it is fair to mention that you can offer eWallet choices in both an eCommerce website and a dedicated app. However, for a better and more personalized experience, you should offer this facility to all the app users. 

Also, eWallets enable customers to pay through credit or debit cards, or any of their suitable options. It is easy to provide discount coupons and offer referral codes to customers using built-in eWallets. The eCommerce app development company can either integrate eWallet as a feature in the app or build a separate eWallet app for your retail business. You can opt for any of these options to remain competitive in this changing business scenario.  

• Spread Awareness

Whether you own a full-fledged restaurant or a takeaway, spreading awareness about hygienic practices at your restaurant is the need of the hour in this COVID and upcoming post-COVID phases. You can use all digital marketing channels to achieve this objective effectively. These days, customers become more conscious of healthy and hygienic food to be served at popular food outlets. You can use an eCommerce website or a feature-rich app and social media platforms for spreading awareness about COVID-19 and best practices to maintain hygiene. 

You can include a new section for it or publish relevant posts. You can also take an active part in discussions on social distancing and other standard practices online. Another option is you can keep your customers updated on how you offer quality services with limited resources while following stringent standards You can elaborate on the preventive measures you have taken to keep employees and customers secure. It shows your transparency and people will put trust in your business. 

• Promote Healthy Food 

In this tough time, people tend to prefer healthy and light food to remain fit. You can promote immunity-booster food items through your website and app. Also, you can come up with concepts like ‘Work-from-Home Combo’ and other combos to promote bulk ordering during the lockdown-like situation. Though many countries have started vaccination drives, we are still struggling against this mighty COVID-19 virus. The hospitality sector has a big role to play in such a tough time by offering a range of high-quality, healthy food. You can promote your food effectively using social media messaging and a digital menu. 

Even after we will get rid of this ghastly virus at some point, the importance of healthy food will never get reduced.  

Apart from these changes, you can come up with a dedicated mobile app for the online delivery of food. An eCommerce app development company can build a feature-rich app from scratch and assist you to streamline the ordering and delivery processes. You can improve customer services and focus on other critical areas like food quality by bringing automation into your restaurant business. 

Concluding Lines

The recent pandemic period has changed the way we do business across various industry sectors and the restaurant sector is no exception! Every restaurant, irrespective of its size, has to make changes in line with social distancing norms. Also, the focus should be on the safety of employees and customers. A new-edge online food ordering system with proper implementation of the ways including contactless delivery and serving healthy food can take the restaurant business to a new level over the period.