The significance of online food delivery platforms in the restaurant industry is due in no small part to the post-pandemic world. In our digital age, consumers have been drawn to services that are high on convenience and guarantee instant gratification. And with diners continuing to prefer staying at home now more than ever, the popularity of these platforms have only gained momentum.
Online food delivery platforms offer tremendous benefits to consumers. A beautiful ordering experience, the flexibility of cash-on-delivery or online payments, contactless deliveries, as well as the ability to share reviews and ratings. Moreover, real-time order tracking – from restaurant to doorstep.
Not only are online partner stores a one-stop platform for consumers deciding on their next meal, but also a viable revenue-generating channel for restaurant businesses alongside in-house dining.
With the volume of partner orders expected to rise over the years, it’s crucial for restaurateurs to meet the demand while steering clear of the pain points that come with managing orders from multiple partners. In particular, the challenges with menu management of different partners stores, tracking incoming orders on multiple tablets, manually entering orders into the POS, order fulfillment and reconciliation.
And what’s an efficient, streamlined, and cost-effective way to do this? By leveraging the power of integration between partner stores and your POS.
Sophia Sleiman, Founder & CEO of the restaurant Mantoushe, shares the importance of integration in her operations. “Online ordering platforms drive a large majority of our orders. The manual re-entry of every transaction is labour intensive and comes with plenty of issues from errors to missed items. But the integration between my POS and partner stores solves all of these. It’s a cost-effective and fool-proof way of operating.”
Centralized Menu Management
With a robust integration, connecting your partner stores to your POS can be achieved within minutes. You can sync your POS menu to your respective partner menus with a few clicks. Menu items selected, along with their images, descriptions and modifiers, instantly reflect on your partner store.
For updating a menu item or marking it unavailable, and adding store configurations or discounts, you won’t need to contact your provider. This can easily be done straight from your POS in real time so it’s always up to date; minimizing effort and maximizing resources.
Integration between partner stores and POS solves pain points of manual re-entry and missed orders.
100% Automated Order Workflow
Arguably the biggest advantage of integrating your partner stores to your POS is the fully-automated order fulfillment. When a customer places an order on your partner store, it automatically arrives directly into your POS, meaning you no longer have to maneuver multiple tablets to run your in-house and partner stores. Eliminating manual data entry and the risk of incorrect orders.
A fully-integrated solution is designed to work seamlessly with add-on modules in your operations for streamlined communication and workflow. Orders are routed to your kitchen display system and your delivery management system for complete visibility of the order journey and unrivalled data integrity and accuracy.
Total Delivery Control
An efficient delivery management system gives you real-time insights into your entire order cycle as it happens – placement, preparation, pick-up, and delivery. You can monitor every stage, identify bottlenecks, and optimize operations.
Order details and driver information are visible at a glance. You can identify driver availability, assign them to orders and track deliveries, not only by your own delivery driver personnel but also by third-party logistics and delivery partners.
Consolidated Customer Database
Customer data is incredibly valuable to better understand, communicate and engage with your customers. With multiple partners, managing multiple databases can be overwhelming.
A powerful integrated solution ensures your entire customer database can be managed in one centralized CRM. When an existing customer orders through your partner store, their profile is automatically updated in your CRM. Should a new customer order, a new profile is instantly created.
Insights such as order history and preferences can be used to improve customer engagement and, ultimately, retention.
Manuel Wazen, Marketing Director of enterprise JJ Chicken, mentions the importance of utilizing customer data. “Data is now very valuable because it allows us to target customers and keep them within reach.”
LIVE Multi-Channel Analytics
With a future-proof integration, sales data from your partner stores are in sync with your POS. You can get insights and analytics of multi-channel performance in one powerful LIVE dashboard, eliminating end-of-day manual reconciliation.
Best-selling items, popular delivery areas, item profitability, outlet profitability, inactive customers, are a few of the many insights you gain – even on the go.
“The ability to see what’s going on at any given time is a great added value for an owner,” Sleiman confides.
With comprehensive reports and daily business summary, you can identify and analyze trends, compare in-house and partner store performance, and make informed business decisions.
Seamless Integration with Xero
Leading POS systems are integrated with cloud accounting software like Xero. This means that daily sales data from your partner stores, if integrated with your POS, are automatically synced between the applications. The out-of-the-box integration simplifies and streamlines your restaurant accounting and removes the need for manual entry and end-of-day reconciliation.
In conclusion, the future of restaurant dining is online. Undeniably, restaurants that provide the online delivery experience will continue to thrive. With online food delivery platforms leading the movement, integrating your partner stores to your POS is a great way to effortlessly meet the demand and grow your business to new heights.
