Restaurant managers are always looking for ways to ensure a steady stream of revenue—and in the modern landscape, food delivery is an especially promising avenue. In fact, the global food delivery service market reached a $106.1 billion valuation in 2021 and is expected to be worth $223.7 billion by 2027.
Whether you’re a brand-new restaurant or a long-standing local favorite, incorporating a food delivery service into your business model can be a great way to secure the sales needed to run a successful restaurant.
Now more than ever, the benefits of food delivery abound. While the global situation is a continuous stream of change and uncertainty, food delivery offers your restaurant the opportunity to cater to customers dining in person and those who still prefer to dine from home. With the right food delivery service, you can:
- Reach more customers
One of many food delivery app advantages is the incredible online reach of technology platforms that can put your restaurant in front of a wide range of demographics. For example, DoorDash reaches 85% of the U.S. population, 80% of the Australian population, 75% of the Canadian population, and has a growing presence in Japan and Germany. With 43% of consumers around the globe ordering food delivery at least once a month, it’s important that you’re reaching as many potential customers as possible.
When you partner with a third-party food delivery partner like DoorDash, your business is shown to local customers searching for restaurants near them. You also have the option of adding DashPass to your delivery service, which is an online subscription for DoorDash consumers.
Just by adjusting the available options on a third-party platform, your restaurant can increase incremental sales based on your specific needs and budget. In fact, Frankie DiCarlantonio, director of Scaffidi Restaurant Group, credits the restaurant’s DoorDash partnership with helping him reach new customers and grow sales.
“I wholeheartedly believe that we are getting new business from DoorDash,” he said. “It’s not replacing your sales; it’s truly adding more sales to your operations.”
- Boost online visibility
You can save on marketing costs when you consider the built-in marketing tools of a third-party platform. By partnering with DoorDash, for example, restaurants can take advantage of our widespread reach and instantly boost their online
visibility and SEO without any up-front costs. New customers can discover your restaurant, browse your menu, and place orders all from the DoorDash App.
What’s more, DoorDash offers exclusive marketing tools such as promotions. With promotions, you can customize your target audience and incentive based on your business goals, offering perks like “First Order, $0 Delivery Fee,” “1 Free Starter,” and more. On average, businesses that use promotions see up to a 20% increase in DoorDash sales.
- Offer convenience that customers expect
To stay competitive in today’s on-demand world, restaurant managers should try to cater to consumers’ expectations. And when it comes to convenience, the benefits of food delivery tick all the boxes. In fact, according to a survey by the U.S. National Restaurant Association, more than 60% of millennials in the U.S. want restaurants to use technology to make ordering takeout and delivery more convenient.
When a study published by Nation’s Restaurant News in the U.S. asked customers how they select a restaurant for delivery, 77% said speed and variety were either “important” or “very important.” DoorDash delivers on both fronts; people can take their time looking over your menu, really getting to know your restaurant and the variety of different dishes. Placing an order online is also effortless, with one-step checkout and fast delivery. The average delivery travel time on a DoorDash order is only 35 minutes from when the order is placed to drop-off. Or, you can give your customers different options, such as pick-up only, which allows them to grab and go when they're in the neighborhood.
- Drive incremental orders
Driving incremental sales is easy with DoorDash’s built-in upsell features. In fact, DoorDash has seen the average sales per customer jump 104% from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2021.
When presented with upsell features that include add-on recommendations for sides, desserts, and beverages at checkout, customers often throw last-minute extras into their cart—driving incremental orders and increasing your revenue.
In addition, DoorDash menu analysis can help your restaurant evaluate top-performing menu items, this way you can cater your offerings to your customer base. You can also add a customization option to your menu, so that customers can adapt their orders online just as they would in person. In other words, you can offer modification options such as “no sauce” or “extra onions” so customers can order their meal just the way they want it, making it more likely that they’ll order it again next week (and the week after that).
- Be cost-effective
There are many food delivery app advantages when it comes to costs. When you partner with a third-party platform like DoorDash, you don’t have to worry about any of the logistics. For example, Dashers provide necessary supplies such as insulated hot bags or delivery vehicles—and don't require the investment of training by your team. When you factor in the number of increased food sales along with the minimal amount of effort required to get started, the food delivery app advantages are easy to see.
Since your restaurant already has the staff, ingredients, to-go containers, and utensils, adding an online delivery service won’t take any upfront operating costs out of your budget; you likely won't even have to add staff to your team.
Cory Hruska of Hruska’s Kolaches has seen this first-hand. “DoorDash is like having a whole team on-demand,” he said. “Between customer support, the Merchant Portal, drivers, and other tools, it’s like adding ten people to your staff for just the price of commission.”
Beyond the kitchen, food delivery apps will take care of all of the ordering and delivering infrastructure so you can continue doing what you do best—make quality food that people will continue to order again and again.
- Stay on top of industry trends
More people are choosing food delivery than ever before, and businesses should be following suit to meet potential customers' expectations.
The biggest generational driver of this trend are millennials — 71% of the demographic is opting to order online weekly, and their spending on delivery services outpaces every other age group by 30%. As more of Gen Z begins to enter the workforce with the same expectations for food delivery, it's best for restaurants to get ahead of the curve with online delivery services.
- Manage operations easier with merchant tools
After activating your DoorDash account, you'll be able to easily manage your third-party delivery with the Merchant Portal. The Merchant Portal is an online tool that helps DoorDash partners analyze business performance and track payments, as well as update essential business details like your bank account information, tax ID, and operating hours. With a new Insights Hub featuring three primary features—Operations Quality, Menu Performance, and Customer Feedback—you can do things like evaluate order accuracy and customer ratings, adjust your menu for optimization, and see and respond to customer feedback.
