What Are The Types Of Online Ordering Systems?

Choosing an online ordering system for restaurant can be daunting with all the options available. As a restaurateur, you should come across two unique kinds of online ordering systems. That is market place systems and self-service systems.

While they both basically do the same, the business model behind those services have a big impact on your online ordering performance.

Please keep in mind that the data in this article is exactly the date it was published. Things are subject to change with time.

Marketplace Online Ordering Systems

This is the place where majority of the restaurateurs start. Marketplace ordering systems are those like Deliveroo, EatNow, Uber Eats and so on. You can consider these platforms just as eBay.

In general these businesses will reach you first. They upload your menu online and allow you to start taking orders. They also do a lot of service and promotion to drive people to their website to create sales for their stores.

The way in which these systems make money is by taking a % of each order that is made through their system. While this is commonly the simple way to get online, it's also the most costly. The restaurant business is one of the most competitive industries with low-profit margins. Losing a % of each order and 1-3% as well as commonly 5-20%+ can be effective to your financial bottom line.

Restaurateurs will start with these services but soon come to this realization and start searching for other alternatives. That said though this isn't a completely awful. In a perfect world, with all the marketing these businesses do, they can create you some new customers that you probably won't have.

The reverse situation can be valid too where your regular customers start ordering online through these websites at which you start losing a large portion of your regular sales. Which is the reason it's significant that you use marketplace ordering systems related to self service online ordering systems.

Self-service online ordering systems

The rise of self service online ordering system is due to its less expensive when compared with marketplace systems. By generally, these systems charge a fixed monthly cost and a setup fee. This works out to be a less expensive than paying a % on each order.

These systems basically allow you DIY your own online ordering system. You can compare them with online business solutions.

Beside the lower cost, the other advantage of these systems is they for the most part they allow for a greater degree of customization and heaps of more features.

If you plan on receiving online ordering, at that point its completely important that you use a self service online ordering system first and then jump onto marketplace systems.

What kind of online ordering system should be used

The ideal solution is to use the two kinds of systems. Marketplace systems cost you nothing to be on and they receive huge amounts of advertising and promotion. To get the opportunity to be a part of that for no initial cost is a huge advantage. You should see marketplace systems as a way for new customers to discover and find your business.

Be that as it may, when you convert a customer to a loyal customer, its best push them towards using your own online ordering system. This is on the grounds that you can save a lot of money and manage the order data appropriately using it for your potential growth.