New consumer habits have meant a before and after for medium and large restaurant chains. Two decades ago, the take-away food trend was not so widespread. Today, however, most restaurants are take away. The advance of technology, digitalization in the world of hospitality and the pandemic have been the determining factors in the change of mentality in the sector.
The take away restaurant revolution
Choose, pay and enjoy. The philosophy of take away restaurants is essentially that. The consumer doesn’t have to worry about anything else. It is not surprising that the sector already has a worldwide turnover of 74 billion euros, according to a study by Alisys.
The explosion of medium and large restaurant chains and the need to accelerate their digital transformation have been decisive in this regard. It should be noted that take-away restaurants have had to adapt to a marketing model that is different from that of the physical business and to an increasingly heterogeneous clientele.
The success of this trend lies in the simplicity and ease of the purchasing process for the user, who can use their mobile phone to use the restaurant’s take away software to place their order. The platform will show that the restaurant has received the order and is in the process of preparing and shipping it. In fact, the same mobile phone is used to make the payment. It couldn’t be easier.
Why have take away in the restaurant?
The process of medium and large restaurant chains towards having a delivery service has not been easy, but there are many examples of take-away restaurants such as Vips, Foster’s Hollywood or Ginos that have been grateful for the leap to this business model.
For them, it has been fundamental to have a long-term vision. It should be borne in mind that takeaway food is not a temporary strategy in the face of a temporary situation, such as the closure of hotels and catering outlets due to Covid-19. The catering establishments that have opted for this modality have done so knowing that the format will be maintained in the long term and that it will even evolve over time.
Likewise, the decision has been motivated by the fact of having an additional revenue stream. Imagine that every day, all of your company’s restaurants are full of customers and orders continue to come in through the food delivery management platform. It is certainly an opportunity to increase sales and double turnover. This has been an extra motivation for medium and large chains to implement the take-away service.
Many of the large and medium-sized restaurant chains that opted for this system during the pandemic did so out of necessity. In addition, when it came to implementing the necessary changes to become a delivery system, they found that there were already restaurant chains with take away that were working quite well. If the business model works for others, why wouldn’t it work for my restaurant chain? And if you add to that the fact that take away generates a ‘memory’ effect on the customer, so much the better.
Although the pandemic has been a determining factor in the implementation of food delivery services, medium and large restaurant chains have realized that they need to evolve and offer improvements to their clientele. And all this requires an order management system that meets the customer’s needs and takes the business to the next level.
