FoodTech: IT Solutions That Can Help Businesses Increase Profits
$3 billion from 19 investors. This is the funding that Gojek, an Indonesian company, received. And this is the biggest deal in 2020 according to the Fuel for Growth venture capital fund. Gojek is a developer of a mobile app for access to services related to logistics, food ordering and delivery, digital payments, shopping, news broadcasting, and entertainment — in other words, a typical Super App.
IIDF, the Russian venture capital fund, is investing in the Foody project. This is a marketplace that helps restaurants, dark stores, shops, and food suppliers find each other, interact, make orders, and keep documents within one platform.
The third project that etched into our heart is Resti. It automates the restaurant business using cloud tools (automation of any business is our one love). Thanks to Resti, it is possible to take orders, track inventory, and control your restaurant from any place in the world, from any device connected to the Internet.
Time saving. Express deliveries from stores, vending machines with food in the entryway, ready-made meals and whole foods — people no longer want to waste time on routine.
Healthy lifestyle. Artificial meat, calorie-counted grocery kits with restaurant recipes, lactose-free, vegan and other cuisines have all gained a frenzy of popularity because of Generations X and Y, which are becoming more solvent.
Environmental friendliness. Giving up plastic, using scooters and bicycles instead of cars in delivery is not only a real concern for the planet, but also a successful way to set yourself apart from the competition and increase the loyalty of your potential audience.
Personalization. Personalized marketing offers in the form of discounts on certain ‘combos’, even wine and cheese. Offer to order a bouquet on the eve of an important date, because you did that last year. This is what will increase sales in the future, not your Black Fridays.
Cost cutting. Or uberization of the restaurant business. Restaurant and delivery aggregators, new logistical solutions in the form of convenience stores without vendors, farms within establishments, dark kitchen. Anything is used to save money and get as many customers as possible.
Decentralization. Or do you have another answer to the question why, for example, Yandex.Lavka storages are increasingly spreading to all neighborhoods?
Integrations. Let’s talk about them below, using examples of our projects.
Super App. See the example above with Gojec, and also remember Sber, Yandex, and other giants that are trying to put as many services under their ‘roof’ as possible.
How do we work with apps and food delivery services and FoodTech startups?
YPA in food
This is dedicated to those who do not like to waste time waiting (our regards to the time management adepts), those who often get shrimp Caesar salad instead of chicken Caesar salad, those who blush and run away faster than everyone else without leaving a tip because ‘forgot cash at home’!
An app for the YPA foodtech startup. It addresses the problems of megapolis residents. It reduces negative emotions from going to any type of establishment (from a food truck to a Michelin restaurant), and helps the owners of the restaurant keep track of their guests’ reviews and impressions.
It is not rocker science, just increased attention to UX, established communication not only with the founders of the startup, but also with the establishments, extensive experience in integrating R-keeper and favorite online payment systems, and setting up an online table reservation system.
It allows the owners of the establishments:
- to optimize costs
- to find new marketing tools
- to find new ways to safely accept customers during a pandemic
Ronin
It is easy to make ordering sushi for lunch a pleasure (for both the owners and the hungry people). Especially if you know the principles by which high-quality e-commerce projects are created and if you love sushi. All right, it is also very important to look beyond ToRs. After all, we ourselves often end up on the side of ordinary customers and suffer from some ill-conceived solutions. But let’s get to the point.
Integration with R-keeper, which we and you are already familiar with. It is needed to ensure that hundreds of orders per day come directly to this cherished terminal, avoiding email, CRM, and other tools, which are often found on the way to the desired ‘Philadelphia’. Yes, all those ‘we will call you back to verify the order’, half-hour waits for confirming SMS, etc. are the real enemies, forcing you to waste time transferring your order from the mail to the terminal and possible errors.
Business owners also liked another trick — cross-selling in the cart at checkout, which actually increased the average check: 7% of people agreed to add the suggested sweet rolls or slice of cheesecake. Overall, after the launch of the new website, online ordering increased to 80–90% before the pandemic.
Druzya Restaurant & Brewery
Normally no one believes in these references ‘the largest in Europe’, ‘the largest in the North’, etc. Because only a lazy marketer would not boast about the size. But this customer does not lie — the hall is intended for 1,000 people. By contrast, the largest one in Russia is intended for 1,470 people. In general, such a size is explained by the high traffic, even during the pandemic. Therefore, it was reasonable to give customers the opportunity to actually book a table. Not by phone, not by SMS and without logging in. Directly on the website, where you can check online which seats are free, which are not, observe the distance, etc.
The service does not end there: make and pay for pre-orders, find yourself in photos from events, get personalized promotions and discounts, because the website functionality allows marketers to study their customers and increase their return to the restaurant.
Accordingly, having expanded the capabilities of the usual tool (website), the owner received a system to manage all orders and reservations, as well as all the necessary statistics on them.
Tiktak
Those who have read a dozen articles on FoodTech will say that a food aggregator is not a novelty anymore. And we are not going to argue. We will only tell you about an interesting feature that we still think is relevant.
Tiktak delivery is a food delivery service in Grozny. Their service is arranged with a website with an adaptive version for all devices, a mobile app for clients, and a mobile app for restaurants. We will focus on the last one.
Combination of a website and a customer app is a classic. In order to win the hearts of restaurateurs, the delivery service decided to give each of them access to their ‘own’ app, which is styled with their logo and identity. In this way, the owner of the establishment received not only new clients, but also a service for processing orders for their own personal use — a personalized approach that has never failed before.
More info you can find here
TOP ideas for FoodTech projects
- Personal manager service through an application or a personal account on a website — automation of restaurants, cafes, delivery
- Credit and deferred payment options for legal entities
- Menu calculators
- Integration with calendar/social networks/contacts to create reminders of important dates
- Ability to order, track, edit the delivery settings or pickup from a convenient point (store, warehouse, parcel station)
- Ability to edit orders after checkout
- Ability to split the bill with friends, paying with the added card
- Ability to leave tips with the added card when there is no cash
- Personalized marketing based on registration with mobile number
- Cross-selling of related services and merchandise (integration with 1C)
- Restaurant automation with R-Keeper and instant order receipt by the vendor
- Focus on different segments (b2b, b2c)
Do you like our approach? Do you want to repeat the success of our customers? Then contact us.
