Need for & challenges of own online ordering platform for F&B, Solution By SingFNB

Singapore-based SingFNB Offers Rescue to Bleeding Restaurants with High cost of Online Ordering Platforms.

Studies have shown that customers prefer ordering directly from their restaurants, instead of using third-party solutions. A Recent article from Hospitality Tech shows that as many as 70% of the customers prefer ordering direct if the restaurant has one.

Reasons cited by some customers are that direct ordering from restaurants would save more money for them and it would translate to lower prices for them. Many 3rd party ordering platforms charge fees in the range of 28 to 32% of the order fees and some even have hidden costs like monthly platform fees/ funds transfer fees/ marketing fees etc.

Worst is during peak hours some 3rd party vendors can be partial in their dealings. Like they find it economical to focus on zones that have a large number of restaurants. This makes their rider’s fleet management easier & economical. This means any far-off restaurant may find their online platform with 3rd party offline or not accepting online orders during certain peak hours. This further hurts the restaurants, and they remain at the mercy of such vendors. Since customers prefer directly ordering from restaurants, fact means that restaurants have a major opportunity to open a direct ordering channel. This has multiple advantages as listed below:

· Restaurants can save some money. Singapore-based SingFNB estimates that the saving could be as high as 10% as compared to using 3rd party ordering platforms.

· Restaurants can finally accept orders all the time from the entire country (not restricted to a 3 to 4.5 km radius) and accept orders even during peak hours even if they are located in far-off locations. They own the ordering platform, and they control everything

· Most 3rd party platforms do not provide customer information like email, phone number, and delivery address to the restaurants. They only get names, order info like dishes ordered/ amount, and pick-up time info. With their own ordering platform, restaurants directly own the customer data and can effectively engage customers through newsletters, social media, push notifications to the apps, etc.

· Some 3rd party platforms simply offer a full refund to the customers in case of any complaint without giving restaurants any chance to clarify. With their own ordering platform, restaurants can evaluate complaints and decide to refund only for genuine cases

· With all data stored electronically, restaurants can better analyze the buying patterns of customers like frequency of ordering, dishes preferred during different days of the week/ times of the day/ festivals, and other special days on the calendar. This information helps them to find hidden trends and best prepare them to plan better and grow.

Most restaurants are not comfortable launching an ordering platform on their own. Most are already struggling with a tightening labour market and less staff availability. During peak hours they struggle to effectively manage Dine In operations. While cooking food for all online orders is an easier part for restaurants, they find it extremely difficult to take care of deliveries. It’s not possible for each restaurant to manage its own fleet of vehicles & riders. That means they would be relying on 3rd party logistics service providers to get a rider for each delivery. This requires some work, particularly during the peak hours like a rainy Saturday evening. Getting a rider could be tricky. Some riders don’t do the job on time, and one has to monitor closely and keep communicating with the rider and the customer. Someone needs to answer queries from the customer also about their delivery status. This burden is something that restaurants are not willing to take on their shoulder.

Singapore based SingFNB™ offers a solution: It has come to the rescue. It offers branded ordering solution that is owned by the restaurant. Restaurants can collect orders directly from their own website or through their own Apps. SingFNB takes care of online orders, manage Payment Gateways, pays their fees/ answer their queries for credit card chargeback scenarios, arrange rider, closely monitor, send SMS messages, alert & print KOT reports inside the restaurant, offer customer support services, and even offer limited marketing services for a flat fee of 22% for Home Delivery order and just 5% for Self-Pickup orders.

Many of the other services are offered complimentary like online Catering ordering/ Bento Meals ordering, Table Reservations, etc are offered without service fees. The solution includes tools for broadcasting Newsletters using a fully CAN-SPAM Act compliant solution. It also includes tools for Marketing Automation with Google Analytics/ Facebook Pixels/ Google Tag scripting support. The best part is it auto-creates a separate web page per product/ per category/ per promotion etc. Such pages have their own unique URL, which allows for adding an infinite amount of information on it using its CMS and it can be used as a landing page for running any marketing campaign.

Singapore-based Sakunthalas could start collecting orders for all of their outlets after switching over to SingFNB. Since their menu differs per outlet, they are able to keep separate ordering pages per outlet. Restaurant managers can only see orders/ reservations belonging to their own outlets. Some of their outlets auto-book a rider through 3rd party service provider and some use their own vehicles/ riders. They are able to do so using the SingFNB™ solution.

SingFNB™ is a subset of SingSuite® which is a larger suite of business software products designed for any business entity on the face of the Earth. Singapore-based Intelli Softwares® has created these solutions from scratch to support easier/ quick/ affordable customizations and yet offer managed upgrades.