Delivery is Not Cannibalizing Your Business

October 30, 2017

Let’s create a hypothetical: You are a restaurant operator and you have noticed that over the past few months, less people have been coming in to eat. However, you are filling more orders for delivery, through services like UberEats and GrubHub. What is your initial thought and feeling? Panic that the restaurant is starting to go under? Scared that you may have to cut staff to off-set the loss of revenue?

This situation may not be ‘the sky is falling’ moment you think it is. Instead, you can breath easy knowing that it may not actually be as bad as you think.

According to a study conducted on delivery consumer behavior by the data insights firm Sense360 — which said that consumer use of delivery apps does not cannibalize existing restaurant visits.

The study tracked more than 21 million anonymous restaurant visits both before and after consumers downloaded third-party delivery apps, including UberEats, GrubHub and Postmates.

The study found there is “no evidence that delivery apps drive significant, short-term drops in visitation.”

“At least in the short term, we didn’t see any impact,” Eli Portnoy, CEO and founder of Sense360, said in an interview. “It gets at the heart of the question whether the app changes behavior. That’s ultimately what folks are interested in. We found no impact at all.”

There’s one caveat, Portnoy said, and that’s the short timeframe. The study looked at visits 90 days before and 90 days after consumers downloaded the apps.

As such, Portnoy said, it’s possible that consumers could change their behavior over a longer period of time — something he promised to analyze.

So what does this mean to you and how can you capitalize on this kind of situation?

Well, if there are more people ordering online, figure out why. What is driving their behavior? By doing so, you can pull in similar customers. Go where the customers are: hit Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, UberEats, GrubHub and all other social media and delivery channels. Get your message out there. Folks are searching and wanting delivery.

Give the customers what they want!

Highlight your benefit as a fast and easy, deliver-friendly restaurant. You get the same great food and service delivered right to your door!

That’s why it is so important, especially in this day and age, to be flexible. Technology trends and usage shift day-by-day and it is up to you (and us!) to stay on top of those changes. Being able to meet and supersede your customer’s expectations, through any and all channels, is what will make your restaurant competitive and successful.

Need to pass the time between our next post? Then check out Custom Business Solutions for all your restaurant technology needs!