Thoughts on a takeaway service app?

[MyDK]

What our people's opinions on providing an individual personal app to a takeaway business, allowing customers to download the app and order there food through it. We are in the process of making this service available but would like to get business owners perspective. It would be a monthly subscription, any thoughts on prices would be good, and takeaways would be able to control there menu's and give cutomers updates and promotions via the app. Would love some feedback so we can move the product forward.

 

[fisicx]

You've missed the boat on this one, there are already a whole load of apps and websites where you can do this: just-eat.co.uk for example.

 

[MyDK]

Hi fisicx, thanks for the reply, I know these relay services exist but our concept is to give the takeaways there own app (branded) and customers can download via app store and be able to edit there menu and offer promotions and update via the app, also we don't want to make it commission based, but a monthly fee.

 

[groovyjon]

I wouldn't want to download apps for individual takeaways, when I can log on to just-eat and view many takeaways at once. Personally, I think it would be a step backwards.

 

[MyDK]

Hi GroovyJon

The concept is geared to your favourite takeaway so lets say a customer has a favourite takeaway many do, they can download the app, and look at the menu, place an order and items to favourites and re-order previous orders, Also once they have the app the takeaway buisiness can send them offers, update them on how long the food will all via notifications. this avoids the customer having to search through endless takeaways and benifits the takeaway as they are not competing with other takeaways. Thanks for all the feedback much appreciated.

 

[ethical PR]

Hi

I think your problem will be that most people know what their favourite takeaway offers already and will call up with an order.

Takeaways can promote special offers via their FB, twitter, text etc, so I don't necessarily think there will be a demand from takeaways to buy into your app.

However, if you have done research with takeaways that shows otherwise, then you may prove me wrong.

 

[MyDK]

Hi Ethical PR, we have a demo on our website would you or anyone else have a look to let us know what you think? the site is getmytakeawayapp.co.uk

 

[Daxo]

I would suggest there are not many people who would download an app for an individual takeaway. I certainly would not.

I'd also suggest that the likes of just-eat, hungry etc have this market place tied up primarily because they offer an aggregation of eateries, not just 1 eatery.

I'd also argue that many people may very well have more than one favourite takeaway. What about those who enjoy Indian, Chinese and Fish and chips as their takeaways of choice? Would they download 3 individual apps? Or is it more likely they would download the just eat app if they are really determined to have yet another app/widget take up more space on their screen/phone?

And as has been mentioned, many people already know the meals they want and simply call up the takeaway direct.

I think you need to do a lot more research into the demand for this from the consumer and the merchants view point.

 

[fisicx]

We've got a bunch of menus in a drawer in the kitchen. It's easier and faster than using an app. I call them up, call out the numbers and 20mins later a bloke on a moped knocks at our door.

When I asked the owner a while back about fast-eat he said he had never taken an order via the app/website, everyone calls him on the phone.

 

[telemax]

The Just Eat web site is great I use it pretty much every.time I order a takeaway. However I do think the OP should spend some time knocking on the door of every restaurant in their area to find out if their is indeed any interest in this. A week spent doing this will either save the OP months of wasted time developing an app that nobody wants or confirm that it's the right thing to do.

 

[Deleted member 162294]

I use to work for a takeaway and have family that run them. The likes of Just-Eat and FillMyBelly aren't particularly favorable to the businesses themselves. Their commission is something like 10-13%. Which is far too much and it just eats in to the profit margins.

Did ya see what I did there?

The way its structured is that the takeaways with the best review score average receive the bulk of the customers while the ones with lower review scores stay at the bottom. This means if you're just signing up then you have no reviews and you stay at the bottom with no chance of rising up.

Changing your items/price on the menu means having to call up Just-Eat or FillMyBelly or sending them your entire menu, or through e-mail correspondence. There is no way to directly change things by yourself.

If you could price your app so that it takes a lot less commission than your competitors it will allow the takeaways to make the price of everything on the menu just a little bit cheaper than on Just-Eat/FillMyBelly and take home more money at the same time.

They can then refer all customers who regularly use those websites to your service. I'll PM you with my details.

 

[MOIC]

We've got a bunch of menus in a drawer in the kitchen.

Is that the same drawer that every kitchen has?

The drawer that has everything but the kitchen sink !

As has been mentioned, I think a step backwards.

But, best of luck, we can all be proved wrong!

 

[MyDK]

Hi Phishfood

That is very helpful information the app has been created and all infrastructure in place to ready to get it out to takeaways, we don't do that app on commission its a monthly subscription our lowest feature set price is just £39 a month, the service also come with a back office portal where all items and prices can be added, edited and deleted, this is also where you can view orders, and notify your customers on delivery and promotions.

I have received your PM and will contact you with more information, thanks again.

 

[telemax]

Hi Phishfood

That is very helpful information the app has been created and all infrastructure in place to ready to get it out to takeaways, we don't do that app on commission its a monthly subscription our lowest feature set price is just £39 a month, the service also come with a back office portal where all items and prices can be added, edited and deleted, this is also where you can view orders, and notify your customers on delivery and promotions.

I have received your PM and will contact you with more information, thanks again.

It will certainly be interesting to see how you get on at that price point. I am involved with selling an app at a not dissimilar price but into larger organisations. You are going to need to work hard to convince prospects of it's return on investment.

 

[antoine82]

Hi Phishfood

That is very helpful information the app has been created and all infrastructure in place to ready to get it out to takeaways, we don't do that app on commission its a monthly subscription our lowest feature set price is just £39 a month, the service also come with a back office portal where all items and prices can be added, edited and deleted, this is also where you can view orders, and notify your customers on delivery and promotions.

I have received your PM and will contact you with more information, thanks again.

Have you checked the competition? I was proposed exactly the same service by apps4firm form £29 per month. And FYI I told them I was not interested (I run a coffee shop/ take away) because I think it's not worth it for my business (it might the case for other businesses though):

- £360+VAT (£480 in your situation) per year is quite expensive for a small business like mine
- I can perfectly forward my offers via Facebook or twitter which have - and always will -a better audience than any app I can create
- I don't want to push my customers to download an app if they don't want to

But as I said, other businesses might find it interesting and worth it, so good luck!

 

[superdooper500]

For me the primary obstacle in this is making the users aware of the app in the first place. Most people ring up their local take away, and an order is delivered, a smaller percentage go instore where they can see advertising about an app. You'd have to produce a leaflet about the app to go out with the takeaways, to promote an app designed to do away with leaflets.

I admire your entrepreneurial spark, but I honestly think this would cause more problems than benefits for a lot of takeaways.

 

[MyDK]

Hi telexmax convincing people this is not another relay service is going to be the hardest part, it hard to change people perception of a service when comparing against bigger companys

Hi Antione82, can i ask do you use any relay services if so what disadvantages do you come across as would like to compare to our service thanks.

Hi Superdrooper500 thanks for the encouragement, we have designed campaign we can run for the customer to get the word out to there current customerbase, and we have had feedback from perspective clients that they would phase out the relay service to help move them over to the app, but yes getting word out is something we want to help the takeaway owner do.

 

[HFServices]

For me the primary obstacle in this is making the users aware of the app in the first place.

Next time the takeaway has menus printed they put a QRcode on it.
QRcode on the shop window.
Savvy people will scan it just out of curiosity.

There is a Chinese takeaway near me that I wanted a menu for but it didnt open until after 5 pm.

I wasnt going back into town at that time just to get a menu so they lost out on repeat custom.

If they had a QRcode on their window I would have snapped it.

I dont know how old most of the people making comments on here are but the younger people ( teens - early 20's) are the people that need targeting as they are the ones growing up with and using the mobile technology as the normal thing to do.

It is high time that smart phone manufacturers started putting QRcode readers on their devices as standard, not just google, FB and YT.

 

[superdooper500]

Next time the takeaway has menus printed thay put on a QRcode.
QRcode on the shop window.
Savvy people will scan it just out of curiosity.

There is a Chinese takeaway near me that I wanted a menu for but it didnt open until after 5 pm.

I wasnt going back into town at that time just to get a menu so they lost out on repeat custom.

If they had a QRcode on their window I would have snapped it.

Possibly, although I think QR codes are a bit of a fad that will and are dying out already. Most takeaways have an online presence, even if just a basic one page website. I just think an app specifically for the store doesn't really fit in the with profile of the customer, and doesn't really solve any major problems. Its just technology for the sake of it.

But I'm happy to be proved wrong

 

[NicholasTaylor]

I stand with the masses on this one.

I love a good take-away, frequently order from good Thai places, Indian and Chinese (not a kebab sort of bloke). I don't like phoning them up, simply because it can be difficult at times (parties, language barrier, 0 minutes left on my phone!) so I use JustEat.

If my three top chains had their own app - I wouldn't bother to download it, it's already there. Done and dusted.

Not a concept I'd lean towards, but good luck!

 

[MyDK]

Hi HF Service our marketing campaign for takeaways includes QR codes, a lot of people our looking at the app just from a customer perspective, the service has a lot of positives that out weigh the relay service, in our service we include on the fly menu changing, no commission paid and managing of orders and customer via notifications.

When you look at the charge involved in relay services you need to compare the commission they charge to what they make.

Thanks for the comment tho as everyone opinion is valuable.

 

[Deleted member 162294]

As I've worked in takeaways before there are many ways which Just-Eat and FillMyBelly are very unfair to the takeaway owners themselves. I won't go in to detail about it but I know there is a lot of discontent among takeaway owners and they will phase out JE/FMB when given the opportunity.

MyDK doesn't need to worry about how consumers (the people that order form takeaways) view the product, they just need to worry about how to sell this idea to the owners. Once the owners are on board then the next batch of menu's will advertise the app, they can make it so the app has all the special offers and JE/FMB have none (and/or slightly cheaper prices). Then JE/FMB customers can be told in the future the takeaway will longer appear on the websites and the only other solution is the one by MyDK.

 

[ChrisBackman]

You need to get some big takeaways to sign up first before the little guys will even look at doing this. the issue is that people are so used to phoning up and now even using the internet, that they might not actually be that bothered about an App that does it all. will you be able to store card details to make payments easier? This is the only way I can see it being any easier.

 

[sands67]

I've done this as a mobile website. you visit the site from any device you can order online. the mobile experience is different to the desktop. there is a benefit to the site owner in that they are not giving up 10/15% to the likes of just eat but believe me...takeaway owners are a nightmare to sell to.

 

[Berkshire Business]

I agree, Just Eat is what I use all the time and I think it's pretty popular. So when it comes to making an app for takeaways I'm afraid it's already been done.

 

[groovyjon]

On a side note, I tried using just-eat on Saturday, and strangely it would only display the left half of every page on my ipad, so it was unusable. Never had that problem before with them. Tried it on my iphone too and it was exactly the same. Had to resort to using the desktop PC in the end which was fine. If that hadn't worked I might have had to actually pick up a phone and speak to a human.

 

[garyk]

As above I dont think people are going to download half a dozen apps for each of their favourite takeaway. Everything needs to be centralised not fragmented.

 

[telemax]

As above I dont think people are going to download half a dozen apps for each of their favourite takeaway. Everything needs to be centralised not fragmented.

Thinking about it, I think this is the main problem!

 

[MyDK]

From the market research we have done, it has proved that consumers would have a maximum of 3 apps of one type, this is more apparent with IOS and folders.

Also a lot of people our seeing this only from a consumers point of view the cost and ease of use for the takeaway owners will benefit them gratley.

Hi mikarisa the demo app is in the app store now and also we have a walk through demo on our site getmytakeawayapp.co.uk, if you need any information let me know

 

[Daxo]

From the market research we have done, it has proved that consumers would have a maximum of 3 apps of one type, this is more apparent with IOS and folders.

Also a lot of people our seeing this only from a consumers point of view the cost and ease of use for the takeaway owners will benefit them gratley.

Hi mikarisa the demo app is in the app store now and also we have a walk through demo on our site getmytakeawayapp.co.uk, if you need any information let me know

Without the interest of end consumers, i.e. those who order takeaways you have no business.

Merchants will not pay a subscription fee for a service which is proven to have NO meaningful consumer demand.

I think maybe you are looking at this too much from a merchants viewpoint, but even then I still do not know which problem you believe this app solves such that it would be of any value to merchants at all.

 

[telemax]

It would also be interesting to know what market research the OP has done, I think anything short of asking at least 30 representative takeaway owners whether they would pay £30 odd per month for this app is just not cutting it.

 

[Davidcooper]

Just-eat already provide this service for free. However it would be good for your customers to offer this service for free. Essentially cutting out the middle man of just-eat. I myself would prefer dealing with the takeaway directly, although I do think just-eat is an awesome idea.

 

[SourChocolate]

Hi Phishfood

That is very helpful information the app has been created and all infrastructure in place to ready to get it out to takeaways, we don't do that app on commission its a monthly subscription our lowest feature set price is just £39 a month, the service also come with a back office portal where all items and prices can be added, edited and deleted, this is also where you can view orders, and notify your customers on delivery and promotions.

I have received your PM and will contact you with more information, thanks again.

I think £39/month (minimum) is very expensive for this type of app. In order to start seeing benefits over other apps which take 10%+ in commissions, a takeaway would have to see at least £400 in orders per month. Now, an average order is probably around £15-£20 so this is 20 orders/month or 1 order per day.

If they don't reach that, they are clearly losing money. In order to see these level of orders, they'd have actively promote this app among their existing customer base and recruit probably 100-200 users in month 1 to start seeing some orders. This is additional effort which does not really bring much value anyway, neither to the business nor to the customer who "is already calling".

Additionally, this will not help in bringing new business (well, if it does from the QR codes on the front window that's probably a marginal percentage) - something the other apps certainly can do to some extend.

One may argue this would allow streamlining the ordering process but majority of orders (or significant proportion at least) would have to go through this channel - this is extra hassle of monitoring the system and checking whether on order has appeared.

Another point might be that the app might increase purchase frequency. I think people work out what they want first, then order so probably very few cases - definitely niche target group (there was a thread a few month ago around this, loads of comments - worth digging out).

I reckon, it's a proposition for a very small group of customers and large chain takeaways or the ones with large marketing budgets (so big ones). Also, you've already worked out your price points already without (presumably) proving the concept first. If you are keen to go ahead, I'd probably think about trialing it first (no charge but work hard to prove it works with a few trialists) to build a business case which may support future sales. Also, worth considering "freemium" or "entry" levels with limited functionality to get more businesses on board.

 

[Multi-store]

I've only read the OP,

The day I order my food through an App, instead of making the phone call, simply will never come.

I genuinely feel there is no need for this market, online ordering of takeaways and such. I know hungry house and just eat is it? they offer this service and its just not all that good. I like to speak to the lady in the chinese on thursday nights, she knows my address, and i can be sure i know she knows what i want, when i want it.

Sorry, i think this is just one of those things people have created to fill a gap that never existed, i.e. its a novelty that WILL wear out eventually.

 

[superdooper500]

I think £39/month (minimum) is very expensive for this type of app. In order to start seeing benefits over other apps which take 10%+ in commissions, a takeaway would have to see at least £400 in orders per month. Now, an average order is probably around £15-£20 so this is 20 orders/month or 1 order per day.

If they don't reach that, they are clearly losing money. In order to see these level of orders, they'd have actively promote this app among their existing customer base and recruit probably 100-200 users in month 1 to start seeing some orders. This is additional effort which does not really bring much value anyway, neither to the business nor to the customer who "is already calling".

Additionally, this will not help in bringing new business (well, if it does from the QR codes on the front window that's probably a marginal percentage) - something the other apps certainly can do to some extend.

One may argue this would allow streamlining the ordering process but majority of orders (or significant proportion at least) would have to go through this channel - this is extra hassle of monitoring the system and checking whether on order has appeared.

Another point might be that the app might increase purchase frequency. I think people work out what they want first, then order so probably very few cases - definitely niche target group (there was a thread a few month ago around this, loads of comments - worth digging out).

I reckon, it's a proposition for a very small group of customers and large chain takeaways or the ones with large marketing budgets (so big ones). Also, you've already worked out your price points already without (presumably) proving the concept first. If you are keen to go ahead, I'd probably think about trialing it first (no charge but work hard to prove it works with a few trialists) to build a business case which may support future sales. Also, worth considering "freemium" or "entry" levels with limited functionality to get more businesses on board.

I absolutely agree on this in terms of it not working, I do like how you've tried to suggest some ways to make it work though, I'm too ruthless with my comments sometimes!

 

[Vectis]

Over a period of, say, a year we order from approximately 3 different Indian restaurants a couple of Chinese, maybe one or two Pizza places plus sometimes a Thai.

That means, if we went down the individual app route, I'd have to have at least 8 different apps on my mobile device, and perhaps 10 or 12 if I wanted more choice. Do really think that's practical or even desirable?

Might be handy if someone only ever used one takeaway, but how many do that?

 

[Morrjo]

I've used hungry house two times and it has been absolutely useless. Fisrt time order went through, money was charged (obviously) and then get an email saying the order has been cancelled because we are too far from the restaurant. (!?!) Even though we used the postcode search to find LOCAL restaurants. Second time around same thing, order and money went through and AFTER the app said that the offer is not valid... So yea, just make sure youre app and service are working properly before you launch anything. Im never using that app again I dont care if they do fix it.

 

[telemax]

I think £39/month (minimum) is very expensive for this type of app. In order to start seeing benefits over other apps which take 10%+ in commissions, a takeaway would have to see at least £400 in orders per month. Now, an average order is probably around £15-£20 so this is 20 orders/month or 1 order per day.

If they don't reach that, they are clearly losing money. In order to see these level of orders, they'd have actively promote this app among their existing customer base and recruit probably 100-200 users in month 1 to start seeing some orders. This is additional effort which does not really bring much value anyway, neither to the business nor to the customer who "is already calling".

Additionally, this will not help in bringing new business (well, if it does from the QR codes on the front window that's probably a marginal percentage) - something the other apps certainly can do to some extend.

One may argue this would allow streamlining the ordering process but majority of orders (or significant proportion at least) would have to go through this channel - this is extra hassle of monitoring the system and checking whether on order has appeared.

Another point might be that the app might increase purchase frequency. I think people work out what they want first, then order so probably very few cases - definitely niche target group (there was a thread a few month ago around this, loads of comments - worth digging out).

I reckon, it's a proposition for a very small group of customers and large chain takeaways or the ones with large marketing budgets (so big ones). Also, you've already worked out your price points already without (presumably) proving the concept first. If you are keen to go ahead, I'd probably think about trialing it first (no charge but work hard to prove it works with a few trialists) to build a business case which may support future sales. Also, worth considering "freemium" or "entry" levels with limited functionality to get more businesses on board.

I think that something like opt in text messaging can be more effective than an app if done properly and that doesn't come with a monthly commitment. My local Dominos Pizza is very good at this. All the takeaway needs is the customer's mobile number, rather than having to put marketing money into getting them to know about and download an app.

 

[Daxo]

I agree on the sms opt in point. I think a takeaway benefits from sms marketing hugely and the roi can be stunning.

I think for all but the absolutely biggest takeaway chains an individual app would be a complete waste of time, money and energy.

I maintain what I said previously, there is no meaningful demand for this app/service from end consumers, and without such demand, there is no business.

In addition to the lack of demand from end consumers, I maintain also that the app does not solve any problems for the merchant whatsoever, and I think SourChocolate's post serves to support that point (whether they meant to support it or not!)