The business models of restaurants in Taiwan have changed drastically over the years. In the past, restaurants could narrow their focus to just dine-in or take-away customers.
However, it all changed when Foodpanda entered the market in 2012, followed by Uber Eats in 2016, which brought a gradual but steady growth in food delivery. Then COVID-19 hit, and hugely accelerated this development in the F&B industry.
According to the latest stats by the Department of Statistics, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), as of February 2020, 54 per cent of all F&B outlets in Taiwan started offering delivery (compared to 40 per cent in 2018 and 47 per cent in 2019).
When COVID-19 hit, the F&B industry was forced to find creative ways to increase sales. Restaurants began seeking delivery arrangements that did not involve delivery providers or third party platforms.
Hence, the need for restaurants to streamline their in-house ordering website and manage multiple platforms more efficiently emerged.
According to statistics from MOEA and iChef’s internal data, overall revenue of Taiwan’s F&B industry stabilised from its previous decline in Q3 2020, but only saw minimal YoY growth in Q4. Furthermore, based on figures from the National Credit Card Center of R.O.C., the number of F&B e-commerce transactions dropped from 367 per cent YoY in Q4 2019 to 44 per cent YoY in Q4 2020.
iChef’s internal data also revealed that the percentage of delivery in overall orders has been fairly stable. Both sets of data suggest that delivery has entered a phase of maturity and is less likely to grow at the same exponential rate.
With delivery becoming more mainstream, restaurants can no longer assume orders will come flying in just by onboarding to a new platform. To differentiate themselves in the “post-delivery era”, restaurant owners need to invest more in advertising on delivery platforms and managing their own channel.
So the idea of a “platform of platforms” should emerge in the near future, a platform that partners with different providers and streamlines the holistic delivery process, from order placement, delivery to finance.
As a result of such “platform of platforms”, restaurants can minimise clutter, economise manpower and enhance efficiency. In addition, restaurants should expand their in-house ordering capabilities so customers can order on any preferred platform.
When customers search for restaurants, Google My Business (GMB) has become one of the go-tos, be it checking out the menu or placing an order. Now, restaurant details are just one Google search away.
Integration with delivery services allows restaurants to modify their menu directly in the system without having to manually do it on every platform. More so, even with more ordering platforms, restaurants are not burdened with more devices as the entire ordering process can be consolidated into one POS.
With one device, one screen and one menu, restaurants can offer a seamless omnichannel experience to the customers as well as enjoy a truly end-to-end omnichannel experience themselves, from taking orders to CRM.
Besides saving time and cost and increasing revenue, they can also adopt new technologies more quickly and in turn expand services in the region rapidly.
With such enterprise-class technology, restaurants can scale quickly and grow beyond just 10 to 20 stores. Also, with transactional data, they can devise actionable insights and undergo data-driven marketing.
In the post-pandemic world, restaurants must transform their business to keep up with the changing consumer needs and demands.
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