How many food delivery apps should my restaurant have? How do I sign up? Which apps are the most popular in my region?

The wild wild west of delivery

How can my restaurant remain profitable despite the high fees of third-delivery apps? If you’re a restaurant owner, chances are you’ve grappled with these questions in the past couple of years. COVID-19  prompted 40% of owners to add delivery tech solutions to their restaurants, making delivery platforms a hot topic in recent years. But as we re-emerge into a post-pandemic world, it’s clear that delivery is here to stay. In fact, experts say that the online food delivery market’s global revenue is expected to rise to $151.5 billion in 2021.

Your customers depend on third-delivery apps

Ordering in has become the norm amongst people worldwide. Since your customers likely use more than one third-party delivery app, choosing to sign up for more than one delivery platform can allow your restaurant to be seen by many people–especially those who haven’t visited your restaurant previously. 

• 53% of people say that takeout and delivery is essential to the way they live.
• The average person has at least two food delivery apps on their smartphone 
• 31% of people say they use third-party delivery services at least twice a week.
• 87% of Americans who use third-party food delivery services agree that it makes their lives easier.
• Studies show that 63% of young adults use 3rd party delivery services. 

Why your restaurant should be on multiple delivery platforms

Being on multiple delivery platforms has many benefits for restaurants like yours from increasing your restaurant’s reach to boosting your sales, presence, and giving you a competitive advantage.

1. Being on multiple food delivery platforms increases your restaurant’s reach.

Everyone has a favorite delivery app whether that’s because they’re a member of the rewards program for a specific platform, they signed up for the platform their friends were on, or a particular platform is more popular in their region. Different platforms can unlock different segments of customers for your restaurant. 

1. Since you’re reaching more customers than ever before, being on multiple delivery platforms can also result in increased sales.

There’s one surefire way to make sure you never miss out on a sale. The secret? Ensuring that your restaurant is everywhere a potential customer might be. Similar to the above, if a potential customer is on Uber Eats you want to make sure you’re there too. If they’re not on Uber Eats and are on Grubhub, you should be there as well. This increases the probability that your restaurant will receive delivery orders than ever before.

1. Being on multiple food delivery apps can give your restaurant a competitive advantage

Not only do you want to ensure that your restaurant is anywhere a customer might be, you also want to make sure your restaurant is everywhere a competitor might be. You have to assume that your restaurant’s biggest competitors are on every delivery app in your region. That means that if you’re not listed on each platform, a competitor is taking a piece of your pie whenever a customer goes to order from you and is instead forced to order from another restaurant in the same area & cuisine type. 

1. Compare & evaluate which delivery app your restaurant performs best on

We all know that delivery is an investment. From commissions to promotional expenses and more, being on multiple delivery platforms can get costly. However, if you track your performance on each platform with Otter, you’re able to gain insight into which platforms work best for you. Say you sign up for Uber Eats, Grubhub and DoorDash and you notice that DoorDash doesn’t result in many orders or sales for your restaurant because it’s not as popular in your area. Consider utilizing this data to make the decision to no longer work with DoorDash and instead utilize that budget to run promotions on Uber Eats and Grubhub.

1. Boost awareness of your restaurant through multiple digital storefronts

Think of a listing on a delivery app as a “digital billboard” for your restaurant: each listing serves as an ad & a way of getting your name out there to potential customers on the internet. The more platforms you’re listed on, the more digital storefronts you have “open” to attract new customers.  

How to sign up for food delivery services like Uber Eats and Grubhub

Now that we’ve gone over the benefits of signing up for multiple delivery platforms, let’s talk about the steps you’ll have to follow to start working with them.

Most delivery services work in a somewhat similar way: they connect delivery-seeking diners with restaurants. The sign-up process is also quite similar. As an example, let's cover two popular delivery services: Uber Eats and Grubhub.

How to sign up for Uber Eats

Uber Eats is a food delivery company established in the United States. It operates in multiple regions around the world. Here’s what to do to register your restaurant on Uber Eats:

1. Head to the Uber Eats restaurant landing page
2. Fill out the form with your information: store name, store address, your name, your email and phone number
3. Uber Eats will process your request, and reach out as soon as it is processed
4. From there, they will provide you with an onboarding session to ensure your restaurant is good to go
5. Your restaurant listing will go live and you’ll begin processing orders from Uber Eats
   

How to sign up for Grubhub

Like Uber Eats, Grubhub is headquartered in the United States. The online order and delivery service operates around the globe. Here’s what to do to register your restaurant on Grubhub:

1. Head to the Grubhub for restaurant landing page
2. Fill out the form with your information: name, email, phone, restaurant name and restaurant zip code
3. Grubhub will process your request, and reach out as soon as it is processed
4. From there, they will provide you with an onboarding session to ensure your restaurant is good to go
5. Your restaurant listing will go live and you’ll begin processing orders from Grubhub 

How to manage multiple food delivery services

It’s clear that delivery delivers on your restaurant’s bottom line and your customer’s need for convenience, but how can you make it as convenient for your restaurant as it is for your customers?

As you begin signing up for delivery services, you will likely meet some common tensions. Working with different platforms means endless tablets taking up space in your restaurant. With orders, notifications, menus and data scattered across several channels, it gets harder to take control of your delivery operations while running your restaurant at the same time.

Here’s where delivery management and optimization platforms come into play. At Otter, our goal is to increase your restaurant’s performance and make your life easier. Restaurants work with Otter to connect their third-party delivery partners into one single tablet. Our product is an end-to-end platform that helps businesses succeed in online delivery through aggregation, management and optimization.

Having all your orders, order status, and data in a single place ensures that your team can spend less time behind the tablet and more time serving customers. Request a demo to say goodbye to endless tablets while decreasing errors in order fulfillment and gaining insight into performance!

How to gain popularity on food delivery services

Now that you’ve increased your reach by being on multiple delivery services, it’s time to take action and maximize your sales. Here are our top 3 tips to gain popularity on food delivery apps:

• Control the algorithm: Increasing your ranking on food delivery platforms will help your restaurant show up on an app’s homepage which will result in more money in your pocket. Put simply, ranking higher on delivery platforms requires a mix of speed, ratings, service, promotion, operational efficiency, and conversion. 
• Take food photos like a pro: When it comes to ordering food, surprises are not what a customer is looking for. That’s why restaurants that get the most orders are the ones that display one photo per item on their online menus. You don’t need to hire a professional to shoot your food, just make sure to work with natural light, use a bright and unique background and get overhead shots of your dishes. Click here to learn more.
• Menu Optimization: When considering what stays, what goes, and what gets added to your menu, there are five key things in mind. Keep it concise, stay true to the in-restaurant dining experience, rank in order of popularity, make it look and sound as good as it tastes, and optimize often.
  

As long as the food delivery market is dominated by many top players, listing your restaurant on multiple platforms is the best way to go. Being present on different apps allows you to increase your reach, maximize your sales and meet your customers where they are. Remember: just make sure not to compromise your operations while doing so.