According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2013, 56% of all adults living in the U.S. have a smartphone.  Even more notable, within the important demographic range of 18 to 49 years of age (a sweet spot for online ordering customers), the number of smartphone owners jumps to 74.5%.

That works out to about 137 million people with smartphones.  It is still too early to say and be taken seriously, but we, at NetWaiter, believe online and mobile ordering is to restaurants what drive-thru windows were to fast-food places in the '60s - a game changer for how the public gets their takeout food.

Online ordering, however, offers enhanced accessibility from a customer's mobile device.  That's why NetWaiter places so much emphasis on mobile ordering and provides each client their own branded mobile site for easy menu navigation and ordering.   Consider these recent statistics from Google:

•    95% of smartphone users conduct restaurant searches.
•    64% of those searches convert to purchases in one hour; 90% convert within one day.
•    77% of those using NetWaiter for a delivery order prefer to prepay online rather than pay in person.
•    30%: The average industry increase in ticket size seen from mobile and online orders.

Where are you?  It’s the underlying question when asking customers for their delivery address.  The problem is - people aren’t always at an exact address.

A recent article in the New York Times chronicles the growing trend of restaurants delivering not only to homes and offices, but often to places with no address.  This included someone waiting in his car in the Upper West Side of Manhattan (he ordered breakfast delivered to his car), a public beach, and even a local neighborhood playground.

These unique delivery locations are a natural progression to an industry that is making it increasingly easier to order takeout and have it delivered.  These are also the types of takeout dining experiences that customers will talk about through social media and word-of-mouth: “Just had Chinese food ordered to a park bench #awesome #nolongerhungry” (with a picture of their orange chicken included) 

With NetWaiter’s online ordering system, customers ordering delivery can enter special instructions regarding their delivery order.  When an interesting delivery request is made, embrace the challenge, make the delivery, and tout your capabilities on your own Facebook and Twitter steams (protecting your customer’s identity, of course).  Word will get around.

Some interesting and funny requests just from this week:

• “Grove Arcade but outside on O'Henry Ave between Barber and Printville - directly in front of the loading zone and covered in roof construction scaffolding. Have a midget dog who will bark at you when you come inside office.”
• “I'm on the roof. Please ask doorman to call my cell (xxx-xxx-xxxx) when you arrive. Thanks!”

Does your restaurant have any funny or interesting delivery requests/stories?  We’d love to hear them.

One of the things we like to do at NetWaiter is provide restaurants as much information as possible about the benefits of adding online ordering to your business plan.  A version of the following article recently appeared in Restaurant Hospitality Magazine.

A 30% boost in your takeout business within a matter of weeks.  What restaurant owner would not want that?

Those are the kinds of success stories we hear over and over from restaurateurs who have made online ordering part of their marketing plan.

Every day, restaurant owners are confronted with the costs of doing business.  The fixed expenses and staples are no brainers – rent, utilities, payroll for a great staff, the cost of quality food, etc.  The more difficult expenditures are discretionary ones like marketing. Where can a restaurant spend to get the best ROI?  Owners are bombarded with choices daily.

When asked, many successful restaurant owners have a similar response: “Online ordering has been one of our most profitable investments.  NetWaiter should be at the top of every restaurant’s to-do list if they don’t already have it.”

Companies such as NetWaiter offer a fully branded online ordering service through a restaurant’s website (a NetWaiter site can be customized with the look and brand the restaurant).  Customers order in seconds from an online menu.  They can make special requests, indicate future delivery or pickup times, and even make payments (NetWaiter electronically deposits the money to the restaurant immediately).  Custom delivery zones can be set by the restaurant (if they offer delivery), or customers can come in and pick up their order.  

The benefit to customers is convenience. They can order from anywhere (desktop, iPad, Smartphone, etc.). Imagine a mother getting off work. While still in the parking lot, she can order dinner from a restaurant and pick it up on her way home.  There is also the control given to the customer. Since they placed the order, there is less chance of error.  Customers who use online ordering typically use it again and again, quickly becoming regular customers.

Customized online ordering is a game changer for restaurants.  Using a restaurant portal that promotes online ordering for a variety of restaurants is very expensive (10-20%+).  Online ordering via a custom ordering site, such as NetWaiter, creates more business and is significantly more cost effective.  In addition, restaurants get a great tool that builds loyalty and extends and strengthens their brand.  Some NetWaiter clients even have ROIs in excess of 7,800% (the average is closer to 2,000%).

Where can a restaurant get a better ROI with their marketing dollar than online ordering?  There are many marketing options available, but none can come close to the ROI of a custom online ordering site.

When they first came out, daily deals like Groupon swept across the industry.  Smart restaurateurs, however, realized them for what they were—a trap.  An article in The New York Times more than two years ago addressed the pitfalls of these services:  "The consumers were being told: You will never pay full price again.  The merchants were hearing: You are going to get new customers who will stick around and pay full price.  Disappointment was inevitable."

Years ago, a newspaper advertisement might have been a restaurant’s ‘go-to’ way to bring in business.  Readership has dropped significantly, though, and even when newspapers were widely read, buying an ad didn’t provide a very good ROI.  It’s very hard to measure the success of such an advertisement unless you offer a redeemable discount.  Those discounts, however, significantly impact the ROI of the advertisement. 

Even more modern and effective marketing and advertising opportunities, such as email, loyalty programs, text marketing, social media marketing, etc. (which are all certainly worthwhile to deploy) would have a hard time beating the ROI of online ordering.

According to a study and paper done by The School for Hospitality Leadership at Cornell University, one of the things that draws customers to online ordering is convenience.  Once they experience it, they use it again and again.  Plus, because NetWaiter is integrated with Facebook, it allows people to share their ordering experience with their friends.  The more people ordering online, the more people learn about the restaurant’s online ordering site.

The Bottom Line – Why would you not offer online ordering?  There is no replacement for a well-run online ordering system such as NetWaiter, which gives customers the control and convenience of ordering takeout and delivery online.  Other marketing opportunities can’t come close to the ROI an online ordering site can produce.  Just as our clients say – online ordering should be at the top of the list for every restaurant.

Google's Think Insights recently published statistics that reminded us that not only is it important to have a mobile website, but it is also important to have a mobile website that delivers users quickly to what is important.

First, the broad view:

• When they visited a mobile website, 74% of people say they're more likely to return to that site in the future.
• 67% of mobile users say that when they visit a mobile website, they're more likely to buy a site's product or service.
• 48% said that if a site didn't work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn't care about their business.

Then there is the importance of a functional mobile website.

• 61% of users said that if they didn't find what they were looking for right away on a mobile website, they'd quickly move on to another site.
• 79% of people who don't like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site.
• 50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn't mobile-friendly.

Think in terms of what an online ordering customer is looking for. Menu is at the top of the list. On the mobile website pages NetWaiter makes available for client restaurants, we design them so that the prospective customer is taken directly to the menu.

When designing a mobile  website, make sure a link to the menu is clearly visible on the first screen. 

Much has been made of the Millennial generation. As customers, these young folks--18 to 39 years old--are an important group.  There are more than 80 million of them in the U.S. That's a lot of restaurant meals. Coincidentally, you will also find that this group is most apt to use online ordering.

A few facts about Millennials:

• They want one-to-one interaction with the brands they use. They are inundated with commercial messages, and more and more they are blind to them. Engagement is the key to this group. They pay attention only to those who understand them and their lifestyle.
• Millennials rely on their mobile devices. According to Millennial Marketing, 75% percent of this group use their smartphone as a personal shopping assistant, and 73% are transacting directly on their mobile devices.
• Millennials check their Facebook status six to eight times a day on their smartphones.
• Millennials see their smartphone as the principal lifeline to their world. According to a study by Zipcar, thirty percent of people falling into the Millennial label said giving up their mobile phone would have the greatest negative impact on their life -- two to nearly three times higher than any other age group in the survey. The answer in every other age group--their car. Translated: Millennials would rather give up their car than their smartphone.

What do you do with this information? Reflect it in your marketing. Select events and causes that matter to Millennials. Base the decor and the artwork in your restaurant on what you known Millennials like (you can find this information on the Internet).

And make sure your Millennial customers know you offer online ordering, because--you know--Millennials love their smartphones.

With the capability of internet access on most mobile phones, ordering online from a mobile device quickly became a natural fit for restaurants.  Each day, we see more and more feedback from restaurants and published information that reinforces how and why restaurants benefit from mobile ordering.

Recently, we came across information from a study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and Viggle, an interactive media platform.  Take a look at their findings:

•    69% of those polled have ordered food via the mobile internet at least once, and use mobile devices for information/research even more frequently.
•    44% of those surveyed use a smartphone or tablet regularly to find a phone number.
•    39% use their smartphone or tablet to see a menu, 38% to find location, and 35% to check hours.
•    72% of respondents say they order pizza via the mobile internet, making it the dominant online-ordered cuisine.
•    78% of respondents said discounts would make them more likely to order.

Convenience is the largest benefit cited by customers ordering online.  Make sure your customers know about the added convenience your mobile site brings to their smartphones.

The advantages of online ordering are undisputed.  Customers love the convenience and accuracy.  You love that you can sell more meals without the added traffic in your restaurant.

So how do you encourage your customers to order more online?  Here are some simple steps you can take to make the online option more appealing.

Make the Order Online button more visible on your website.  We at NetWaiter are forever amazed at restaurants that require you to click through two or three screens before there is anything that tells the customer they can order online.  That button should be on your homepage, preferably at the top so the client does not have to scroll down.

A call-to-action.  Something as simple as, "Order Now!" is enough to get folks to click on the button. Maybe enclose it in a blinking star - the web is so distracting that sometimes you need some extra pizzazz to call attention to the otherwise obvious.  If you want to get serious, you can add a discount offer - 50% off your second dessert when you order online.

Offer curbside service.  For some people there is only one thing better than walking into a restaurant and picking up an order ready to go - pulling up to the restaurant and having them bring it out to them.  They don't even have to get out of the car.  Allow the customer to enter their vehicle description when placing the order.

This threat to restaurants keeps coming back.

A new study by the NPD Group, as reported in FastCasual.com and Supermarket News, predicts that within the next decade the market for prepared food and ready-to eat meals will increase more than 10 percent, compared to a 4% increase for commercial foodservice.

Supermarkets, convenience stories and even drug stores will be taking a bigger chuck of the traditional restaurant business.

Clearly these are restaurant customers who are interested in convenience. The key to not losing business share is to be more convenient. Online ordering can be a valuable ingredient in your marketing toolbox to reach these customers.

Some of the benefits of online ordering over ready-to-eat meals at retail outlets:

Selection--Ready-to-eat meals rely on a limited selection to appeal to all customers. Online ordering allows your customers to tailor their meal  from your menu.

Freshness--Ready to eat meals are typically prepared days in advance. Even hot food in the supermarket deli has been on display for hours, and picked over. Restaurant meals are fresh and cooked to order.

Time--A meal that has been ordered online is ready to go. Customers only need to park, walk into the restaurant and walk out of with their purchase. A ready-to-eat meal means negotiating a crowded supermarket parking lot, finding out what selection is and is not available, standing in the check-out line and then getting out of the parking lot.

Online ordering is the boost you need in the ever-competitive food service industry. 

Online ordering is the best weapon for addressing change in the restaurant industry…

The Orlando Sentinel, citing several respected industry sources, reports that restaurants that have not spent a huge amount of energy trying to capture the lunch crowd are now refocusing their efforts.

Mid-day meals typically mean lower profit margins and diners that are in a hurry.  Competition for the business, however, has forced restaurants to refocus their efforts.  Some restaurants are at a disadvantage here, reports the article, “… when diners eat out at lunch, they often want something quick — a problem for some sit-down chains.”

A weakness for restaurants in the lunch business is the lack of a good online ordering system.  Ordering online is ideal for the mid-day customer who wants to spend a limited time away from their desk or, better yet, get it delivered.

To compete, it’s important to emphasize the convenience of online ordering to customers, either for pickup or delivery.  You can do this through conversations with customers, in-store signage, messages on receipts, and email campaigns through your NetWaiter Management Console.

“A recent industry survey revealed that the lunch crowd accounts for 34% of restaurant traffic,” said Jared Shimoff, Sr. Director at NetWaiter.  “If that’s part of your business, you certainly want to keep it and expand it.  Online ordering is a key tool for that opportunity.”

Takeout continues to grow as a percentage of takeout business for restaurants. No wonder when many popular meals are more expensive to make at home (according to this Yahoo article) than ordering at a restaurant. And that says nothing about your time involved in putting the meal together. 

Take full advantage of that takeout market with online ordering from NetWaiter.