Ways Restaurants Can Encourage Direct Ordering

COVID-19 has forced restaurants to rely on takeout and delivery sales to drive the majority of their sales. For some, off-premise already constituted a large percentage of their revenue, and they had the systems in place to pivot when dining rooms closed.

Many others, however, had to build their off-premise operations from scratch to combat sudden dine-in closures. Third-party delivery apps worked in a pinch to help restaurants quickly switch away from dine-in to takeout. As a long-term solution, though, delivery apps pose as many problems to restaurants as they do solutions. They charge commission fees and most restaurants already work on razor-thin margins, making the math that much harder for restaurants to make a profit.

“Most restaurants can’t make the math work with delivery apps alone,” said Hayley Russman, VP marketing at BentoBox. “They need to diversify and find more ways to drive commission-free sales.”

With months of experience under their belt, many restaurants…