How to Improve Your Food Delivery Service: Common Problems & Fixes

Staying competitive in a rapidly-growing market

food delivery service hong kong

The outlook on food delivery services in Hong Kong remains positive despite the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. 

According to an article by South China Morning Post, major players in the market believe that the growth of the food delivery industry will continue, as the dining habits of locals have shifted during the pandemic.  It is thus imperative for F&B businesses to maintain a presence in the online delivery sector to capture a share of the revenue pie. The key question here is—how does one stay competitive and improve food delivery service?

If your online delivery & takeaway revenue has stagnated or is on the decline, you might first want to ensure that you’ve addressed these 3 common problems faced by many F&B businesses.

Optimise your e-Shop experience

To encourage more successful checkouts and conversions, you should ensure the customer experience on your e-Shop is as seamless as possible.

Keep the information on your digital storefront updated, be it on a marketplace app or custom website. This includes service hours and contact details, but also your dish names, availability of items, and prices. More importantly, photos of your food & retail products should be well-lit and appetising in order to entice clicks.

On Oddle’s white-label e-Shop platform, banners and buttons are customisable so as to inform diners about your ongoing promotions and deals. F&B businesses who are part of Oddle’s community are also advised on industry best practices to drive sales. Restaurants are encouraged to offer meal bundles and first-time promotions on their e-Shop. This helps to increase the average basket size of orders as well as drive new customer acquisition. 

Refine your sales strategy

There are many factors that determine the success of a restaurant’s sales strategy. Key among them is your choice of sales channels.

While it might seem intuitive to onboard your brand onto as many channels as possible (e.g. foodpanda, Deliveroo, etc.) to improve your food delivery service, the benefits have to be weighed against their cons. Are the commission fees eating away at a sizeable portion of your sales? Is the marketplace giving you enough exposure to generate brand awareness?

One way to determine which channels you should use is to consider the value proposition of your brand. If your brand is known for quick, efficient meals that target solo diners, utilising a marketplace with on-demand delivery might be best for you. If your restaurant mainly serves sharing dishes catered to large groups, consider building your own e-Shop or using a white-label platform like Oddle to accept pre-orders instead. Pre-orders can be made an hour or two ahead of delivery time, not just days away, and this gives you more time to manage your inventory and operations.

Furthermore, having your own e-Shop might open up additional revenue streams. Famous croffle brand Fifty Fifty is the perfect example. They operate a takeaway counter located within MCP Central where seating is limited. With an Oddle e-Shop, however, they’ve been able to provide delivery and catering services island-wide, thus driving revenue growth and expansion.

Establish a reliable delivery & logistics network

Having a reliable delivery network is crucial to your food delivery business. It’s also an important aspect of customer service.

Whether you decide to work with a third-party logistics network or a marketplace with their own delivery fleet, consider the timeliness of their delivery services, their delivery fees, and fulfilment rates. How much of the delivery cost do you have to bear? What percentage of their deliveries arrive on time? How many delivery incidents have been recorded (incorrect or incomplete orders, spillage, etc.). Does the delivery provider compensate for such incidents, or will your business have to cover the costs instead?

You might also choose to manage your own deliveries, but this might prove difficult the more your business grows.

On Oddle, your deliveries are fully-managed by our logistics team, who work hard round the clock to provide operational support. With a 99.7% fulfillment rate, a delivery radius that spans island-wide, and the flexibility of determining your own delivery fees, you’ll be able to focus on what you do best—making good food.

View all the Options Available to Start Your Food Delivery Business, or read about how to Manage Food Costs in a Restaurant to reduce wastage.