How to Bring Your Restaurant Online? [Without Mediators]

Lockdown has taught the restaurant industry that one needs to be their own savior for survival. Discover how to bring your restaurant online and save your business without having to bleed money while paying high commissions in this blog.

“From tonight, the entire country will be under a lockdown.”

This speech began a cycle of events that brought the entire food and hospitality industry to a standstill.

According to National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), the industry suffered a loss of INR 20000 crore by the end of May 2020 alone.

Do you know who were the biggest losers- small restaurant chains and foodpreneurs who depended on daily walk-in’s.

Let’s talk about Suresh. He used to run a multi-cuisine in Kochi but couldn’t resume after the lockdown – the rent and cost of operations were the same while the orders declined.

Even when the industry is open for online delivery, high commissions on food aggregation platforms are killing local foodpreneurs.

If restaurants hadn’t depended on third party apps, the situation might have been different. 

Don’t trust me? Let me give you another example.

Mr. X owns an eatery and bakery since 1994. In 2019, his son came back from the Gulf and persuaded his father to transition from an offline bakery to an online platform delivering freshly baked cakes in local areas. 

His son signed him up for Paytm in 2019, made a Shopify store live, built an Instagram handle, found an intern via Internshala, invested in GoogleMyBusiness listing, and hired 2 guys on a commission basis for delivery.

Way before the lockdown, they were getting orders every day, without paying any platform a cut in their revenue.

When the lockdown happened, they just had to add other products to their online mix. Throughout the lockdown and even after that, they were busy delivering to people who wanted to celebrate special moments at home.

Mr. X was smart, and a first mover in his area. While others were just focused on organic walk ins, his son understood the changing nature of the food business. And that bore fruits, too. 

Running a food business was already hard – the risk of perishables, finding expert cooks, minimizing food wastage, etc. The lockdown of 2020 took many eateries out of the picture, especially in the unorganized sector. 

If you’ve been stuck in this lockdown as a restaurant owner, don’t worry, the ship hasn’t sailed yet. There’s still hope for revenues if you just tweak a few things in your operations.

Why Food Aggregation Platforms Aren’t Your Best Friends?

When Zomato and Swiggy started reaching out to the restaurants for opening up online delivery operations, everyone rejoiced. 

In the initial days – it seemed like a dream come true – adding another source of revenue to the operations, without having to take care of anything. But like all good plans, this also had limited validity.

By the end of the year 2018, the gold rush faded, and restaurants realized they had signed up for a bad deal, after all. Rising commissions, predatory marketing, unviable discount/priority programs started a new revolt in the food aggregation space.

Some restaurant owners learned the reality the hard way, but the whole scenario made some owners switch to their own platforms – powered by new-age tools and platforms.

The DhabaTech Revolution
Taking Restaurant Operations Online with Control & Convenience

When India went under a complete lockdown, some young minds were trying to crack the viability code of bringing offline stores online. This was in April 2020 and soon after, a new innovation emerged in the Indian technology space – the birth of DukaanTech sphere

What is DukaanTech? 

DukaanTech startups allowed small unorganized shop owners to build an online catalog of their products and start accepting orders via whatsapp, managing their payments in the process. A shop owner can share his online shop link on Whatsapp or via any social media/messaging platform and customers can place orders online.

After their initial success post-lockdown with general stores and shops, DukaanTech platforms became a huge success among local Kirana stores and slowly in the food sphere. 

The convenience of bringing your restaurant online without the hassle of building their own website or app, without having to pay an upfront fee (or recurring commission per order) made them an instant hit.

DhabaTech – the revolution is being called. And now you can see even big chains like McDonald’s using DhabaTech platforms like Dotpe to run their contactless takeaway operations in the post-lockdown world. 

Platforms to Bring Your Restaurant Online 

Why Dhaba Tech Wins in the Post-COVID world?

How to Start your DhabaTech Journey?

DhaabaTech has clearly paved the way for restaurant operations through the series of lockdowns now happening every other month. 

Though hygiene and safety concerns have reduced takeaway orders, but there is still a large chunk of the population (young professionals staying away from their homes, young couples bored cooking simple meals at their homes) who don’t mind ordering in then and now. 

If you want to survive in the lockdown and keep your operations running, you need to sign up for an online storefront powered by a DukaanTech platform. Here’s how you can start your operations:

1. Sign Up on a Platform: You can choose any one like Dotpe, Instamojo, or MyDukaan 
2. Submit the required documents, if asked: You’d need proof of address and business. Your shop establishment certificate, FSSAI license, AADHAR, PAN Card might be enough to get started.
3. Start Adding Your Dishes: Create an online menu by adding your dishes as products on the platform. 
4. Share Link with Customers: Share your links with customers on Whatsapp, Add the link to your instagram handles and give them an online ordering experience they’re used to.

In case you’re short on staff for delivery, you can explore services offered by Dunzo, Swiggy Genie or a local delivery operator to take care of deliveries. You might have to pay a small sum on each order, but the cost will still be lower than the commissions that you’re used to.

Digitize Your Restaurant Operations Today!

Lockdown might have burned a hole into your pocket- taking you back years, but digitizing your restaurant will help you slowly come out of this setback. 

Even after things get normal, you’d be able to use your digital restaurant front to promote your restaurant and bring orders with complete control. There’s no denying that digitization is now a reality for the F&B space.

If you’re confused if it would be worth it or not, I am always available for a quick consultation on how digitization can help you beat this slowdown and eventually grow into the next decade.

Book a Call with Me Now