Research shows that online fast food ordering has grown significantly in South Africa and continues to show a sharp upward trend for the foreseeable future. However, to be truly successful in the online ordering sphere, some effort needs to be put into your digital presence.

While it’s true that third-party aggregators can help to promote your brand, it’s important to remember they do this using the substantial fees charged to your brand – and despite this, you can still end up getting lost amongst competitors, who are also made available on these platforms.

Luckily for you we have loads of experience in the digital online ordering world and have put together some top tips on how you can gain customers, increase your order volumes and achieve ongoing success for your Brand. 

Critical mass

From the onset Brand level motivation for the online ordering platform is key. Having a sufficient number of stores activated on the platform will warrant nation-wide marketing campaigns essential to your online ordering success. Starting early with your marketing efforts will reward the initial stores which will then create the right environment for more stores to be convinced to sign on, creating a snowball effect. 

Creating the right expectations

As the Brand, it is important for you to create the right expectations for your stores. Being realistic about starting a new venture will help franchisees understand that effort equals reward. Leading by example with a well thought out growth strategy will assist your franchisees on gaining traction for their restaurant. 

Building your audience

Unfortunately, just because you have an online platform doesn’t mean you have an audience. It takes time and effort to build your audience, but they will be yours. Thankfully, there are a number of ways to boost your audience growth:

  • Brand website referrals – if there is an existing brand marketing website then linking your online ordering app with a bold “Order Now” button will drive your customers to your online ordering site. 
  • In-store marketing – some in-store marketing like flyers or posters in stores can direct your existing customers to become online customers. 
  • Existing consumer database – if you have an existing database of your customers then they can be easily notified of your new online platform through SMS or email marketing. 
  • External marketing platforms – We support integrations with external marketing platforms to assist you with marketing your business. It is important to set key metrics that will help track your progress and make sure your efforts are worthwhile. 
  • Loyalty providers – a great way to get customers supporting your online ordering site is to offer ‘app-only’ discounts. As such, we also support integrations with external loyalty-providers. 

Company-wide effort

The success of your online ordering site is dependent on the effort of your entire company. Staff across all departments of your business should have experience and knowledge of your online ordering experience. However, assigning an internal ‘champion’ or project manager will significantly accelerate the onboarding experience. 

These are some of the ways in which you can steer your Brand to success using the YUMBI online ordering system. However, as you may have realized one of the most important aspects to your online success is having a large customer database in order to communicate with and promote your brand too. Each order captured on both the online and call-in YUMBI platforms will save your customer data and build it up for future value.