How Does Ordering Food Online Work, and Things You Should Note When Ordering Online

If there is one definitive E-commerce trend that really saw the biggest boom in the current decade especially in India, the crown should definitely go to independent order food online outlets and apps. The revenues cashed in by the very first generation of these apps, even the less used ones like Just Eat and Foodler has proven it to be the newest hotbed for successful entrepreneurship. But we are sure, that while navigating through these apps, you have always wondered whether the somewhat general idea you have formulated about their workflow is correct to boot. So here is our primer on the matter:

It is actually very likely that you had figured it out by yourself in the first place, because the procedure that all of these apps and institutions follow, bar none, is very simple and similar if not monolithic.

• The first step is something you have already known and experienced a hundred times because it is the customer’s user-end busywork, i.e. finding the restaurants in an area, selecting an eatery, and then establishing a payment method.
• After your order is finalized and placed, it sends out a notification to the marketplace owner about the same. The structure of this department and the filtering method of this step varies based on which food ordering app we are talking about.
• The customer then gets a confirmation that their order has been received.
• The order is then sent to the eatery, and order processing (for bill invoice, et cetera) and food preparation starts simultaneously.
• The order is then delivered to the customer – this can either be an in-house delivery service from the restaurant or a third-party service including that of the food-ordering app.
• This is the point where your involvement in the process ends since the order is delivered. After this, it is just the revenue distribution among the food-ordering app, the delivery service if third-party and the restaurant. Usually, the marketplace owner takes an agreed upon commission from the gross revenue and then passes the rest on to the eatery.

That said, if you want your food ordering apps to get you the best customer experience, much of it can be controlled by you if you practice some discretion and moderation while selecting the app or eateries. Here are some tips which should suffice.

• You should take note of the mode of payment a particular store or eatery allows in order to avoid misunderstandings and company-end cancellations. Generally, cash on delivery is the master key option here, and with most apps, this is not a hassle.
• Take note of the restaurant’s scheduled opening times. You can order your food via your app, but another way is to directly call their contact number. Why would you want to do that? Because some eateries actually take orders before they set up shop! By ordering in advance, you will get the swiftest delivery first thing when the shop opens, plus you can make certain arrangements like extra seasoning, condiments, or flavoring requests that would otherwise not be entertained.

• The last, but not the least, is to prioritize location. You should always check whether the selected eatery has a branch close by and whether it is open on said day and hour. Remember, the further away from the restaurant, the further the number of complications – your order might be queued downwards and have processing issues if you are too far away, not to mention the immediate effect of higher delivery times.