Do Restaurants Really Benefit From Online Ordering?

2 Min Read By Jared Shimoff

Online ordering has many benefits. It can help restaurants reach more customers, increase convenience, and drive more sales. On the surface, online ordering seems like an obvious path to restaurant growth, but look a little deeper and you’ll find a number of concerning pitfalls.

Cutting MarginsIn an obsessive quest to get more customers, restaurant owners often lose sight of the bigger picture. The increasing demand for convenience is pushing customers to order online more and more, so naturally, restaurant owners feel the pressure to respond. Restaurant owners are rushing to join portals in fear their competitors will steal their customers and the revenues they represent. The catch: These portals generally charge restaurants anywhere between ​20 and 30 percent-plus per order​.

Then There’s the Delivery FeeIt’s hard for delivery services to make money by only charging customers a small delivery fee so the only way they can profit on an order is by ​offsetting the…