New normal: Eating joints bet big on digital tools for growth

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 9

Towns such as Nabha, Abohar and Jalandhar are not what come to one’s mind when one thinks of restaurant chains or fast food outlets embracing tech solutions for growth, but many such outlets and even standalone stores have come up with their own apps and delivery management solutions in the past one year.

Canadian Pizza, which has a presence at 12 locations across Punjab, has developed an app for growth.

“After being hit by the pandemic last year, we were hopeful that the next phase of growth will come through digital means as consumers were ordering online amid the pandemic. We got an app made to provide digital marketing solutions last year. Today, a significant percentage of orders come through app,” said Amandeep Singh, founder, Canadian Pizza.

Jalandhar-based Lovely Sweets, Mohali-based Bhena Da Dhaba and Chandigarh-based Lapinoz Pizza (having over 150 outlets across the country) are some of the foods chains which have deployed technology to achieve the next phase of growth.

Since most of these joints can’t afford to have their own tech team, they outsource the work to technology firms. These firms make an app and website for them, besides providing delivery management solution and payment gateway integration in addition to SMS integration and digital marketing.

“The reason for investing in app development and marketing is simple. Currently, the eating joints pay around 25% commission to food delivery apps besides incurring expenses on marketing and discount. The total expenses come to around 50% and still they don’t get customer data. So the outlets prefer our subscription-based model to increase their presence digitally,” said Sunil Rawal, co-founder and Busines Head, Uengage Services Private Limited, a company engaged in enabling local businesses with subscription-based technology solutions.

“Businesses, be it small or big, are using some type of technology for their growth, but post-Covid we have seen major growth not only from tier-I cities but also from tier-II and tier-III cities,” said Sameer Sharma, founder & CEO, Uengage Services.