What are the benefits?
When you first think about it, picking up your food seems like the opposite of having it delivered. Nevertheless, in recent years, third-party delivery companies such as Uber Eats have continued to add pickup services to their website and applications.
At first, you might there’s no reason to offer pickup services if your business delivers. In truth, though, there are plenty of benefits that pickup offers when compared to food delivery. In this blog, we’re going to explore the benefits of food pickup as well as when you should and shouldn’t use it.
Why is pickup good?
The pickup option means so much more than simply going into a store and ordering food. Imagine a similar process to delivery minus the cons. Customers can check that their order is right before they leave. No wrong turns will lead to cold food and traffic won’t lead to a negative review. Offering orders for pickup also means you’ll spend less on delivery fees (if you offer delivery.)
Customers use the pickup feature to get ahead in their day. Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes and imagine you’re on your daily commute to work and you’d quite like a coffee. By the time you arrive at the coffee shop, the line’s huge and you’re already pushing it for time. But what if you had used a pickup feature?
Oleg Khaustov of top Russian food delivery service Delivery Club described it like this: ‘you can preorder and pay for your coffee, and just take it from the barista – not standing in line, not even wasting time paying at the venue.’ You can just easily place your order and pay while commuting to work, then pop in and out of the shop in less than a minute. No wasted time, no extra hassle.
Another benefit that pickup offers when compared to delivery is that you can order on the go, wherever you are. To have food delivered to you, it needs to go to a set location, and somebody needs to be there to accept it. If you’re on a day out somewhere, food delivery might not be possible, but ordering for pickup is. You can get so many of the benefits that delivery offers, while not at home.
When is delivery better?
However great pickup is, there are still plenty of cases where ordering food to be delivered is better.
If a customer is ordering for a large number of people, it might be easier to get the food delivered straight to the door rather than dealing with the hassle of taking it all home. Similarly, if someone is ordering food from multiple restaurants or stores, it will no doubt be easier to have them delivered by different couriers. This also reduces the chance of food going cold while waiting for the rest of your order. The only real downside is the increased delivery and service fee cost.
There are also the limitations of whether or not the customer can reach the store. Maybe they’re unable to drive or leave the house, something we’re all familiar with while ordering food in the pandemic. In this case, ordering food is the best option.
Regardless of whether you prefer delivery or pickup, both come with different benefits that different customers will be sure to appreciate. If your restaurant is already offering delivery on a third-party app and the pickup service is available at your location, there’s no harm at all in adding the pickup option.
If you enjoyed this article and want to take a further look into food tech and the world of delivery, be sure to check out our other blogs!
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