E-COMMERCE service provider YUMBI, a food ordering platform, has added a critical delivery component solution for multi-location quick service restaurants (QSRs) through integrating its offering with Eats and using the Uber Direct services.
YUMBI’s custom-branded ordering apps and websites let customers place orders directly with the restaurant, eliminating the costs and losses of control associated with using third parties.
YUMBI managing director Chris Sweidan said leveraging its ten years of industry expertise, the firm had partnered with multi-location QSR brands to ensure they delivered the high-quality ordering experience customers had come to expect.
“With YUMBI, brands have complete control over their platform, ordering ecosystem and customer relationships. They are able to engage directly with customers and gain critical insight from usage analytics,” Sweidan said.
Pedros Flame-Grilled Chicken said it had already participated in the YUMBI-Uber Eats integration.
Pedros senior marketing manager Brad Marshall said YUMBI offered them a comprehensive solution for their online ordering requirements with a relatively easy onboarding process.
Pedros said it was still in the early stages of their Pedros App launch and looked forward to this project developing and growing.
Now, with the integration between YUMBI and Uber Eats, Sweidan explained that restaurants by owning the data relating to their customers’ buying patterns, demands and choices, were better placed to communicate marketing promotions to them.
“They can also negotiate attractive delivery rates,” he said. “Until recently, our solution did not include the delivery aspect of customer requirements. By integrating with Uber Eats and utilising the Uber Direct product, we are now able to cover the full spectrum of the process.”
The Covid-19 pandemic had seen a sharp rise in online orders, with consumers expecting the convenience of quick, efficient delivery. Any quick service restaurant that failed to offer delivery could expect to receive a high number of customer complaints and ultimately a drop in market share.
YUMBI said there were three ways for quick service restaurants to meet consumer needs. The first was to operate their own fleet of vehicles and drivers, which was not core to the business and brought complexities such as logistics, human capital, vehicle costs, licensing and insurance all being additional factors for business owners to manage.
The second option was to outsource delivery by using a reliable company with a solid track record in logistics, thereby ensuring a good experience for customers. This required tight integration with the online ordering system as drivers needed to be notified to collect orders and consumers expected real-time driver tracking. Without this capability, the process was often manual and results in muddled, unreliable reporting.
Thirdly, quick service restaurants could use aggregators to fulfil the delivery aspect. However, because aggregators acted as the middleman between the restaurant and its customers, there was a push for the aggregator to handle the online ordering as well. This meant the aggregator owned the customer relationship, and the restaurant merely became a supplier.
Sweidan said that the YUMBI and Uber Eats integration solved this problem.
given.majola@inl.co.za
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