How to Expand to Meet Delivery Needs, Lower Delivery Costs and Attract More Customers

Expanding is another way to meet delivery needs, because the closer your restaurant is to your customers, the cheaper you can make your delivery fees. This can stimulate a lot of delivery sales. It’s a way to expand your customer base and boost the overall sales for your business. However…How can you make your sales worth the expansion, which requires a large amount of money? Today, MHA has the answers.

1.       If you want to sell by delivery, you’ve got to choose a location that meets delivery needs.

You usually choose a location for your new branch by considering the number of target customers, local residents or people working in the area. You generally consider locations with a high number of target customers within a 0-5-km radius from the restaurant, because your main food sales come from people who eat at the restaurant. However, if the goal of the expansion is to boost delivery sales, try increasing the radius from 5 km to 10 km instead when considering the new location, because customers tend to order food deliveries from restaurants within a 0-10-km radius. At this distance, the delivery fee is inexpensive and it takes only 30-45 minutes to deliver (for Bangkok and high-traffic cities).  Any farther and the customers won’t be able to pay, while riders won’t be eager to take jobs from your restaurant. So, when choosing your location, you need to consider the convenience of the riders who’ll pick up food at your restaurant. In addition, you should choose a location that facilitates easy product distribution as follows:

·                     Roadside:  It could be an easily accessible big or main road. If you’re choosing to be in an alley, don’t be too far in. Be near the entrance or, even better, at the entrance.

·                     Multiple Entrances: It’d be great if you had access to several main roads, for example, if you were on Songprapha Rd. and can get on the Vibhavadi Rd. which covers the Don Mueang area. On the other side, you could access Rangsit Rd., Nonthaburi Rd. and Chaengwattana Rd. Both customers and riders would be able to use many routes to get to your restaurant.

·                     Have Waiting Areas and Parking for Motorcycles: Since they’re the main vehicle type for delivering food, the area should have enough space for 1-5 motorcycles to park all at once, and there should be a waiting area because not every dish can be served up fast. There’s certainly going to be some waiting time. After some consideration, we found that gas stations are very interesting, especially those with high traffic or locations near communities, because they are usually on the map and easily accessible with parking space, restrooms and convenience stores where riders love to spend their break times.

Otherwise, another interesting option is to find a building for rent for your new branch in a community where there’ll be a lot of customers. You can have a storefront to receive local customers and sell via delivery simultaneously.

2. Gear Your Storefront Mainly for Delivery Sales

What kind of restaurant is suitable for delivery sales? According to a case study, Zen Corporation Group Public Co., Ltd., owner of ZEN, AKA, Tummour and Lao Yuan, faced delivery-related obstacles caused mainly by the following factors:

 

1. The type of food wasn’t suitable for delivery, because the restaurants were designed specifically for dining-in. That’s why foods like Zen’s sushi or AKA’s grill buffet aren’t so good for delivery. At the same time, the restaurants’ packaging wasn’t designed for delivery.

2. The locations didn’t accommodate delivery.  All of the restaurants were located in malls, which made it difficult for riders to access them. The locations weren’t aimed at delivery. There was also the burden of space renting (in malls) and then there were GP costs involved in the deliveries.

 
Zen Corporation Group fixed their issues by creating a new restaurant business called ‘Khiang’ that focuses on delivery sales. The restaurant business had a goal from day one to generate 50% of its total sales from delivery and to not focus on dine-ins. The street food sold uses good quality ingredients and it is sold at prices customers can afford. The restaurant branches need to be located where a lot of customers can access them and riders can pick up and deliver food easily. Currently, Khiang is very successful and has opened 85 branches in 2 years and is planning on opening their 100th branch soon. (Read more at ““How Street Food Delivery Brand ‘Khiang’ Was Created and Successfully Expanded to 80 Branches Within 2 Years”)

An interesting strategy employed by Khiang is to use their space mainly for cooking or the kitchen without having a lot of seats. Their locations are strategic, using mainly commercial buildings near housing projects and convenience stores or renting spaces in gas stations where the rent is significantly cheaper than in malls. In addition, it’s convenient for riders to pick up the food, allowing for it to be delivered within 30-45 minutes. The restaurant chain invents and produces its own signature sauce to control the taste, so it’s the same at every branch. Packages are developed to be suitable for delivery. They are microwavable, retain heat well, are easy to hold when eating and eco-friendly.

Tip: For restaurants that want to sell via delivery, the kitchen is the key. The work flow needs to be well arranged, from the process of ordering to ingredient preparation, cooking and packaging. The kitchen’s flow is very important. Whether the food is served up fast or slow depends on the flow. Learn how to improve your kitchen so it’s suitable for delivery, like Rhythm & Shabu, with MHA Advice Molds Businesses into Pros. Click=> Rhythm & Shabu

A cloud kitchen is an all-purpose kitchen for rent for selling food. Think of a food court or cafeteria where a lot of restaurants rent spaces to sell food. However, you’ll be selling via only delivery. Cloud kitchens already provide the kitchen spaces and major conveniences for delivery sales for you. They’re perfect for businesses that want to expand their delivery space into a new location but don’t want to build another branch due to limited funds.

·                     Cloud Kitchen Bangkok provides a full range of cloud kitchen services, including renting kitchens and kitchen equipment. You only need to rent a space and send in your cooking staff. The delivery service is provided for the Sukhumvit area and delivery within a 3-km radius from the kitchen is free. In addition, food can be delivered in this area within 15-20 minutes. The delivery range includes the Ekkamai, Thonglor, Asoke and Sukhumvit-71 zones, which include many residences and offices and are important business areas. Renting a cloud kitchen is an interesting move for a restaurant that wants to move closer to the Sukhumvit customers without much monetary investment because if you were to rent a building in these areas, you’d need a lot of funding due to the high land prices.

·                     GrabKitchen is a cloud kitchen that gathers all the most popular leading restaurants in one place and makes food specifically for delivery via GrabFood. Therefore, GrabKitchen has an advantage in that it has a very large customer base from the company’s original services. Presently, the delivery range covers the Samyan Market, Thonglor, Lad Phrao, Pinklao, Sathorn and Nakniwat. Customers can order menu items that participate in GrabKitchen every day from 8:00 am – 10:00 pm. The food is delivered within an 8-km radius. One advantage of using GrabKitchen is that there is no service fee for the kitchen space. The kitchen equipment includes refrigerators the restaurant will have to handle.