Tips on Selecting Your Business’ Online Ordering Platform

So now you’re ready to digitise your business and want to start an online ordering platform, but not sure where to go or which provider to choose, need help prioritising your business needs? Let’s drill down through a couple of essential reminders to consider before you make a decision. With so many different options out in the market, it can be difficult to decide on which one to go with. The most common Online Ordering options include:

• Online Marketplace

• Online Retail Websites 

• Custom In-house Solutions

• Template Based Store Front

Be ware of buying expensive tools for your business thinking they will solve problems when they could be harming you instead. It’s important to understand how they fit into your business model and how to utilise them. Thousands of dollars can be spent on tools that aren’t used to their full capacity or that were never the appropriate tool to begin with. This ends up costing their businesses a lot of money. Selling your brand through multiple platforms leads to increased revenues, but only if you invest in a decent tool that can help you optimise your food delivery operation.

The “Golden Four”: MarketPlace, Retail, In-House, Store Front

Online MarketPlace

Online marketplaces offer a large variety of options with different stores and products, allowing customers to have a leisurely online shopping experience. They are popular options in the market these days, especially considering the variety and reach to put your products out there online. They are easy to set up and can be good to increase exposure for your products and attract customers to your business. While such an option can be tempting for marketing and business reach purposes, an online marketplace can only be a good choice for larger businesses and chains, whereas for the average small to medium business, it’s easy to get lost in the crowd of competitors on these platforms. With so many big fast food chains on these platforms, many businesses are unable to receive recognition or any significant increase in business.

Added to that, business owners cannot see their customer data and are unaware of any buyer demographics. Not only are these platforms pricey to uphold, they are simply not cost effective for most businesses. Their services usually end up costing businesses about 30-35% from their revenue. This is a significant cut in the profit margin with no guarantee of improved business.

Retail Websites

Retail websites are also a popular options for some businesses looking to brand and market itself with better chances of customer reach through giant retail website providers. Retail websites are also largely known, and have the same idea as online marketplaces where businesses can list their items online. On a retail site however, your business name will not be as obviously stated.

These websites are typically a lot more expensive to uphold, even more so than online market-places, and they do not allow for much brand identity. Many businesses that operate on these websites end up losing their brand name and become a product “bought from …”, without much recognition of the actual brand itself. 

Custom In-House Solutions

Custom in-house solutions are also another option, but they are even more expensive than online market-places and retail websites. They are much more complex to set up and are expensive to uphold. This solution requires a lot of time and energy for development and the testing of the apps/solutions. Oftentimes, this is not a viable option for many businesses, but is instead a more popular choice amongst big box chains who are able to afford it.

Template Based Store Fronts

Template based store fronts on the other hand, are the most cost effective option out there. They allow businesses to stay true to themselves through a white-labelling model. Since they are template based, they are easy to manage and are flexible, being sustainable for the long run.

One of the biggest draws to these storefronts is the benefit of having a company that provides you with the tech support, as well as the solution as a service. Template based storefronts allow for branding your own platform/website, without worrying about all the technical requirements. They are user-friendly, affordable and cost effective for the long run, and can be quickly set-up and operating in the short term.

ZeMaas Online Ordering Solutions

ZeMass’ Online Ordering solution provides businesses with an online template based storefront that is not only cost effective, but also easy to manage, flexible, and hassle-free. ZeMaas will help create an online presence and an online  storefront for various types of businesses, branded to your liking. Our solution comes in an affordable Software as a Service (SaaS) Model with affordable subscription rates. We cover all your needs as an online business such as: helping you build your online presence, customizable business information, experienced tech-support, and everything you may need to succeed.

Competitor platforms are keeping customers’ information, so many businesses are not aware of their own customer’s demographics, preferences..ect. Customer data is an important asset for businesses because it allows you to understand your customer with information such as their most frequently bought items,  email or phone numbers, and allows you to be able to reach them easily and more frequently for marketing and promotional campaigns.

ZeMaas can also solve many of the problems businesses are facing by using our other apps, and since all our apps can be managed from one central customizable platform, it reduces the cost for them and increases the feasibility of the solutions. It is built to be flexible, profitable, accessible and  high quality for the smoothest experience possible.