Mobile commerce which was once a desirable candidate in the
restaurant ecosystem has become table stakes today. Today a restaurant operator
cannot ignore the value of mobile commerce; restaurants today must adapt to
mobile commerce or die.
There is an incredible evolution that has taken place over the past five years. From a time when you used to have clear expectations of what to get at fast food restaurants you now can get everything as far as food, price and delivery ... and mobile is contributing to all of that.
There are 4 essential building blocks for brands striving to embrace mobile. A model which I have coined as RESS model can offer brands a framework embarking on an m-commerce journey.
RESS stands for
R-Resilient
E-Exclusive
S-Simple
S-Scalable
There is an incredible evolution that has taken place over the past five years. From a time when you used to have clear expectations of what to get at fast food restaurants you now can get everything as far as food, price and delivery ... and mobile is contributing to all of that.
There are 4 essential building blocks for brands striving to embrace mobile. A model which I have coined as RESS model can offer brands a framework embarking on an m-commerce journey.
RESS stands for
R-Resilient
E-Exclusive
S-Simple
S-Scalable
Here is a quick dive into these four essential aspects of
m-commerce
1. Resilient:
Restaurant operators should expect to make mistakes in deploying m-commerce strategy. There should be an appetite for experimentation while fully expecting some hard knocks along the way. The architecture for mobile commerce should tie in features that can produce ongoing data that is useful to your brand, stellar POS features and seamless back-office functionality. Operators need to be resilient while deploying this strategy. It takes time and money to refine the mobile apps, middle-ware, databases and many other interfacing applications. The mantra is not to get intimidated with initial failures and to stay invested in the story of mobile power.
2. Exclusive:
Mobile apps should make users feel special. It is essential that brands reward their mobile app users for taking the time and space on their ever-more-crowded mobile screens to include their app. Users will only stick to your brand when you make them fell special and exclusive.
3. Simple:
Restaurant operators should focus on building an app that is easy for all ages. An app should address what a customer needs and not what a business needs. Respect your customers' different needs, and don't pay so much attention to making customers do what you want them to do. ... Find a way to make your app make your customers happy. Think about the customer first and what makes them whole, happy and excited. Use technology to help with that. The bottom-line is that one of the quickest ways to delighting her customers is by helping them save time. The reason the customer is using your app is to reduce time spent waiting in line and streamlines order retrieval.
4. Scalable:
Always plan for a system that can handle big online orders .If the systems are not scalable to support the peak demand there can be potential losses to the restaurant operators. It is always worthwhile to invest in fail-safe options for big orders. Also, initially an app can start with features like offers/promotions, discount coupons but can gradually scale up to offers ordering food online and paying for their food through multiple gateways, bitcoins and third party platforms.
Mobile-commerce strategy if applied successfully can be a huge differentiation for a restaurant brand.
1. Resilient:
Restaurant operators should expect to make mistakes in deploying m-commerce strategy. There should be an appetite for experimentation while fully expecting some hard knocks along the way. The architecture for mobile commerce should tie in features that can produce ongoing data that is useful to your brand, stellar POS features and seamless back-office functionality. Operators need to be resilient while deploying this strategy. It takes time and money to refine the mobile apps, middle-ware, databases and many other interfacing applications. The mantra is not to get intimidated with initial failures and to stay invested in the story of mobile power.
2. Exclusive:
Mobile apps should make users feel special. It is essential that brands reward their mobile app users for taking the time and space on their ever-more-crowded mobile screens to include their app. Users will only stick to your brand when you make them fell special and exclusive.
3. Simple:
Restaurant operators should focus on building an app that is easy for all ages. An app should address what a customer needs and not what a business needs. Respect your customers' different needs, and don't pay so much attention to making customers do what you want them to do. ... Find a way to make your app make your customers happy. Think about the customer first and what makes them whole, happy and excited. Use technology to help with that. The bottom-line is that one of the quickest ways to delighting her customers is by helping them save time. The reason the customer is using your app is to reduce time spent waiting in line and streamlines order retrieval.
4. Scalable:
Always plan for a system that can handle big online orders .If the systems are not scalable to support the peak demand there can be potential losses to the restaurant operators. It is always worthwhile to invest in fail-safe options for big orders. Also, initially an app can start with features like offers/promotions, discount coupons but can gradually scale up to offers ordering food online and paying for their food through multiple gateways, bitcoins and third party platforms.
Mobile-commerce strategy if applied successfully can be a huge differentiation for a restaurant brand.
