Raise your hand if you have never used an online food delivery service. It doesn’t matter if you ordered pizza, Chinese noodles or sushi. Surely everyone has had such an experience. Whether it was successful or not – here everything depends not only on the service and product itself, but also on the website where the order is made. After all, even delicious food will seem unappetizing if the website has low-quality photos. And in today’s article, we will talk about how you can improve a food delivery website using web tuning.
I will note right away that the service (receiving and processing orders, delivery times, bonuses, loyalty program) and product (quality of food, its assortment) need to be improved first. Just as even if you do only “cosmetic repairs”, the rotten walls will still fall apart, and just putting a spruce up on the site, you should not expect high results. Improvements should be comprehensive.
Let’s say you’ve started improving your business processes, accepting orders in a short time, and delivering food that your customers really like. You’ve got it all. Now it’s time to make sure that you get even more orders, and that’s where web tuning comes in. I present to you 20 features that can be implemented on your food delivery service website.
1 Advanced filtering
Usually, on the site you can only find a categorization of the menu by types of dishes. For example: pizza, sushi, salads, desserts, drinks, etc. I suggest going further and filtering by taste characteristics and ingredients (spicy, no onion, no garlic, no meat, with mayonnaise, etc.).
This filtering will make it much easier for new customers who are not yet familiar with your product range and have no idea what food they will like. With this filter, it will be easier for them to understand. And it will be convenient for regular customers to choose something new. You know that the wider the choice a person has, the lower the likelihood that they will make a purchase? With the help of filtering, you can help narrow this very choice.
Example of advanced filtering on the site“Dodo Pizza”:
2 Huge Food Photos
I don’t understand how one can ignore the power of food photos on such sites. You will say that your food is ugly. I will say that there is no such thing as ugly food, only bad photographers. And you should never skimp on them. Because site visitors judge its taste precisely by the photo (of course, if they have not tried it before).
I suggest using huge photos of the food you offer on your website. Such that they fill the entire screen. This way the portion seems incredibly large, and your appetite instantly makes you buy all these goodies.
An example of using huge photographs inCooper Burgers:
3 Possibility to “get” the filling
Offer customers the opportunity to add additional ingredients to their order themselves. After all, everyone has their own food preferences, and for greater convenience, you need to offer the option of self-cooking. By selling only a standard set, you are missing out on gourmets who like to combine lard and corn in their pizza, for example. But by satisfying the most unexpected tastes, you can win customer loyalty and encourage them to come back to you again and again.
Example of the option to add ingredients in“Papa John”:
4 Visualization of ingredients
The composition of the dish is certainly interesting, but why limit yourself to a boring list of ingredients if you can make a visualization. At the very least, add a picture to each component. Remember that on a food site, the main character is food, so you need to use it to the maximum.
Example of visualization of ingredients inBarbaris:
5 Tasty Texts
This is where the definition of “delicious text” is more appropriate than ever, and that is on websites dedicated to food. If you write a description for each item in your assortment, then let it be short, concise and very appetizing. Use words that make your mouth water. And even on pages dedicated to the cooking process, try to use less terminology and more words that are understandable to the customer’s stomach.
An example of a delicious description of the process of making burgers inCooper Burgers:
6 Online broadcast of the cooking process
It’s better to show once than to tell a hundred times. Especially if you have nothing to be embarrassed about 😉 Install special equipment in the kitchen and broadcast the cooking process online.
Example of online broadcast on“Dodo Pizza”:
7 Online consultant
It would seem like a trivial feature, but you won’t find it on most food delivery websites.
Example of online consultation in Barbaris:
8 Discount on your first order
Motivate first-time visitors to buy with a discount. This is especially true in food, as we doubt whether we will like the dish or not.
Example of providing a discount to new visitors Mouth:
9 Instructions for eating
This thing will suit those who have a specific assortment, which the domestic consumer is not yet familiar with. Although, to create a certain cheerful atmosphere on the site, you can show in a humorous form the instructions for eating even banal dishes, even pizza. By turning on your imagination, you can come up with many new methods and share them with clients.
Example of visualization of eating instructionsMouth:
10 Thematic sets
Combine your assortment into thematic sets tied to lifestyle, mood, events and holidays. Based on the portrait of the target audience, you can come up with a lot of product combinations, because knowing your client, you can understand what is relevant for him and what is not.
Example of a thematic set fromMouth:
11 Minimum text in the product card
Don’t distract your potential client with lengthy product descriptions. As I wrote above, in point 5, the texts should be tasty, but there should be little of them. Don’t fill product cards with canvases, over-optimized cool words. They have no place here at all.
Example of a product card with a minimum of test in“Papa John”:
12 Non-standard basket placement
Since the delivery service is not exactly an online store, you can experiment with its placement. Of course, the place should be noticeable, but you can and even should take a risk with the location. After all, the solution can be very converting! Just conduct A/B tests to confirm the most effective option.
An example of placing a non-standard basket inGeoPizza:
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This is what an active basket looks like:
13 Encourage saving
Make a separate block with savings offers, and even make a special CTA button with a call to save right now. This technique will definitely increase sales, because people largely rely on the cost of the order when making a decision. Therefore, if you give the opportunity to save,
Example of a call to save:
14 Clear and concise delivery
While online stores have already learned their lesson by hiding delivery terms deep inside, food delivery services are still neglecting to provide the clearest possible information about delivery terms.
An example of clear information about delivery in“Sushiya”:
15 Navigation visualization
In the first point, I mentioned advanced filtering. This point is somewhat similar, only instead of the usual list in the form of text, you can do something more fun, decorating each ingredient with a picture. This can only be done if adding visualization does not make the navigation block heavier, but on the contrary, lighter and more understandable.
Example of navigation visualization inGeoPizza:
16 Composition in the form of infographics
I wrote about the need to visualize ingredients in point 4. Now I suggest going further and showing the product in section and describing its composition in the form of infographics. If done properly, it will look very tasty.
An example of presenting information about the composition in the form of infographicsPing-pong:
17 Indicate the nutritional value of the product
If your target audience at least pretends to watch what they eat, then nutritional information will be useful to them. A girl on a diet will see that the rolls are only 100 calories and will buy five servings at once 🙂
Example of nutritional information in“Tanuki”:
18 Notable loyalty program
Engaging customers in repeat purchases is very important. And loyalty programs, with points, bonuses and other perks, work to their advantage here. Be sure to implement them in practice, and, very importantly, display information about the loyalty program on the website so that everyone can read about it and want to join.
An example of the design of the section with the loyalty program in“Tanuki”:
19 Upsell in Cart
Offer the client to “add” ingredients to the purchase already in the basket. Display a whole list of those additives that will make the food even tastier, indicate their cost and portion size. For one order, an additional 3-6 hryvnia is imperceptible, but for you, if there are hundreds of such orders, it is a very good margin.
Example of upsell in“Japonahata”:
20 Mobile application
If there is one service that needs to get closer to mobile users, it is food delivery services. And here, an adaptive website alone will not do, you need to create a mobile application so that your customers can make an order as conveniently as possible at any time.
Encourage users to install the app and place orders through it. For example, give a discount.
An example of motivation to use a mobile application from“Tanuki”:
Speaking of mobile apps, we have developed a budget solution that will help you test the waters before committing to something big and expensive. That solution is “Food Delivery App” is a template on the basis of which you create your own mobile application, in which you can:
- add/edit/delete menu (photos, names, price texts)
- manage menu sections and categories (add new ones, assign them to product items)
- the opportunity to provide additional information about your business (description of activities, contacts, etc.)
- View food delivery orders (where, to whom, when?)
By using “Food Delivery App” you get more orders from mobile users, and also save time and money on developing a separate mobile application. Try the demo version for free by downloading it from Google Play.
That’s all for today, next Thursday we’ll talk about tricks for online beauty stores.