Cloud kitchens are not a completely new concept to the market. It has been used by pizza delivery restaurants for many years, but it has become more popular in recent years.
What is Cloud Kitchen?
To put it simply, cloud kitchens are delivery-only restaurants. Unlike traditional ones, cloud kitchens do not necessarily have physical spaces for dine-in services or even a storefront for customers to walk in.
These “restaurants” rely completely on online orders coming from below channels -
1. Food Delivery App
Food delivery apps, such as UberEats, Deliveroo and Foodpanda, etc. are a third-party platform that allow restaurants to sell food. With these platforms, restaurants are able to reach a wide range of customers and need not to worry about the delivery arrangements, as it will be covered by the food delivery company.
2. Restaurant’s Own Website and/or App
Some restaurants may build their own website or app for taking customers’ orders. The benefits of having a own-built online premise is that restaurants can take control over every touchpoint throughout the transaction.
Restaurants are able to communicate with customers directly and provide better customer experiences, which definitely help restaurants to build and protect their brand image.
Restaurants can even integrate their website and/or app with their Point-of-Sales Systems (POS) or Kitchen Display System (KDS) to increase the efficiency of the entire operation.
The Benefit of Cloud Kitchen for Restaurants
1. Low Operational Cost
Compared with traditional restaurants, cloud kitchens have relatively low operating costs.
Since cloud kitchens do not require a physical storefront, various expenses can be eliminated, such as decoration, dinnerware, signage, as well as hosts and servers (aka labor cost), which have always been one of the largest expenses for restaurants.
Restaurant owners can even consider implementing suitable technologies, such as Kitchen Display System (KDS) to further eliminate the operation and labor costs.
2. Flexible Menu
Unlike traditional restaurants, cloud kitchen owners can change the menu quickly by simply clicking a few buttons in the backend of their website and/or apps. No additional expenses and efforts are required to change the physical menu.
The flexibility is extremely important to the restaurant owners especially when there are sudden shortfalls in some ingredients and dishes.
3. Increase Customer Satisfaction
Cloud kitchens accept orders completely online, that means all customer information will be stored in restaurant systems. With this valuable information, restaurants can create personalized experiences and provide targeted marketing offers to customers, which is absolutely useful to attract customers and retain loyalty.
4. One Kitchen, Multiple Brands
Cloud kitchen allows restaurant owners to run multiple brands or types of cuisines in the same kitchen without extra setup cost, as all brands can share the same kitchen area and equipment. Also, restaurant owners may be able to lower the operational costs by effectively utilizing the same inventory and manpower.
Things To Be Considered…
We have mentioned quite a few advantages of running a cloud kitchen, and you might be tempted to try building one. However, before you make your decision, you have to consider your technological capabilities.
The operations of a cloud kitchen greatly relies on technology. From order taking, to payment, to order fulfilment, inventory management, and order delivery, all require technology systems to manage. Any pitfalls at any point of this operations chain can result in lost sales.
Therefore, it is essential for restaurant owners to equip their cloud kitchens with reliable, efficient and integratable systems.
Not sure how to select the suitable systems? No worry!
Contact us today and we will provide you with professional consulting and
technical assistance.
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