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Why BentoBox Built Online Ordering

Profit margins in the restaurant industry are notoriously low. In the early 2000s, vendors like GrubHub first popped up to help restaurants take advantage of hungry guests off-site. This option to accept pickup and delivery orders created a new stream of revenue for many restaurants. But for two decades, this trend has also diverted much of this revenue stream to vendors. Two-thirds of every sale into a restaurant’s pocket, one-third into the vendor’s.

Restaurants have accepted this stronghold for years. But it’s no longer sustainable — for vendors or for restaurants. The food delivery industry is struggling to turn a profit. Acquisitions have begun to consolidate the number of players in the market. In 2013, GrubHub merged with Seamless. Square’s Caviar was acquired by competitor Doordash in August 2019. And these changes aren’t limited to the U.S., either. UberEats India was recently acquired by local competitor Zomato. 

The tech stack is shrinking. Why? These companies are under pressure to drive revenue, but restaurants have also realized that they don’t have to settle for the status quo. Today, they have choices. And they realize the time for disruption is today. So they’re starting to break out and use solutions that accept direct, commission-free orders on their website. These solutions aren’t quite suitable either, though. Across a combination of vendors and direct solutions, 99% of restaurants are still less than satisfied with the vendor(s) they are working with.

How Bento Ordering Compares to the Competition

In 2019, we asked restaurants across the U.S. about their pain points with online ordering solutions on the market today. Here’s what we learned:

Operators are tired of forfeiting 20-35%+ in commission fees to third-parties. In a 2020 survey, 9 in 10 restaurants found Grubhub/Seamless commission fees to be unreasonable and responded that they had a negative experience. In fact, 78% of restaurants have seen their fees increase over time. 

And restaurants are frustrated with a lack of control over the guest experience. Many of their websites have “Order Now” buttons that drive guests to leave and enter their information elsewhere, away from their website. Operators have no way to measure traffic, identify that their website was the source of an order, or capture guest information to re-market later. 

This lack of visibility applies to direct solutions, too. Restaurants have no insight into page views or conversion rates. They feel like their providers are not aligned to help them drive more orders. They encounter slow support teams and find themselves dealing with a new status quo:  poorly designed experiences and checkouts so slow that guests complain about to them on-site. 

Bento Ordering addresses all of these issues. Because of our history in hospitality eCommerce, we know how to build experiences that drive purchases from diners and results for restaurants.

A New Member Of Staff To Manage Phone Orders

Restaurants tell us that Bento Ordering also saves time by taking over phone orders. No more delayed payment, no-shows, or risking errors in taking down orders. Guests can order ahead and skip the line; operators optimize their workflow. Bento Ordering captures orders faster and payment up front, with correct details that come directly from the guest.

Guests are increasingly ordering directly online, as well. In fact, 70% of U.S. diners expect restaurants to offer online ordering directly on their websites. We’re proud to offer a solution that helps you meet your guests’ needs, as well as your own. 

What Bento Ordering Looks Like for Guests

Guests can select a location, choose pickup or delivery for ASAP or later, complete their order and receive SMS and email updates.

What Bento Ordering Looks Like for Operators

Restaurants use the backend of their website to view incoming orders in real-time, from any web browser. An audio alert and flashing red bar flags any new incoming order for operators to start the order, mark it as ready, or flag it as out for delivery in seconds.

Restaurants can easily edit their menu, 86 items for auto re-listing, and schedule store closures.

Operators can set up time windows in advance for when they won’t be able to accept orders. Closures keep menus visible and allow guests to create orders for later when the closure ends. Other solutions take everything offline, deterring interested guests.

Another major piece of automation is having a POS integration. Bento Ordering integrates directly with Square POS, sending and printing orders automatically at prep time. This saves more than two minutes for every order. 

Bento Ordering now includes order pacing and printer integration, further streamlining back-of-house operations.

There is also a partnership with Itsacheckmate that connects to over 30 additional POS systems at $20/location/month, a 75%-discounted rate.

We’re in an exciting age where restaurants are taking control back from third-parties and we are proud to take part in this step forward. Interested in learning more?