Food delivery saw immense growth during the pandemic and remains a lucrative sector with huge potential. However, scaling a business rapidly while maintaining quality can be challenging. With the right strategies implemented methodically over 6 months, doubling your food delivery business is absolutely achievable.
In this guide, we will outline the key steps to focus on that will help you achieve accelerated growth through acquisition of new customers, expansion into new areas, optimization of operations and customer experience, data-driven decision making and capital investments.
Acquire New Customers
The foundation of doubling your business is attracting many new customers through aggressive marketing. Some effective channels to explore are:
Facebook/Google Ads
Well-optimized paid social media and search ads driven by conversion goals can acquire large volumes of customers cost-effectively. Test creatives, targeting and bid strategies continuously to maximize ROI.
Influencer Marketing
Partner with popular food/lifestyle blogs and influencers in your cities to promote exclusive offers or discounts to their audiences in exchange for ads on their social feeds and websites.
PR and sponsorships
Pitch local lifestyle publications and podcasts focusing on hyperlocal events listings, new menu items, community partnerships for brand awareness beyond paid channels.
Promotions and Discounts
Offer lucrative introductory discounts like 50% off for first orders or BOGO (Buy-One-Get-One) deals. Nurture new users with loyalty programs to bring repeat orders.
Partnerships
Approach gyms, co-working spaces, colleges with meal subsidy programs for on-campus delivery. Negotiate referral bonuses or revenue share with other merchants for cross-promotion.
Tracking acquisition sources will show ROI of each strategy to refine budgets. Aim to add 1000s of net new customers per month to fuel growth targets.
Improve User Experience
Delighting customers is paramount for retention and referrals in delivery business. Some ways to enhance experience:
Faster Delivery Times
Optimize delivery zones, driver allocations using real-time dashboards to reduce order fulfilment times below 30 minutes on average for quicker service.
Tracking and Notifications
Implement prominent order tracking on the site/app using GPS to keep customers updated on kitchen preparation and delivery ETA through each step for peace of mind.
Smoother UX
Continuously refine the UI/UX based on usability testing to simplify search, checkout and account management on all touchpoints for frictionless ordering.
Support Channels
Provide 24/7 phone/chat/email customer care with prompt responses to address issues promptly and leave favorable impressions during critical periods.
Stellar experience will encourage evangelism and cement loyalty from new users acquired through promotions. Aim to keep Net Promoter Scores above 75+ through surveys. Visit: https://zipprr.com/ubereats-clone/
Expand Service Area
Capturing demand from new neighborhoods requires scaling local operations:
Scouting Locations
Study demand patterns, population densities using Google Trends, reviews to shortlist high potential expansion zones for centralized kitchens/warehouses.
Facility Setup
Rent/develop centralized facilities or partner with existing restaurants/cloud kitchens to serve as last-mile fulfillment hubs with adequate storage and prep areas in priority cities.
Fleet Onboarding
Recruit and train 100+ new fleet members per target city for expanded delivery coverage to optimize coverage across wider areas.
Clearly communicate new coverage areas through marketing when each node goes live to invite Geo-tagged orders and retain customers moving nearby. Expanding territorial footprint doubles addressable demand base.
Enhance Delivery Fleet
Scale operations optimally without compromising quality to serve higher volumes:
Fleet Resizing
Augment fleet capacity by 25-50% over 6 months based on demand levels through procurement of electric vehicles and bikes for smaller carbon footprint.
Recruitment Drive
Run ongoing recruitment ads and campus drives to onboard skilled part-time delivery staff continuously to offset attrition and variable demand levels.
Training Program
Institute refresher trainings monthly covering product, safety, customer service to ensure high service standards as fleet size doubles. Issue uniforms, bags, devices to improve field operations efficiency.
Analytics Dashboard
Deploy a driver and order management system integrated with mapping for real-time vehicle tracking, dynamic job allocation to optimize routes, fulfillment costs and customer SLA compliance centrally.
A well-oiled delivery operation is pivotal in achieving target growth safely at scale. Reliable estimated delivery windows preserve credibility earned from initial promotions.
Optimize In-Store Operations
Execute kitchen processes seamlessly for larger volumes:
Menu Auditing
Review top/declining items monthly based on sales data to right-size inventory or revise recipes/pricing of underperformers or introduce trending substitutes.
Preparation Optimization
Periodically streamline recipes, standardize ingredient and portion sizes, introduce partial/full automation where possible to boost daily order capacity.
Staff Planning
Schedule kitchen personnel optimally using hourly/weekly demand forecasts to avoid under/overstaffing. Cross-train staff for different stations.
Order Fulfillment
Implement tablets or wall-mounted screens connected to the POS for real-time orders streaming, section-wise grouping, timing alerts to dispatchers for contactless handoffs.
Continuous refinement maintains operational efficiency gains even as scale doubles keeping marginal costs in check. Benchmark metrics like orders per man-hour monthly.
Enhance Product Listing
Revamp menus attractively for more basket sizes:
Menu Auditing
Analyze top 10 dishes contributing 80% sales to identify categories like combos, meals vs sides performing best for emphasis or untapped potential of others worth reviving basis survey feedback.
Detailed Information
Enrich listings with detailed photos, ingredient descriptions, nutrition Facts, customization options displayed clearly for easy discoverability and confident purchase decisions online.
Meal Bundles
Curate affordable multi-course combos priced lower than individual items with suggestive selling to upsell higher average order values.
Limited Period Menus
Design seasonal/festive dishes leveraging trending ingredients or cuisine traditions 2-3 times a year and run promotion campaigns for them to capture photo moments, appreciation.
These amplify appeal of assortments to varying customer segments, stimulates trial beyond existing patrons sustainably. Analyze basket composition periodically to rejig strategies accordingly.
Grow Repeat Customers
Loyalty is harder than acquisition. Consistently engage customers through:
Loyalty Program
Launch a points-based rewards program that unlocks surprise discounts or priority delivery slots for platinum members based on order frequency over 1-6 months.
Email Nurturing
Segment and nurture subscriber lists acquired from registration forms or user profiles on the app with monthly exclusive subscriber-only promos, new launches info and satisfaction surveys.
Referral Program
Incentivize existing users to share promo codes with friends and family for sign-ups through social sharing with commission-based payouts on orders from referrals.
Surveys and Feedback
Poll users post-purchase via email, surveys for qualitative and actionable feedback on experience, preference gaps to plug through product/service enhancements over time.
Retaining even 30% of acquired users through such highly personalized engagement will multiply bottom line impact of scaling efforts over quarters.
Strengthen Marketing Automation
Orchestrate highly relevant 1:1 engagement at scale:
CRM Platform
Adopt a customer relationship management tool that integrates transactional data, helps creates dynamic audience segments for tailored campaigns.
Lead Scoring
Assign engagement scores based on past behavior like logins, carts, orders, support inquiries to prioritize high intent prospects for promotions.
###Campaign Orchestration
Trigger automated multi-channel journeys of targeted communications through web push, in-app, email and OTT/CTV based on lead score and day-parting.
Analytics
Leverage built-in analytics dashboards for each campaign to evaluate performance across engagement, conversion KPIs to optimize towards goals.
Privacy-First Practices
Obtain clear customer consent, provide opt-out options and comply with privacy norms when collecting, storing user data for above tools.
Such demand generation at scale maintains marketing efficiency as you double down on growth markets over the stipulated horizon.
Refine Pricing and Promotions
Test monetization tactics intelligently:
Dynamic Pricing
Implement demand-based pricing that adjusts menu prices algorithmically based on real-time factors like local traffic, day-of-week using tools like Flashfood. Optimize profitability.
Promo Testing
A/B test types of offers (discounts vs freebies), minimum spends, target segments, timing/frequency randomizing variables to maximize engagement rates. Refine best performing combos.
Subscription Plans
Pilot monthly subscription tiers for unlimited free deliveries within certain zip codes priced competitively bundled with other perks for retention among regular customers.
Surcharges
Consider nominal off-peak hours surcharges during late evenings judiciously after testing acceptance to smooth out driver workloads if supported.
Make data-backed pricing/promotion decisions to balance scaling volumes and unit economics as operational efficiencies also improve in parallel over quarters sustaining momentum.
Optimize Operations with Data
Leverage analytics proactively for fact-based insights:
- Track KPIs like orders/cover counts, delivery times, filling rates, customer satisfaction holistically on dashboards
- Conduct sales forecasting based on past trends to right-size inventory, staffing
- Analyze customer lifetime value, cohorts to understand retention patterns over time
- Benchmark promo ROAS, media sources CPA monthly to shift budgets optimally
- Measure velocities, yields, waste percentages at item level to detect inefficiencies
- Capture frequent feedback through surveys, focus groups for qualitative perspectives
- A/B test minor process tweaks rapidly based on results
Implement process improvements transparently validated by measurable impact on KPIs. Hire analysts for sustained data-driven culture as scale grows.
Raise Capital for Investments
Fuel projected growth capital requirements:
- Approach banks for working capital facilities against receivables to supplement operational expenses
- Evaluate equity funding from angel investors or institutional Series A if de-risking growth with strategic partnerships
- Tap government subsidized small business loans or invoice financing schemes
- Consider crowdfunding campaigns for seed funding showcasing product market fit and growth track record
- Reinvest profits aggressively as a bootstrapping technique before external capital is critical
Have audited financials and well-constructed fundraise documents ready based on capital expenditure plans and milestones. Crowdfund pre-orders to partially pre-sell growth.
Conclusion
Scaling 2x within a constrained 6 month window demands relentless focus across the customer and operations value chain. Strategically acquiring new demand through promotions while enhancing experience quality and retention sets the foundation. Expanding delivery coverage further stimulates volumes. Hiring best practices, data-driven optimization and adequately funding expansion plans through a combination of methods achieves the objective in a sustainable way positioning the business for continued high growth. Constant adaptation based on learnings remains important on this acceleration path. Consistently delighting customers with each interaction will be instrumental in this customer-obsessed journey.
