It’s no longer a matter of if your food distribution business has an online ordering website, but a matter of how?
It's a simple fact that food distribution businesses need online ordering websites to enhance customer experience and simplify order management. If you don’t you could risk losing customers to the competition. I know what you’re thinking, while some customers still continue to place orders via SMS or Email that doesn't quite provide the best customer experience.
Customers aren't as patience as they once were, many are now shunning old systems and going to providers who offer a more seamless ordering experience. Simplicity has never been more important for both customers and businesses. People are busier than ever, they just simply don’t have the time to sit down and place orders anymore. For your business you can’t afford to waste valuable time on manual data entry.
Whether you are looking for an online ordering website or have a system in place you need to ensure it has all the tools in place that simplifies the buying and selling process for your customers. Here are the top five features that every food online ordering website needs to have.
1. Easy Navigation
There’s no point having a website if customers have difficulty using it. The most important feature of any online ordering website is having a simple navigation that allows customers to place orders with ease.
The layout of your website should be welcoming. As soon as someone access your website they should instantly know where to go and how to order. To make it easy for customers your online ordering website should have interactive features that show the different products you are selling, the price of the product and the quantity they can order.
From clicking the product all the way to submitting their payment details the process should be simple. Your online ordering website should be designed in such a way that anyone can use the system no matter their IT knowledge.
2. Card Payment Functionality
Allowing customers to pay by card is essential. With the food and beverage industry facing increasingly long wait times for payments the last thing you want is to give your customers even more reason not pay. Like the ordering process the payment process should be as simple as possible or you could face an increasing number of debtors.
There’s nothing more frustrating than finding out an online ordering system doesn’t let you pay by credit card. Customers want the entire order completed in one motion. Your online ordering website MUST give customers the ability to pay through any type of credit card instantly.
3. Easy Account Creation
We have all experienced it! Going to purchase something from an online provider and having to create an account. What should take 2 minutes ends up taking 15 and the entire process has frustrated you to the point you no longer want to purchase the product.
An online ordering website should allow customers to create an account within seconds. The benefit of being able to give customers their own account is they can login time and time again and have template orders pre-populated - all they need to do is press confirm!
4. Mobile friendly
Recent studies show that 51.6% of online traffic is from mobile devices. A trap that many businesses fall into is investing into an online ordering solution that is not compatible with mobile devices. If your distribution business is in this category, you would be cutting yourself off to over half the online web.
Online ordering websites need to be mobile friendly. Customers should be able to access your online ordering website on their phone or tablet device and be able to order. The sizing, dimensions and product sizes should be instantly adjusted to small device types and offer no difference to the buying experience.
5. Integration with your management system
We get it, as a distributor you juggle many different things, the last thing you want to be doing is getting data from your online ordering website and having to input that data manually into your management system. It’s time-consuming and there’s a good chance you can make a mistake.
An online order management system should integrate with food and beverage management system like EasyVend. The benefit of integration with your management system is all data is transferred instantly from one platform to the other without the need of manual input.
In conclusion,
Online ordering is essential for all food and beverage distribution businesses. In saying that there is no point having an online ordering website if it doesn’t meet your customers expectations. The 5 features above are crucial for enhancing customer experience, sales, and business efficiency.
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About EasyVend
For food vendors and distributors, EasyVend supports and automates every part of your business, freeing you up to grow your sales unlike other ERP systems on the market that are designed more for wholesale supplier than for distribution businesses like yours.
EasyVend has been creating customisable online ordering websites for food distribution businesses for over 10 years and we understand your vision.
To read more about EasyVend online ordering click here.
Want to learn more about EasyVend? Call us today on 1300 473 744 or submit the form below to get a no-obligation free demo of EasyVend.