Author: Max Limson

Articles, Food Delivery, Food Industry

Food and Beverage Industry: The New Look

Aug 12, 2022 by Max Limson

photo from Pavel Danilyuk

The movement of the Food and Beverage Industry to the future is loud, fast, and near. Everyone loves good food. Who doesn’t? We bond over it, enjoy great times, celebrate, and make memories with the best people around us. It has become part of our warm and creative culture that we’ve grown to take care of. The Food and Beverage Industries that we have witnessed being back during the pandemic are now starting to make a movement- a comeback that will change the way we appreciate our age of digital progress, our time to move and thrive, and of-course food!  

We have shifted drastically to more efficient, safe,and fast food-shopping. No more missing out on our favorite cravings! Our favorite food restaurants and drink shops have heard us. They’re finally serving again- and this time, even better! And we believe that there’s more to come. Are you part of the new movement? 

Food and Beverage Industry: Back on Their Feet

People are always in for exciting and thrilling experiences when it comes to food and drinks! But,  due to restrictions and the pandemic, it’s good to be cautious. While eating out is a great experience- when we think of our family’s safety it could be a factor to have options to deliver. You might ask “But, wait… is our favorite restaurant servicing deliveries? “Could we order online?”  The answer is yes! More and more restaurants are now shifting to a more accessible way of making their food, drinks,  and services available to you. Not just that, they’re improving on giving loyalty rewards, coupons, and exciting deals for their customers to enjoy their overall e-shopping experiences. They’re making their foundations stronger and making better enterprise and marketing plans smarter and efficient. 

Faster and Easier 

The idea is for food to be delivered fast and accessible to customers. Food and Beverage industries like Vito’s BBQ, Mcdo, KFC, Yogost, and Heavenly know better that investing on what would make their restaurants deliver better is the key to get back on the game. The new look is speed, quality, and engagement to the customers. But how? 

Technology plays a big role as we now live in a digital era. Instead of it being a problem for restaurants to be left behind, they’re bringing about wits and determination to step up and meet their customers by utilizing available data, services, and online platforms like social media to step up their marketing efforts and aim to be successful. We’re not just talking about targeting millennials- we’re talking about the entirety and the continuous shift to deliver better and adapt to the current situation of pandemic and lockdowns. 

Take-away
The Food and Beverage Industry is now moving into a new phase, and trusted companies like ZAP that’s offering e-store platform and Loyalty Programs are one of the key-roles that have helped more than 2,000 F&B merchants of any size go online. Whether you are a business that’s small but aiming to grow big and wide- ZAP team is here to help. We are made for the food and restaurant industry. We will equip you to accept, fulfill, and deliver orders to customers with ease with your very own branded eCommerce website. With the ZAP Group Team, merchants are able to offer same-day delivery with Grab, Lalamove, or Borzo integration. Give customers an easy-to-use online ordering platform for instant or scheduled pick up or delivery. Interested? Contact us!

Articles, Food Industry, How to's

How to Prepare Your E-Store for Fathers Day

Jun 6, 2022 by Max Limson

Photo by Marcus Herzberg

This year, we have seen our country open up, and life now is somehow similar to how it was pre-pandemic. Employees have returned to the office, we can physically meet up with friends, and social gatherings are now even allowed at restaurants and bars! Yes, it’s the return to normalcy many of us have been craving for. Some things, however, are forever changed – practices we’ve adopted over lockdowns that we can never truly un-learn – and most of it is related to embracing digital. 

So while we’re sure that we’ll be seeing a ton of dine-in promos and restaurants booked through the roof this upcoming Father’s Day, there’s bound to be a huge chunk of customers integrating their newfound digital transformation into their celebrations. Many will undoubtedly be pre-ordering dishes online regardless if they’ll be dining in or having food delivered. Some will be more lowkey and skip physical meet-ups altogether, sending gifts and food via apps. And, speaking of apps, there will also be those on the lookout for promo codes, prioritizing restos with the best discount deals.

The question now is: is your F&B business ready for a Father’s Day under this new hybrid reality?

Winning under the new hybrid reality

In a previous article, we highlighted how the rule of thumb for F&B businesses to win under our new circumstances is to create fulfilling experiences online and on-ground. Ideally, these experiences connect, forming an ecosystem. How do you bring loyal online customers to your store and vice-versa?

Given these learnings, such considerations should be applied when you’re gearing up for a celebration where there will be an influx of orders and reservations. Don’t sleep on an opportunity with lazy promos unable to capitalize on a special occasion or via operations ill-optimized to your’s and customers’ situations. Below are tips on how your E-store can prepare for Father’s Day 2022.

Think outside of the box in creating promos

We made it a point to emphasize how “lazy” promos are equivalent to sleeping on opportunities. So what do we mean by creative promos that take advantage of the situation? 

The key to creating a good promo is considering our change in online behavior and how it affects our consumption, whether in-store or at home.

So we’re not saying to stave off the standard discount offered during special occasions; instead, think of how you can build on this practice in a way that both customers will appreciate and differentiate your business.

For example, a service like Zap E-store allows you to easily see which customers keep coming back to you. So, using this service, why not create a unique in-store Father’s Day discount for customers that had deliveries this month of June?  Inversely, maybe a patron who dined in your store could avail of a “Father’s Month” promo code or other discounts exclusively for delivery. This way, the treats don’t just end after one visit. Plus, you also encourage them to explore your service across channels. (Extra points if they discover how good your customer service is in all of them).

Explore the beauty of bundles

Over the pandemic, many F&B businesses prepared take-home kits and frozen trays for their best-selling dishes, so patrons could experience these products from the comforts of their homes. Now, just because your business allows dine-in, it doesn’t mean these dishes have to be offered in-store. Many families will still celebrate from their homes this year regardless of their reasons. What’s important is that you are ready to accommodate them if they come your way.

Come up with Father’s Day take-home kits and frozen trays and offer discounts – attractive enough to encourage patrons to consider celebrating at home, just to avail of your promo. Or, why not mix it up and come up with unique bundles that have dine-in and take-out components? The beauty of bundles is that you can be creative in their curation.

Furthermore, a digital platform like Zap E-store can help you with inventory management, lessening the burden of manually organizing online and in-store offerings. Use these digital tools to streamline processes. The less time spent on procedures, the more time for creativity and innovation!

Preorders are now part of the norm

Lastly, the pandemic taught us that consumers are now not just willing but are actually proactive in using the internet and digital tools to ease processes and cut waiting times.

So for Father’s Day, why not be prepared for those that are bound to visit your website looking to get a leg-up on the pack of dine-in customers and deliveries they know are coming on Father’s Day? Don’t just allow pre-orders; create “early bird” rates and bonuses for those that will digitally pre-order or pre-deliver their dishes. Reward them for their foresight!

Through this, it’s not the customers that will only benefit. You, as an entrepreneur, will also get an idea of how many people you’ll be serving and what dishes will be in demand on the day of the occasion. This, in turn, will help you plan ahead.

A service like Zap E-Store will get you ready for such occasions as it streamlines workflows and removes manual processes like inventory management and delivery coordination. This will allow you more time for other value-adding activities, like interacting with these customers that pre-ordered. Knowing that you’re taking extra time to make their special occasion even more special will build loyalty to your business.

Creative promos, special bundles, and customizable pre-orders are just some ideas that take advantage of our new hybrid reality. Having an E-store powered by Zap allows you to be creative with your F&B business. Your store, your customers, YOUR control. Now, are you ready for Father’s Day?

Business, Finance, How to's

‘More than just discounts’: with Zap Affiliate Circle, we help you earn

May 30, 2022 by Max Limson

Ever wondered how your favorite celebrities, personalities, and influencers get to give discounts on their favorite brands via special links and promo codes? Well, if you have, those promotions are part of an advertising strategy called affiliate marketing. 

Affiliate marketing is when brands allow themselves to be marketed by other entities (called “affiliates”) so that their products get recommended to the affiliates’ audience. These are frequently in exchange for a commission from successful purchases. These recommendations can often be seen on blogs, websites, or social media platforms. Think of it as the spirit of word-of-mouth advertising but transferred onto the digital space.

Earlier, we did say that this practice is most common with celebrities, influencers, and generally people with me substantial clout, but what if we told you that you can now do the same to your organic network? That is just one of the beauties of Zap’s Affiliate Circle.

The Zap Affiliate Circle 

You can think of Zap’s affiliate marketing program, called the Zap Affiliate Circle, as a merging of their past and present. Zap started as a company focused on being a loyalty and rewards programs provider to F&B businesses before growing its scope to include its E-Store service to help restaurants manage orders and deliveries online amidst the pandemic.

Now, with the Zap Affiliate Circle, we see the restaurant discounts we’ve grown to love from Zap front and center once again. However, Zap takes the concept further and mixes it with the idea of commissions via affiliate marketing.

When you sign up to the Zap Affiliate Circle, you get to register to as many restaurant affiliate programs that you want to be part of, and you get 5% from each successful purchase using your assigned link and promo code. And when we say “as many,” we mean there is no limit to the number of programs you can sign up for!

How does it work?

There are 4 simple steps to joining the Zap Affiliate Circle:

  1. Go to this website and register as an affiliate with any of the programs available – Go over the list of Zap’s affiliate merchants; we’re sure you’ll find some of your favorites! There is Macao Imperial Milk Tea, NYFD, and Sugarhouse, to name a few. Pick the brands you love and want to support, and press the register button below their name.
  2. Fill up the registration form per affiliate program – There’s no limit to how many affiliate programs you want to be part of! If you wish to register with all merchants, be our guest. Just don’t forget to put your name, social media accounts, and bank details.
  3. Be the influencer you want to be. Promote your discount promos! – Onto the exciting part! Once you’ve successfully registered, you will receive custom links via email. This takes about a week, at the latest. Share these links on your personal platforms – whether it’s your blog, a Youtube video, or your social media accounts. Encourage people to click the link and use the discount promo codes.
  4. Watch the money come in – Sit back, relax, and witness the magic of commissions. You will earn a 5% commission every time a customer purchases from a Zap E-Store merchant partner through your link. You can literally make money as you sleep!

Need more convincing?

We know affiliate marketing is relatively new in the Philippines, and some of you might feel alienated diving into this technology. However, just like how Zap guided numerous F&B businesses through the pandemic with our E-Store, we also want to ease your adoption of this innovation. We have designed our platform to be easy for you to choose your brands and generate affiliate links – that you can use instantly!

Beyond that, as a Filipino company, Zap has made it its advocacy to support local businesses. And now, we want to give our users the same opportunity. You can choose from various local businesses and become an affiliate of the brand you want to support.

And lastly, if you’re in the business of community management and engagement, what better way to grow your following and make your community feel special than with special promos exclusive to them?

So what are you waiting for? Be part of the Zap Affiliate Circle today! Learn more by clicking here.

Articles, Food Delivery
Business, Food Industry

Is your restaurant ready for our new hybrid reality?

Apr 25, 2022 by Max Limson

Photo by Bluerhinomedia

As our world begins to open up again and we start to realize that the leisures we indulged in before, like dining out, are finally here to stay (hopefully!), restaurateurs and food entrepreneurs are faced with a new question. How will they integrate the new way of life they built during the pandemic with the fulfilling dine-in experience they will be returning to?

Two years in, we all know how the pandemic taught F&B businesses the importance of going online. It was an “evolve or perish” scenario where all had to embrace digital in one form or another. Whether that be merely accepting online payments to setting up their own websites and e-commerce platforms. However, full hybridization – where equal priority is given to creating a fulfilling experience both online and on-ground for your restaurant – presents a new set of challenges.

For example, how do you bring the loyal online customers you’ve cultivated over the pandemic to your store and vice-versa? Is there a way to apply the customer programs you’ve built over the pandemic to in-store dining? And most importantly, how do you still keep your online store appealing?

Innovate and differentiate

Photo by Sam Lion

Just as COVID-19 forced many restaurateurs and food entrepreneurs to pivot, so should this “return to normal.” Think of it as the final stage of your business’ transformation – from in-store to online to a total merging of the two. 

What were the best experiences customers garnered dining in-store that you couldn’t replicate online? What were the best practices that made your business thrive amidst the pandemic? Can these things go together?

Designing restaurant operations in this new hybrid reality doesn’t necessarily mean a uniform experience covering online and in-store. Hybridization also entails customizability and applying channel-specific best practices; it is about complementing rather than being identical.

For example, over the pandemic, a business created take-home kits and frozen trays for their best-selling dishes so that patrons could experience these products from the comforts of their homes. Just because the in-store dining is as lively as it once was, it doesn’t necessarily mean that these new pandemic-born products have to be offered in-store too.

Plan for variety. Create products offerings that are exclusively online. Create special discounts for products purchased in-store. Think of ideas that encourage people to explore your channels.

A digital platform like Zap E-store can help you with inventory management, lessening the burden of manually organizing online and in-store offerings. As the pandemic taught us, use digital tools to streamline processes. The less time spent on procedures, the more time for creativity and innovation.

Incentivize, online and in-store

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

A service like Zap E-Store allows you to directly see which customers keep coming back to your F&B business without the stress of exorbitant commission fees. Use this to your advantage in growing closer to your audience.

Ideally, your online and in-store presence complement each other, and this forms a nice loop in the customer journey. Using a rewards program gives you the power to not just solely incentivize online and in-store purchases; it allows you to encourage both.

For example, online deliveries and purchases can lead to discounts or freebies that can be availed on the customer’s next dine-in. Likewise, dine-in patronage can also lead to delivery discounts, promos, and other deals.

Having an E-store powered by Zap allows you to own your food business. Your store, your customers, YOUR control.

Customer service translates

Photo by Mentatdgt

Lastly, all these efforts to assure that customer experience is a priority amount to something greater: they tell your audience that you care for them and that you are willing to go through multiple pivots to put their needs front and center.

Excellent service translates to customer loyalty. By streamlining your online workflow and removing manual processes like inventory management and delivery coordination, you get to have more time to get to know your customers. Interacting with them, thinking of promos and products for their benefit, rewarding them for continued patronage. 

This online interaction has the same heft as that built through conventional in-store means pre-pandemic. Your customers knowing that you put the effort for them encourages them to believe that you would do the same for their in-store dining experience. There is already trust on which to build a long-standing relationship.

Be creative and innovate, play around with what you can offer online and in-store, incentivize loyalty, and, most importantly, whatever the channel, keep customer service as the top priority. These are the values that will keep your restaurant ready for our new hybrid reality.

Webinar

Online Payment Gateways, Why You Need One

Apr 18, 2022 by Max Limson

Manually confirming payments can be a hassle process for business owners. But it doesn’t always have to be this way. Our E-Store provides merchants the ease of creating a website and an online presence.  It includes payment gateways and other features that will make the experience for both the merchants and customers convenient.

Having a hard time managing customer payments? Learn our discussion with Paymongo on how an online payment gateway can help your business grow, and boost your sales.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway is a system in which customers pay for their transactions through the merchant’s website using their credit card or other digital wallet. This type of payment removes the hassle of visiting the physical store or going to a bank for the customer to transfer their payment. This also protects merchants from fraud or scam payments. 

Ever since the pandemic, everyone has been used to paying online. This allowed businesses to be more adaptable and give customers a seamless payment method when they shop online making their transaction process simple and hassle free! 

Who is Paymongo?

Since 2019, Paymongo has been building tools for online businesses to easily and securely accept payments and manage their e-commerce finance. They are now supporting over 15,000 businesses of all sizes, whether you’re accepting payments through a website, an app or social media.

Why Paymongo?

Paymongo was born out of the pain points that they have observed when businesses availed payment services. They used those observations as reference on how to provide a better and less stressful service for both business owners and customers. With Paymongo, you won’t have to worry about the setup costs, long paperworks and tedious process of onboarding. This results  in having more time to focus on your business’ marketing goals. Below are the list of Paymongo’s main products:

  1. Payment Links are best if you are selling through social media. You only need to create a one time link and provide it to your customer. This link accepts credit card, debit card, e-wallet and over the counter payments. It’s an easy two step process.
  1. Payment Pages is a reusable link that allows you to collect as many payments as you need. This can be set if you want to have a fixed amount for one page if you prefer to have an open field where the customer can input the amount for checkout.
  1. Robust APIs can be used if you are building a custom built website of your app from scratch. You can use Paymongo’s API when you are building the checkout feature to add VISA, MasterCard, Gcash, GrabPay and PayMaya into your website.
  1. With ECommerce Plug-ins, you won’t have to do any coding or engineering to accept payments. 

Paymongo All-In-One Dashboard 

Whether you’re accepting payments on social media, an app or your website, you only have one centralized dashboard to track and manage all of your payments from all of your online E-commerce channels. In your dashboard, you can easily view up and coming payouts, issue refunds and export all your transaction history from all the transactions you receive and payouts that will be sent to your bank account.

Interested to set up a friendly online store for your customers with various online payment getaways? Contact us. 

Webinar
Articles, Food Industry, Success Stories

Strong and Independent: The Women Behind Your Favorite Brands

Mar 29, 2022 by Max Limson

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

March colored purple. In celebration of International Women’s Day held every March 8, we saw our screens and streets dyed in varying shades of violet and purple. This is a global movement, one that has been championed by the United Nations and various countries around the world since 1975. But to honor the achievements of women from all walks of life, it takes more than just 24 hours. So throughout the month of March, we take the time to celebrate women’s achievements in every field – from science to the academe and even in the culinary world. 

There are enough females in the culinary industry to fill a whole book with names but here we showcase the women at the helm of some of our favorite foodie spots: 

BAMBI DEL ROSARIO

ICEBERG’S 

Summer is fast approaching. You can literally feel it in the air. As Filipinos, there’s nothing that screams summer more than a bowl of shaved ice immersed in milk and some mais or langka with our favorite home-grown ube ice cream. This is Iceberg’s at its essence – the nostalgia of a hot Philippine summer brought to the table.

ALEXANDRA YAO

YAO’S KITCHEN

Yao’s Kitchen is all about Chinoy comfort food. The Filipino palette is fascinating, and when we say comfort food it could be just about anything. But Sundays spent ordering dimsum from the fast-moving carts around the restaurant or battling cousins around the lazy susan for the first spoonful of steaming hot Yang Chow Fried Rice is another kind of comfort altogether.  

MARITES APIADO

KING CHEF

King Chef believes that the customer is King… or Queen. This is not only a restaurant, but a royal dining room, where the food is created to suit each person’s individuality. From creative spins on traditional dimsum platters to to full-on party sets and even frozen options to keep in your freezers for a rainy day, King Chef aims to bring the royal treatment right to the doorstep. 

STEPH BRIMO

JIPAN

Raise your hand if you’ve never craved some Japanese goodies. No one? It’s because, at one time or another, we’ve all marveled at the goodness of Japanese breads and pastries. This is what Jipan is most known for – a home for artisanal Japanese cuisine. From delectable loaves to sumptuous dishes, Jipan is dedicated to bringing creative and delicious food to their customers.

MONICA MENDIOLA

TAKE ROOT

Take Root has only three rules: Junk-Free, Plant-Based, and Addicting. This forward-looking shop is led by not one but two phenomenal ladies. Their goal is to bring wellness to the households of their customers and “let the good habits take root.” In the time of overwork, fatigue, and burnout we’re all in great need of a change in lifestyle and mentality. Take Root will support you every step of the way. 

Who knew so much of our comfort foods were being brought to us by phenomenal women? It’s true what they say: Behind every great brand is an even greater woman. The Zap e-store hopes to bring these experiences straight to you, so you’ll never have to crave for another halo-halo or kale chips or dimsum platter ever again. In working with Zap, these five women have also been able to amplify and enhance their brands for you, their valued customer.

Webinar

Online Selling: Tips from the Experts

Mar 25, 2022 by Max Limson

Looking for ways to upskill you and your business?

Introducing “Online Selling: Tips from the Experts” a webinar aimed at sharing ways in which ZAP and Shopify help F&B restaurants get their foot in the digital space. Watch our webinar rerun to learn from Shopify how a winning platform can help you master online selling!

https://youtu.be/t3ayb_xZ930
Business, Marketing, Success Stories

Building Your Community of Customers

Feb 10, 2022 by Max Limson

How creating a community of customers helps your business

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo from Pexels

Whether you’re a business owner or a customer in the Philippines, you will have heard the term “suki” at least once in your life. Translated, a “suki” is what those in the business world often call a repeat customer. These are the groups and individuals who swear by a brand or product and will, as the name suggests, come back for more. Repeat customers are more likely to repurchase a particular product or even venture further into what a business has to offer because of the existing rapport that has been established between brand and customer.  

Such customers come in all shapes and sizes and each individual will have their own reasons for staying loyal to a brand or product. Whether their loyalty is due to product satisfaction or even sentimental reasons, these people are essential to the growth and success of any business. They are also most likely to promote the brand to their own circles and communities on their own account, which allows the brand’s following to grow with minimal effort or expense in advertising and marketing. 

Creating the community

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

But how can you turn your one-time customers into repeat customers? There are many ways, and we’ve summarised some best business practices that might help you turn your next customer into your next “suki.” 

  1. Keep the conversation going. One example of keeping in touch with your customers is through SMS marketing. In this day of Ecommerce websites and online shopping platforms, establishing a relationship with your customers may seem more complicated. You may think that the lack of person-to-person contact is a hindrance to community creation, but it’s not! Using SMS gives businesses a direct and personal line to their market, allowing them to offer and remind people of ongoing promotions or even informing them of new products available.
  1. Reward loyalty. There are many variations of how loyalty to a brand can be rewarded. Some of them are through loyalty cards that allow customers to accumulate points in exchange for their in-person or online purchases. Others have more elaborate customer loyalty programs that offer a whole catalogue of rewards. Whatever program a business chooses, it’s important that the customer feels their loyalty is being appreciated. 
  1. Build a database. An added benefit of the ever-growing Ecommerce platform is the ease of creating a hub of customer profiles. Because their purchases are done online, a business gets invaluable information on who their customers are and what they’re buying. That way, you can easily craft marketing campaigns or even new products with the needs and wants of your customers at the forefront. What better way to make sure they come back for more! 

How can ZAP help? 

Zap’s loyalty program, available both for physical and e-commerce stores, can be adapted to the needs of any business. Through this tool, you can collect data on your customers and create targeted SMS campaigns just for them. Customers simply have to register through whichever option is most convenient to them – by entering their mobile number via the in-store merchant tablet or by purchasing on the Zap E-Store platform. 

Other than that, Zap also offers various automations to complement its SMS blast system – from time-based automations to customized or targeted texts, this ensures that a company is able to stay in touch with its clientele, thus increasing its chances of creating a community of repeat customers. 

Photo by nappy from Pexels

Once a member is registered, their information becomes key to a brand or business’s engagement with them. The more we know about our community, the better we can serve their needs. It’s really that simple! 

One of Zap’s partner companies – Nature Republic – a Korean skincare brand that’s all the rage in many parts of Asia and beyond, makes use of Zap’s many loyalty program features to engage with their clients. Through the data collected by Zap, Nature Republic is able to offer its customers specific rewards, such as birthday coupons, and promotions that are specifically targeted to their needs, such as skin care products for varying skin types.
Ready to take the next step in building your business’s community? Check out zap.com.ph for physical stores and zapestore.com for Ecommerce platforms for more information on how you can partner with Zap!