Looking to build an active community of repeat customers for your business? Learn the secrets of customer retention below as we discussed key tactics with industry expert Pebbles Santos, President of Sugarhouse, last December 9, 2021
It’s that time of year again! For many businesses, the holiday season is a particularly lucrative time of year – sales tend to increase significantly over the rest of the year, and this can have a serious positive impact on the bottom line of your business. So what can you do to help ensure that your business is able to take full advantage of this opportunity?
Well, one of the most effective things you can do is to start selling online via an online store and if you have one already… it’s not too late to step up and find more ways to make your marketing initiatives to better perform and grow efficiently! Inspired by ZAP’s webinar called: Grow Your Home Food Business- here’s our tips for you to run a successful year ahead!
Starting an E-Store is a great way to grow your business and gain new customers in the festive period and beyond. By having an online shop, you can reach people all around the world, and sell your products or services to customers in your area as well as those further afield. Start your e-store with ZAP.
2.) Set Up Your Loyalty Program:
A loyalty program offers a number of benefits to you and your customers. It can help to increase sales and build stronger relationships with your customers, while also encouraging repeat business by offering special discounts to loyal customers. Setting up a loyalty program doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive – there are a number of options out there that allow you to set up a loyalty program quickly and easily. Set up Your Loyalty Program.
SMS marketing is an underrated marketing strategy and can easily be overlooked in favor of more ‘flashy’ tactics such as social media and email marketing campaigns. ZAP Fetch– our latest marketing precision tool offers an effective way of getting your message out there and engaging with customers. You can promote your customized discount codes for a particular product/ service and announcements and be able to target specific markets according to your campaigns.
You can also use text messages to encourage customer testimonials, which can help you to build up a following of loyal customers who are likely to recommend you to their friends and family.
WEBINAR: Grow Your Home Food Business
If your starting your culinary empire from home, view our Webinar: Growing your Home Food Business to learn the best way to grow your business from home, and take your store online. Utilizing ZAP’s E-Store, problems such as manual orders, payment verification, and delivery integration become a thing of the past.
Busy marketing your E-Store in these uncertain times? We’re here to lend you a hand! We at Zap have been hard at work to provide you with a Marketing Guide to help you better promote your E-Store, and maximize profits!
View our webinar recording below to learn how to launch winning marketing strategies!
Photo credits: Photo by https://unsplash.com/@bedbible
and here’s why:
Supporting local businesses has been a widespread movement for Filipinos since the pandemic started, with #LoveLocal and #SupportLocal hashtags trending on most platforms. However, despite the support, a significant portion of the revenue generated for these small businesses don’t actually go to the business itself!
Small food businesses lose 20-30% of their revenue to third party platforms
When the pandemic hit, a lot of food businesses were faced with a giant problem: Hhow can they sell on a digital space without losing a chunk of their revenue to third party platforms like GrabFood or Foodpanda?
When a local or small food business joins a third party platform, chances are they’ll need to pay commission fees amounting to 20-30% of their profits, with most micro businesses on the higher end. Why? Because only larger merchants are given the advantage of negotiating these fees down, in exchange for bringing in a certain volume of orders to the platform in question.
Kaloka, ‘di ba? Let’s run the numbers.
Our sample merchant, Alfredo Bakery, is a small home-based business. They wanted to scale up and opted to sell on Foodpanda. The commission fee they were given was 25%. That means, for an order worth P500, Foodpanda immediately gets a commission of P125, leaving the business with only P375.
However, there are other costs to take into account: food cost, which can be anywhere from 30-50% of revenue, staff salary, and location rent, to name the major operational expenses. If Alfredo Bakery had a monthly revenue of P100,000, a total of P25,000 would be lost to platform fees alone.
Alfredo Bakery’s Monthly Profit Margins & Operational Expenses
Despite the increase in food delivery orders, can a small business actually survive with these costs?
The solution most small business owners turned to was to start with accepting orders using Facebook or Instagram. Other business owners set up their own ordering website on easy-to-use platforms like Shopify.
Unfortunately, the accessibility and user-friendly interface of the Grab app or Foodpanda still have customers turning to them first before ordering directly from the business, leaving them with tighter margins.
As compared to sales on platforms with high commission fees, sales from direct channels (even with promos) give merchants higher margins. To encourage ordering directly from merchants businesses opt to run these win-win campaigns to promote such channels. As Abi Dinaya, Hanako’s Marketing Associate shares, “We try to match the discounts offered on 3rd party platforms on our own [direct] channels [and] another inevitable tactic was to mark-up our prices on [third party] platforms and match their low delivery rates.”
Thankfully, Abi says that Hanako’s sales are growing by the month, with the help of their consistent promotions. Check out cravehanako.ph for exclusive website promos!
As a consumer, how can I effectively support small local food businesses?
The answer is simple: spare a quick minute to search for your favorite local food businesses’ direct selling channels – be it on Facebook, Instagram. e-commerce ordering websites, like Shopify, also provide a more convenient experience for both customers and business owners, since products and their prices are immediately displayed, and payment can be done online as well without manual processing.
“As a local brand, we appreciate [your] continuous patronage for a local Japanese restaurant like ours! We look forward to [continuing] to satisfy [your] authentic cravings. 💚”
– Abi Dinaya, Hanako
Many small businesses are trying their best to survive and push past the many hurdles from the pandemic; however, small mindful changes in our buying habits may just give them a fighting chance to thrive.
Do you have a food business, but don’t have the time to set up an ecommerce store on your own? Let ZAP help you! Visit our website at www.zapestore.com!
Having trouble with the holiday rush sales? View our FREE Food Businesses: Tackling the Holiday Rush Sales to learn how to to maximize your revenues during peak seasons, and how to fully prepare your store for the holiday rush!
Learn about how to master key techniques for sales such as
-Bundling
-Pre-Orders
-Promos
-Collaborations
