Category: How to’s

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.

Food Delivery, How to's

Problems home cooks face (and how to solve them)

Oct 21, 2021 by jan@zap.com.ph

Given the challenges brought about by the pandemic – with malls now operating in a limited capacity and dine-in heavily discouraged – it’s understandable how many businesses and food entrepreneurs have been forced to adopt the “home cooking model” to survive. However, becoming a home cook is harder than it seems. 

It’s easy to think, at first glance, that home cooking is just about preparing meals. “Passion can pull me through,” one may think. But, more often than not, home cooks just end up doing everything themselves. And that’s not exactly the best way to streamline.

Here are some struggles you may encounter as you embark on the journey of becoming a home cook.

Manual.. everything

Cooking in itself is already an arduous process. If you’re doing things alone, this entails doing all the prep work, the actual cooking, and the clean-up. And how many times do you have to do this in a day? In a week? 

Yes, we can romanticize the idea of cooking food on your own, grinding for your art. However, operating a home kitchen goes way beyond cooking. Think of the process beyond the kitchen. Suppose you’re a one-person army running a food business. How will you take orders? You’ll take it one by one via SMS, WhatsApp, Viber, or IG DM? After a person orders, you have to individually check payment settlement or even wait for
Cash-on-Delivery. 

The manual process in itself, on a case-by-case basis, is not only too much for one person but troublesome and inefficient for your overall operations. Yes, you can personally set up a website or e-commerce platform. But, if you’re doing things alone and are not savvy, do you really have the time to learn?

Photo by energepic.com from Pexels

Coordination can get crazy

Let’s say getting orders and payments, both manually, is something you feel like you can manage. Let’s also consider the coordination of things: think of the back-and-forth. Part and parcel of home cooks and their cloud kitchens is delivery. There is no such thing as dine-in in this model. So your service will hinge on logistics.

For each order, you have to check the status of the kitchen; you have to notify the customer of their delivery status. This can take multiple rounds per customer. 

Then after the delivery, you need to tally sales, manage the inventory, and the other tasks part of planning and managing operations. You may count on third-party services to handle delivery and coordination, but those ask for high commissions, leaving you with extremely thin margins. 

Photo by SHVETS production from Pexels

Customer service suffers

There won’t be enough free time to make your service feel more personal. Coming up with promos or loyalty programs will not be easy too, as those need additional monitoring. 

Compound all of this time you spend on manual processes, and chances are your energy will be well spent keeping daily operations afloat. You won’t have enough bandwidth for the things that matter the most: keeping your customers happy.

Lastly, joining a delivery platform to “ease” things may raise awareness about your shop but will also drive prices up to the detriment of your customers. 

This is not a mere issue of saving money and operating lean; instead, it is one of holding you and your business back. That can outweigh any potential good. And, think of yourself. Your attention and overall wellness will suffer, and, in turn, maybe your food will too.

Lighten the load

With any business, spreading yourself thin is not the way to go. The best alternative to these circumstances is streamlining holistically. This is far from just doing everything on your own. It is consciously selecting one’s battles and finding ways to incorporate automation and other tech services.

Yes, at times, it’s hard to go beyond the traditional. But with digital transformation accelerated globally – with 6 out of 10 businesses going digital – you don’t want to be left behind.

An agile home cook knows they can do better by launching their own branded e-store. They also know that these are steps they don’t have to do by themselves. There are services, like ZAP e-store, which can help you launch your e-business quickly and efficiently. They can handle set-up and integration whether you have an existing app or don’t.

Automated ordering and inventory management are also present, so you won’t need to message the kitchen yourself. An order gets sent straight to your store for preparation. Plus, whether it’s online or manual payments (if you still want to give people the option), either is available.

Remember, this is your own branded e-store, with the term “own” not being used lightly. This means smaller third-party commissions and control over promos, discounts, and loyalty programs. All this leads to higher profit margins.

According to Betty Nakpil of Betty’s Best, home of the best sisig sotanghon, “[An e-store] super simplified [our business] for us, and also for customers. It’s nice to make the experience of the customers good; not just for the products we sell, but also for the whole buying experience.”

Less load on you and your lean team, better customer service, this is how a home cook ready for the “next normal” operates. Are you ready?

Photo by SHVETS production from Pexels

Photo credits: Food photo created by freepik

How to's

Marketing your resto in 2021: Why commission fees hurt your profits

Sep 22, 2021 by jan@zap.com.ph

Two years into the pandemic, we have already become more or less accustomed to the changes COVID-19 has ingrained in our way of life. While these changes are not always easy, today, the conversation has shifted from merely surviving for the time being to thriving under these circumstances in the long term.

For many food entrepreneurs and restaurateurs, the first layer of their pivot involved embracing digital and making their take-out and delivery operations more robust. This often included partnering with third-party delivery apps so their businesses will be “discoverable” on the respective platforms.

However, we are realizing now that while third-party providers served a purpose early in the pandemic – apps were a good way for one’s food business to remain relevant – it is not exactly a sustainable strategy. Third-party apps help you survive but not exactly thrive.

How app fees damage profits

Admittedly, when we were all grasping at straws to find quick ways to save our food businesses amidst months of lockdown, joining a reputable delivery app was a godsend.

For one, they already had the tech in place to automate processes. They already had riders. And most of all, they already had people using their apps, meaning there was an assurance that hungry customers were bound to encounter your food business, in one way or another.

However, third-party apps demand commission fees ranging from 20-25% in exchange for the short-term comfort they provide. For a small food business struggling amidst a pandemic, this isn’t exactly a friendly rate.

Let’s put things in perspective. In pricing menu items, food entrepreneurs already factor in a profit. The strategy here is to charge enough to earn but make the price friendly enough for your target market. However, add a 20-25% commission fee from a third-party service, and chances are you’d have to choose between who’d take the blow: the customers or your profit? Would you raise your prices or take a cut from your earnings?

This is a crucial decision for many restauranteurs and food entrepreneurs. But this doesn’t always have to be the case. There are alternate paths to thrive under the current challenges that do not demand you pick one over another.

Customer service leading to greater returns

As we mentioned, while third-party providers do serve a purpose in helping your food business’ discoverability, ultimately, it shouldn’t be your be-all-end-all strategy. We’re not saying you should cancel your partnership altogether. However, It shouldn’t be your primary source of sales too; this way, commissions wouldn’t eat too much into your profit margins.

Think of delivery apps as merely the top of the funnel. They are middlemen that lead people to your business. You don’t want your customers to build a relationship with the middleman! They should only serve as an introduction. After being led to you, it should be your responsibility to keep them coming back. Make the service personal – because personalization is the one thing a business couldn’t achieve via a third-party provider.

You can look into creating promos and discounts unique to your business and not reliant on the mandate of the apps. Building a loyalty program is also another way to keep your best patrons engaged, that is not available via a delivery app.

E-stores are the solution

In your digital transformation journey, having an E-store strikes a balance between automation and personalization. 

A service like ZAP E-store can handle both the set-up and integration of your e-business, whether you have an existing app or not. It reduces the need for manual coordination by streamlining processes, from order taking to inventory management. It also gives you the flexibility to accept both online and manual payments.

What makes having an E-stores truly special, though, is that it shifts the control back to you and away from a third-party provider. An E-store is the closest experience to running your restaurant, albeit online. 

You get to integrate your own promos and discounts in whatever way you want to, whenever you like to. You get to actually see who of your customers are the ones that keep coming back and reward them in the process. And, you can do all this without the stress of thinking of exorbitant commission fees. 

All these lead to higher profit margins altogether.
If you want to learn more about why 200+ F&B stores trust Zap, visit their website via this link.

Photo credits: Background photo created by benzoix | Background vector created by rawpixel.com