To complete the client consultancy for Menu3, our group chose Chinese food delivery giant Meituan, American giant Yelp and other small digital menu companies like wMenu and Dashef as key comparable, hoping to inspire our client how to build their own business model. Each member in our Ideal Team had done excellent job and we delivered our recommendations through Wechat meeting video today. Followed was my part.
Thanks. Based on our study on the digital menu companies in both China and US, we give two optional models for long term operation.
First one is to perfect the product family.A single app is far from enough to satisfy the different needs from the customers side and restaurants side. In our opinion, the Menu3 product family should include 3 major parts: the guest end, the waiter end, and the manager end.
The guest can use the app on their smartphone to order food and drinks or they can either use the tablet in the restaurant provided by Menu3. Both channels will provide the information of restaurant location, available tables, reservation information, food& beverage description and autonomous ordering. The guest end will bring the entire offer to the guest with help of photos, videos, detailed descriptions in whatever languages, which are all added and edited by the manager end. This will help to make communication to guests, make their choice easier and give them unforgettable ordering experience.
We also need to develop the waiter end to help waiters to take and edit orders quickly and effectively by tapping on chosen items on their smart device. The order is immediately passed on to kitchen or the bar, which will accelerate the ordering process and allow the waiter to take several orders from other tables at a short time. Waiters can review and get notification of summoning. Of course, both the guest end and waiter end are integrated with POS system and printing system, which will make it easier to collect payment.
The restaurant manager can use a different visionto manage and edit the information displayed on the guest end and as well as view the operation data, such as the best-selling dishes.
Menu3 makes money through 2 ways. They sell pre-stalled tablets and software to restaurants and charge the monthly license fee. The number of license depends on business. More business, more license. Each license is attached to one tablet. For example, if you have 30 licenses, but this month you only use 25 of them so that’s the number you will be charged for.
We mentioned the second model last time at the midterm delivery. Under this model, we suggest Menu3 cancel the entrance fee and make it easier to download and use this app. The restaurant side will free of charge to release menu and service on their own. By that time, the technology of payment method has been mature enough to be integrated with the guest end. As a result, any individual could put order and make a payment through Menu3 app on their smartphone. At that time, Menu3 could charge for commission fee from the restaurant, ranging from 5%-25%, which could be Menu3’s major revenue source! Besides, Menu3 could also sell the banner on the app for advertisement usage. Or, just charge the banner click times! We believed that only until the guests accept mobile payment widely can we use this method. It is not yet happening in the States, however, we hold the belief that is the new trend and will happen in the future.
Now I will handle it to Julet to further explore American catering market.