Be it a tired or a hungry human, the stress of coming back home and cooking food to survive is long gone. We now live in an era, where all we do is ask our dear friend, Google – “Burger Joints Near Me”, and get our favorite meal with just a few clicks from our phone.  No wonder the food industry has become one of the vital industries in every country’s tremendous growth.

As per research, the food industry is going to reach new heights of $15 billion by 2023. When businesses closed temporarily in the pandemic,  the food industry remained open although in limited supplies (such as takeaways, no dining), etc. Supply of grocery items, pulses, and other necessities was in process. Therefore, the food & beverage industry is never sleeping. It is always awake to fulfill the demands of the customer.

FoodTech companies like Swiggy, Zomato, UberEats have up-leveled in this industry by understanding the importance of fast and speed delivery to the customers. They have won the consumer’s trust by delivering their favorite food at the right time in the right location. 

But how did they do all this? 

By adding the element of location analytics into their business strategy. Location data is one of the strategic business growth drivers as it not only predicts the footfall in the location but also helps brands to understand local cuisine, customize food menus based on it, and execute marketing efforts in alignment with locality preferences. 

While location data has many benefits as explained here, in this blog, let’s take a look at the top 3 important benefits of leveraging location data in business operations. 

New business models 

The world food industry is estimated to be $81 trillion. As consumers, we need healthy, fresh, and tasty food from restaurants. As business owners, we need our consumer’s demands to be fulfilled at the fastest, safest and easiest methods. Therefore, building robust business models to optimize both consumer and business is the top-most priority task for businesses. 

For example, remember the famous Burger King’s The Whopper Detour marketing strategy based on location intelligence. Their gambit worked like this – If you are anywhere within 600 meters from McDonald’s outlet, BK offers a Whopper Burger for just 1 cent. Not only can the customer grab the deal, BK went the extra mile to direct the customer to the nearest BK outlet using its in-house mapping application so that the customer can reach the outlet to claim the offer. 

Post-pandemic, it has become even more important to scale business with creative and location-driven business strategies for which location data must be included in every business operation.

Influencing consumer behavior 

Running a restaurant is not as easy as it may seem. The competition is extremely high and with the pandemic that hit us majorly, the market is risky, slow, and fragile to make any new change that could hamper the growth of the business. A good restaurant location can decide the success and failure of the business. Therefore, real-time location data analysis is important to save the cost, recover the losses faced, and even save the business from any future calamities.

How can location data help food companies? 
  • Store location: If you are from Fast-food joints or Bar & Lounge industry, it might be profitable to open a store around colleges instead of hospitals or schools. Therefore, location data helps in analyzing new right opportunities that help in increasing restaurant sales and traffic. 
  • Consumer choices: If your restaurant is located at the center of a Spanish residential city, it might not be a good choice to have Indian dishes on your menu. Based on the demographics, eating patterns of the locality, the menu can be customized to attract footfall.
  • Competitor stores: It is ideal to position your restaurant location where the competition of the same industry does not hinder the visitations of the customers to your outlet. Market positioning is important and location data is the key element to positioning yourself better in the market, in the right location.

Such valuable insights from restaurant location analysis are essential to provide a quality experience to customers and thereby improve overall brand performance. Take a look at cafes, bakeries, ice cream parlors, juice bars, and many other restaurants located in the US here, by Xtract.io, an accurate and quality location data provider.

Delivery & Order assignment

Location data, as you know, is a boundary of a building or store. Using this data, we can visualize where a particular restaurant and house is located, what are the nearby areas, and many more. It helps the food industry primarily in –  

  • Calculating the distance between the order location and the nearby delivery staff
  • Estimating the time taken to deliver the order from the restaurant location to the order delivery location
  • Predicting the fastest way to reach the location
  • Batching one or more orders from the same restaurant location to one or more nearby locations

FoodTech companies like Dominos & Swiggy are acing in their delivery speed. Adding a spatial segment in their delivery strategy has gained them a lot of customer trust, footfall, and therefore, sales. For example, using location data, delivery duration with batching methodology is much lesser than without batching.

Source

Food for thought using location intelligence

While these are a few of the many benefits of using location intelligence in the food and dining industry, increasing consumer base, expanding market share, enhancing customer experience, and improving outlet performance are primary offerings of adopting location intelligence methods. 

The restaurant and food tech industry can receive these benefits by leveraging quality location data from various providers. Xtract.io, one such location data provider, helps you to accurately locate your market and consumer. Connect with us for a free demo. 

Author

Varsha is a Content Marketer. She is passionate about writing, and adds a pinch of her OCD to her writing style. Apart from writing, you can find her doodling mandala art or reading a book with a cuppa of coffee.

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