Whether you operate in the full-service or quick-service restaurant (QSR) space, optimizing the efficiency of your business and streamlining the purchasing process is undoubtedly among your top priorities.
However, despite your best efforts, you may inadvertently add friction to the purchasing process by failing to offer “frictionless payments.” If friction in the buying process has encumbered your business’s growth, you are not alone. Even top fast-food chains have struggled to optimize efficiency in recent years.
According to recent data, the average order fulfillment time among the top ten QSRs increased by 30 seconds from 2019 to 2020. Researchers have estimated that this half-a-minute increase has cost QSRs $32,000 per year on average.
In response, many of America’s top food chains have begun offering mobile app ordering and frictionless payments. By following this proven roadmap for eliminating friction in the ordering process, your business can boost its sales and improve its total revenue.
What Is Business Friction?
The term “business friction” refers to any aspect of your sales model that hinders a customer’s ability to efficiently complete a purchase. For instance, let’s say that your point of sale system went offline, and you could only accept cash payments for an entire day.
Such a significant friction point would make ordering food from your establishment challenging, and customers who do not carry cash would not be able to place an order.
While the above scenario is an extreme example, there are many points of friction that impede sales during any given business day. For example, long wait times, supply outages, and staffing shortages are all common sources of business friction that will impact your profitability.
Of the various sources of friction your business encounters, payment-related issues are one of the easiest to eliminate. You can eradicate this roadblock to revenue by accepting frictionless payment options, such as digital wallets or online purchasing.
To accomplish this, invest in a solution like Simpay Eats. Simpay Eats enables your restaurant to offer simple, online delivery services. But, more importantly, our technology eliminates friction from the payment process by allowing customers to complete purchases online so that they can efficiently arrange carry-out or delivery orders.
Why Offering Frictionless Payments Has Become a Necessity
According to the Pew Research Center, 41% of U.S. consumers do not pay for any of their typical weekly purchases with cash. Moreover, modern consumers are not only ditching cash but also their wallets. In fact, 60% of consumers said they “feel comfortable” leaving home without their wallets, provided they have their smartphones on them.
With consumers trending away from traditional payment options, one would assume that the restaurant industry is following suit by expediting its adoption of frictionless payments. However, 73% of restaurants have accommodated digital wallet-based purchasing in 2022, which is down from 81% in 2021.
While it is unclear why restaurant adoption of digital payment technologies took a step back this year, the trend does present an opportunity for your business. By adopting frictionless payments, you can gain an edge over restaurants that currently do not (or no longer) offer this service.
More importantly, you can eliminate roadblocks from the ordering process, thereby increasing per-order ticket size and total sales volume, which sounds like a great recipe for growing your restaurant.
