Amid the ongoing restrictions and state- government-induced lockdown to contain the second wave of the pandemic, both small restaurants, and the F&B giants are grappling to keep their businesses afloat.
To help them survive and increase sales in such difficult times, it was imperative to equip them with the right tech and tools. Therefore, NRAI partnered with the Gurgaon-based O2O commerce brand DotPe to host a Bootcamp for restauranteurs called ‘Enabling Direct Ordering with DotPe’ & ‘Enhancing your audience reach via Google My Business’.
The NRAI Bootcamp series aims to empower merchants and restaurants to get direct orders during the pandemic and even beyond.
The Bootcamp was attended by industry stalwarts and restaurant owners who witnessed DotPe’s end-to-end full-stack commerce solutions necessary for empowering their F & B business. It emphasized how restaurants can get their digital presence through DotPe’s state–of–the–art digital catalogue with superior UI and UX so that they can get their orders directly from the customers and become discoverable through channels like WhatsApp, PhonePe Switch, Google Spot, and Paytm.
Through DotPe, restaurants can also roll out the best possible offers for their customers (store offers combined with bank offers) that can be redeemed in a single order. Apart from these, the restaurants can also ensure last-mile delivery to their customers, which is critical for business in the current economic climate to survive. Other benefits offered to help businesses get the best of existing sales were loyalty programs, remarketing engines, and customer analytics for making critical business decisions.
This was followed by Google’s Expert guide to ‘Unleash your brand’s true potential using Google My Business (GMB).
Commenting on DotPe’s participation in the town hall, Anurag Gupta, CoFounder & COO, DotPe said, “Although our innovative O2O solutions are already being successfully utilized by several businesses, through this Bootcamp we want to reach out to every restaurant in the country to help them retain their business at such a critical time of need. Our 360-degree digital commerce ecosystem will not only enable them to take direct orders the right way but, also help them flourish beyond the lockdown. We are a merchant-first organization and their welfare is our priority. Hence, we stand here to serve their needs in every way possible. ”
DotPe has been supporting the restaurants since the first wave of the pandemic last year. It digitally powered the entire customer journey- ordering, payments, feedback, promotions, delivery solutions, and more for 15,000+ restaurants and food courts in India.
Recently, to urge the customers to support local restaurants by ordering directly from them, DotPe rolled out a compelling video campaign #OrderDirect.
Anurag Katriar, President of NRAI said “Every restaurant enjoyed an emotional connect with its guests which seems to have been lost in the last few years wherein these guests have become some nameless order numbers where their names get masked by the aggregators! We think that #OrderDirect can change this and rekindle the lost emotional connect between restaurants and their patrons. NRAI wants all restaurants, whether big or small, to become more self-reliant. And as a responsible Industry body, it will continue to provide the necessary advice, expertise, and support to the fraternity members. And as a responsible Industry body, it will continue to provide the necessary advice, expertise, and support to the fraternity members. The second boot camp was another step in this direction. We have worked with DotPe in the past and this event will further consolidate our relationship. I am sure their tool and efforts will help restaurants reconnect directly with their guests. NRAI will continue in its endeavor to help restaurants gradually assume more control over their digital landscape.”
Thomas Fenn, Partner, Mahabelly, said, “NRAI’s partnership with DotPe during the past year has yielded the restaurant and cloud kitchen community innovative new features that are particularly useful in the food delivery space. Order-ahead and subscription services are the latest features activated on the platform and will be of immense value to customers as well as a new category for maverick food entrepreneurs out there. Google My Business is a particularly important discovery channel today because of tight integration within the Google ecosystem that we all use and love such as Google Search, Maps, and GooglePay. Not to mention the added convenience of voice search baked right into your smart devices in both the Android and Apple universes. This is definitely a game-changing way to discover new restaurants if not a more useful one.”
