OrderEats app could revolutionize food/restaurant industry
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By Carlton Fletcher
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ALBANY — As a businessman who owns several restaurants, Terry Ho understands well the impact technology is having on the food industry. Today, Ho starts the beta testing of a product that could revolutionize the industry.
OrderEats, an app developed by Ho and his business partners, will allow customers to place their orders inside a participating restaurant without having to wait for a busy server, to make pick-up and drive-thru orders, even as they’re waiting in line, or to order for delivery. Oh, and that latter feature comes with dramatic savings.
“As we talked about developing the app, I did research on the delivery services operating now — Waitr, UberEats, DoorDash and businesses like that,” Ho, who owns a chain of Hibachi Express restaurants and manufactures his own YumYum Sauce, said. “What I found out was alarming. Those services charge the restaurants from 20 to 30 percent of the cost of the menu item, then charge the customer a higher price than is on the menu, a flat delivery fee and add-on fees.
“(The services) are getting money on both ends.”
OrderEats, which will be available to local restaurants after beta testing is completed, will deliver food to customers at the menu price and charge a flat fee for delivery. The restaurants will pay a monthly service fee to utilize the app.
“What we found in researching delivery services is that a lot of people weren’t aware of the additional charges,” Mart Marasco, OrderEats’ operations manager, said. “They’d order a hamburger, get the 20 to 30 percent cost added to the menu price, plus delivery and other fees, and they’d say, ‘That’s just too much for a hamburger.’ And a lot of them would quit using the service.
“By eliminating those additional costs to the menu prices, I think more people are going to be willing to use our app. And mom and pop restaurants will be able to easily make back the (monthly) cost of the app with savings they’ll realize and increase in customers.”
The OrderEats braintrust has even formulated a tier pricing plan that will allow restaurants to pay based on their volume of usage. And even those with a larger volume of business are not penalized for their success.
“We cap the costs, even for the restaurants that get the most business from the app,” Marasco said. “We believe strongly that the delivery service is only going to grow. It was a $30 billion industry in 2018, and it’s projected to grow 25% a year over each of the next five years. We feel (the OrderEats app) will help make that increase even greater.”
Ho had the idea to create a more user-friendly delivery app when his “computer geek” brother introduced him to a technician who worked out of a technology incubator in Birmingham. Together they came up with the OrderEats concept.
“Everyone is utilizing new technology,” Ho said. “It’s a fact. McDonald’s is spending $2 billion on developing latest technology. It’s the future of this industry. And we feel that we can help these smaller businesses — the moms and pops — to stay afloat in a changing industry.”
Plus, Marasco notes, with the coronavirus currently limiting restaurants to take-out and delivery orders only, the timing of the OrderEats app is fortuitous.
“With the landscape in front of us, we don’t know what each day will bring,” he said. “The new technology makes us more cognizant and aware of customers’ needs. Plus, small mom and pop restaurants can’t afford the latest technology in-house, but with our price points the OrderEats app is a no-brainer.”
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