What is a Virtual Restaurant (VR)? & How can it save You from COVID-19 crisis

Every day I am looking for new innovation in the Restaurant Industry as COVID-19 spreading aren't stop yet. While going through this, I found this info on this site, which could be a new transformation in the Industry.

Virtual Restaurants, also known as “Ghost Restaurants”, are online-only restaurants that serve customers exclusively through delivery. In other words, it does not have dine-in or pickup options. So virtual restaurants prepare the food from a location that does not have to be apparent to people, just a kitchen. This concept has started to grow in popularity since the prepared meal market is eating out a large share of the grocery market. That is probably due to the nature of society and business conditions where people just don’t have time during the day.

Digital Expansion

Studies showed that %60 of restaurants fail within the first five years because they are capital-intensive. Therefore, selling online is the only alternative as it is a great way to increase sales. However, that is not the only reason why restaurants should sell online. It is also a great expansion strategy where you expand digitally through an ordering app and website not through brick-and-mortar branches. So virtual restaurants do not have to spend so much money each time when opening a new location to cover new areas. All they need is just replicating the existing kitchen and preparing delivery vehicles and drivers.

 Benefits of Virtual Restaurants

There are many benefits of having virtual restaurants and because of that the concept is growing in popularity especially in busy cities. They don’t require a prime location which means you’ll be spending a lot less money on the rent. Since there is no walk-in customers, you don’t need fancy decorations that are of the highest capital expenditures. Also, no need to hire waitstaff which means no managers to manage them which means less operational expenses.

Moreover, Your website and app can reach a larger set of customers than your physical branch. Not only that, it has a very easy call-to-action where customers can make an order within a few clicks. Compared to the physical branch, the ease to respond to the call-to-action can be the biggest factor in your strategy to increase sales.

 Using Data in Virtual Restaurants

Since virtual restaurants are tech-based businesses, it means customers have to provide their identifying data. This includes name, email, number, delivery location …etc. in order to be able to process their orders. Their data is your treasure because you can use it in way that helps your business grow.

Being tech-based enables as virtual restaurants owner and manager to answer critical questions about their business such as:

• How many customers downloaded your app?
• How many visited your website?
• How many of those signed up?
• How many actually made an order?
• How many repeated their order? and during which period?
• How many made an order but never repeated it for 3 months?
• Which area is generating orders the most?
• Which item is is the most popular in respect to areas?

Those insights are essential to understand your business. Without them, you will miss out what gets ahead of your competitors. Once you have the answers, you can apply some techniques to retain customers as well as re-engage them.

Looking at the current scenario where restaurants are switching to online ordering services, Cloud kitchens, or Delivery-only restaurants are being considered a smarter way of running the restaurant business. If you are really interested in Cloud Kitchen, we're planning for an exclusive, self-paced Cloud Kitchen Masterclass which will be very soon. Click here to register for it.