Are mobile ordering apps the next big thing? 

There’s no denying that most of us rely on our smartphones and tablets to make life easier. We expect them to give us more convenience, help us do things quicker and spend less time waiting around. Add to this the proliferation of food brands and services exploding on social media and really hitting their stride with content marketing and we have to ask, are mobile ordering apps the next big thing?

In the UK in particular the casual dining sector has had a bit of a hard time of it as late. There simply aren’t enough of us eating out to go around. The smarter restaurant and fast dining chains haven’t let this slow them down though – instead they have thought outside of the box and looked at new ways to get food on plates and out the door. Enter the mobile ordering app.

If you go on the App Store or Google Play, there are a growing number of apps from brands like Starbucks, McDonalds and Wagamama that make ordering your meal before you’ve even stepped through the door quick and easy. No queuing, no waiting around on a short lunch break wasting valuable time away from your desk – just a swipe, a click and a collect.

As life gets busier, mobile ordering apps offer diners several advantages:

·They’re much quicker

·They connect with mobile payment options like Apple Pay

·They’re a time saver when you’re in a hurry or you don’t fancy waiting in line to place your order

·They’re much more convenient

·You can place orders on the go, arrive and leave

·They often include rewards programs for loyal customers

It’s not just food businesses that are turning to app development as a vital means of bringing in more customers either – competitors from other industries and dedicated mobile ordering services are also springing up. Uber recently launched Uber Eats to enter into this space, with users able to use their Uber account to order food and have it delivered to their door direct from the app.

There’s a huge mobile ordering market developing in the US too with several dedicated food ordering apps all grappling for market share – these include names like Grubhub, Foodler and Doordash. All connect app users with dozens of restaurants. An additional benefit for those ordering food in this way is that the apps allow for ratings and reviews as well as much easier browsing of multiple menus than would traditionally be the case.