50% of Online Shoppers Abandon Their Cart. What's Making Them So Flaky?

Host Barbara Castiglia talks the latest restaurant technology
with Zuppler’s Founder and CEO, Shiva Srinivasan. Zuppler, an
online ordering management company, serves primarily independent
restaurants and some chains, focusing on ensuring the company’s
brand is maintained throughout the online ordering process.


Initially, Zuppler started as a portal, similar to a Grubhub, but
as more competition came into the industry, they pivoted to
focusing on the customer experience by working in the background
of a restaurant’s website, creating an integrated approach with a
strong focus on marketing. Since more than 50% of customers
abandon their cart when an ordering link takes them to a
third-party website, their business model has proved lucrative by
increasing revenue potential 50-60%.


“It’s really important to highlight the restaurant’s brand… it
should be one single experience for the user,” Srinivasan
explained. “It should not feel like they’re going to an external
site or linking somewhere else.”


Srinivasan also commented on how restaurants can remain
competitive online, such as featuring high-quality menu item
images, utilizing data to strategically upsell, and deploying
marketing campaigns. Ultimately, Srinivasan encouraged more data
utilization.


While the restaurant industry was traditionally slow to adopt
technology to capture this data and increase automation, COVID-19
quickly flipped that trend. During the pandemic, Zuppler was
bombarded with online ordering needs since restaurants needed to
pivot rapidly. Zuppler, while not prepared for the huge rush,
responded gracefully with the new incoming business.


“We knew that we had to do something to help, and it was not the
time to think about making money and building the business. So
right off the bat, we gave 6 months free for all our restaurants
to help them through the pandemic,” Srinivasan said.


Srinivasan also touched on other trending topics, such as ghost
kitchens and staffing issues. He ended the talk relaying the
importance of how technology, automation and integrations can
contribute to a business’s success, and Zuppler has the solutions
for filling those gaps.