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Want to Add Order & Pay to a Mobile App? Here’s What to Do

December 7, 2016         By: Steven Anderson

It’s no secret: people want to be able to place orders and pay for food and drink from a smartphone app. It’s convenient, it’s easy, it cuts down on the wait time at a restaurant, and it gives the user back a little more time in the day.

So why isn’t everybody doing this? The answers vary, but new reports identified new best practices for adding mobile functionality to an existing app.

Start by not starting with the mobile app. Sounds like a riddle, right? Not so much; focusing on the in-store experience will go a long way toward improving not only the mobile but also the bottom line as a whole.

Restaurants and other eateries have to focus on that physical experience because it’s where so much of the interaction happens.

Follow that up by improving the mobile app along with the physical experience. Once the physical experience is at its peak, adding the mobile app should help streamline things further and make the overall experience better.

Don’t expect mobile ordering to save a company offering food people would rather not eat, but rather, expect mobile ordering to help people get good food faster.

Then, with the physical experience in play, focus on the app. Make it well-designed and easy to use. If you can show it to someone who’s never used an app and get them to order food from it, you’ve done it just right.

Make sure the app means clear improvement; if the users have to wait just as long to get food as if they’d ordered in store, there’s no point in an app at all.

Finally, remember that this is a thing now. This isn’t a fad, a temporary mobile bubble; this is a fundamental change in what people want, and treating it accordingly will produce the best results. Don’t think in terms of short-term fixes; think about long-term strategy and success.

With all these points in mind, it’s easy to see why some organizations fail on mobile. With a little forethought, however, the end result can be just as good for a business as it is for customers.