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To Grubhub or Not to Grubhub

November 6th, 2018

Restaurant owners are always looking for ways to get in front of new customers. One way to do this is to offer online ordering. It’s not as simple as snapping your fingers though! First your website must be able to offer this. That means that either your webmaster must put this together and then you have a payment processing company that can offer this. Sometimes going through that work isn’t worth the headaches or time and money.

This is where third party apps such as Grubhub come in. They figured it out. They have the infrastructure in place and new people that would never find your restaurant in the first place! So, just sign up and away you go, new customers and more money! Woohoo! Well, not quite that easy. Grubhub does not list their pricing online like many companies. But, from what has been gathered, the cost per transaction can range anywhere from 15%-30%. Yes, you read that correct. So it’s definitely not a free service, but it’s a way to get the restaurant out there.

As a business owner, you can choose to be non-sponsored, which means you’ll pay less, but you also won’t be at the top of listings or highlighted. Do you want more business? Pay a little more and you can be sponsored. As the owner, it’s up to you to decide if that extra margain that is paid is worth it. Another item to keep in mind is if you have delivery drivers to get these orders to your customers. If you do, no problem! If you don’t, there’s an additional cost to have them do that for you.

One other item to keep in mind is that you’ll have another tablet on your counter to take these orders. This means that in most cases, it won’t integrate with your POS system and you must have someone keep an eye on it if any orders come in. In some places not a biggie, for others, it’s not worth the hassle. Some POS systems such as Harbortouch Bar & Restaurant will soon be offering an integration, which allows for everything to flow through their POS system, which is a huge advantage and also makes the process more streamlined.

In the end, it’s not as easy to just accept Grubhub and add it to your restaurant. In the end, you must take a look at your profit margins and see if these added steps and costs are worth adding new customers you probably wouldn’t have. It’s a billion dollar company though, so they must be doing something right!