F&B (Food & Beverages) is currently a hot business sector with the participation of many large companies and startups. With a stable growth rate of 5.7%/year, and according to predictions, it will continue to grow until 2020, the potential customer group (15-34 years old) accounts for 30% of the population, the F&B industry has more opportunities for development than ever before.

However, opportunities always come with challenges, the growth of the F&B industry will also create opportunities for many new brands to emerge, a bigger pie but also fiercer competition.

More competition means you need to invest more, in both product quality and branding to convince and retain customers. In addition to investing in physical facilities, designing stories and strategies for the brand, investing carefully in the image, creating those first touchpoints for customers is also extremely important. One of those touchpoints is the Website. In addition to being a sales channel, the F&B Website is also a means of communication, a channel for the brand to build an image for customers. However, how can an F&B Website attract customers, contribute to increasing revenue for the business? Or how do you know if your company’s F&B Website is doing its job well?

1. Interface

    This is the first point where customers interact with your business in general media and your Website in particular. The customer’s impression of the Website will directly affect their assessment of the brand. Customers can assess the level of professionalism, attention, and investment of a brand through the Website. An attractive, professional interface will be a good touchpoint between you and the customer, leading to the next touch points. But an ugly, cluttered interface can cause customers to cut off the relationship with the brand before it even forms.

    Especially in the F&B industry, where images awaken customers’ taste buds and desire to savor, it is absolutely necessary to approach and attract customers right from the first click. However, not all F&B Websites can do this. In the context of increasing competition, neglecting the brand image in the eyes of customers is dangerous.

    2. Images

    No matter what industry, the images presented on the Website are extremely important. It not only reflects the aesthetic taste, investment and professionalism of the business. Images almost decide 50% of the success or failure of a Website, especially Websites that need to touch emotions like F&B. According to research, beautiful images account for up to 70% of customers’ decisions when ordering a new dish they have never tasted before. And for familiar products or restaurants, customers will still tend to choose products with beautiful, diverse images over careless, low-quality images.

    Recently, the battle for images in specific industries like F&B has become more intense as most businesses, from small to large, allocate a significant portion of their budget to investing in building product images. This is also a part of creating the brand image of the business not only on mass media but also in the minds of customers.

    3. Integrating ordering and payment systems on the Website

    While e-commerce is growing rapidly, integrating ordering and payment systems on your Website is essential. This not only helps your business take advantage of its Website to better serve customers but also makes order management more convenient. However, not every business is successful in integrating ordering and payment on its F&B Website.

    With over 5 years of experience in Website design, we believe that a good booking system must ensure a logical, convenient booking flow for customers. The booking flow should not have too many complicated steps and require too much information, causing customers to be confused and easily leave the page. Concise, necessary, and easy-to-read information is essential when building an ordering and payment system. The payment section should be integrated with suitable, reputable payment gateways so that customers can choose appropriate payment methods. You can consult providers of payment gateway integration services such as VNPay, Onepay, etc.

    4. Clear menu and promotion information

    What customers care about most when visiting an F&B Website is the menu and promotional information of the business. Therefore, updating this information frequently is extremely important, making it more convenient for customers to search and update information. And specifically for promotional information, it should be designed in a prominent and scientific way, ensuring that customers can easily recognize and access the information, thereby promoting the effectiveness of the campaign and boosting sales.

    Providing and updating information on the Website regularly will also increase customer trust in the brand. Because customers see the brand’s attention and welcome to them, right from the first touchpoints of understanding the brand and products. A Website with complete information will satisfy existing customers when they can easily access promotional information, and at the same time, it will give new customers a good impression, promising closer touchpoints with the brand.

    5. SEO

    When you already have a professional Website, you need to lead customers to the Website, and one way to do that is SEO. The current customer psychology always tends to search for information about the industry, products on Google. And when customers type in keywords, how your brand name ranks in the search results greatly affects traffic, and consequently, sales. According to some statistics, customers usually only click on the first 5 names on the first search page. If you are excluded from this list, it means you have lost a large number of customers. Therefore, having your Website optimized for SEO tasks will be ideal for you and your business to take advantage of this digital channel in increasing sales.

    In summary, while the battle of F&B businesses on digital channels is raging fiercely, your company’s F&B Website cannot afford to be outdated. Falling behind means you have disqualified yourself from the game, and sales and brand will gradually be lost. To have a truly effective Website, besides some of the factors mentioned above, the most important thing is the solid investment of the business and a professional Website consulting and development unit.

    With our sharing, we hope you will be able to take advantage of all the advantages of the online media channel in promoting the development of your business.

    ...