In collaboration with TechDesk and Culterra Capital, we’re happy to share an up to date 2021 Restaurant Tech Ecosystem map, sponsored by Back of House, a group of restaurateurs to seek out and share top-reviewed tech options. Download the map right here.
It is an understatement to say that the restaurant business went by way of a large shift since we printed our 2019 Restaurant Tech Ecosystem map. The pandemic’s financial toll on the business has been grave, although notably, the toll was not evenly distributed. A better stage of digital maturity was a clear success indicator for many eating places that survived the disaster (as detailed by McKinsey right here).
Thus, in a 12 months that was difficult for all, we did discover one vivid spot from the pandemic: a lot of our previous predictions round tech adoption have been considerably accelerated, shrinking from years to months.
In reality, prior to now 18 months, know-how options throughout the restaurant and hospitality business developed at such a quick tempo that maintaining with adjustments proved difficult, even for these of us who work within the area. This fast fee of adoption within the business induced even the technophobes in hospitality to quickly embrace tech options.
The most notable progress areas have been within the areas of Ordering/Delivery and On-Premise Ordering/Payments Tech, together with kiosks, cellular ordering and funds, and cashierless checkout. In addition to the acrobatic feats from restaurant operators, we additionally noticed tech corporations reinventing themselves to remain in enterprise through the pandemic.
With that in thoughts, we’re happy to share our 2021 Restaurant Tech Ecosystem, which serves as a present warmth map of the broader ecosystem (and is clearly not exhaustive).
Click to Enlarge
In order to assist operators, entrepreneurs and traders proceed to grasp and digest this shortly evolving panorama, we additionally spotlight a number of the important shifts and sector themes beneath, plus a few predictions for the 12 months to come back.
Help Wanted
Finding and securing hospitality workers has by no means been so difficult. As hundreds of hospitality staff have been left unemployed by the pandemic, or stymied by the dangers of the frontlines, many have moved on to seek out work in different fields, leaving a large hole in expertise.
As a consequence, the urgency to leverage robotics, automation, pc imaginative and prescient, and voice applied sciences will proceed to extend because the hospitality business goals to do extra with much less workers. And whereas discussions round robots inside hospitality have at all times been cautious — as a result of we don’t wish to put folks out of labor — we imagine we’ll proceed to see extra alternatives within the near-term for human-assisting robots (versus human substitute by robots).
For instance, as restaurant operators search to offset workforce challenges, there are quite a few alternatives for particular job automation of repetitive, harmful or mundane duties like dishwashing, precision preparation/cooking, meals waste administration, bar/meals stock, and high quality management.
Another space ripe for automation by way of AI-driven voice tech contains drive-thrus and digital ordering. When folks consider a conventional drive-thru, they doubtless image a garbled voice and screaming the order into a speaker, hoping their order is right. But we’re seeing most of the bigger chains changing human voices with automated voice assistants to hurry up service, order accuracy, and upsell charges. We’ve seen estimates that drive-thru automation can cut back buyer wait time by 10 to 25 p.c, which is compelling provided that the previous CEO of McDonalds beforehand declared that for each six seconds saved at a drive-thru is the same as a rise of 1 p.c in gross sales.
Ghost Kitchens: It’s Complicated
While many restaurant operators have been broadly acquainted with the idea of ghost kitchens and digital manufacturers earlier than the pandemic, these codecs are actually prevalent in most discussions on the burgeoning post-pandemic restaurant business.
Whether a part of an present kitchen or a separate commissary kitchen, the ghost kitchen’s goal is to meet on-line orders for supply or choose up. Ghost kitchens have the potential to unravel actual challenges for his or her restaurant prospects, and there are great variations on the economics, setup, and splendid use circumstances.
So then what’s so difficult about ghost kitchens?
The fast progress in client demand for restaurant supply and the excessive utilization of third-party ordering/supply apps pushed restaurant operators to discover completely different avenues to increase their entry factors and footprint past their present eating places.
However success (a.okay.a. profitability) inside the confines of a ghost kitchen enterprise mannequin is primarily pushed by quantity of every day orders, common order worth, and share of direct channel gross sales versus third-party gross sales. This is why ghost kitchens are primarily well-suited for bigger manufacturers, as most native eating places merely don’t meet the common necessities to warrant a ghost kitchen endeavor. (If you might be curious to crunch the numbers, take a look at this wonderful ghost kitchen calculator created by Kitchen Fund.)
Further, the strains are starting to blur between supply and ghost kitchen platforms. We are getting into a world the place these platforms are more and more supporting their very own digital manufacturers and/or next-gen meals courts, oftentimes by utilizing the ordering/menu information captured from present eating places utilizing their platform. Thus native operators will probably be battling for market share in opposition to bigger chains that are utilizing ghost kitchens to increase their attain and quantity, in addition to further competitors from ghost kitchen platforms themselves.
Enter the The Mobile-Only Experience
Stateside, we’ve more and more been adopting mobile-first ordering and advertising methods, however the mobile-only strategy (usually seen in Asia) wasn’t broadly embraced earlier than the pandemic. Now, whether or not by way of QR codes, apps or cellular internet, there was a large shift in direction of mobile-optimized menus, ordering and funds which eradicate or cut back most worker/buyer contact. This may help to enhance the visitor expertise by way of elevated velocity and fewer errors. For high quality eating, this additionally saves time/prices in printing and sourcing provides for paper menus.
Successful operators will prioritize their tech technique to seize as a lot digital information as potential with a purpose to personalize provides, phase prospects and affect habits, and a mobile-first/mobile-only strategy creates a compelling alternative to extend each first-party and third-party information seize.
As it may be dizzying for operators to determine the right way to finest leverage their digital information, we predict excessive progress for the tech companions that are serving to operators make the most of buyer information to raised uphold their model, funnel prospects into extra worthwhile channels, and make higher choices about merchandising, pricing, and promotions.
Aggregators Will Continue to Disrupt the Customer Journey
While most of the applied sciences we focus on listed here are extra operational, we additionally wish to deal with the shopper search and discovery expertise. While this was an essential subject in pre-COVID instances, it’s all the extra so now, when disruptions and uncertainties are pushing prospects to recurrently seek for what close by meals choices are literally open, and whether or not they supply supply, curbside, or takeout choices.
We have additionally reached a level the place Google/Google Maps have turn into the defacto high of the funnel for a majority of restaurant customers. Thus it’s more and more essential for restaurant operators to proactively handle their full digital footprint, and supply up-to-date info that prospects can belief — particularly throughout all third occasion platforms.
For instance, though Google profiles embrace a hyperlink to a restaurant’s personal web site, that little hyperlink is eclipsed by the quantity of ad-driven actual property that the third-party aggregators/marketplaces get inside every profile.
Growth Categories to Watch in 2022
Voice / Bot TechnologyRobotics / AutomationShared / Ghost KitchensMeals Safety / Quality (a new class for the 2021 map)Ordering and Payments will proceed to evolveMarketing Analytics / CRM, and Order / Delivery (each B2B and consumer-facing marketplaces) will proceed to consolidate.
As at all times, we welcome your ideas and reactions, and look ahead to persevering with to observe this sector collectively within the coming years.
Related
