Is Food Delivery Service Worth it for Your Ice Cream Shop?

DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates, GrubHub, the list keeps growing! With every passing year, consumers find that technology can help them get what they want quickly and directly to their home. There is an increasing amount of people staying in rather than going out. You may have noticed that local restaurants and businesses are getting in on this action by adding themselves to food delivery services like DoorDash. Would it be useful for you to join one or multiple of these delivery services?

Let’s dive into the details and how this could be useful for your business! 

1. Allows for a broader audience: While consumers are on their apps looking at options for foods and desserts, they are more likely to come across your business than if they are driving around town looking for somewhere to go. Doordash has reported that users are more willing to try new places and food items when it is as easy as clicking on it rather than going in person. 
2. Convenience: Nowadays, there are many people who stay home for work, school, family, you name it. Food delivery services have been adding more and more businesses for the past few years and it continues to grow. Your customers will easily be able to get your delectable sweets sent straight to their home. 
3. Integrate easily with your other systems: These food delivery services easily allow you to integrate with your POS system a\nd your website so that you can keep everything in one place which keeps it simple for you and your employees. Learn more about choosing the best POS system in our other blog post. https://frozendessertsupplies.com/blogs/news/choosing-the-best-pos-for-your-ice-cream-shop
   
   
   
4. Encourages brand recognition: Once you get more sets of eyes on your brand popping up on DoorDash, you’ll get more customers recognizing your brand in person. Here’s how a scenario might turn out: “Oh look! It’s [Insert business name here]! I saw them on DoorDash! Let’s get ice cream there!” It gets consumers to remember your brand! A helpful tip is to add offers and deals so that they are more willing to buy from you rather than a competing business on the app. 

Now let’s talk about some issues you might come across and how you can solve that! 

1. Ice cream melting: One thing you might be asking is how the heck do you transport ice cream without it melting. Now there’s not always the guarantee that everything will get to your customer like how it’s meant to, but one way to help prevent this is by ensuring that the ice cream is neatly packed into a cup, or even a waffle cone bowl and sealed with a lid. I’d recommend using a sticker to create an extra seal on the lid and cup so that it doesn’t open and spill during travel.
   
   One thing about DoorDash and other food delivery services is that they use insulated bags to transport food and drinks. Putting the packed ice cream into this insulated bag will help ensure that the ice cream stays icy until it gets to the customer. Another thing you can do is limit the miles away feature to only deliver within a 0-10 minute radius so that a customer doesn’t get their ice cream 30 minutes later when it’s all melted. 
2. Customers don’t get to have the full experience: One thing that you should be proud of is your in-store business! I’m sure you want to meet your customers and have them take in the environment of your shop! However, that brand recognition that you’ll get from DoorDash can help encourage more in-person customers! Your specific brand could encourage consumers to follow you on social media and even see you in person sometime!
   
   
3. Low sales=little to no profits: Another issue that you could run into is lack of sales which means you’re going to get less money than you would hope. Part of the sale that is made on DoorDash is that money goes towards the company, the driver, and you. However, everyone has to start somewhere! I say if you’re willing, it doesn’t hurt to try! Businesses that are successful on these delivery apps prove to gain a majority of revenue from it, so if you play your cards right, this could be big for your shop!

Now that you’ve seen some of the ways using food delivery services can benefit your shop and some ways to overcome some of the biggest problems that businesses have, try to take some time to see if this would be worth it for you and your business! 

About the Author: Tim Porter

Tim is the CEO and people builder of FrozenDessertSupplies.com. In his free time, he enjoys being with his family, collecting watches, and Classic Mini Coopers.