5 tips for reducing F&B cart abandonment rate

In a world that has become dominated by online orders, one of the greatest transactional challenges is cart abandonment. Retail is the biggest victim with cart abandonment rates averaging 80%. Luckily for the food and beverage industry, order fulfilment is considerably higher, but there are still a few tips for driving online commerce, upselling, and making sure your customers order, and order again.

wi-Q has been in the mobile ordering market for six years – and we have learned a thing or two about the customer journey! Our capable mobile ordering solution offers a multitude of features to help reduce cart abandonment, and we’re proud to see many of our clients keeping cart abandonment below 5%.

Here’s how they do it:

1. Offer multiple payment options

Your mobile ordering platform should integrate with multiple payment providers, meeting the needs of both your business and your customers. Whilst credit card payment options may seem like the obvious choice, methods such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Wallet are becoming increasingly popular. Your guests may also prefer to charge their bill to their hotel room or add to a bar tab. Make sure you are giving your customers what they want to avoid them giving up at the final stage of the ordering process.

2. Mobile ordering incentives

Now you have mobile ordering in place, it is in your interest to make the most of it. If you have a high cart abandonment rate, you might find your guests are using your mobile ordering platform to browse your menus before approaching staff to place an order. This not only places unnecessary demand on your staff, but means your business misses out on the benefits of mobile ordering, including upselling and data insights for a more personalised and profitable guest experience.
Encourage your customers to fulfil their orders with exclusive discounts through mobile ordering and introduce loyalty offers.

3. Keep the ordering experience simple

Your customer’s mobile ordering user experience should be kept simple with easy-to-navigate menus and a customer-focused journey. wi-Q’s interface, presented in your venue’s branding, has been purposefully designed for ease of use with intuitive ‘next-step’ shortcuts and upselling notifications.

4. Ensure an interactive experience

Your mobile ordering solution is an opportunity to engage your guests with a service they can’t get from a paper menu. wi-Q gives you the option to make order suggestions based on your customers’ selections, including opportunities to customise the experience. Think, ‘Would you like fries with that burger?’ ‘Would you like a larger portion for just $2 more?’ or ‘We recommend the Shiraz with this dish’. When the incentive is placed at your guests’ fingertips, they will be more inclined to take you up on it. This is proven by wi-Q’s track record of boosting F&B orders by an average of 30%, enabling and instant return on investment from.

5. Allow for personalisation

Whether your view is ‘no substitutions’ or ‘the customer is always right,’ you should always give your guests the opportunity to add notes to an order. wi-Q has a tick list prompt for allergen and special dietary requirements as well as space for additional comments and requests. Don’t lose out on a room service order just because your guest couldn’t order a dish without the sauce.

As an Enterprise solution, wi-Q has a team of experts to work with you not just to deliver seamless technology mobilisation, but to help you deliver best practice to get the most out of your technology investment.

We’re here to help, with go live mobile ordering in as little as seven days.