Is more than 80% of restaurant sales based on takeout and delivery service as opposed to dine in? Do you want to reduce your restaurant operational cost? Do you want to have the flexibility to expand/change your menu offerings and market segment?
If your answer is yes, then investing in dark kitchens will help you attract customers from different market segments. If you conduct thorough research, market your business in the right way, and invest in the right cloud-based restaurant software, you can set up a successful dark kitchen business in no time.
What Are Dark Kitchens?
A dark kitchen is a physical location where kitchen staff or small, local businesses can set up to provide delivery-only takeaway meals.
What’s The Projected Growth of this Industry?
Dark kitchens are drawing huge amounts of investments from many seed investors and are expected to become a USD 3 billion industry by 2024.
What are the Benefits?
1.Massive Reduction In Costs-(Especially if majority of your business is Delivery Based)
The profit margins for dark kitchens are higher than traditional restaurants, and with low barriers to entry. Unlike traditional kitchens, dark kitchens have fewer operational costs areas such as music, seating, wait staff and other big cost factors are eliminated. They only need to invest in kitchen infrastructure, and that too is a one-time investment.
2.Adaptable and Scalable Business Model
The dark kitchen business model provides the flexibility to change the branding, menus, and food concepts as and when required. In addition the business model can accommodate for automation where all the processes, like food ordering, food delivery, and payment, are carried out online. It is easier for dark kitchens to collect real-time data related to order preferences, popular items and order frequency, and adapt their business model accordingly.
How to Maintain Dark Kitchens?
1.Invest In The Right Technology
Deploying a niche cloud-based software will help you consolidate orders from different aggregators, assist in inventory management, support centralized order tracking, and integrate multi-brand ordering and menu integration.
2.Set Up Your Kitchen Strategically
Imagine having a dark kitchen in a remote location where it is not easy to arrange for the raw materials or set up delivery infrastructure. strategic location is one that provides easy accessibility to raw material, delivery staff, and suppliers. Sufficient order volumes are the key to a successful cloud kitchen, and a well-researched location can do wonders for your business.
3.Leverage The Direct to Customer Model (DCM)
Dark kitchens can easily create effective connections to D2C Direct-to-Consumer) channels, like social media, websites, and other messaging platforms. Leveraging these channels will help dark kitchens develop a loyal customer base, personalize customer experience, manage their orders, and save on the hefty commission charged by aggregators.
- Create Multiple Brands
To remain profitable, dark kitchens must keep on innovating. Creating multiple brands helps dark kitchens spread their risk, increase each brand’s visibility, survive, and thrive. This also helps them capture and serve varied customer segments.
Dark kitchens are the model of the future. They won’t be replacing the conventional dining experience, but they will be the first preference for consumers given the surge in the convenience they offer. The dependence of dark kitchens on technology has enabled them to be agile and yield sales overviews.