It’s Time to Consolidate Foodservice Distribution with Mobility!
It was just another working day! I was getting late for the office and didn’t spare time to prepare my breakfast. While on the way to my office, I stopped my car at a restaurant and went to pack some food. While waiting for my order, I heard a conversation with the restaurant manager. He was talking with someone on a call annoyingly. Later on, I came to know he was frustrated with his distributor for not delivering enough quantity of food and non-food ingredients.
I suggested the restaurant manager to use a mobile app to avoid such conflicts. I was surprised when he said there is no any reliable mobile app to help them out. I was so shocked that how this sector left untouched by tech innovators. Then, I tried to understand the industry of foodservice and came across a few significant drawbacks.
Overview of Foodservice Distribution Ecosystem
The food services ecosystem has three participants restaurants, distributors, and suppliers. All the three entities are deeply interconnected with each other. Here, the role of the distributors is quite critical as they are responsible for receiving the order, collecting the ingredients, and delivering the food products on-time.
Role of Food Distributors
The job of food distribution companies is, to provide food or non-food items to the cafeteria, nursing homes, restaurants, hospitals and industrial caterers. Food distributors act as a bridge between food and non-food ingredients suppliers and the foodservice operators such as a chef, food stall owners, food service directors, etc. They buy food from suppliers, i.e., farmer, stores in huge silos and distributes it across the operators.
Key Challenges of Food Distribution Companies
Disturbed food distribution chain drives a considerable loss for the restaurants as they cannot address the requirements of their customers. On the other hand, distributors also face conflicts with restaurants. There are three major problems associated with the food distributors.
Maintaining Food Quality
Every restaurant is supposed to maintain the quality standard of the food, they are famous for. To maintain the quality; they have to buy food and non-food ingredients of a specific grade. It is the responsibility of food distributor to deliver quality products to the associated restaurants.
On the other hand, distributors buy the ingredients from different suppliers. It becomes tough for them to convey specific information about different quality and quantity of ingredients to the suppliers.
Lack of Cost Efficiency
If food distribution companies are connected with a few suppliers, they lose their competitiveness. They can not bargain on food product price as they have limited options to choose from. Connection with more suppliers helps distributors to get their desired quality and quantity of the food and non-food ingredients within the defined timeline.
Delay in Food Ingredient Delivery
Delay in food delivery can occur due to any reason. It can be either natural calamities or human errors. We cannot control the natural calamities. But, of course, we can avoid human errors like inaccuracy in the quantity delivered, specific time when products need to be delivered, and more with the help of advanced technologies. In both situations, distributors have to approach the suppliers of another region to get the required food and non-food products.
Streamline Your Foodservice Distribution Channel with Mobile App Development
Food distribution companies can address all the key concerns using mobility solutions. Distributors can add and manage N-number of restaurants and suppliers from a single platform. They can channelize their efforts by allowing restaurants and suppliers to control their respective activities through the app.
Restaurants can leverage online order booking, order tracking, and other facilities. While suppliers can get the information about required quality & quantity of the products, delivery timeline, etc. Thus, mobile app development changes the face of the distribution channel from inside out. It reduces the tedious process for the distribution ecosystem and improves accuracy, efficiency, and productivity of food distributors.
Let’s have an insight into the how mobile application drive positive change to the food distribution channel.
Offer High-Quality Food Ingredients
Deliver fresh food to the restaurants by interacting with suppliers on a consistent basis. Once the distributor receives the order from restaurants, he will pass the quantity and quality data to the suppliers using the app. Suppliers can dispatch the products of required quality and quantity. Day-to-day supply of food and non- food ingredient solves the issue of inventory management.
On-time Product Delivery
All the participants of the distribution ecosystem can track the journey of their orders in real-time through a mobile app. If any issue occurs during transportation of the food, the distributor can take help from other suppliers and ask them to supply designed quality and quantity of food on an immediate basis. Thus, they can manage to deliver food to the restaurants on-time.
Leverage Business Expansion
Distributors can expand their business cross geographical boundaries by creating massive networks of restaurants and suppliers with the help of mobile solution. Food distribution companies can invest a bit in food storage space and a few resources to manage the distribution channel across any state and country.
Boost Revenue Stream
More suppliers mean more power to choose the cost-effective one and gain the competitive edge. Distributors can track the prices of the required products from different suppliers from the mobility solution. He can give an order to the suppliers who provide quality food at the lowest price. By adding their higher margin, they can empower their revenue cycle.
Increased Customer Base
As distributors can get the products at competitive rates, they can offer food and non-food ingredient at the reasonable prices to the restaurants. Thus, they can increase their customer base.
Verdict:
The wave of digital transformation is on its way. It has the potential to change the fragmented business of food delivery completely. This is the best opportunity for the companies to transform their delivery system entirely to achieve high customer satisfaction. Got a better idea? Get in touch with one of our executives to seize the opportunity and become the face of future.
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