Chez Margotte salad bar is located in Lyon’s business district, near the Part Dieu train station. Ideal for office customers, Chez Margotte offers lunchtime salads and home-cooked dishes, on the premises or to take away. To order your salad in advance, you can go to its online store deployed since summer 2020.
How did you set up click and collect?
At first, Sébastien was “not at all a fan of all these delivery and click-and-collect applications. It takes a lot of time to manage on top of his business. But then covid came along, and there wasn’t much choice, since people couldn’t get in or order. So I turned to Click and Collect solutions, studying the players on the market.” He then analyzed the different solutions used by his colleagues in the restaurant sector.
“On delivery there is always an over-cost, the question is whether the customer agrees to take it.” As the location is already well suited to serving office customers in the neighborhood, Sébastien is not convinced that delivery meets a customer need. He also believes that this would require a reorganization of his team, as often one member of staff is dedicated to this distribution channel in order to consolidate orders.
What’s more, it doesn’t want to change its profitability model. In order to keep prices reasonable, restaurateurs pay part of the delivery costs, eating into their margins. “I’m not a fan of lowering profitability. Even if these platforms increase volumes.” On checking with his colleagues, he notices that sales are much higher, but profitability is not the same.
Finally, the commissions charged were a decisive criterion for not turning to the large distribution platforms dominating the market. DOOD’s simple construction and reasonable cost were decisive factors in its choice, and enabled it to launch online ordering as soon as the March 2020 containment was completed.
How did you go about setting up the tool at your facility?
“I thought it was going to be substitute sales. 100% of customers who use Click and Collect were customers who ordered before.” He has therefore been able to retain his customer base thanks to his online store.
Today, the Click and Collect solution also saves time on site. The front of the restaurant features a sliding window opening directly onto the street. Customers who have ordered their food in advance ring the doorbell and Sébastien brings them their DOOD order. Received in advance, the order is ready to take away and enjoy. They avoid the 10-15 minute queues at peak times. Waiting can be reluctant for customers, even regulars. Thanks to Click and Collect, customers in a hurry don’t have to wait for their personalized order!
What’s the impact on your business?
“It really changed my organizational flow”. The ability to order in advance allows Sébastien to fluidify the flow of orders during peak hours. “If the DOOD orders come in the morning, it gives me time to prepare. If there are 30 salads falling at 11:30 a.m., I can manage the flow better. Rather than leave it to the last minute, I encourage my customers to order first thing in the morning.”
By streamlining orders, restaurateurs can optimize their payroll. Better spread out, orders can be prepared by a smaller number of employees than in the past.
What next?
“With the deconfinement, some have stayed on DOOD and others like to see it for real.” At DOOD, we believe that restaurant buying habits have become increasingly digitalized. Some customers and restaurateurs have taken the plunge and included online sales in their business model. Over the past two years, restaurateurs have seized the opportunities created by changes in consumer habits and internal organization, to continue developing their business. DOOD’s mission is to help retailers develop their sales through digital channels.