Home food delivery service has been around for a while now. However, its popularity has increased significantly in the last couple of years. According to Statista, the share of sales made via delivery in the United States has continued to grow since 2013. In 2019, around eight percent of food service sales were made via delivery. This share of sales is expected to reach 8.9 percent in 2022.
The traditional brick-and-mortar food establishments serve fewer and fewer dine-in customers and move to the virtual world to deliver their best cuisines. This trend can be attributed to the growing convenience of online food delivery and its increasing popularity specifically amongst the millennials.
If you are a restaurateur or an entrepreneur thinking about entering the restaurant industry, exploring a virtual kitchen is a worthwhile exercise. So, let us explore what a virtual kitchen is and how to start one.
The Virtual Kitchen Concept Goes By Many Names
As the name suggests, a virtual kitchen is an online model for restaurants to offer food delivery services to customers. The concept goes by many names, such as dark kitchen, ghost kitchen, or cloud kitchen. A virtual kitchen eliminates the need to provide a dine-in premise for the customers and operates strictly online.
You can do it all using an automated restaurant ordering system– order food, process payment, send delivery confirmations and so much more. This transition to the online model helps restaurateurs save money as well as expand its outreach in the local market.
Your most loyal customers do not need to take time out of their busy schedules to enjoy your food. All a customer needs is to go online, order their favorite food from your virtual kitchen, and enjoy it in the comfort of their own home.
A virtual kitchen is operated from an isolated kitchen without a need to serve customers at the location. Diners will go online to surf through the menu and order food which is then delivered by third-party online delivery services.
You Don’t Need to Be a Savvy Entrepreneur to Learn How to Start a Virtual Kitchen
The thought of a virtual kitchen concept may come across as quite a tech-savvy task, but it is far easier than you could imagine. Whether you are an owner of a well-reputed restaurant in town or an entrepreneur about to start your journey as a restaurateur, here is how you start a virtual kitchen:
Step#1 –Building Your Virtual Kitchen Concept
The first task for you is to identify the type of virtual kitchen you would like to start. This decision will depend upon your budget, resources, and scope of business. For instance, you can start a single-brand cloud kitchen to take orders and serve customers. Another option is to start an operator-managed dark kitchen where multiple brands are managed by a single entity. This helps in keeping the operational costs down.
Step#2 -Know Your Competitors
Knowing your direct competition in your local market will give you a chance to come up with a virtual kitchen concept that is bigger and better. Like any other niche, you have to offer something that your competitor does not offer to set your virtual restaurant apart and rise to prominence.
You can also use your direct competitors to research what does and does not work in the virtual kitchen marketplace. Learn from your competitors’ mistakes as you gear up to start your virtual restaurant.
Step#3 –Optimize Your Specialty
Virtual kitchens are a niche domain, and optimizing your food business can help you shine amongst your competitors. Look around you and learn which of your cuisines are a hit and what you offer that no one else does, and lead with that.
You can even scale your menu to specific dishes that your customers will not find anywhere else. This will help you save inventory costs as well as serve more customers since you have fewer food specialties on the menu. Research on the popular dishes amongst the local customers.
Step #4-Finding a Commercial Kitchen
Now that you know the type of virtual kitchen concept you want to follow, it is time to search for a commercial kitchen to start your operations. This will depend on the scale of your restaurant, plans, and goals. The kitchen should be able to accommodate individual setups.
You want a space that can accommodate cooking stations, and has room for food preparation and inventory. You will need a team of three or less to take orders via the cloud kitchen POS system and cook the food for delivery.
Step#5 –Know Your Compliance
While planning your virtual kitchen, you need to know the local laws which can be found on the local government website. You should educate yourself about the license needs, inspection requirements, certificates, and insurances you need to start a virtual kitchen business.
Some of the primary compliance needs include:
●Registering your business and obtaining a license (if you are a new restaurant)
●ServSafe Food Handler Certification
●Liability Insurance
●Applying for Inspection by the local Food Authority
Step#6 –Selecting Tech Configuration and Service Provider
You may have the best cloud kitchen with the best menu to serve, but the business you get will depend on the online ordering software and its efficiency. Select a tech service provider, such as GRUBBRR, with expertise in offering comprehensive tech integration to operate your online food business.
Similarly, you will also have to narrow down your options on the food delivery apps you will be using to deliver food to the customers. You can either use your own delivery service or third-party services such as Uber Eats, GrubHub, DoorDash, etc.
Step#7 –Hiring Your Kitchen Staff
The size of the kitchen staff will depend on the scale of your operations. However, the number of staff members will still be smaller for a virtual kitchen compared to the staff of a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Step #8 –Social Media Is Your New BFF
After you have set up your virtual kitchen, you should focus on promoting your virtual kitchen on digital platforms. Social media is increasingly becoming a popular marketing tool. You should start by deciding what social media platforms might work for you the most (depending on your audience demographic). Social media marketing can be used for brand recognition as well as to increase website traffic.
Step#9 –Learn and Adapt
The virtual kitchen concept comes with an exercise to strategize, learn and adapt accordingly. Therefore, you must keep your ear to the ground and learn what your online customers think about your business. Ask for customer reviews and feedback. Learn about what you can do better, and use this valuable insight to tweak your cloud kitchen to perfection.
Start Your Virtual Kitchen with GRUBBRR
Whether you are already running a popular restaurant or just a startup, cloud kitchen requires you to implement the best restaurant-based technology and solutions. GRUBBRR specializes in offering top-notch tech solutions with easy and comprehensive integration into your existing POS systems. Speak to our team to know your options today!
