Do you know what a ghost restaurant is?

Even before the pandemic, home deliveries enjoyed a certain
popularity with consumers. The confinements, closures of physical
restaurants and the need to stay away from each other has reinforced
this trend. This new fashion has boosted a somewhat peculiar phenomenon: the
ghost restaurants.

When customers order their meal on a platform like JustEat,
UberEats or Deliveroo, they sometimes order from one of these
ghost restaurants. How many of them do you think know this?
But by the way, are you sure you know what a ghost restaurant is?

Real opportunities for virtual kitchens

A restaurant that has no structure in which to welcome its customers, and lives
only from home orders, is called a ghost restaurant.
You will also find it under the name of smart restaurant or virtual kitchen
. This type of restaurant buys the ingredients, prepares the menus and cooks the
dishes, but these can only be consumed at the customers' homes, or at their
workplace.

It is believed that the emergence of this phenomenon is a direct consequence of the rise of
delivery platforms. Glovo, UberEats and others are in fact the "parents" of
ghost restaurants! Far from depriving them of their contact with their customers, these
new generation establishments connect with them in an innovative way. And
for the customers, it is the certainty of being delivered quickly.

Now even small establishments can meet the demand
and be discovered by their customers. With demand constantly
increasing, these newcomers have their work cut out for them!

That said, since there is no direct contact between the customer and the restaurateur, it is
essential for the restaurateur - or someone on his or her team - to know how to manage the
marketing techniques to get known and maintain the link with his or her emerging
clientele.

The 4 main advantages for a restaurant

Savings: with no room to rent, no chairs, no tables to buy,
restaurant owners save a lot of money. Moreover, there is no staff to
recruit or to pay at the end of the month (except for the cooks).

Freedom to experiment : an exclusively online presence allows
restaurants to test new brands, develop different menus and
quickly see if they like or dislike them. And if a brand does not
produce the expected results, it is "enough" to create another one, and
start a new test phase. If renting a room can be a brake on
changes when consumers' eating habits evolve,
ghost kitchens are free to follow the trend with more
flexibility.

The shared kitchen: ghost restaurants no longer hesitate to pool their
savings in order to buy a kitchen that allows the preparation of
several types of menus (sushi, pizzas, vegetarian dishes, ...).

Automation of the ordering process: being present on several
delivery platforms means opting for management software.
This
allows the restaurant owner to receive all his orders on a single terminal.
As each delivery service provider has its own way of working, it will be easier and less time-consuming to centralise everything in the same place.

All this for whom?

The main customers of ghost restaurants are individuals born between 1981 and
2001. Generation Y is very familiar with new technologies and the uses
they can make of them. This is something to keep in mind when thinking about your
marketing strategy!

‍

About RusHour

RusHour is dedicated to becoming a trusted partner for restaurants around the world, offering several products and services that help restaurants adapt to the technology and trends of tomorrow. We provide our customers with a unique way to manage all online orders from multiple platforms from one location. At the same time, our team of experts is on hand day-to-day to support restaurants through this change.

Any questions? Write to us: hello@rushour.io

Need a demonstration? Make an appointment right here!