What to Ask Before You Pick a Delivery App for Your Restaurant or Grocery Store

It's ten past three. The lunch rush is over, dinner prep hasn't started, and an email from a delivery app has been sitting open on the counter tablet since morning.

Before you say yes to any delivery app

Say you own a small restaurant or a corner grocery. Maybe customers have started asking whether you deliver. Maybe what they want is a bag of yam brought to the door. Maybe it's your Friday plates. Either way, you know you should decide, and you know a yes isn't easy to take back.

So here is what I would want to know first. I built ETNOWE ("EAT-NOW"), a grocery and restaurant delivery app made for every culture. I won't tell you it's the right choice for your shop. I'd rather give you three plain questions, and I want you to ask them of ETNOWE too.

One more thing before the questions. Nothing here is legal or financial advice. It's what I'd ask if it were my name over the door.

Who keeps the relationship with your customer

You spent years earning your regulars. You know who orders the same thing every Friday and who brings her mother on Sundays. That relationship is the most valuable thing in the building.

So ask the app a simple thing. When someone orders from my store, what do I get to see? A name? An order history? Nothing at all? And what does the app see that I don't?

PYMNTS has reported that delivery platforms capture detailed data on ordering behavior, how often people order, basket size and customer demographics, while restaurants receive only limited information. I can't tell you that's true of every app. I can tell you it's the worry owners keep raising, and it's a fair one.

Then ask the second half. When that customer wants the same order next week, do they come back to you, or do they go to a home screen where your shop sits beside a hundred others?

I haven't put ETNOWE's answer to the data question in this article, and that's on purpose. Something this important belongs in writing from us, not in a blog post. Ask, and hold us to what we say.

Who sets the menu price

Your menu price is a promise to the neighborhood. You set it with your rent, your suppliers and your regulars in mind.

Now picture the app takes a cut. Some owners may raise the price on the app to cover it. Then a regular notices the same plate costs more on the phone than at your counter, and she blames you, not the app.

That's why the cut matters to your menu price. I won't put a number on it here, and I'm not going to describe ETNOWE's terms in a blog post either. Ask us for them in writing, and ask every other app the same.

So ask who sets the menu price. Ask whether you can price the app differently from your counter. Ask what every fee is called, when it applies, and what happens if you change your mind. Then ask for the answers in writing. Do the math at your own counter, with your own numbers, before you say yes. The app won't do it for you.

What the contract really says

Read it. All of it. I know that's the last thing you want to do at ten at night after closing.

Look for how long you're committed, whether you have to sell only through that app, and how you leave. Look for what happens to your listing and your customer information if you do. Look for who handles a refund, a missing order or a late courier, and how quickly money reaches your account.

Take it to someone you trust, an accountant or a lawyer, before you sign anything. A few minutes of their time costs less than a year of a clause you never saw.

Restaurant Business reported that the FTC held a public comment period on delivery rules and had not proposed a rule when it closed in May. I read that plainly: nobody in Washington is about to settle this for you. The paper in front of you is the rule that counts.

And ask something that isn't in any contract. When something goes wrong at six on a Friday, who do I call, and does a person pick up?

Where ETNOWE fits, and where it is still early

Now the part I owe you. ETNOWE is early.

In most of the cities we serve, there is one store on the app. McKinney and Houston have the most. A few Maryland towns, Randallstown, Baltimore, Laurel and Jessup, have between one and three each. That means I can't promise you a stream of orders. Anyone who promises that from a young app is guessing.

Early does have one thing going for it. With a list this short, a neighborhood store is easy to find. That will change as more shops join, and I'd rather you hear it from me now than discover it later.

Why build it this way? Because the shop on the corner is where this started for me, and the people who run those shops make hard calls every day with very little room for error. ETNOWE began with African and Caribbean communities. It was never meant to stop there. It's for every kind of restaurant and every kind of grocery store, and the independent ones are who I'm building it for.

I'd rather earn a yes slowly. A store that joins should know what it's joining: a young app, a small list, and a founder who wants your questions. If that isn't what you want yet, that's a fair answer, and I'd still like to hear what would change it.

Ask us the same three questions

Who keeps the customer. Who sets the price. What the paper says. If any answer isn't clear, say so, and tell me.

If you want to see what signing up looks like, here is the merchant app. On iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/etnowe-for-merchants/id1556177704 and on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teyematics.etnowemerchants

And if you're a neighbor reading this because you love your local spot, ask them about it the next time you pick up an order. They'll have an answer, and probably a story.