iFood announced this Wednesday (29) a series of features aimed at consuming meals in physical restaurant spaces, “iFood for Eating Out”. As part of the movement, the company announced the acquisition of reservation and queue management startup Get In.
Using the new functionality, the company will offer experiences such as table reservations, discounts and cashback for customers in salons, as well as tools for restaurants to attract more customers, manage online queues and generate recurrence. The first experiments take place in Campinas (SP) and Curitiba (PR).
According to iFood, the idea behind the launch is to generate a new sales lever in the physical space, increasing the flow of customers and reducing idleness at times when restaurants are less busy. The example is another recently released feature: .
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“We will start with Campinas and Curitiba, cities that will be important for us to understand the model that generates the most value for the restaurant owner and for the end consumer. Based on these learnings, we will evolve the product and move forward with expansion”, says Juliana Yamada, vice president of New Business at iFood.
There is also a data element in the strategy: through the functionalities provided by iFood, restaurants can identify customers and better understand their consumption behavior history. This data can be used in marketing trails on the iFood Partner Portal, a platform used by restaurants associated with the platform, for cashback mechanisms and promotions.
On the users’ side, it will be possible to enter the “iFood to Eat Out” section in the application and search for available restaurants and promotions — whether via discount or cashback. To access the benefits, they will need to check-in upon arrival at the restaurants.
Among iFood’s efforts to increase new features linked to restaurant halls is the acquisition of the startup Get in, specialized in reservation and queue management resources. Restaurants that use the platform are able to optimize table occupancy, says the company. Meanwhile, customers can use the features to discover restaurants, join queues or reserve tables digitally and track wait times.
iFood does not reveal how much it paid for the acquisition of Get in, but says it hopes to expand the reach of the solution and take it to a greater number of restaurants. The company’s internal research indicates that less than 45% of establishments offer table reservations to their customers today and, within that number, only around 5,000 use a specialized application.
“With iFood’s traffic and intelligence, we can help expand the habit of booking
tables in restaurants in Brazil. This has the potential to improve the user experience
consumer and give the restaurant more predictability of demand, better occupancy and
more efficiency in the salon”, explains Yamada
