Study: Nearly one-quarter of takeout restaurants surveyed offer online ordering

A new Cornell study finds that about one-quarter of U.S. takeout restaurants surveyed accept online orders.

The top benefit of online ordering was a savings in labor, since employees are not tied up on the phone or at the counter, the study found. Other benefits included improved order accuracy and volume, higher productivity and a modest increase in the average check.

The benefits of online ordering offer great potential for restaurants and “will probably offset the costs and operational challenges for most restaurant types,” said Sheryl E. Kimes, the Singapore Tourism Board Distinguished Professor of Asian Hospitality Management, who conducted the study. Thus, online ordering “will almost certainly become a feature that most customers expect to have available to them,” she said.

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