COMPANY BLOG: With interest rates tipped to keep rising as the RBA fights to beat down inflation, consumers are already starting to cut back on spending.
According to EatClub cofounder and CEO, Pan Koutlakis, the dining sector will increase its reliance on tech and dining deal platforms such as EatClub in order to drive sales and grow revenue over the next 12 months.
“Consumers still want to dine out but they want to do it in a more cost effective and diligent way. As interest rates bite, diners will increasingly look to deal sites and deal platforms to secure affordable and value driven dining deals,” Koutlakis said.
“Dining outlets that don’t innovate and move quickly to embrace the new dining deal tech frontier will get left behind. Many won’t survive.”
EatClub, the world-first app that enables dine-in and takeaway restaurants to generate additional revenue by offering last-minute deals of up to 50 percent off, has grown significantly in recent years helping many venues to survive the COVID pandemic. EatClub has also just launched Australia’s first digital card for hospitality. The new system, known as EatClub Pay, is totally free for users of the EatClub app, which is also free to download.
“Diners want easy smart tech, convenience and they want great dining deals so they can keep enjoying all the benefits that dining that offers. We combined all of these features to deliver diners and venues a new digital card, EatClub Pay, that makes the process of redeeming an offer completely seamless for the customer and removes any operational burden for the venue,” Koutlakis said.
“Customers simply redeem the venue’s EatClub offer via our app, order all the food and drink that they want and just tap the digital EatClub Pay card on the restaurant’s terminal to settle the bill,” Koutlakis said.
“The EatClub discount offer is instantly and automatically applied for the customer.
“Restaurants are busy and staff training/turnover can be an issue. With EatClub Pay, venues can strategically offer deals that will be automatically processed at the time of customer payment, making life easier for customers and venue staff. The process is making things easier for customers and venues, which is an important part of EatClub’s mission.”
EatClub Pay has been developed in partnership with leading financial service provider, Vault Payment Solutions using MasterCard infrastructure – so it is not only incredibly user friendly, it also includes the highest levels of security.
EatClub is already kicking huge goals across Australia. This month, the popular app reached 1.9 million downloads and operates in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast.
“Thousands of venues use EatClub, and we are continuing to onboard new dining options on a daily basis,” Koutlakis said.
“Many dining venues that use EatClub experience an increase of 400 percent in revenue during off-peak times.
“Dynamic pricing empowers restaurants to increase profitability by helping them generate additional revenue when they want it. For example, venues can attract early customers to build atmosphere, fill cancelled bookings, or simply bring in more customers all day – it’s their choice and it’s very profitable when utilising the right strategy.
“Hotels and airlines have been using dynamic pricing for years. It’s time restaurants had the same opportunity.
“Tens of thousands of people use EatClub every week to claim exclusive deals and offers up to 50 percent off on amazing food and drinks, and these numbers are continuing to increase.”
