Coronavirus Cements Contactless Boom
In the age of coronavirus, many retail outlets are seeking additional ways to both re-establish their sales and keep their customers & employees safe. As restaurants in the northeast begin to reopen outdoor dining, additional measures are being taken to address patron’s coronavirus related concerns: socially distanced seating, mask policies, and increased focus on sanitization.
Many restaurants are even going a step further: contactless ordering & payments.
Upon being seated there is a QR code unique to your table that allows your mobile device to access a menu, place an order, and settle your tab all in one convenient web-based solution. On top of the elimination of high-contact physical menus which require sterilization between use, the platform has the added benefit of allowing a restaurant to include additional details for individual menu items like photos and in-depth nutritional & ingredient information.
Even before coronavirus, Starbucks and other major chains have offered mobile order-ahead capabilities. With customer & employee safety a major concern, companies like Bluestone Lane are adding in-restaurant mobile ordering features to their order-ahead solutions; in their case by combining a number of readily available software solutions to create their own proprietary experience.
Others are finding that white-labeled solutions offer the most seamless experience for their customers and eliminate the need for expensive in-house application development. One such solution is Arlington, VA based GoTab. Originally conceived as a delivery facilitation service, GoTab had planned contactless payment features for delivery later in the year. When coronavirus began impacting the United States, CEO Tim McLaughlin knew they needed to deliver a solution as quickly as possible. With discounts for early adopters GoTab was able to gain traction and increase revenue fivefold in two weeks, McLaughlin claims.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: GoTab
Founded: 2016
Funding Stage: VC-backed
Total Funding: undisclosed
Employees: 11-50
BRIEF: GoTab is a developer of a mobile ordering and payment platform allowing users to link their bank cards to the application and pay the bills in restaurants and bars using their smartphones, enabling restaurants, bars, breweries and other venues to facilitate contactless payment management.
The bottom line:
GoTab’s platform excels at offering a seamless and safe ordering process for restaurants. With GoTab’s revenue generated from around 1% of a restaurant’s dine-in revenue, they retain a competitive price point and have enjoyed early success due to signing large brands like Hilton Hotels, Barcelona Wine Bar, and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. It is imperative that software providers who seek to take advantage of smaller customers’ reluctance to develop their own proprietary solutions to find a balance between capturing this market and overspending in building their salesforce. If GoTab is able to both manage the diminishing return of signing smaller restaurant groups to control CAC and continuing to win high-volume chains, they may be able to emerge as a clear leader in a crowded market.
