Why does Hawkker exist?
Hawkker helps independent Vendors compete in the digital era
Why have you built Hawkker?
We know that the best food comes from small, independent Vendors like you. You produce authentic, honest, delicious meals because you put so much love and skill into all aspects of making it. You bring a unique approach, which is represented in your food – from buying the best ingredients, to how you cook, present and serve your dishes to delighted customers.
We also know that whilst you’re experts at making your food you might not have as much time (or expertise) to handle all the digital marketing and engagement activities that your business needs to attract the customers who are one bite, or sip, away from falling in love with your food and drink.
Why does digital engagement matter?
Younger people are the driving force behind the eating-out-of-home sector. They eat out more frequently and spend more than anybody else (see chart below). These younger demographics operate in a Social:Local:Mobile world – they expect up-to-the second, accurate, location-specific information to be available at the tap of a screen.
All sectors (not just food) need to adapt to this new commercial landscape and must constantly ensure all the pre-purchase information customers need is never more than a tap away or click away.
Why don’t existing solutions work?
Existing solutions don’t work for Vendors
As a Vendor, you’re probably thinking, “I know all this already – I have an established digital presence and there are loads of places customers can find me.” Of course you do. You’ve already developed a number of touch points: a website, multiple social media accounts, mentions in articles, a listing on an operator website, a Google Maps entry, Yelp/TripAdvisor reviews and so on….
However, this fragmented approach is super time-intensive and inefficient because it involves a lot of distinct processes on many different platforms e.g:
- Frequent updates to your website to refresh your menu items, prices, locations etc.
- Frequent updates to your social media to refresh your menu items, prices, discounts locations etc.
- Posting at the beginning of the week on multiple social media accounts to announce your location(s) or changes in locations.
- Trawling through multiple review sites to understand what your customers (if they are, in fact, real customers) think of your food.
- Pulling together all your sales and feedback data and insights from multiple sources to understand what you’re doing well and where you can improve.
Existing solutions don’t work for customers
This fragmented-platform approach is of limited value to customers, who want to quickly and easily access all the information they need to make informed purchase decisions:
- What food options are available nearby? (menu items, cuisines, dietary information, prices)
- Where/when can they purchase these food options?
- Is the food good? i.e. what do others think of the food?
- Can I trust big food websites to give me honest reviews and recommendations?
Existing information routes are ineffective for this: search engines, social media, review sites and articles online do not pull together in a single, coherent view of all the food options available to hungry customers. Nor can these sources be relied upon to be an up-to-date representation of what is available right now.
Both sides suffer
Lack of information, or the difficultly of pulling together fragmented information, means that customers are disempowered and frustrated. When this is the case customers take on a risk-averse attitude – they go for options which don’t massively appeal to them but guarantee a safe, expected outcome.
For a hungry, busy customer this usually means purchasing unexciting food from the typical chains and franchised high-street options. Customers suffer because they end up eating a mediocre meal and Vendors suffer because they have missed out on a sale and a future loyal customer.
How does Hawkker Solve this Problem?
Hawkker is purpose-built platform that helps independent Vendors share all the important pre-purchase information that customers need. The platform combines a simple-to-use Vendor App, with a customer-facing Eater App to connect both sides in an effective, real-time, modern and user-friendly way.
With powerful post-purchase analytics the Hawkker platforms also helps Vendors understand their customers to ensure they are always on top of their game and can grow their awesome food business into the future.
So this is the big picture stuff. You can find much more detail on exactly how Hawkker works in the rest of our articles. We would also love to talk to you if you have any specific questions or want to discuss how Hawkker can help your business.
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And here’s some more reading on how important pre-purchase information is for customers in the digital age:
https://hbr.org/2012/05/to-keep-your-customers-keep-it-simple