As it is called, Cloud kitchen business or Dark kitchen business rests on a singular premise to offer takeaway dining with no emphasis at all on a physical dine-in space.
Therefore this restaurant business model can also be called a delivery-only restaurant.
The concept of the cloud kitchen business in India, which started as an extension of a regular restaurant in the form of a delivery window to augment sale generation, found fresh wings to ride the On-Demand Food Ecosystem.
The Rise in this model is generally because of the smartphones that are now a huge part of our lifestyle and convenience enabled by the food delivery Apps.
These apps are the chief catalysts for the rise in this cloud kitchen business model.
Cloud kitchen is a gateway and an amazing platform to launch food and beverages concepts, innovative ideas and create multiple food and beverage brands from a single location where food can still be the hero.
Simultaneously, the technology backed by sales and logistics becomes the core driver for establishing an efficient and effective cloud kitchen business model.
Benefits of Cloud Kitchen Business
Here are a few benefits and unique features of the cloud kitchen business model that determines its success:
1. Low Rents
The high rentals in malls, high streets, fixed costs of salaries were always a deterrent.
The huge expenditure on interiors and pre-operating capital expenses made deep pockets a prerequisite to enter the food services business.
As not located in malls and high streets cloud kitchens are structured to enable off-site consumption/delivery to customers at the office or home.
Hence the primary need is to have one’s own robust delivery platform besides using aggregators for sales.
2) Following Proper Staffing Practices
Even though minimal staff is required to run a dark kitchen business, you must practice proper staffing discipline.
That will help your delivery-only-based restaurant to enhance the food production quantity at a remarkable level.
It would be best to design a staffing plan and adjust the staff’s schedule based on the sales trends.
Let’s take an example; you can assign the order delivery roles to any specific staff member if you are short on in-house order delivery staff.
You can also allocate extra staff to prepare the orders and packaging when your orders’ volume increases.
Consider increasing more roles for each employee, and also conduct time-to-time training sessions. Provide sufficient assistance, support, and guidance that will help in retaining your staff.
3) Maintaining a logistic based on location
Automation and technology play an essential role in assuring operational efficiency and nurturing the growth of the dark kitchen business.
As we know that the cloud kitchen business is surely based on increasing food production and the number of orders.
Therefore, automation tools are of high importance for dark kitchen business growth.
Not just do they enable faster food production, but they eventually minimize the manual effort.
Creating a network of riders and monitoring them through suitable Driver Tracking Apps while charging the kitchen only delivery costs and no commissions are methodologies being adopted by larger multi-branded Cloud Kitchens.
4) Investing in cloud kitchen business franchise
Cloud Kitchen business franchise is a very popular form of business. It is one of the most promising business ideas.
The franchise provider will help you make the business plan, arrange the license, do market research, inform you about the equipment, etc.
The only thing that you need to find out is the right franchise business partner and a Cloud kitchen consultant.
One of the well-known names in the cloud kitchen industry that can help you start a dark kitchen business is Ghost Kitchen India, which Karan Tanna launched.
They provide absolute Consultancy in starting a dark kitchen business. They also specialize as a cloud kitchen brand franchise.
5) Strong Presence online
Brand presence in the realm of Social Media is very important in this increasingly digitized world.
80 % of millennials prefer to order online, where confidence in a product or service is determined by the number of likes and digital scorecards.
The Brand is analyzed and consumed online for its efficacy before it is ordered.
Today Brands on the cloud can easily reach out to customers due to the stay-home economy through highly effective social and digital platforms while using their website and online apps to enable direct contact and delivery.
Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are activated to reach the specific target audience, build top-of-the-mind recall, and instill trust, confidence, and affinity.
In short, the dark kitchen business model pivots around a relatively lower expense.
While having the flexibility to host multiple brands, supported by a variable cost-driven tech-enabled logistic backend. The entire operations rest upon a Robust Tech-Enabled billing, and online ordering platform.
Conclusion
The points mentioned earlier in this guide conclude that the success of the dark kitchen business model is primarily tech-driven.
It also depends on the outlet’s ability to make its presence feel like a robust, trustworthy, inviting food and beverage unit on the Social Media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
For a cloud kitchen without a physical space to display, the need to have a virtual storefront becomes necessary.
The regular update and maintenance of the social media page become as important as ensuring a physical asset’s freshness like a restaurant, bar, or café.
Last but not least, winning customer loyalty in a discount-driven market is very important. The Indian audience is spoilt for discounts provided by deep-pocketed people in almost every industry.
Customer loyalty and business economics will give a booming rise to your cloud kitchen business franchise!
