Local businesses are the ones that took the initial hit of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. Restaurant businesses especially thrive on the number of customers that walk into the door. The situation demanded that businesses make themselves more accessible to customers and serve their needs. This is only possible by offering easy ordering services, safe distancing and online payments and such features that keep customers in touch with your business.
Setting up a restaurant online and reaching out to customers is the key to keep business afloat during times of crisis. Lokaly is one of the online spaces where local businesses such as restaurants can quickly setup shop and begin serving their customers.
With Lokaly, restaurants can:
When it comes to hyper local businesses such as restaurants, trust plays a very important role and restaurants can benefit by taking charge of the situation and keeping customers well informed about their opening hours as well as their newly added online food delivery services. Customers to understand and trust a familiar name and it will help you not only keep your existing customers, but also create an entirely new avenue for customers to come flooding in – the mobile way!
Get your restaurant online instantly with Lokaly!
Lokaly is a solution for sellers and buyers. Sellers can register their stores and manage their accounts with various buyers online through the seller app. With the buyer’s app, users can order from their favourite store within their vicinity via the app. Lokaly acts as a gateway between you and the local stores.
How can users contact local stores?
Lokaly acts as a technology bridge between the sellers and buyers. Many local stores depend on the number of feet walking up to their storefront every day. Many times they lack in the extra efforts to reach out to a larger customer base. Lokaly offers local businesses with the opportunity to expand beyond their regular customers and look at a larger customer base. The buyers can conveniently place their orders from their favourite stores within their vicinity and within a few taps and swipes the job is done. Well, the stores can also offer regular customers with a ‘khata’ system of payment wherein the customer is offer a type of store credit which can be paid when the amount is due.
The good news is that buyers do not have to pay anything to use the Lokaly app. It is completely free and can be downloaded for free from Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
The app is pretty simple to use too. After logging in, users can see the local stores on a dashboard. Users can also see whether the seller has approved their khata. Everything is displayed on the dashboard so that users get direct access to the information they require. All payments for the orders placed are managed via a khata system and can be done directly via the app. This means that there is no need of separate apps for making payments too. All transactions are effectively managed within Lokaly.
With Lokaly, businesses get a wider reach and no longer have to be dependent on those customers who walk up to their stores!
One of the defining events of 2020 was the COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant global lockdown. This will probably have implications that will last well into the decade. The situation is rapidly changing and today, people are able to move out and office workers are definitely facing challenges working remotely. People are slowly coming to terms with the realities of our interconnected world and we are living in unprecedented times might be an understatement. This isolation and uncertainty has influenced how people shop and make buying decisions. From bulk buying to online shopping people are changing what they are buying, when and how. Brands are having to adapt and be flexible to meet changing needs.
Panic buying and coronavirus
As a response to the lockdown people began stocking up. Stores both brick and mortar and online were struggling to keep up with the demand. The lockdown reduced the access to the stores and people began to look for online means of ordering essentials.
Preparedness
For local stores and departmental stores, the lockdown was something that many weren’t prepared for. People buying off the shelves were now expecting an online place to order groceries, school supplies and other essential items. Well, stores eventually caught up and were looking for quick solutions to get online and serve their customers – while following all the mandates of the locked down world.
Lokaly
Mobile apps like Lokaly ensured that stores and local businesses got a platform to quickly put them out there – online. They could simply register and begin selling. Building an online presence was never so easy. Customers too got easy access to their favourite stores and could place their orders and get items delivered to their doorstep.
Unprecedented times brought about unprecedented solutions and even those businesses who never dreamed of being online were now ‘completely’ or partially online. Well, it probably worked out for the best. What the near future holds no one knows, but technology and mobile solutions are definitely the key to a successful future..
Lokaly is a mCommerce solution that offers online ordering and delivery. We took it globally so that businesses can get their branded mCommerce product and use amazing features as their own. Lokaly can customize the product as needed, to suit your brand. The goal is to provide any small to medium to large business a platform that they can own. Now you can own the product. The Lokaly white-label solution is created for many businesses in India and now we have started offering it for businesses across the globe.
