Restaurant tech provider Lunchbox launched a commission-free online ordering platform designed for restaurants with one to three locations. Called Lunchbox Essential, the new platform allows operators to create an online storefront with direct-to-restaurant ordering in less than 30 minutes.
Billed as an “entirely new way for restaurants to keep 100 percent of the profits” on delivery orders, Lunchbox Essential also includes menu management and technology integrations within its centralized platform.
The news comes less than a month after New York-based Lunchbox acquired NovaDine, a digital ordering platform aimed at enterprise-class restaurants.
Lunchbox co-founder and CEO, Nabeel Alamgir, is one of the restaurant industry’s most vocal critics of third-party delivery providers—often highlighting the commissions these services charge restaurants.
“This is a movement to save restaurants. In between interest rate hikes and fears of a recession, operators have dealt with the biggest setbacks out of any industry,” said Alamgir. “We’re arming restaurants with the tools to grow their online revenue and protect their margins against tech giants like Grubhub and UberEats. Over 1,000 restaurants have closed because of the pandemic in NYC alone. Lunchbox Essential is being launched at a crucial time to help the industry get back on its feet. Our mission is to support the people who feed the world and we’re doing just that.”
Lunchbox Essential is designed to ensure that all of the profits from each order go directly to the restaurant by passing the fee to the customer, while claiming to keep the cost lower than third-party delivery providers that typically charge restaurants 15 to 30 percent of each order.
Lunchbox’s free offering will including the following features:
- Go Live in under 30 Minutes: Trade in weeks for minutes; you’ll be up and running in under 30 minutes.
- On-Brand Ordering Experience; Optimized for fast checkouts. Guests now have the ability to order in under five taps/clicks.
- Web Ordering: Gone are the days of paying third-party commission fees. Keep all profits with an online ordering solution that lets customers order directly through your restaurant’s website.
- Lunchbox Manager App: Get a real-time order-receiving app that lets you streamline incoming orders and communicate with hungry customers.
- Menu Organization: Divide your menus by creating folders and adding available times for different items. For example, you can create a menu called Breakfast Menu and make it available from 8 AM to 11:30 AM. This way you don’t need to worry about hiding or showing the related menus manually.
- Discount and Coupon Codes: Offer clients a customizable loyalty program and special promo codes to keep diners coming back for more.
Pricing and Availability
- Restaurants pay nothing. No fixed monthly costs, no sign up or hidden commission fees in sight—and that’s how it always should be. Customers pay a negligible convenience fee per order.
The company also announced a rebrand, Lunchbox Enterprise, of an expanded suite of offerings aimed at larger-scale restaurant brands. Those include web and app ordering, loyalty programs, Order Aggregation, and Lunchbox Studio.
“As we enter our third year of business, this new brand represents our ability to provide the best tools that help enterprise restaurants take control of their own profits. We have a deep commitment to creating the best experiences for our customers and that’s something that will never change,” Alamgir added. “Our rebrand is a reflection of our growth and the values that drive us. We’re problem solvers who are dedicated to getting restaurants the technology needed to survive. Over the next few months, Lunchbox will fully embrace its new identity, and we’ll continue to share more about what that looks like.”
