Foodie.com.mt, the food delivery and take-away order portal which went live a month ago, is negotiating with some exciting restaurants to surprise customers with novelties soon, the website's Gege Gatt told The Times Business.
The portal currently has three restaurants on board - Brown & Rye, Star Café, and Brunch 'N More - and is also looking to open the platform further as a way to "liberalise" the concept while iPhone functionality is in the works too.
Dr Gatt said the idea for the portal was born from the failure of Malta's passion for food to translate to cyberspace.
"Malta is blessed with a rich and passionate attachment to fine fare, however, quite strangely, this fervour didn't make the leap to the online world in its entirety," Dr Gatt said. "Good, genuine food on one end; large portions of our community not able to easily secure a good meal on the other - enter Foodie.com.mt.
"The model sounds simple, but here's the twist. Foodie.com.mt is food-centric rather than supplier-focused. If you're hungry you needn't rummage by 'restaurant' or think in terms of your current location. Instead let your taste-buds do the thinking: 'I want a spicy wrap in 45 minutes'. Foodie.com.mt will size-up your request and present the best options. There's a further zing to this. Assume you're allergic to nuts or any other ingredient. The portal allows you to exclude food entries if they contain the ingredient you're allergic to."
Dr Gatt explained the platform was targeting restaurants with a high standard offering; Foodie.com.mt is after quality, rather than a reputation for the quantity of participating restaurants.
"We like small!" Dr Gatt pointed out. "We have never defined our business by volumes but always by value. It is value that creates a positive user experience and once that is achieved, the brand grows through word-of-mouth and social media marketing.
"One of our participating suppliers has introduced an innovative concept: breakfast on the go. Imagine you skip breakfast to get to work for an early meeting. By the time you're in your car you're already hungry. Login to Foodie.com.mt from your mobile ... breakfast could be at your desk possibly even before you get there. It is these innovative ideas that define our standards and give a specific reason to the consumer to act. Without such added value, the consumer will just browse and pass.
"We are currently experiencing a flux of around 1,000 unique visitors a day. However, we feel there is room for far more potential and we predict that in six to eight months we should have doubled our market share."
Dr Gatt added that several "home-cooking" specialists were asking to join the portal, including small, home-based operators. Foodie.com.mt is honing this interest and structuring it into a valuable offering before it is released.
At the other side of the spectrum, the portal's current main target lies with office workers and business people who want a good lunch-time meal, hassle-free, with a fast online selection process.
However, the website has witnessed two new trends: loyal customers making purchases after office hours and customers visiting the actual restaurant after a positive experience online.
Dr Gatt described initial feedback from restaurants as "perplexing". Most restaurateurs didn't have access to an internet-based computer at work, and many said that they were already doing too well to consider new platforms. Foodie.com.mt countered the first reaction by building an entire SMS-based platform which handles each stage of the order process by sending a text message to the restaurateur so that an online computer is no longer required.
"The second reaction was more confusing: We were meeting restaurants that had a visibly good operation and they seemed satisfied with just that. It takes that little bit more of entrepreneurial drive to move a restaurant operation from a 'good' operation to 'great' one," Dr Gatt said.
"Many restaurants won't make that leap as they are happy to function within the parameters they're used to. We firmly believe that today's customers seek excellent products through different channels and the web is increasingly defining this selection process."
The dynamics surrounding Foodie.com.mt were challenging. Dr Gatt explained the portal uses the model adopted by Facebook: the "profile" is the restaurants' central information spot. In it the restaurant will capture its functional parameters - food items, ingredients used, hours of operation, lead time for preparation or delivery, minimum order values, delivery zones, payment criteria and so on. The supplier can also create specific menus for vegetarians, children and so on.
The customer also has a profile. One may have several locations (a work location, a home base, and quay-side berth) all of which are geo-tagged through a Google-Map API which Foodie.com.mt integrated.
Foodie.com.mt features a secure online payment gateway. E-mail and SMS alerts are sent to the restaurateur and the customer receives acknowledgment of purchase. Suppliers handle their own logistics but Foodie.com.mt is looking into alternative delivery mechanisms so that this process improves further.
Dr Gatt explained Foodie.com.mt generated revenue for restaurateurs through orders placed by end-customers.
"Orders are a direct result of the conversion of site visitors, and to stimulate this traffic we're investing in offline and online marketing campaigns. We have also introduced a fun referral scheme," he said. "Restaurateurs, on the other hand, pay an annual subscription to foodie.com.mt and should they wish to benefit from our e-commerce facilities for clearing payments online, then an additional fee is due for such service."
Foodie.com.mt is now looking to opening its platform further. Developers are examining tying in the system to Facebook's Passport, allowing users to buy meals for friends through foodie.com.mt while using Facebook. Foodie.com.mt's platform functionality could also be extended to the iPhone.
"Thematically we're also looking into expanding our sphere of activity from meals to other areas which can be beneficial to restaurateurs such as online table reservations and meal vouchers," Dr Gatt emphasised. "We'll also be adding food-themes through the year: Japanese specialities on some days, Italian on others. Our suppliers will be encouraged to introduce special dishes from our selected theme."