The Platform That Powers Online Ordering For Local Restaurants Encourages Support For The Hard-Hit Industry This Winter Season
ChowNow, the platform powering online ordering systems for independent restaurants, is offering its services for free to New York area restaurants as a way to support local businesses struggling to survive the impact of COVID-19 as well as a broken online ordering industry.
As a marketplace alternative, ChowNow helps its restaurant partners get online quickly and easily so they can maintain direct relationships with their customers and take ownership of their cost structure rather than paying predatory commissions to third-party delivery services.
Now through May 2021, ChowNow is offering restaurants in New York City’s five boroughs, Long Island and New Jersey the ability to list on ChowNow’s website and app for free for the first time ever without a subscription, enabling them to:
- Take unlimited, commission-free orders through the ChowNow app and website regardless of order volume.
- Own diner relationships by having access to customer data, which is often withheld by third-party delivery apps.
- Optimize online ordering with a dedicated Restaurant Success Manager.
“During this critical period, we want to continue to empower restaurants with the tools they need to connect with their communities,” says ChowNow CEO and co-founder Chris Webb. “Restaurants need all the support they can get and we hope that diners will use ChowNow to place take-out and delivery orders to ensure every dollar goes where it’s needed most.”
Built to help restaurants thrive, ChowNow eliminates predatory commissions charged by third-party delivery apps and instead charges a monthly flat subscription fee for usage of their software. This year, ChowNow has:
- Helped 20,000 restaurant partners process over $2 billion in orders in 2020, with 100% of sales going directly to the restaurants resulting in $500 million saved in commissions.
- Added 8,000 restaurant partners and over 10 million diners nationwide to the ChowNow platform since the start of the outbreak.
Diners can discover neighborhood gems and support their local favorites in the New York City area ranging from cornerstones such as MáLà Project, East Village staple Veselka, Brooklyn’s beloved Sofreh and Adda Indian Canteen in Queens. By placing orders directly on the ChowNow app, diners can ensure that their money goes directly to the restaurants that are relying on those online orders. Diners can order from menus that do not reflect inflated pricing and avoid service charges and hidden fees that are often baked into other third-party apps.
“Restaurants are being bled by third-party integrations but ChowNow lives in a completely different realm,” said James founder Deborah Williamson. “When we made the switch earlier this year, we immediately noticed how community-oriented it felt. ChowNow has been a total game changer in sustaining our business, both from a financial and operational standpoint. Our regulars who expressed they wanted a more socially-responsible, conscious way of ordering from us can now do so through ChowNow.”
