Chownow - What Is And How The Food Ordering App Works
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You have probably heard about Chownow and you would like to learn more.
Let's walk through this article and get you to know what Chownow delivery is, where it’s available, how it works, and how much it costs.
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Innovation has a big role to play in society. Innovation has a big role to play in society. Over the past year, following the Coronavirus outbreak, we saw an exponential expansion of grocery and food delivery platforms.
Uber Eats, Instacart, DoorDash or Grubhub are examples of innovation.
Delivery apps allow customers to order food during breakfast, lunch or dinner time and get it delivered to their home in less than one hour. Most savvy customers can use the pickup option. The good news is that they are always operating, even during Christmas day .
These examples are followed from similar platforms operating on food delivery services. Other companies are learning from the approaches and attributes of these companies and are trying to offer a better refinement in their execution. Indeed, most businesses succeed less through game-changing creativity than by optimizing their existing businesses.
Related Article: Uber Eats Pickup
Recently, major complaints were addressed to food delivery apps from restaurant owners.
Restaurant operators accuse third-party delivery providers of applying prohibitively expensive fees to restaurant partners in the United States ranging from 15% to 35% on every single order.
In May 2020, a post from the owner of Chicago Pizza Boss went viral. Giuseppe Badalamenti posted his March Grubhub earnings statement on Facebook, and it showed that the third party delivery service took about 70% of its $1,000 earnings through the platform.
In some cities around the country, including New York City, Los Angeles and San Francisco, legislators have temporarily capped fees at 15 percent per order during the pandemic.
It was only a matter of time before these issues were addressed, and Chownow founders decided to be the ones to do it.
👀 Related Article: Doordash for Business Fees
Chow Now is a legit commission-free online food ordering platform providing delivery only in a few markets. Founded in 2010 by Christopher Webb and Eric Jaffe, the company is headquartered in Playa Vista, California.
ChowNow's valuation in October 2017 was $81.41M. The latest funding round was a Series C for $21M on May 8, 2019.
This is the first aspect to understand. Indeed, the app is not a delivery platform but mainly a mobile ordering head platform.
The main feature of the app is that it allows users to order food for takeout in big cities where they operate including:
The main goal for Chownow is to help local restaurants grow without predatory third-party commissions.
ChowNow helps local restaurants to succeed. Using the new technology, the company helps restaurants reach more customers while hungry diners can discover local restaurants and their menus.
Basically, ChowNow drives business to restaurants providing:
We already saw something similar with Instacart. The grocery delivery company has developed a white-label product called Powered by Instacart. For example, the Publix delivery app is Powered by Instacart. It allows shoppers to place orders directly with the retailer and bypass the Instacart app or website.
So, how does Chownow make money? The business model is very similar to other food delivery services. The company makes money through the monthly subscription fee of restaurants.
Related Article: Instacart Pickup.
The first and most important step is to understand how the app works.
A Chow Now order can be made by users through their official website chownow.com or via the Chownow mobile app. You can download the app on iOS and Android.
If you’ve used DoorDash or Uber Eats, then your experience using Chownow will feel familiar.
You can find below the step by step instructions on how to use it. They are based on users using the mobile app, but these same steps can also be used to order on the website.
Step 1: Once downloaded onto your smartphone, you should open the app and begin signing up or by creating a Chownow account for new customers.
You can sign in with Google, Facebook, or Apple or use your email and choose a strong password.
At Bestreferraldriver we like to share our cyber security tips with our readers. Using your email is always the safest way. However, you have to choose a strong password for your account, which you should carefully note down afterward.
After you’ve signed up, you have to fill some basic personal information including:
Step 2: Once signed up, you can begin ordering food. Browse through the app’s main page. You can also tap the Search icon and tap a specific category of food.
Step 3: Choose the restaurant and browse the restaurant’s menu to see the options they offer. Restaurants can customize what they offer. Add your items to the cart.
Step 4: Finally you’ll be prompted to select a payment method. Chow now is a cashless app and you cannot use Paypal. You can choose to pay with a credit or debit card or you can choose to pay using Apple Pay or Google Pay (depending on your smartphone).
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For restaurants’ business, one of the main features of the platform is that it will allow you to connect with new local customers and help you grow your sales.
Customers download the food ordering app and will find your business when hungry and ready to buy food.
Find below a breakdown of the main advantages for Chownow merchants:
Let your digital storefront make the first impression. From food photos to organized menus, ChowNow will offer you the tools you need to create the look you want to attract more customers.
Many restaurants don’t have the resources or internal expertise to build out an e-commerce platform of their own. Restaurant owners have to find a way to create apps using a restaurant delivery app builder or hire a freelancer on platforms like Upwork. ChowNow will help you create a customizable app without writing a single line of code.
Restaurants have to pay to use Chownow services. If you have a restaurant business, you can receive a free demo. The demonstration is a sort of free trial that lets you see and experience most features before subscribing.
If you're choosing ChowNow as your ordering app solution, it’s really important to pick the right plan for your project.
Currently, there are three plans available:
If you are looking to download the Chownow driver app you should know that the app doesn’t exist.
Chownow delivery services are not available in all cities where the platform operates. The company is not a logistic company and doesn't have a delivery fleet.
We cannot deny it. Everyone loves the convenience of using on-demand restaurant delivery apps that allow consumers to order alcohol and food directly from their smartphones and get it delivered.
So, who delivers for Chownow? To target these customers looking for food delivery, Chownow started using DoorDash and other courier services including Uber Rush to fulfill delivery orders.
Both platforms are quite mature at this stage having existed for more than a decade. Pitting Chownow vs. GrubHub, we take a look at the respective strengths of each mobile platform, so you can pick the right one for you to use.
The big difference between Chownow and GrubHub is that while Grubhub is a restaurant delivery platform, Chownow is an online ordering app that will help you skip the line at your favorite restaurant.
As we said, the delivery option on the Chownow platform is currently available in selected markets and is operated by third party couriers.
This can sometimes be a problem because you won’t be able to contact your driver directly but in the case of issues, you have to first reach out to the ChowNow support.
Another main difference that every user will immediately notice between Chownow and Grubhub is that when using Chownow, you will not be able to track your order status.
Using the Grubhub app you will be able to track any step of the delivery, and have an estimated time of arrival alongside the real-time updates.
Finally, Grubhub offers the opportunity for everyone with the requirements to make money delivering whereas Chownow, due to the fact that it does not deliver itself, does not offer such opportunities.
We recently had a discussion with an Italian restaurant owner in California. He currently partners with DoorDash and other major delivery apps. After a long discussion, we understood that it is not really true what we actually read in some articles shared on the web.
These huge commissions defined by someone predatory have not really afflicted the restaurant.
Things are not really black or white.
Often, to cover the 3rd party delivery services fees, restaurants are used to increase their meal prices of the items available on delivery apps.
Additionally, the profit and loss statement shows clearly that by using DoorDash the restaurant was even more profitable than before, and this despite the commissions.
Online ordering and delivery grew 300% faster than dine-in sales since 2014.
People love the convenience of getting food delivered at home when they are hungry, busy or tired.
At Bestreferraldriver, we support Chownow’s mission of reducing costs for restaurants and indirectly for customers.
However, we should all recognize that technology is awesome but behind a beautiful and user-friendly app like DoorDash there are people, developers and other workers who work to provide these offers.
The San Francisco headquartered company completed 816 million orders in 2020. Using the app, merchants acquire new and loyal customers. Doordash helps small business with the Main Street program and the Doordash Storefront.
If you are a merchant looking for a way to grow your business, we can only share the following advice with you: Become a Doordash partner .
If you are looking around for a gift card that says ChowNow on the front, you will be disappointed.
At the moment Chownow doesn’t offer gift cards. They only support the following payment methods: major credit/debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AMEX).
However, if you read our guide to Drizly gift cards , you will find something else you can use instead: prepaid credit cards.
According to Chownow, the best way to cancel the order is to reach out directly to the restaurant. However, this is not always easy and possible and not all restaurants will be guaranteed to answer their phone fast enough.
We found on BBB a lot of complaints from customers that never received a refund for a canceled order.
Very similarly to the cancellation policy of other food delivery apps, you will be refunded if you cancel your order just after you place it.
If you need help with anything related to Chownow, you can reach out to the Chownow customer service and restaurant support. You can contact Chownow in the following ways:
The only way to cancel your Chownow account is to contact Chownow by phone or via the Chownow twitter account.
Now that youyou’ve read our complete Chownow review, you know that if you are looking for a way to skip the line ordering food from your favorite restaurant and avoid the markup pricing, downloading the Chownow app is the right choice. It will provide you with the opportunity to get food delivered to you in a short period of time, just like other food delivery companies. In some cities you will even be able to get your food delivered to you by a DoorDash delivery driver or an Uber Eats driver.
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