Eatster

Eatster: Eat Faster, Smarter, Better.

Expertise

Founder & CEO

Platforms

iOS, Android, Web App

Deliverables

SW dev, Operations, Sales, Marketing...
Eatster: Eat Faster, Smarter, Better.

Project Overview

Eatster Ad

Eatster is an "all in one operating system" for contactless quick service restaurants. It's the leading software in digitizing all sales channels for restaurants to lower their operational costs, increase revenue and improve customer's loyalty. It makes it possible using

Self ordering kiosks

The challenge:

Self-ordering kiosks are here to support human cashiers and therefore they have to be easy to use, friendly, without any "barriers of entrance", quick and visually appealing. On the other hand, for the restaurant owners they need to be affordable, easy to install, low maintenance and reliable. The kiosks should also work as entry point into our Eatster ecosystem.

The solution:

We have spent months with our designer studying users behavior and optimizing UI&UX. Because we support different screen sizes (mostly 10-32 inch) we had to make sure everything will be visually appealing, readable and understandable between such a dramatic screen size differences. All kiosk had to support restaurant's brand, high quality pictures (they share the same DB with mobile apps), multi-brand ordering, hidden settings with easy update distribution and more. Our HW is custom built according our needs and supports different types of installations. In order to scale & make truly an impact in this market we introduced "all-in-one" exterior 10 inch kiosk under 400€. It combines kiosk, payment terminal, order calling system and printer into one single solution. After successful payment every user receives incentives to join our marketplace apps and enjoy all the benefits the platform has to offer.

Example of custom built Eatster kiosk
Example of "all-in-one" budget kiosk

Native mobile apps

Ordering using QR codes is very quick and easy

The challenge:

Competing on the 5 million market with 4 international unicorns and other middle size players was challenging especially for small team, with small budget like ours. Ensuring the same quality of experience, reliability, prices and more for our users were the main points we focused on.

The solution:

Our apps have average score on the stores 4.66/5, they support instant launch (no need for downloading the app from the store), are multilingual and offer unique features compared to the competition. We are proud to have thousands of returning users without any additional incentives given (boosting sales by offering discounts, special offers and more). Our main competitive advantages are:

  • Multiple scenarios for using the app (ordering from table, booking table ahead, takeaway...)
  • Happy Hour / Leftover discounts published by restaurants
  • Loyalty system

POS & KDS

Picture of our KDS

The challenge:

Here we were facing the same issues as we faced with our marketplace apps - very strong competition and saturated market. We wanted to make our KDS as simple as possible and require as little interaction from the staff as possible. The orders had to be managed in multiple places within the kitchen and outside of it (delivery drivers). Lastly, they also require easy update distribution and reliability. On the other hand the POS operated by cashier had to be quick, force the cashier to up-sell and allow special use cases (tips, discounts..).

The solution:

Our displays require on average 2 clicks to finish the order and call the customer. They allow splitting the order into multiple locations for easier order preparations. The POS doesn't require any staff training because the software just walks the operator through the order flow. It forces the staff to ask up-selling questions as well.

The digital menu-boards & order tracking screens

Digital menu-board scrolling automatically in always up-to-date menu in restaurant's brand colors
Real time order tracking system (above the kiosk on TV) for kiosk orders

The challenge:

Both menu-boards and tracking screens have to be optimized for many TV screen sizes, usually pretty simple web browsers, they have to be real-time and in restaurant's brand colors.

The solution:

The apps are responsive and can show various number of items / details depending on resolution and size of the TV.

Execution

Idea Creation

Brainstorming about DB architecture
First sketches of the app screens
First lean canvases

Prototyping

Brand

When knew quick service restaurants are mostly visited by:

  • Young people between 15-40 years old
  • Busy people
  • Foreigners

And their brands are mostly:

  • Cool
  • Fresh
  • Simple

With these data in hands as well as knowing our product will:

  • make ordering "faster"
  • collect data for owners to make ordering "smarter"
  • and in result "better"

We decided to simply connect word EAT with these benefits, therefore the name EATSTER: EAT FASTER, SMARTER, BETTER.

Eatster logo

The restaurant's care a lot about their brand and don't want to display any other logos. Our common compromise of promoting our brand while still giving the pedestal to their logo is small "POWERED BY EATSTER" badge.

Eatster badge on located on our products

Loadings can be frustrated. Even though we are building our products with fast loading times in mind, we cannot get rid of them entirely. To make the loading visually more appealing as well as connect the products under one visual "umbrella" we use same loading animation across the products.

Eatster loading animation

Go to market strategy

We reached out to the banks because we believe that's the best partner for scaling our business. Every restaurant requires payment services, every bank wants to transfer as many payments in as many locations as possible and Eatster offered solution in budget friendly kiosk that already combines payment terminal as well. The result is device that is in many cases cheaper compared to single use, traditional payment terminals. It is much easier to install (just install the application and log in) and ensures the banks their competitive advantage for years to come over other payment processors. By replacing bank existing customer's terminals for our solution as well as approaching new ones we can scale in much faster pace.

Because we are B2B2C solution, we need to think about a cost effective way to scale our user base as well. For that reason we simplified making user's first order using QR code that are on our partnered restaurant's tables by allowing to make first order without:

  • Downloading the app - on all the new phones users can enjoy our instant app support. For the older phones we display our web ordering version.
  • Creating an account - all we require is only phone number for reaching out to the user in case of some problems
  • Entering payment card info - thanks to Apple / Google pay support
Example of how Eatster is converting new customers into loyal ones

Marketing

Online presence

You can find us on Instagram, Facebook LinkedIn.

Preview of Eatster's Instragram profile
Famous podcast in Slovakia

Offline presence

Picture of a billboard in Kosice, Slovakia
Picture of a city light in Kosice, Slovakia
Ordering on the airports

Results

Up to 30% less on operational costs

On average 15% higher upsell per order

New customers are becoming the loyal ones