How to choose the right packaging

Level Up Your Delivery Game with Egg Soldiers Food Consultants

Now is the perfect time to refine your delivery skills and excel. With demand for restaurant-quality meals at home on the rise, delivery is set to become a vital revenue stream for many restaurants. Maintaining the highest standards—ensuring food arrives in the same excellent condition as when it leaves the kitchen—is essential. Whether you’re already offering delivery, have tried it but faced challenges, or are just starting out, we’ve got expert advice to help you succeed.

By combining our product expertise with Egg Soldiers’ operational know-how, we’re here to provide the insights and guidance you need to elevate your delivery game.

Together, let’s get pro with delivery.

Perfect Your Packaging

If you’ve recently expanded into delivery and haven’t focused on packaging yet, now is the time to start. Great packaging enhances convenience and enjoyment for your customers while showcasing your brand’s personality and logo.

It also serves as a vital branding tool, helping to maintain your identity when using third-party delivery services like Deliveroo or JustEat. Packaging provides an opportunity to reconnect with customers after delivery, offering an experience that mirrors the quality they’d expect when dining in your establishment.

Who is doing packaging well?

They focussed on:

Functionality – The new packaging includes a set of bowls of various sizes, each of which comes wrapped in a branded belly band and can be stacked for efficient transport.

Information – Each belly band also contains a description of the included order. This helps to prevent confusion at home and order fulfilment errors in the kitchen.

Presentation – The packaging has been designed to present dishes that are both aesthetically pleasing and informative.

Consistency – All takeaway bowls are now grey, which is much better for the recycling process.

Responsibility – New packaging materials are recyclable and bowls can be washed and reused – which stops the perception that takeaways must be wasteful.

They focussed on:

Functionality – Designed with the right amount of air holes to keep crispy items crisp and coverage to keep everything hot.

Information – Each item delivered has its very own designated sticker, so you know which box contains a burger, chicken or fries.

Presentation – The packaging has been designed so it folds out like a present and each compartment holds an item.

Consistency – All items are boxed and bagged according to item – burgers sit with each other etc.

Responsibility – Packaging is 100% recyclable and made from 60% recyclable materials.

The delivery experience is now an extension of the restaurant

As delivery gets more popular, it also becomes more competitive, with an increasing number of players involved in the game. This ultimately means more delivery demand for the restaurants fulfilling these orders. However, this will also mean more pressure on each of them to stand out and deliver a premium dining experience.

Operators should consider the at-home delivery experience they provide to be every bit as important as what they might provide in the restaurant – especially as they are now often reaching new customers who might not otherwise know the brand. This means a great opportunity to create future brand loyalists, and packaging is a very important tool in creating that experience.

It’s all about ‘the experience’ here – one of the vital trends in hospitality. The challenge is to deliver a great experience for your customer, to mimic your bricks and mortar site e.g. fun and interesting labels (messaging), added special touches and simple garnishes/sauces etc.

The packaging has two main functions:

1. needs to be fit for purpose i.e. deliver great quality food (the options are already out there waiting for you).

2. needs to act like a ‘gift’ for the customer to unwrap/unbox i.e. it feels special. Do not wrap anything in clingfilm or newspaper!

Sustainability will also be high on the public agenda – so go for this option if you can – and then tell the customer about it!

Why is food packaging important for delivery?

1. Protects food from contamination

2. Makes a meal more appealing – senses such as sight influence dining experience

3. Controls the food temperature and keeps it hot – so use the right packaging for the right job e.g. vents/holes for crispy products, more sealed for saucy stew-type dishes

4. Allows you to charge a premium – well-packaged food has a higher perceived value

5. Reinforces your brand – packaging is an important brand touchpoint

6. Shows your customers what you value – e.g. sustainability/ biodegradable packaging

We’ve developed a simple step-by-step packaging guide with easy tips to make the crispiness last longer using either a fry sleeve, clamshell or folded carton.

Professional delivery products

 

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