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‘นัดเวลาส่ง’ หนีค่า GP รับคนละครึ่งได้ด้วย! เปิดคัมภีร์ความสำเร็จร้านซีฟู้ดขวัญใจมหาชน Seafood Aroy Delivery Category: Sales & Marketing

'Schedule delivery' to avoid GP fees, accept half-price payment! Open the book of success of the public's favorite seafood restaurant Seafood Aroy Delivery Category: Sales & Marketing

“The impact of COVID is that sales are very good. The solution is to hire more people.” We didn't expect to get such an answer from 'Khun Nun - Karuna Sri-amphan', owner of Seafood Aroy Delivery When asked about the impact of the COVID-19 situation, because while most restaurants have been affected by the crisis, this restaurant is considered an 'upside' opportunity. From talking to the owner of this seafood restaurant that started as a small home kitchen and gradually grew into this popular seafood delivery restaurant.
It was discovered that A case study of Seafood Aroy Delivery using the 'scheduled delivery' sales method to avoid GP fees and also accepting half-price payment should be quite useful for many business operators.

From a casual home kitchen to a popular seafood delivery restaurant


“Seafood Aroy Delivery has been open for about 7 years. At first, I started selling just for fun. At that time, I had just graduated with a master’s degree and didn’t want to work full-time. It just so happened that my mother had a seafood stall at Or Tor Kor Market, so I took the seafood from my mother and cooked it to sell. I started out in a two-bedroom condo, which didn’t have a very big kitchen. Even gas was canned. At that time, I only sold crab curry noodles, and the response was very good. From selling only a few sets, it became selling hundreds of sets a day, to the point where it was no longer possible to sell them in condos. Therefore, we had to find a way to expand and rent a shophouse. But the format remains the same, which is only delivery, no restaurant for dining.

After that, we gradually developed other menus, such as grilled shrimp, crab claws, and other dishes. Today, our restaurant has dozens of dishes. Everything is made from seafood, mainly from Surat Thani Province, and sometimes from other provinces. During the 7 years that the restaurant has been open, after moving from the first shophouse, we still moved to another place because sales kept increasing. We had to expand and increase production capacity, so that we could divide it into different departments, such as the grilling department, the stir-fry department, etc. When asked how we were affected by COVID, we said that sales were very good. Sales were so good that we had to find more people to work.

From the beginning, she started to do everything herself and sell things herself with only a few people, and had only a few menu items. Khun Noon gradually expanded the business little by little until now she has a kitchen team of almost ten people. Every day, Seafood Aroy Delivery delivers an average of no less than 60-70 orders of deliciousness. If anyone visits the restaurant’s Facebook Page, they will know that there are more than 560,000 followers! We wondered what factors made this shop so successful and gain so many followers. The pioneering owner of the shop, Khun Noon, gave the answer:

“The reason why our restaurant has received such good feedback is probably because of the quality of our food. For crab meat, we only use chunks of crab meat. The advantage is that it is fresh and we don’t need to stock it because we get it from my mother who regularly sells at Or Tor Kor Market. She hardly makes any profit from us. The highlight of Seafood Aroy Delivery is selling fresh seafood that is received daily. Other shops may stock up and not receive fresh seafood every day. This is an advantage for the shop.”

Ms. Nun said that What Seafood Aroy Delivery emphasizes most, apart from quality, is punctuality in delivering food to customers. The restaurant uses the 'delivery appointment' method by talking to customers to make them understand that the food will be prepared shortly before delivery time to ensure that customers will get to eat their food at the most delicious time. For example, if the delivery time is set at 2 pm, the delivery time will be stated as 2 pm - 2.30 pm, which will not be later than that. If there is an accident that causes a delay, the customer will be notified immediately. However, such cases are very rare.
Dozens of seafood dishes rotate every day, never the same in a week.



Highlights of Seafood Aroy Delivery


1. There is no storefront for dining. Selling fresh seafood delivered by 'schedule delivery'
2. Emphasize punctuality. Food is prepared just before delivery time so it reaches the recipient at the most delicious time.
3. Fresh and quality seafood ingredients Because there is no need to stock the products, but rather receive them on a daily basis. Some seafood is even delivered alive, and they are given a generous amount of meat.
4. The price is inexpensive compared to the quality. It is also cheaper than many other seafood restaurants because the owner's mother sells seafood at the market, so the cost is cheaper than other restaurants.

How to do online marketing to be successful and have more than 560,000 followers


Khun Noon said that since she started the page when she first opened her shop, she had already set aside a budget to promote both the page and posts. Fortunately, when she first started, Facebook's advertising rates were not that high. So, I gradually accumulated a customer base and tried and failed continuously, which led me to learn techniques that worked well for my own restaurant, such as setting up food sets, organizing promotions, and changing the menu every day.

“We have been willing to spend money on online marketing since the beginning, since the time when advertising costs were not that high. We have gradually built up a customer base that follows the page. Now, advertising costs have also increased a lot. People who have just started doing this might have a hard time. However, nowadays we still have to pay for advertising because another highlight of Seafood Aroy Delivery is that we change the menu every day. We don’t repeat the same menus. Today and tomorrow, we have to promote new menus to let customers know. In addition to our page, we also have Line Official, which also costs money. But as I said, we have been doing this for a long time, so we have a lot of followers and regular customers, so we don’t have to spend a lot on advertising and promotion.”

A sales technique that increases both sales and customer base, as well as word-of-mouth promotion.


1. Change the menu and promotions every day. Since the menu in a week is not repeated even once, customers do not feel bored. Regular customers can order repeatedly. And the fact that the menu changes every day makes customers follow the news from the shop's page to see what menus are being made each day and what special promotions are being offered.
2. Food set promotion It allows customers to enjoy seafood to their heart's content. If they order individual dishes, it may be more expensive, but if they order a set menu, it will be more worthwhile. Every day, regular customers will come to check out which set menus are interesting because the set menus are not the same every day.
3. Special food promotion at a cheap price Every day, there is also a special promotion menu with cheap food, which is usually more expensive than the full price. This promotion rotates special food every day. In addition to customers buying the cheap promotion menu, they may also order other food that is not included in the promotion. This is another effective way to attract customers.


4. Buy 1 Get 1 Free promotion, a magnetic promotion that helps increase sales. Each day, the restaurant will create 1-2 single-dish menus to offer a buy 1 get 1 free promotion, which changes regularly. After customers order, they may also order other dishes.
5. Pro Highlights The promotion of 1 kilo of grilled shrimp, get 1 kilo free is a very popular promotion. The shop only uses live shrimps sent directly from the regular pond. When asked why they have such a generous promotion, the shop revealed that this promotion is not focused on high profits but on selling a large quantity. The advantage is that it is a promotion that other shops might not have the courage to do. Having this different promotion helps with word-of-mouth promotion and helps increase sales. It is a highlight promotion that makes customers addicted and makes the shop very successful and well-known.

Uptrend during Covid & Appointment of time to send GP fee


“One thing that has kept us from being affected by COVID-19 like other shops is that we have always only offered delivery. Since we don’t have a physical store, we don’t have rental costs and we don’t have many regular employees. When we cut out the storefront, the shop was not affected like many other shops were by COVID. It turned out that this was an opportunity for us to sell much better. Because people are working from home, they have to order delivery to eat at home. Restaurants that used to be open for dine-in have also had to close. So it's an opportunity for restaurants like us that have been doing delivery business since the beginning. With a large existing customer base and our quality, customers who have tried our products already trust us and buy again. When this situation happens, customers think of us more. We also receive a lot of word-of-mouth recommendations. Most of the customers themselves recommend their friends to become new customers for us.”

“Asked why we chose to sell by scheduling delivery, we actually used this method from the beginning. There was a time when we tried using some delivery apps. But now we hardly use them because the GP fee is too high and doesn’t increase our sales that much. As I said, it’s true that we sell well, but we don’t focus on making a lot of profit. And if we end up paying that much for the GP fee, one thing is for sure, we will lose money. Otherwise, we will have to increase the price, which will make it even more expensive.

For example, we sell fish for 300 baht each. If we sell through an app, it will cost 400 baht each. On top of that, customers have to pay for shipping, which makes it even more expensive for them. This will cause problems in terms of competition with other stores. From our perspective, if customers buy directly from us and pay for the delivery fee, it doesn’t make a difference. In that case, it’s better for customers to order directly from us. The delivery fee is about the same. So we don’t sell through any apps except Robinhood, which doesn’t charge a GP fee and has a low delivery fee. Many customers are interested in it. The advantage is that we can sell cheaper than other stores while still maintaining the quantity and quality of the food.”


“So we focus on selling by appointment to avoid the GP fee. Some stores may require pre-orders several days in advance, but for us, it’s not like that. Instead, orders are placed 2-3 hours in advance. We have 5-6 delivery riders who take turns picking up and delivering products throughout the day. They are not our regular employees, but are riders we regularly use. Some of them have been working together since the shop first opened. They run errands for us every day. For example, the delivery fee gets everything. The shop doesn’t get a single baht.

Suppose a customer calls to deliver to the shop and informs us of the delivery location. We will calculate the distance and charge a delivery fee of 10 baht per kilometer, which is: The shop will inform you of the shipping cost first to see if this price is convenient for the customer, so that there are no problems later. Which is something we take very seriously. We will calculate the delivery fee together with the food cost for the customer to pay, and then clear it with the rider at the end of the day like this every day.

Advantages of Scheduled Shipping


1. Escape the GP cost and sell at a low price. Without reducing the quantity and quality, it helps increase the opportunity to compete because the price is cheaper than other stores that sell through the app, which must have the cost of GP.
2. Delivered on time. What the store and customers want
3. Get the menu that the customer wants. Because if you don't make an appointment in advance but want to eat right away and order, some food items may be out of stock.
4. Quality transportation Because the regular rider will take good care of the food for us and we can emphasize on manners. If there is a mistake or we receive bad feedback, we can deal with the rider directly. But if it is an app rider, we may only listen to the customer complain.

Tips: For stores that want to start selling by appointment


● Start with a simple method For example, talking to a motorcycle taxi driver at the entrance of the alley, Seafood Aroy Delivery shop also started out like this.
● Agree on a price that is fair to all parties, including our shop, the rider, and the customer. Do not undercut the rider's price too much. Another trick for selling by scheduling a delivery time is that sometimes we may make deals with some riders for a fixed rate for the whole day. Ask for a certain number of hours and a certain distance. Is this acceptable? For example, a fixed rate for the whole day is 600 baht per day, not exceeding a certain number of kilometers.

The advantage is that it can be organized as a 'delivery discount promotion', which helps to save customers' delivery fees. We can also arrange delivery routes during similar times for riders to add more orders. However, if it exceeds the agreed amount, we will see how much more money we can give to the riders. That is, the riders may receive less money per trip, but they will receive more regular work from us, which is a price they can still accept. Overall, even though they have to do more work, they will also receive more money. In the long run, it is a win-win situation for all parties involved.


Share frequently encountered problems


“There are customers who complain about the high delivery fee. For example, there are customers who come from far away to order, so the delivery fee is naturally expensive. Our shop is in Bang Kruai and the customer is in Rama 3. We charge 10 baht per kilometer as usual, but if the distance is far, it is still expensive for them. Customers who order from far away will complain, but it is something that must be heard and there is nothing that can be done. We cannot tell customers that “If you don’t want to pay a high delivery fee, order from a nearby shop.” We will try to tell them that if the delivery fee is too high and inconvenient, it is okay, but customers can come to the shop themselves. Some customers understand and choose to come to the shop themselves. This is a common problem that cannot be fixed.

But some customers are willing to pay for the transportation fee. We understand that because the shop itself cannot really extort the delivery fee from the rider. And the longer the distance, the higher the risk of transportation. Will the food reach the customer safely and still be delicious? Sometimes, there is a round trip of almost 100 kilometers, but we have no problem. If the customer is comfortable paying for the transportation, they can order, but it is not often. We will also have a promotion of free delivery for the first 10 kilometers and the shop will pay half for the next 10 kilometers to stimulate sales and give back to customers. But it must be a really special occasion like New Year only because as I said, the shop doesn’t get anything from the delivery fee. So if we have a promotion to reduce the delivery fee, the shop must pay this part to the rider instead of the customer.”

Using the Half-Half privilege to boost sales, customers love it, but there are also problems that need to be dealt with.



The owner of Seafood Aroy Delivery also said that when the government initially issued a policy for people to use the 'Half-Half' scheme, it helped increase sales for the shop very well. It was also very convenient. Until recently, there were problems that had to be solved on the spot.

“At first, the ‘Half-Half’ privilege could be used on multiple mobile devices, right? We let customers scan from each rider’s phone, which was very convenient. But later, the new rules were changed to allow only 3 devices per shop per day to scan, which started to cause us problems because not all of our riders can scan all the time. We had to solve the problem by rotating the devices. For example, if there was a time when many customers wanted to use the privilege at the same time, it would be a problem for us to organize. And since it could only be used on 3 devices at a time, we had to add some devices and remove some. And the policy also limited the request for OTP codes to only 3 days per time, so it became very difficult now. We had to manage it more.”

“Our solution is that if a customer says they will use the half-price privilege, instead of the original delivery time being within half an hour, we will ask the customer to extend it to a full hour instead. For example, if the order was originally at 11 am, we would say that the delivery would be between 11 am and 11.30 am. However, if they want to use the half-price privilege, we will say that the delivery will be between 11 am and 12 pm. This will give us time to rotate the machine and solve the immediate problem. Sometimes, there might be an accident that causes a delay, but we will immediately inform the customer in advance.”

For those who are having trouble with GP fees, Seafood Aroy Delivery also recommends that if other restaurants try using this 'scheduled delivery' model, it would be good, but they have to adjust it to suit their own restaurants. And the most important thing that cannot be forgotten is punctuality and sincerity towards customers.
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