Online food and grocery platform foodpanda and software company TabSquare are joining hands to empower restaurants with artificial intelligence (AI)-powered in-restaurant solutions. 

The collaboration is part of a region-wide partnership including other Asian markets like Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan to help restaurant partners digitize their ordering, payment, and customer engagement-related processes. 

In the Philippines, the announcement was made during foodpanda’s recent partner vendors summit, entitled "CRAVE: Creating Relationships and Advancing Vendor Experiences”. At the event, partner vendor attendees were provided a firsthand end-to-end experience using TabSquare, showcasing its convenience, seamless operations, and efficiency. 

With TabSquare’s Smart QR solution, foodpanda’s vendor partners can automate tasks, including order processing and payments, while ensuring enhanced profitability. It also contributes to labor savings by minimizing order errors and reducing staff workload.

According to foodpanda Philippines Commercial Director Luis Antonio Yanga, “By offering digital menus through QR codes, we enable customers to place orders and make payments via TabSquare's platform effortlessly. This enhances the dining experience by seamlessly bridging the offline-to-online gap and provides efficient solutions for our thousands of partner vendors and merchants."

Delivering convenience to diners and restos alike

With foodpanda and TabSquare's combined data and predictive technologies, restaurant partners can enhance customer engagement and retention. 

Restaurant owners can review the transactions via TabSquare’s analytics, which provides valuable insights to support partners in improving menu items, pricing, and promotions, among other things. “This enables restaurant owners to identify trends, and personalize subsequent experiences based on customers' purchasing history,” Yanga said. 

Moreover, digital menus offer numerous advantages, including reduced reliance on wait staff, minimized employee turnover, decreased losses on food and finances due to human error, and more efficient menu changes without costly reprints.
 

According to foodpanda and TabSquare’s data, restaurants using this digital solution can see up to 10% higher bill sizes, up to 50% reduction in staff costs, and better customer satisfaction. At the same time, restaurants on foodpanda see an average of at least a 10% uplift in business performance since joining the platform. 

In the dining service, there has been a massive shift in digitally-led solutions and services which TabSquare believes will further enhance the appeal of their services. "With foodpanda, we will be bringing many new innovative features to the industry. For example, restaurants working with TabSquare can now promote themselves to foodpanda's large customer base and attract new customers," said Anshul Gupta, co-founder of TabSquare. 

Growing demand for QR codes in dine-in

Dine-in is offered through foodpanda’s pandapro subscription program with exclusive discounts and deals for app users. 

Yanga shared that to further boost this segment and cater to the growing demand for QR Code payments, foodpanda introduced TabSquare's enhanced QR Code scanning process for dine-in orders. This strategic move comes as a response to the rising demand for QR Code payments, evident by the country's QR Code transactions totaling P 32.7 billion in Q1 2023.

Recently, dine-in has also become available to all foodpanda app users in Cebu with new features like in-app payment. With "Redeem & Pay," the process becomes effortless as users can pay directly through the app, saving time and enhancing the overall dining experience.