Editor's note: To support companies and developers addressing changing consumer and business needs, we’re sharing our best practices for adding new functionality to your apps and websites. Today we’re providing tips to help restaurants optimize their takeout or delivery implementations and explore new solutions. 

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many restaurants have quickly pivoted to offer takeout and delivery to keep their businesses open. As these businesses look to the future, and to keep up with changing consumer behavior or public health regulations, we’ve compiled some solutions, best practices, and tips to help you identify the right solution to drive long-term business growth. 

Google My Business for online ordering and delivery 

Google My Business provides a quick and easy way for restaurants to surface their delivery options on Google’s maps and search pages.  . Restaurants in the United States, Australia, Germany, and India can easily enable online ordering and delivery, in partnership with third party delivery providers, via their Business Profile on Google. To get started, the restaurant should first sign up with a supported third-party delivery service . Once they've completed setup, the provider's link will appear on their Google Business Profile. For more details, please visit the Google My Business help center. 

Solutions from Google Maps Platform partners 

Quite a few Google Maps Platform customers offer turnkey online ordering and delivery solutions as well. Independent software vendors such as Olo can help provide an online ordering and delivery platform. Olo powers online ordering and delivery solutions for hundreds of restaurant brands, placing orders directly into the restaurant through all order origination points – from a brand's own website or app, third party marketplaces, social media platforms, smart speakers, and home assistants. Olo's enterprise SaaS ordering engine powers millions of orders per week for over 300 restaurant brands using the platform to manage their off-premise business.

Another solution is the  Route4Me Route Planner, which is also offering promotions for their route optimization solution during the pandemic. Route4Me provides a route planning and mapping system that lets businesses find the most optimal route between multiple destinations. The platform automatically plans routes for many people simultaneously, creates a detailed route manifest, a map with pins and route lines, driving (or walking) directions, and dispatches the route directly to any smartphone.

Consider a “ghost kitchen”

For some restaurateurs, a ghost kitchen may be a good solution for their businesses needs. If you haven’t heard of a ghost kitchen (also sometimes called a dark kitchen), it’s essentially a kitchen that only prepares food for takeout and delivery. Ghost kitchens don’t have a dining room, so kitchen staff packages the food for delivery and hands it off to delivery drivers. By partnering with a ghost kitchen, you can continue to deliver your dishes to customers without a physical dining room–whether your kitchen is closed due to public health reasons or you just want to optimize your delivery operations separately from your in-restaurant experience. 

Build an in-house delivery solution with Google Maps Platform 

If you have an in-house development team or the resources to dedicate toward an in-house solution, you can use a combination of Google Maps Platform APIs and SDKs to build your own delivery platform. Below is a brief overview on how. And for more details, take a look at this in-depth post. 

• Use Autocomplete API for faster address entry, reduce checkout friction,  and reduce delivery errors

• Use the Geocoding API to determine the lat/lng position of the user’s delivery address (using Place_ID from Autocomplete)

• Display a map with a movable pin to confirm delivery and drop-off locations

• Use Distance Matrix API to determine the best candidate driver by ETA or distance to complete the pickup and delivery

• Use Directions API to provide turn-by-turn directions with real-time traffic for your delivery driver and optimize waypoints for delivery orders.

Whether you’re looking for a temporary solution while your dining room is closed, or want to make sure you’re set up for success if consumer preference for takeout and delivery continues beyond the pandemic, there are a variety of Google and turnkey third-party solutions to choose from. 

For more information on Google Maps Platform, visit our website.