Coronavirus: Online ordering service designed for restaurants to grow revenue amid outbreak

Interest in the service had been ramping up, with over a hundred businesses on board. Photo / 123RF

New Zealand's largest online restaurant table booking website is launching a new service to help businesses and consumers alike amid the coronavirus outbreak.

There are now 66 people in New Zealand who had been confirmed Covid-19 positive, with 14 extra cases announced this afternoon.

Up and down the country, people are practising social distancing in a bid to avoid the virus and the hospitality industry is feeling the heat.

New Zealand is currently sitting at alert level 2, meaning Covid-19 was contained but a risk of community transmission was growing.

Therefore, human contact had to be further reduced with those aged 70 or older asked to remain indoors, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday.

Restaurant Hub managing director Mark Gregory told the Herald a number of places throughout Auckland had already been forced to close.

To help combat the impact of the virus, the organisation was launching "Click & Collect".

The low-cost online ordering and marketing service was designed for restaurants to grow through digital ordering.

By setting restaurants up with the software, customers would be able to go online and search for meals they were wanting to eat and order them online.

"In many countries, the only way for people to get food is to get groceries or get it delivered to you or collect it yourself," Gregory said.

"We're doing two things: Try and get through the here and now to offset loss in trade but if we do go to level three, then the industry would be better prepared.

"If you go to Restaurant Hub you'll be able to order online and go and collect but we've got to get the technology into restaurants first."

The upcoming week would see restaurants who signed up for the "Click & Collect" service be provided with the software to do so.

Restaurant Hub staff would also be able to provide them with tips and other information about online digital ordering, Gregory said.

The service was being run in partnership with RANZ, Mobi2Go and NZME - the owner and publisher of the Herald.

Overnight there had been a great deal of interest, with nearly 140 restaurants and cafes opting in between Saturday and Sunday.

Restauranters who wanted to find out more about the service were advised by Gregory to contact Restaurant Hub.

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