menu: Revamping online orders with Google Maps Platform Mobility services
About menu
menu is the third largest company in the Japanese takeout and food delivery industry. Launched in 2019, as a group company of Reazon Holdings, menu has transformed the industry through innovative ideas, partnerships with famous restaurants, highly functional apps and systems, a rewarding payment scheme for delivery staff, and meticulous service that meets customers' requests.
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Contact usmenu has quickly become Japan's third biggest company in the takeout and food delivery industry, and now aims to bring the joy of eating further with the Google Maps Platform Mobility services.
Google Cloud results
- Integrates navigation features into delivery staff's app so all the information they need is in just one place
- Reduces computer server running costs while achieving more stable system operation with Mobility services
- Displays the current location of delivery staff in near real-time, instead of every five minutes, without overloading servers
Combo Orders have doubled in two months
Reazon Holdings has been pursuing the mission "to continue creating new standards" since 2019. When it comes to takeout service and food delivery, it has been making strides in Japan with menu. Launched initially as a takeout service and having quickly stepped into the food delivery scene, menu has recently expanded its business into quick commerce for supermarkets and department stores and employee welfare programs, such as offering delivery services as an alternative to using the company cafeteria. On top of that, menu implemented Google Maps Platform Mobility services to further optimize its ridesharing and delivery services.
Now, menu has become the third biggest Japanese company in its industry. However, its goal is more than just to deliver meals efficiently. Yuichi Sato, Executive Officer of Reazon Holdings and Director at menu, explains: "Our focus is on providing the joy and pleasure of 'eating' to all customers, in various ways." To that end, the company has actively developed IP collaborations and 'gacha systems' that leverage the expertise of the gaming and advertising industries the Reazon Holdings Group has cultivated. Next, it turns to Google Maps Platform to continue to delight its customers with convenience.
Bringing the entertainment and convenience of eating out to more customers
menu has tried to increase customer satisfaction through different approaches. Sato explains: "Some customers may want to have alcoholic beverages or daily necessities delivered at the same time as their food, and there often are cases where the children want to eat something different from their parents. If customers can order different dishes from other restaurants in one order, they'll have a wider choice while having the user experience as if in a food court."
To meet these needs, the menu app features a Combo Order function that allows customers to purchase from multiple locations simultaneously with a single order. The company also introduced a membership system that waives basic delivery fees and has achieved unique partnerships including with Michelin-starred fine dining restaurants. These efforts have contributed to an increase in repeat customer rate.
We established a takeout business from scratch, then extended it to a delivery business. In a case like this, speed of development is vital to securing market share. Google Maps Platform was perfect for us because we could use it simply by creating an account and leveraging the practical APIs and knowledge shared globally.
—Takayuki Niwa , Director, CTO, and CHRO of Reazon Holdingsmenu has also established strong trust with delivery staff. The industry has chronically faced the problem of securing delivery staff or arranging the delivery when orders come in. However, Sato says, "Thankfully, we have not been troubled by those problems. I believe this is due to the rewarding payment model where compensation increases according to the number of deliveries made. The delivery staff also appreciates our user-friendly app and system."
Defining the development work with the user in mind
To bring these functionalities to life, Takayuki Niwa, Director, CTO, and CHRO of Reazon Holdings, details the fundamental policies applied to their technical development project: "In the food and beverage industry, knowledge of digital technology and management styles vary widely. When developing menu apps for the industry, we always prioritize maximizing practical user-friendliness. As a part of this effort, our technical development staff sometimes accompany the sales staff to discuss with restaurant managers to consider the meals suitable for delivery."
Niwa says menu has made similar efforts in developing an app for delivery staff and customers. "The app development staff tests the beta version to examine a UI that is more recognizable regardless of the weather conditions, and safer and handier to use." For customers, displaying truly personalized recommendations is best. The research team at Reazon Holdings developed a specialized search engine to achieve this. menu even eliminated all advertising from restaurant rankings to ensure the credibility of the information.
Niwa chose Google Maps Platform when developing the systems and apps because "we established a takeout business from scratch, then extended it to a delivery business. In a case like this, speed of development is vital to securing market share. Google Maps Platform was perfect for us because we could use it simply by creating an account and leveraging the practical APIs and knowledge shared globally."
The platform’s reliability was another reason, especially when menu's data traffic increased during lunchtime, the system operation tended to slow down. "Thanks to Google Cloud load balancers we selected as infrastructure and the scalability of the Google Maps Platform itself, we can operate the system with confidence."
Today, menu uses a range of Google Maps Platform APIs and SDKs. The Maps Javascript API is for internally checking the area where orders are placed and the location of delivery staff. Maps SDK for Android and Maps SDK for iOS are used to spot locations and delivery destinations for the customer and delivery staff. The Geocoding API converts addresses into latitude and longitude information and displays the spot on a map. The Directions API retrieves route information, and Places API autocomplete feature helps customers input the delivery address easily.
However, Niwa had already recognized the essential requirements for the new system and services: The first was to retrieve the distance between the delivery staff and the location based on the actual route instead of a straight-line distance. This would allow the company to notify delivery staff closer to the location, saving delivery time and cost while reducing delays.
By implementing Mobility services, we can calculate the server running costs per order. This will be a big catalyst for expanding our business.
—Tatsuo Mitani , Executive Vice President of Development at menuThe second requirement was to increase Combo Orders by including the locations on the route to the delivery destination. Previously, only locations within a certain radius of the reference location were displayed.
The third and final requirement was integrating navigation into the delivery staff's app so they no longer had to check the order address and map separately. The recent implementation of Mobility services resolved all these challenges, representing "a huge step forward to improve the practical usability of our app," says Niwa.
Driving more innovation across the industry with Mobility services
Tatsuo Mitani, Executive Vice President of Development at menu, explains how these changes are impacting menu and its staff: "First, since the Compute a route matrix feature of the Routes API provides actual route-based distance, on average, we have halved the distance delivery staff need to travel when picking up items from the location. Next, as the Routes API also gathers the route and distance of multiple spots along the delivery destination at once, we can now include convenience stores on the way as pickup points. Finally, we have integrated the navigation feature with the delivery staff's app by implementing the Navigation SDK. In the future, we want to provide customers with the real-time location of our delivery staff by leveraging the Journey Sharing feature."
The benefits of implementing Mobility services are quite evident for convenience stores, where the number of Combo Orders has doubled within the two months since implementing the Routes API.
Beyond expanding the possibilities for the menu app itself, Mobility services have become an essential solution for developing the whole industry.
—Tatsuo Mitani , Executive Vice President of Development at menuThe Compute routes matrix featureI also contributed to more stable system operation. API calls were required per delivery staff and locations when retrieving route information with the Directions API. Now, with the Compute routes matrix feature, route information can be gathered with only one or two API calls, reducing the load on the system.
Moving forward, Mitani expects additional advantages: "By implementing Mobility services, we can calculate the server running costs per order. This will be a big catalyst for expanding our business."
Having implemented Mobility services for the first time among Japanese companies, Mitani concludes that "beyond expanding the possibilities for the menu app itself, Mobility services have become an essential solution for developing the whole industry. If we can use Mobility services to display the route to the actual entrance of a building, we will be able to establish faster and more efficient delivery. And once the Journey Sharing feature is fully implemented, we can display the current location of the delivery staff in almost real-time instead of every five minutes, as is currently the case, without overloading servers. All of this contributes to offering more satisfying services to locations, delivery staff, and customers."
menu also plans to introduce additional Google Mobility services features in the near future with the prime objective of providing a better customer and delivery experience.
Tell us your challenge. We're here to help.
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About menu
menu is the third largest company in the Japanese takeout and food delivery industry. Launched in 2019, as a group company of Reazon Holdings, menu has transformed the industry through innovative ideas, partnerships with famous restaurants, highly functional apps and systems, a rewarding payment scheme for delivery staff, and meticulous service that meets customers' requests.