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"Many owners have already sought out financial help and
Insider’sreport more are planning to do so in the near future," NFIB stated.
"The outbreak will leave few, if any, owners unscathed."

on payments Finding bright spots
The bright spot for restaurants: online food orders, which
were already trending up before the pandemic struck.
Analysts at William Blair estimate that digital off-premise
restaurant sales are growing at a compound annual rate
of 25 percent and will top $62 billion by 2022. For the 12
months ending in February, digital orders represented 13
percent of the total dollars spent at restaurants, according
Coronavirus: to NPD.

Much of this growth has been driven by third-party
assessing delivery services, like DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber
Eats. But most of that activity is taking place in urban
the impact and suburban markets. I live in rural Maryland, about 10
miles from the nearest commercial district, which puts me
outside food delivery areas.
By Patti Murphy The national services also can be expensive for cash-
ProScribes Inc. strapped restaurants. DoorDash, for example, assesses a
20 percent delivery fee, paid by restaurants. And although
o paraphrase the 18th century American phi- some of these services are eliminating or reducing their
losopher Thomas Paine, these are times that try commissions in the current environment, there are other
people's souls – and also their bank accounts. challenges. These include loss of control over the customer
T Never before in 40-plus years working in the experience (many who use the services complain of
payments space have I witnessed an economic shock like problem orders), and by extension, loyalty. Plus, restaurant
the one we're experiencing now as states and cities go into owners have to compete with numerous other restaurants
lockdown to stem the tide of COVID-19. using the service, jockeying for positions on order pages.

The numbers paint a stark picture. The National Restaurant Some ISOs are addressing these issues, building web-based
Association is forecasting $225 billion in losses to menu ordering systems for their restaurant clients. Impact
restaurants and others in the food service industry March Pay System developed a free online ordering service it calls
through May, as well as 5 to 7 million job losses. Many of Bites, specifically for restaurant clients in rural Fayette
the state-mandated dine-in closures took effect in March, County, Tenn. "We created this to help restaurants continue
and the market research firm NPD Group estimated that to be operational," said Dee Karawadra, Impact's president.
as of the end of March, 94 percent of U.S. restaurants were "We wanted to make sure that rural restaurants have a
under some type of service restrictions intended to slow way to do online ordering." I suspect other ISOs are taking
the spread of the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19. similar actions.

Total customer transactions at restaurants were down Not surprisingly, grocers also are seeing surges in online
36 percent the week ending March 22, NPD reported, ordering. Downloads of Walmart's Instacart grocery app
compared to the same week in 2019. Transactions at quick saw a 218 percent spike on March 29 compared to the same
service restaurants, which represent the bulk of restaurant day in 2019, the company reported.
sales and the bulk of take-out sales, were down 34 percent.
Online, contactless growth
Results of a survey published by the National Federation
of Small Businesses revealed that 76 percent had been It's not just online food orders that will grow in this
negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic in new environment. Online ordering for delivery and/or
March, up from fewer than a quarter of small business pickup can work in numerous verticals, and will probably
owners just a month earlier. And although about 20 percent continue gaining traction in the retail payments space even
reported not being affected, 77 percent of those businesses after current business closures and stay-at-home orders are
owners anticipate their situation changing if the outbreak lifted.
spreads in their immediate areas.

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