In today’s marketplace, numerous options are available for merchants looking to fulfill delivery requests. However, many of these options are more beneficial for the third-party platform than for the merchant or delivery driver.
So, Ally is disrupting the market and aiming to create a solution that is a better fit for everyone involved. The Ally team has created a unique platform that empowers merchants and delivery drivers, while helping all parties meet customer expectations.
While many features set Ally apart, there are three unique advantages of Ally for merchants that set this platform apart from the many other solutions available today.
1. Cost-effectiveness
First and foremost, merchants love Ally because it is a cost-effective solution for accepting orders and scheduling deliveries. From small local restaurants to larger businesses, this platform is the perfect fit.
Simply put, Ally helps merchants save money.
Normally, when a customer places an order via a third-party marketplace — think GrubHub or UberEats — the merchant is forced to pay a commission on that order, and it’s no small amount. Many platforms charge merchants upwards of 35% of the total order value. For businesses with tight margins, this can immediately eat away at the order’s profit.
In addition to charging a commission, a third-party marketplace might require merchants to pay other fees to utilize the platform and force them into costly contracts. The result is that while a merchant wants to provide delivery services to their customers, they simply cannot afford to do so.
Top Benefits of Money Saved
With Ally, merchants never pay a commission on orders placed. Instead, Ally offers transparent pricing plans which are designed to make it cost-effective for merchants to provide delivery services to their customers. Ally’s plans are designed to make sense for the small business owner, and all customers are grandfathered in at their current pricing for the next five years.
The top benefits of this money saved are the following:
- Increased profits: The bottom line is that when merchants use Ally, they increase their total profits earned on every order placed. For any business, more money is a win.
- The ability to plan for the future: Because Ally’s pricing is transparent and merchants are locked into their pricing plan for the next five years, they can actually plan for the future. With other platforms, businesses have to estimate what they predict they will spend on delivery orders, which can make calculations on future profits difficult to assess.
- More money for marketing: For companies looking to grow their business, it is imperative to invest in marketing across channels. By saving money with Ally, these businesses can use their extra cash to market their services to a greater audience. Also, because Ally provides merchants with their customer data, they can create a better strategy for reaching their most valuable customers.
2. Transparent Delivery Process
While the Ally platform now offers a bundle of solutions for merchants, including branded commerce, end-to-end order, and POS system integration, it all began as an idea of transforming delivery services.
The goal of Ally is to create a transparent delivery process.
When merchants use Ally for delivery fulfillment, the delivery will be managed via Ally’s dedicated network of drivers through integration with Service Ally, a delivery app. Drivers have access to 24/7 support, which allows them to resolve issues as they arise.
One of the key differentiators between Ally and other delivery platforms is that it allows in-app communication between businesses, drivers, and customers.
Ally is not in the business of managing relationships for merchants. Instead, Ally provides the tools merchants, drivers, and customers need to interact effectively and ensure that orders are delivered promptly.
Top Benefits of a Transparent Delivery Process
Transparency in the delivery process is critical for merchants looking to succeed long-term. The benefits of a transparent process include all of the following:
- Happier drivers and happier customers: With Ally, if a driver has an issue, they can reach out to a merchant, which makes the delivery process less stressful and more efficient for drivers. The happier a driver is, the better services they will provide. This, in turn, results in happier customers, which means merchants can build a quality reputation with a loyal customer base.
- Increased delivery speed with Ally’s waitlist feature: Ally now offers a unique waitlist feature that allows delivery drivers to arrive at a business to wait for the next available delivery. The moment a delivery is ready to go, a delivery driver is there to pick up the order immediately and head out to deliver it. This means faster delivery speeds for customers.
- Improved knowledge about customer satisfaction: With the transparency that Ally offers, merchants better understand how satisfied their customers are with their delivery orders. Instead of trusting a third party to handle customer interactions, merchants can find out for themselves how the delivery process is going.
3. Direct Customer Relationships
Ally empowers merchants to maximize customer relationships and grow their business.
With Ally, merchants own 100% of their customer data. This allows businesses to put this data to use to market, promote, advertise, and interact as much as they like!
Ally even makes it simple for merchants to export data to use in campaigns, newsletters, and more outside of the Ally platform.
For merchants, no one understands their customers better than their own internal team. With Ally, merchants respond to feedback, help resolve problems, and provide outstanding customer service.
This is in stark contrast to most third-party delivery platforms, which attempt to mitigate problems via their own support. Support from these apps is generally not prompt, and agents working for the delivery platform have zero insights into the actual merchant’s business.
Top Benefits of Direct Customer Relationships
Having a direct line to customers is a must. This can become a substantial competitive advantage for businesses that utilize Ally. Key benefits include the following:
- Improved communication: When merchants have zero ability to communicate with customers who have placed a delivery order, a lot of miscommunication can occur. And when an issue arises, a merchant may never know about it — until later when they lose that customer or receive a negative online review. With a direct line to customers, merchants can open up the lines of communication and resolve issues immediately.
- Better data sets: With direct communication comes the ability for merchants to gather detailed data on their customers. From understanding delivery order demands to tapping into trends around which dishes delivered are the most popular, direct customer relationships equate to quality data.
- Increased brand loyalty: Through brand loyalty programs, merchants can use Ally to build a loyal customer base that keeps coming back for more. A brand loyalty program can be built into the platform, and instead of rewarding a customer simply for using a third-party platform, merchants can reward their customers for repeat business.
For merchants looking to take advantage of the powerful solutions that Ally offers, signing up is simple. With Ally, businesses can prepare for the increasing customer demand for fast delivery without requiring a loss in profits. Learn more about Ally’s full suite of enterprise-grade software.