During the Coronavirus pandemic situation, it is safe to stay at home. But who can convince the connoisseurs who love to visit restaurants and taste mouth-watering cuisines? Thanks to the blooming Cloud Kitchen business. Now you can order delicious food without stepping outside the home. This innovative trend of business can offer better service at a lower price. Stay with us to know how the Bangladesh Cloud Kitchen business can be a beacon of hope for many entrepreneurs who want to start a business with limited investment.

What is Cloud Kitchen?

The concept of 'Cloud Kitchen' refers to the virtual kitchen structure that focuses on the food-delivery system instead of dine-in facilities. In this new trend, the food outlets and restaurants serve as food factories where the production of food takes place. The orders of food are received from online platforms, such as apps, websites, or Facebook pages.

The concept of a cloud kitchen presents a win-win situation for both the consumers and the sellers. On one hand, the Cloud Kitchen system has opened a new way of earning opportunity for many people who have baking and/or cooking skills, but can't afford enough investment capacity to open a restaurant.

On the other hand, the online food-ordering system allows people to order food from home. Getting the food-delivery at the door-steps consumers can not only avoid the wastage of time in traffic jams; but also can get rid of Covid19 contraction risk. The 'Virtual Kitchen' concept is getting increasing popularity in Bangladesh, especially after the coronavirus outbreak.

Advantages of Cloud Kitchen

Let's discuss; what are the key benefits of the Cloud Kitchen or Virtual kitchen business.

Lower Investment and Better Service

For starting a food outlet or restaurant venture, an entrepreneur has to rent a location of a minimum of 400 sq. ft. space. Then, the process requires the prospective restaurant owner to deposit security money to the space owner.

However, the security deposit could be a lump sum amount, if space is located in the prominent areas of Dhaka city like Dhanmondi, Gulshan, Banani, or Uttara. After renting the space, more investment may be required for the purpose of renovation and decoration of the restaurant.

The continually increasing cost of real estate is challenging the survival of small-scale restaurant business ventures. But the simple business model of Cloud Kitchen can bypass those expenses, as those virtual kitchens can be placed anywhere. The virtual restaurant industry runs on lower operational costs. Instead of making huge investments in the real estate sector, virtual kitchens can focus more on the quality of service.

Maintaining Quality of Food

Traditional restaurants have to maintain huge expenses in diverse sectors, including space rent, operational cost as well as overhead expenses. The small scale ventures may have a small budget left to include the best quality food in their menus. This is why restaurant foods are not considered healthy food choices. However, the virtual kitchens have overcome these limitations by virtue of low operational costs and can efficiently focus on the quality of food.

The key marketing policy of most Cloud Kitchens is to deliver superior quality food at a reasonable price. As many consumers tend to purchase foods from online food shops regularly, the shops are trying to maintain the food-quality to maintain their goodwill. They are also upgrading their food menu depending on consumer interest. In simple words, the virtual kitchen business is adding value to the consumers.

In this wake, the virtual kitchens are offering various categories of food, like traditional Bengali cuisines, foreign cuisines, etc. You can also order customized cuisine to treat yourself or your family on a special day or on a special occasion.

Reasonable Pricing

During the pandemic situation, many traditional restaurants and food outlets are struggling to cover their costs. And the customers usually complain that the food-prices of most of the traditional restaurants are exorbitant. The working women/mothers/partners who have less time to cook food daily could have ordered food more frequently if the costs were reasonable.

But the virtual kitchens don't have to make huge investments in other sectors. Utilizing this opportunity they can reduce the cost of food. What is more? The cost of food is quite reasonable in the Cloud Kitchen system; as the consumers have the opportunity to compare the price of several online food shops through a few clicks spending only a few minutes. The healthy competition among various online food business systems is attracting more consumers towards the Cloud Kitchen system in Bangladesh.

Business Model of Cloud Kitchens in Bangladesh

Generally, the virtual or Cloud Kitchen business model follows the B2C (Business to Consumer). In this system, the consumer can directly purchase food from the food-sellers.

Taking Online Order

While taking orders from the customers, the Cloud kitchens usually ask for some booking money which is a little fraction of the full charge. The advanced payment is taken to minimize the risk of order's getting canceled. Besides the advance payment system, cash-on-delivery or instant-delivery systems are provided by some business owners in our country.

In Bangladesh, many Cloud kitchen businesses deliver food to the office-staffs on a monthly basis. The order is taken usually two to three days ahead of the delivery date. However, the requirements may vary depending on the specific rules of the respective business policy.

Delivery at Door Step

Some Cloud Kitchens deliver food through their own initiatives; while some others do the delivery through third-party courier services. In recent years, several organized food-parcel delivery systems have evolved in Bangladesh like FoodPanda, HungryNaki, Shohoj Food, Foodfex, Pathao Food, Cookups, Kludio, etc. Not to mention, these delivery services are strengthening the online business community.

Challenges of Cloud Kitchens in Bangladesh

However, the timely delivery of food is a great challenge for the cloud kitchen systems in Bangladesh. Due to traffic jams the delivery persons experience difficulty to reach their destinations on time. Besides this, the Spoilage of food - due to hot weather or other reasons - during the delivery period is another problem.