This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 4, 2021 - October 10, 2021

Aliments co-founders Kelvin Kwek, Lee Teng, Jason Hor, Rex Ong and Manik had constantly faced communication difficulties at the restaurants and cafés they frequented. The miscommunication led to wrong food being served or their food not arriving at all, resulting in a bad customer experience.

While ordering sheets did solve the problem sometimes, they were not without issues. Kwek, who is Aliments’ CEO, says that sometime in 2018, they came up with the idea of using QR codes to place orders. All users needed to do was scan the code, which would take them to a browser page where they could select the dishes they wanted to order.

Not only did this result in minimal errors, the customer experience was seamless and stress-free, says Kwek. Aliments was the first to introduce the scan, order and pay dining solution in the local market, which is commonly accepted now.

“At that time, our technology was still very new and the biggest pain point was customer education on how to use the system,” he says.

“When we launched the solution with our first merchant, we stationed ourselves there to educate consumers when they came in. From there, we also received feedback and improved our system and services to further improve the dining flow and customer experience.”

Aliments’ B2B QR ordering system proved useful for both dine-in and takeaway orders, says Lee, the company’s chief operating officer, prompting more merchants to use the solution. Merchants also found that customer retention improved as well.

Fast forward to 2020, Lee says they realised a lot of merchants were finding it difficult to cope during the pandemic. As close to 80% of their merchants comprise boutique restaurants and cafés with a regular customer base, the food and beverage (F&B) providers did not feel comfortable signing up with popular food delivery platforms and paying a large commission for the service.

“To them, it felt like it was their regular customers coming in to pack food instead of dining in and it did not feel right to charge the end-users a lot more for the same thing,” says Lee.

Some merchants did ask Aliments if it was going to introduce a delivery service as some of them were really enthusiastic about expanding their takeaway reach, but inexpensively. At the time, most merchants resorted to taking orders via calls or WhatsApp, and the customers would come and pick up their orders.

Lee says this was when Aliments decided to enter a rather saturated market. The demand for a seamless and cost-effective solution was clearly there, he adds, as customers were also favouring cashless payments to reduce contact with other people.

“While [the WhatsApp and call] order-taking method worked, it was still troublesome for customers, especially if they needed to arrange for their own delivery partner. It was tough for merchants to monitor the orders too,” he says.

As Lee, Kwek and Aliments’ other co-founders make up the core technical team, they managed to develop and incorporate a delivery service into the solution within a month. The feature was up and running in April last year and is still going strong today.

Kwek says they knew they were going to be competing with the big players in this space, but they believe that they have remained relevant as their commission charge is lower than that of other players. He adds that this is possible because their merchants see high traffic daily, which allows for the commission to be lowered when the volume of orders is high.

Aliments’ solutions now include delivery options, including the choice to use third-party delivery platforms such as GrabFood. Kwek says the company has an in-store point-of-sale (POS) system with all these solutions integrated into it.

“Merchants say they are able to optimise 80% of their workflow, which has helped them a lot during the pandemic. It has translated into more sales as well,” says Kwek.

Aliments’ solutions collect user data and employ big data analytics, business intelligence and artificial intelligence to provide users with a personalised experience on the ordering app. Lee says the information gathered is shared with merchants on the platform, so they can execute marketing campaigns, discounts and promotions.

Naturally, data security and privacy are an immediate concern, which Lee says is addressed at the back end. Aliments, he says, employs secure cloud technology with security features and firewalls to keep the information safe.

“On the front end, we have SMS verification, among others, to do multi-level authentication to ensure that the user is really who they say they are,” he says.

The user and merchant data collected has also helped Aliments develop new mobile features for the ease of users. An example would be its newly added bulk purchase, drive-through and loyalty programme features, which make transactions easier for users.

Through Aliments’ app, users can place an order, pay for it and drive up to the restaurant to pick up their order. They just need to press a button in-app when they are at the location to indicate that they have arrived, so the order can be sent out to them. Kwek says this feature is currently only available to merchants located near or facing roads as it is easier to execute and does not disrupt the customer’s experience.

“We always try to look at things from a full customer experience perspective. For example, if a merchant is located in a mall, the distance from the outlet to the car may be significant. This can disrupt the whole customer experience,” he explains.

“Whenever merchants register for our online services, we will actually identify their location through GPS. From there, we’re able to identify whether they’re suitable to offer drive-through.”

Kwek shares that one of the app’s first features was bulk purchasing, which mimics the concept of cafés that issue purchase punch cards with rewards. He says it transformed that concept to make it digitally viable, allowing users to bulk purchase and enjoy discounts on regular purchases such as coffee.

“This has been very much accepted by the merchants because they can get cash up front, they are able to predict and prepare their supplies for the weeks to come and they have better cash flow,” Kwek explains.

Lee adds that Aliments is currently working on new features it hopes to deploy soon, including enhancing the system’s AI functionality to assist users with their spending. It is also expanding its services to include B2B financing and marketing for merchants who may not have the budget for it.

“We want merchants to leverage on us to reach their customers and the F&B community better,” he continues.

Lee says the company is at a point of profitability where it is able to scale and expand its services to other parts of Malaysia as well as Southeast Asia. Currently, Aliments has a presence in most major cities in the country.

“We are planning to raise another round of funding at the end of this year. Our vision is to establish ourselves as the Southeast Asian player in the F&B tech space. We’re looking to expand to neighbouring countries like Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines for now.”

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