Menu Prices FAQ

Do the stores set the menu prices in the MealMe API?

• Yes, always. Menu prices always and only come from the store (merchant/retailer/restaurant/grocery store).
  Note that the store may charge a different amount on their delivery menu(s) versus their pickup menu(s).

Does MealMe increase menu prices in the MealMe API?

• No. MealMe never increases menu prices unless someone at your company requests for us to add a mark up to the menu items. Check with your point of contact at MealMe to make sure no one at your company asked MealMe to mark up menu prices. If you do ask MealMe to mark up your item prices, rest assured that 100% of the mark up profit will go to you and 0% will go to MealMe.

Do the vendors, POSs, tablets, merchants, or delivery services that MealMe sends orders to ever increase the menu prices?

• No. It is not possible for the vendors, POSs, tablets, merchants, and delivery services that MealMe sends orders to increase the menu prices.

I see a menu returned by MealMe that has items more expensive than I'd expect for that store. What should I do?

• First, ensure you're comparing the MealMe menu prices to the store's online ordering menu prices. Stores typically charge a higher menu item price for online orders than in-store orders, which is out of MealMe's control.
• If you still see higher prices than expected, check other menus returned by the MealMe API by passing the quote_preference=cheapest_inventory to the Inventory API in APIv2.21+, or by fetching all menus with the Menu API in APIv2.15.
• If you still see higher prices than expected, check to make sure you're viewing the pickup menu, not the delivery menu since stores tend to set higher prices for their delivery menu.
• If you still see higher prices than expected, check with your point of contact at MealMe to make sure no one at your company asked MealMe to mark up menu prices. If you do ask MealMe to mark up your item prices, rest assured that 100% of the marked-up profit will go to you and 0% will go to MealMe.
• If you still see higher prices than expected for a delivery order, consider fetching the pickup menu from the Inventory API by passing pickup=true and quote_preference=cheapest_inventory (which will almost always be cheaper than the delivery menu), placing a pickup order with the Order API (where the pickup menu is cheaper), and then dispatching a delivery order through the Courier API.
• If you still see higher prices than expected, even across all pickup menus, it's possible MealMe doesn't support that particular vendor/POS/tablet/merchant. Please send the store's ID to your point of contact at MealMe to request adding the merchant to MealMe.

How can I get users to place orders in my app or website if I want to charge an extra fee above what the store charges on their website?

• Plenty of food ordering apps and websites charge extra service fees and delivery fees and still manage to do millions or billions of dollars a year in sales. They do this even though their extra service fees and delivery fees technically make an order in their app more expensive than ordering directly from the store. To increase your conversion rate regardless of price, we recommend having a core value feature that acquires users (the "product hook"). Then, some percentage of those users (the "conversion rate") will later purchase as an "upsell" to increase your revenue and retention.
• For example, suppose you operate a short-term boat rental app, WaterBNB, and want to increase your revenue and retention by adding an "upsell" during the booking flow to let users conveniently purchase grocery/restaurant/convenience/pharmacy/electronics items as add-ons before embarking on their day trip. WaterBNB would use the MealMe API to find the best deal on those items at stores near the boat, then schedule a delivery to make sure the items are dropped off at the exact right time. In this example, users definitely aren't downloading WaterBNB to shop for items, but end up shopping anyways! This is called a "value-add upsell." Let's suppose a random customer books a WaterBNB boat rental for $257.50, and then their value-add upsell order comes to $146.27. The truth is, the cost of actually delivering those items is only $129.55 for WaterBNB, but the convenience of ordering these items in WaterBNB with just the tap of a button massively outweighed any chance that the user would price-shop manually across all the different grocery delivery apps and store websites in the area of the boat rental, spinning up an account on each and entering in all the items they desire to see which arrangement of stores and scheduled delivery times would help them save a few dollars. Note that this is $146.27 - $129.55 = $16.72 profit for WaterBNB. Imagine there are 10,000 bookings a day in WaterBNB, and WaterBNB profits a net of $10 per boat booking. Even if only 15% of WaterBNB customers end up purchasing in the upsell, the MealMe API upsell just increased WaterBNB's annual profit from around $37M to $45M.
• If you need a more concrete and quantitative reassurance than a story about WaterBNB, then note that with the MealMe API your users are getting access to a larger selection of stores (and therefore inventory to choose from) than any individual shopping or ordering app. So, even if your users would hypothetically save money by knowing to go to, say, Safeway.com and signing up for an account to save $5, they are unlikely to do so. In addition, with the MealMe API, your users are getting access to faster delivery quotes than being bound to the delivery speed of any individual store or delivery service. Finally, with the MealMe API, your users are able to save on item prices by comparing prices between stores on the same items. For example, suppose you want a gallon of Horizon Organic Whole Milk. With the MealMe API, your users can price-compare the price of Horizon Organic Whole Milk at over one million stores locations in the world to get the best deal.