With 39% of online consumers preferring electronic payments, diners are opening their digital wallet now more than ever before.

Read on to discover the benefits of offering your customers alternative payment methods to pay for your food.

Capitalize on Widespread Consumer Familiarity

With mobile payment apps, diners can quickly pay for their order on any device, at any time—using online platforms they are already familiar with like PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

For instance, Fortune reported that PayPal has 184 million active users and 145 million merchant partners.

Also, over 100 million people have installed Google Pay, and some analysts predict 225 million people will be making mobile payments with Apple Pay by the year 2020.

Venmo (another mobile payment giant) is huge with Millennials—being the third most popular downloaded mobile app. Although it gained popularity as a peer-to-peer payment platform, it has exploded on the merchant purchase scene, handling $1 billion in transactions in 2016.

These mobile payment apps have gained consumers’ trust over the years, backed by years of payment security and fraud protection features.

Help Customers Spread the Word with Social Payments

Mobile payment apps are part of the “social payment” trend which can be very beneficial to restaurants and end users.

Consumers’ transactions are posted on their mobile payment app’s feed. Friends can see where they are spending their money, and comments about their purchases and experiences can be shared—which is essentially social advertising for the restaurant.

Integrate Alternate Payments Easily

Mobile payment apps can be easily added to a restaurant’s payment choices without having to purchase any additional hardware.

This is an especially painless process for restaurants partnering with online and mobile food ordering platforms.

For instance, Grubhub has integrated several of these mobile payment apps. The restaurants on Grubhub’s site have the benefit of offering these easy-to-use payment options to Grubhub’s 15.6 million active diners.

Offer An Easy User Experience

For the millions of folks already using these alternative payments for other purchases, buying food with them is a no-brainer. Diners simply log in with their username and password right from their smartphone, tablet, or computer (or hold their device near a contactless card reader) and with a few clicks, they’re done.

The lengthy bill resolution process—waiting for the check, handing over their card to be processed, waiting for the receipt to enter a tip—is eliminated. Diners—both on-site or online— can instantaneously pay for their purchase with funds already in their mobile payment app accounts without divulging credit card information or bringing their wallet with them.

This makes it not only faster for the customer, but saves a good deal of time for the server or order processor. They are free to attend to other customers, which can increase turnover and sales.

Even splitting tabs (a nightmare for servers) and reimbursing friends is a snap with several mobile payment apps. This is a convenience Grubhub is very happy to pass on to customers of the restaurants they partner with.

With alternative payment options, you can offer a familiar, fast, and convenient way for diners to pay for their food, boosting their experience while saving you time and money.

Ready to reach millions of hungry diners? Sign up with Grubhub for Restaurants today and get your first 30 days free!