Implementing a Food Delivery/Takeout Ordering System on Your Website

Taking the leap to add takeaway ordering capabilities to your restaurant website? This guide offers practical insights to streamline the implementation process.

For restaurant owners of fast food joints, cafes, or cloud kitchens, takeaway orders are crucial drivers of revenue and growth. To assist you in tailoring your website to accommodate takeaways, we'll delve into setting up a suitable ordering system and keeping everything in-house.

Here's a breakdown of the crucial aspects we'll cover:

Understanding the takeaway ordering system concept
Essential features to look for in an effective system
Recommended takeaway ordering system for your unique food business
Steps to configure your ordering system for takeaway

Let's kick things off by outlining the essence of a takeaway ordering system, ensuring we're on the same page.

Streamline Your Takeout Operation with Orderable

Take advantage of Orderable, the WordPress takeaway ordering system to effortlessly establish your takeout web presence. Offering reliability, ease of setup, and simplicity, Orderable caters to your takeout business needs efficiently.

Discover Orderable## The Core of Takeaway Ordering Systems

A takeaway or online ordering system is a software solution that empowers clients to place food and drink orders on your restaurant's website or mobile app. By digitizing the ordering process, it keeps tracks of their selections, processes payments, and channels orders to your kitchen staff for fulfillment. Once completed, clients can either pick up their orders from your premises or request delivery.

In essence, an online ordering system functions as a digital waiter, presenting customers with your menu on their screens instead of pen-and-paper orders. The system streamlines the ordering process by enabling clients to input their orders and settle payments, similar to the traditional server-customer interaction.

The Imperative of Owning Your Own Takeaway Ordering System

In today's bustling food ordering landscape, 70% of customers opt for takeout and delivery[1]. This surge in demand fuels the popularity of third-party food ordering apps such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub. However, when considering these platforms as a solution, it's essential to weigh their costs against your business's profit margins.

Typically, these third-party apps levy about 30% of the revenue to cover setup and transaction costs[1]. This can lead to lower profit margins and financial losses for smaller establishments such as bakeries or homemade pizza shops. In this guide, we'll introduce an alternative, tailored to enhance your food business's revenue potential—Orderable on your WordPress site.

But before diving into Orderable, let's review what we should seek in a superior ordering system to ensure it aligns with our needs.

Essential Criteria for an Outstanding Takeaway Ordering System

Selecting a robust takeaway ordering system for your restaurant business is pivotal to smooth operations. We've outlined key factors to consider during the selection process.

Intuitive User Interface

A seamless client experience is ensured by an online ordering system with a user-friendly interface. This intuitive design allows customers to effortlessly browse menus, pick menu items, make payments, and complete the checkout process smoothly.

In parallel, it is vital to have a user-friendly dashboard for the restaurant owner. An approachable interface will simplify management tasks by enabling seamless setup and smooth order processing.

Mobile Optimization

Given the astronomical 67% preference among customers for mobile-friendly sites[2], it is crucial to prioritize a mobile-optimized ordering system. Furthermore, mobile ordering is on the rise, making a compelling case for a smartphone-friendly online ordering system.

Real-Time Order Management Screen

Once an online ordering system is in place, managing customer orders becomes central to your operations. To simplify this process, opt for a solution with a live order management screen. From this consolidated view, you can monitor orders as they roll in, assign custom order statuses (such as 'pending', 'in progress', or 'ready for pickup'), and manage your kitchen team more efficiently.

On this screen, the option to print order tickets and receipts for your staff, deliverers, or attached to takeout orders for customers, is invaluable.

Flexible Delivery/Local Pickup Schedules

To boost customer satisfaction, enable clients to choose the most convenient delivery or pickup times. An ordering solution incorporating custom delivery and curbside pickup time slots empowers you to cater to individual client preferences, enhancing their overall experience with your business.

Customizability

As your ordering platform represents an extension of your restaurant's online presence, look for solutions that allow customization to match your restaurant website and brand. This includes font and color selection, adding images, and establishing layouts.

Moreover, it is ideal for these features to extend beyond aesthetics and enable customization of operational aspects, such as delivery services and zones, operation hours, and more.

Multiple Payment Options

The incorporation of multiple payment methods into the checkout provides a multitude of benefits. These advantages include catering to diverse customer payment habits and reducing cart abandonment[1]. Choose an ordering system with the ability to add a range of payment gateways seamlessly.

Streamline Your Takeout Operation with Orderable

Orderable provides the ideal solution for your restaurant, cafe, or bakery to commence takeaway business online. As an all-encompassing online menu management platform built for WordPress, Orderable excels in streamlining takeaway orders, thereby boosting your sales and overall customer satisfaction.

The Advantages of Using Orderable for Your Restaurant Online Ordering System

Orderable offers an array of benefits that make it an attractive choice for restaurant establishments. Let's explore the reasons behind its appeal.

Regaining Control Over the Ordering Process

Orderable permits you to leverage your own WordPress site for takeaway orders by preserving the ordering experience in-house. This provides you with the autonomy to add preferred payment gateways, set up delivery zones, establish delivery pricing, and more.

Personalized Service Scheduling

One of the ways Orderable empowers you to excel in managing your business is through delivery/pickup time slots. You can customize these slots to reflect times that work best for your staff and customers, ensuring a smooth operation. Indeed, setting defined order slots enables clients to choose their preferred pickup or delivery time, leading to elevated levels of customer satisfaction[1].

Additionally, you can optimize your service by setting maximum orders per time slot and listing holidays when you won't offer delivery or pickup.

No Additional Fees

Given the limited budgetary resources of small businesses, attractive features such as no additional transaction fees become particularly appealing. With Orderable, you can keep your hard-earned cash without sharing it with third parties.

Sales-Boosting Features

Orderable's sales-enhancing functionalities, including add-ons, checkout tipping, and order bumps, enable clients to add additional purchases, ultimately boosting your sales and revenue.

Efficient Communication with Customers

To ensure seamless communication between your business and clients, Orderable facilitates automated notifications on order statuses, including 'confirmed', 'in progress', 'packed', 'delivered', or 'ready for pickup'. Clients can receive these updates via their preferred channels, such as WhatsApp or SMS.

Customizable Receipt/Ticket Printing

Orderable's custom receipt/ticket layout capabilities enable you to tailor layouts to meet particular requirements, such as producing specially designed tickets for your kitchen staff, deliverers, or clients.

A Mobile-Friendly Design

Orderable's mobile-friendly design ensures a smooth user experience on mobile devices by optimizing menus and the live order management screen for seamless ordering on smartphones.

Seamless Integration with WordPress

WordPress is the optimal content management system, boasting unbeatable security and customization capabilities. Furthermore, Orderable installs WooCommerce if you haven't yet set it up on your website, unleashing even more ordering functionality.

Now that we've outlined the myriad benefits Orderable offers, let's explore how to set it up and start taking online orders.

Setting Up Your Takeaway Ordering System with Orderable: A Step-by-Step Guide

Let's delve into setting up and using Orderable on your WordPress site.

Step 1: Install Orderable

First, install Orderable on your WordPress website. Since Orderable Pro requires the free version for functionality, we'll commence with the free version:

Purchase Orderable Pro from the Orderable website: Orderable.com.
After completing your purchase, download the .zip file containing both Orderable Free and Pro plugins, and install them on your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Configure Your Business Details

To start setting up Orderable, provide basic information about your restaurant, including its name, address, email, and more.

We'll add your offered menu items to the system using WooCommerce initially and then leverage Orderable for additional functionality:

Navigate to Products > Add New in your WordPress dashboard to begin creating menu items.
Name the food item, such as a classic burger, add images, and determine the price.

Include Product Add-Ons

To enhance customer satisfaction and boost revenue, consider adding customizable options such as special sauces or toppings:

Access Orderable's add-on settings: Orderable > Product Addons.
Name the add-on, for example, ranch dressing or BBQ sauce, and expand it in the configuration settings.
Build your add-on by adding fields, such as select boxes and checkboxes, and configure each field's options, rules, and pricing.
Once complete, click Publish.

With your menu items prepared, let's assemble the menu for clients to peruse:

Go to Orderable > Layout Builder > Add New.
Choose the menu categories to display, select a layout type (either grid or list), and customize the presentation.
Click Publish when perfecting the layout.
Add this layout to a page: Pages > Add New > select 'Menu' as the page title > click the 'plus(+)' button to add the Orderable block > configure the layout > click Publish**.

Now that your groundwork is laid, let's dive into configuring local pickup and takeaway options.

Step 5: Set Up Local Pickup and Takeaway Options

Ensure a smooth pickup and delivery process by configuring Orderable's takeaway schedule via time slots:

Access Orderable > Locations in your WordPress dashboard.
Select the location (shipping zone) you wish to customize.
In the Services section, toggle the Delivery and/or Pickup options, depending on your preferred service(s).
Set workdays and customize delivery hours, time slots, and maximum orders per slot as desired.
Click Save Changes to save your preferences.

Now clients can conveniently place orders for takeaway or local pickup, and-as described previously-you can seamlessly manage these orders using Orderable's live order management screen.

Optimize Your Online Takeaway System with Orderable Today

Integrating a takeaway ordering system into your restaurant website ushers in a new revenue stream, offering you control over the ordering process. However, standard WordPress functionality doesn't suffice for this endeavor.

Orderable, the user-friendly WordPress takeaway ordering plugin, empowers you to design a custom, intuitive ordering platform suited to your restaurant's unique needs. Incorporating functionality such as unlimited product configurations, multiple payment options, and customer order tracking, Orderable ensures user satisfaction and streamlined takeout operations.

Leverage Orderable's potential to optimize your online food ordering system today-and see the rewards it delivers.

Sources

[1] Online Food Ordering and Delivery Market Size, Share, Trends and Growth Analysis by Type of Control (Owned and Third-Party), Service Offering (Pre-Order, Just-in-Time, Home Meal Replacement, Cloud Kitchen,ghost kitchen), by Type of Restaurant (Fast Food, QSR, Casual Dining, Fine Dining) – Global Forecast to 2022-Market Research

[2] Understanding Mobile-Friendly Website Design Best Practices - Small BusinessES - Constant Contact

Selecting a robust takeaway ordering system is crucial as it empowers clients to place orders on your restaurant's website, manages their selections, processes payments, and streamlines the ordering process.
For an optimal takeaway ordering experience, consider customizability, a user-friendly interface, mobile optimization, real-time order management, flexible delivery/local pickup schedules, and multiple payment options.
Orderable, a WordPress takeaway ordering system, offers these essential features and more, functioning as a digital waiter to present customers with your menu, streamline the ordering process, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
Taking advantage of Orderable for your restaurant, café, or bakery ensures that you retain control over the ordering process by adding preferred payment gateways, setting up delivery zones, and more without sharing profits with third parties.
Orderable's multiple sales-boosting features include add-ons, checkout tipping, and order bumps, enabling clients to add additional purchases and boost your sales and revenue.

Implementing a Food Delivery/Takeout Ordering System on Your Website