Soldato
- Joined
- 29 Dec 2009
- Posts
- 7,193
Hi 
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Online ordering system for website - take away fast food
- Thread starter Vegeta
- Start date
Associate
I put together an online ordering system for a local takeaway.
Essentially set up a WordPress site with WooCommerce, added their menu and options in and set up PayPal as a payment gateway. Worked well, a lot cheaper than just eat. If you have a card reader and the company has an online payment gateway you could use that rather than PayPal.
You don't need to worry about SSL and security as the payment is handled externally (and securely).
With regard to the shop getting the order we just set up a mailbox dedicated to the orders and when a mail popped in you just read/printed it, fairly straightforward.
Essentially set up a WordPress site with WooCommerce, added their menu and options in and set up PayPal as a payment gateway. Worked well, a lot cheaper than just eat. If you have a card reader and the company has an online payment gateway you could use that rather than PayPal.
You don't need to worry about SSL and security as the payment is handled externally (and securely).
With regard to the shop getting the order we just set up a mailbox dedicated to the orders and when a mail popped in you just read/printed it, fairly straightforward.
This is exactly what i'm looking to do. Just curious what theme did you use and how did you manage the order page and set different deliveries for different areas? In the area's i'm delivering too the postcode starts off the same but we charge different deliveries in another area i'm not sure how to go about this as I cannot simply highlight an area to set delivery prices for? Thank you.
Associate
not sure if you realise but having a website isnt magically going to give you customers. There are few justeat type sites, consider them because either you
1/ register with them and spend x amount of money
2/ create your own website and spend y amount of money on advertising.
Not saying you shouldnt have a website but just saying advertising can be expensive too. Also one trick you could do is build a good reputation on justeat (Via feedback) and with every order you can send a leaflet to customer telling them about your site & offering them some sort of discount if they ordered directly. If they like your food they will more than likely do it.
1/ register with them and spend x amount of money
2/ create your own website and spend y amount of money on advertising.
Not saying you shouldnt have a website but just saying advertising can be expensive too. Also one trick you could do is build a good reputation on justeat (Via feedback) and with every order you can send a leaflet to customer telling them about your site & offering them some sort of discount if they ordered directly. If they like your food they will more than likely do it.
We leaflet + advertise anyways. We leaflet all areas every 2 months. I am growing the business slowly and it is getting busier week upon week I just want a website to allow customers to place online orders + reduce errors on our end taking the orders + time for us taking calls etc.
I might do what you said about the discount - join justeat for a year then abolish it but the business is picking up pretty quickly. I know other business owners in the area and we aren't doing much less for a new venture + no online presence.
I might do what you said about the discount - join justeat for a year then abolish it but the business is picking up pretty quickly. I know other business owners in the area and we aren't doing much less for a new venture + no online presence.
I've helped run another takeaway in the same area for 10 years I know the area quite well and the better places in that area aren't on justeat therefore being part of the food portal gives a bad image of the place imo. I will consider it of course but right now I don't feel I have to as my profits are increasing weekly and i'd rather spend the £500-£1000 fee marketing my own website/takeaway than pay a 3rd company to do it all for me charge me quite a bit. I imagine most fast food takeaways hate websites like justeat but go on to survive. It is great for the consumer and well it has forced many places to make the effort and create their own websites now rather than just take calls over the phone.
Soldato
I strongly suggest taking that money you don't want to give to Just Eat and hire a professional to do this for you.
You've said you have zero knowledge prior to this and it's "more difficult than you thought it'd be". And I don't want to sound harsh or demeaning, but it needs to be said: what you're going to produce will look and function like ****. So **** I doubt any punter will use it.
You can't just list a load of dishes on a page, drop a buy now button on it and magically expect money to roll in. There's a reason web design and development is a highly-skilled industry.
You need to know how to lay things out logically, guide a visitor through the entire process, make it easy and intuitive to use. Encourage them to stay and browse and reassure them that you're a reputable vendor worthy of spending money with. The site needs to look attractive and engaging, and that can be years of training and experience in its own right.
Plus there are significant legal issues to consider - where are your payments being processed? What is your liability, and how much does it cost? What customer data will you need to store, and how does the Data Protection Act affect you?
Some bodged together site by somebody who openly says they don't know what they're doing will not instill confidence in a visitor, and they will not part with their cash.
I don't know where you get your "I imagine most fast food takeaways hate websites like justeat but go on to survive" notion from, because sites like Just Eat expand the visibility and reach of takeaways across a city-wide area, not just confined to the same local 5 streets because it costs a lot of money to print flyers. Some of my favourite places locally have seen explosive expansion since joining Just Eat and the like because their reputation has expanded across the entire city. I've also found great new places on the other side of the city that I never knew about because I never got a leaflet. Add to that a takeaway is then much more accountable for quality and service and traceably-so, which either forces improvements in quality and service, or pushes the bad ones out of business.
And the best bit is you don't have to worry about all this technical stuff of doing your own website.
You've said you have zero knowledge prior to this and it's "more difficult than you thought it'd be". And I don't want to sound harsh or demeaning, but it needs to be said: what you're going to produce will look and function like ****. So **** I doubt any punter will use it.
You can't just list a load of dishes on a page, drop a buy now button on it and magically expect money to roll in. There's a reason web design and development is a highly-skilled industry.
You need to know how to lay things out logically, guide a visitor through the entire process, make it easy and intuitive to use. Encourage them to stay and browse and reassure them that you're a reputable vendor worthy of spending money with. The site needs to look attractive and engaging, and that can be years of training and experience in its own right.
Plus there are significant legal issues to consider - where are your payments being processed? What is your liability, and how much does it cost? What customer data will you need to store, and how does the Data Protection Act affect you?
Some bodged together site by somebody who openly says they don't know what they're doing will not instill confidence in a visitor, and they will not part with their cash.
I don't know where you get your "I imagine most fast food takeaways hate websites like justeat but go on to survive" notion from, because sites like Just Eat expand the visibility and reach of takeaways across a city-wide area, not just confined to the same local 5 streets because it costs a lot of money to print flyers. Some of my favourite places locally have seen explosive expansion since joining Just Eat and the like because their reputation has expanded across the entire city. I've also found great new places on the other side of the city that I never knew about because I never got a leaflet. Add to that a takeaway is then much more accountable for quality and service and traceably-so, which either forces improvements in quality and service, or pushes the bad ones out of business.
And the best bit is you don't have to worry about all this technical stuff of doing your own website.
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Well i'm not sure you've read the other posts but i'll be using opencart and a payment gateway from a large company be it Paypal or whoever that will deal with all the PCI compliance issues etc. I have all the respect in the world for anyone who webdesigns but quite frankly I don't see the point in paying for a website that will look worse and have poorer functionality at a higher price! The websites created by opencart or wordpress look more professional than 99% of custom built jobs in my eyes. There are no security issues seeing as i'm not doing anything bar editing a template adding dishes etc.
Rightly said you can use opencart or wordpress , for hosting you can check out Webhost UK, they can offer you one click auto installer for cubecart and wordpress.
Soldato
Then I wish you all the very best, Vegeta, in your endeavour.
Associate
Definitely give it a go doing it yourself using the likes of OpenCart or WordPress.
Plenty of themes to choose from, guides to help you when you get stuck and I'm sure other members of the forum will help you along.
Worst case scenario you try it yourself and it doesn't work out you can then consider going down the route of Just Eat or hiring a web designer.
Plenty of themes to choose from, guides to help you when you get stuck and I'm sure other members of the forum will help you along.
Worst case scenario you try it yourself and it doesn't work out you can then consider going down the route of Just Eat or hiring a web designer.
I've actually found a company they were able to do me a deal I've scored great EPOS software £100 per terminal (two pc's i've setup myself so the hardware costs are tiny) and £100 for a ordering website that integrates with the EPOS system! so £300 all in and £20 a month maintenance very happy with that. EPOS system has the lot postcode lookup/maps and callerid (I need to buy the CIT module however which I will but it's not neccesary my phones have callerid and for now we're entering them manually).
