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Online ordering for restaurants and foodservice businesses has skyrocketed in the last few months due to social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic.
The National Restaurant Association in the United States suggested shifting your sales strategy to online in an article on April 20 2020. They said, “Social distancing has increased the adoption of online ordering as people spend more time at home. Having an ecommerce presence has never been more important to close the distance between you and customers.”
To avoid the huge commissions charged by online ordering sites like Postmates and GrubHub, you can use an online ordering system that can integrate with your restaurant website. Let’s look at how you can achieve this with a small budget.
What is Online Ordering for Restaurants?
An online ordering system makes it possible for your customers to order meals and have them delivered to their homes on a website or a mobile app.
Benefits of Online Ordering for Restaurants
First, it offers convenience for diners and hence better customer experience.
Secondly, it generates more orders and hence sales revenue through search engine marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, online offers and promos which you could not have done without a website.
Thirdly, it automates your ordering processes and hence higher labor productivity.
Fourthly, it avoids commissions on every sale that you pay to third-party food ordering sites or apps.
Fifthly, it reduces human errors during ordering processes especially when your restaurant gets very busy.
Additionally, diners who order online usually spend more than those on-premise diners because the former simply has more time to think while being at home or commuting.
Finally, it can have more addon features like integration with your website, online payment, marketing tools, branded mobile apps, and many more.
Top Restaurants Use WordPress
WordPress is the world’s leading content management system (CMS) trusted by over 35% of all the website users worldwide.
The following restaurant franchise businesses use WordPress to power their websites.
- Boston Market, headquartered in Golden, Colorado, is a chain of fast casual restaurants at 332 locations in the U.S.
- Daddys Takoyaki is one of the best-selling takoyaki franchises in Indonesia.
The following are among the World’s 50 Best Restaurants using WordPress to power their websites.
- Celebrity chef Enrique Olvera is credited with proving that rustic Mexican flavours deserve as much attention as any other haute cuisine in the world. And Pujol has been his pedestal to make that point via a tasting menu of refined and elegant plates built from indigenous ingredients that pay tribute to Mexico’s rich culinary history. This year, his vision is brilliantly justified as he wins the award for The Best Restaurant in North America 2019.
- Chef Zaiyu Hasegawa began his career at age 18 in the kitchen of a ryotei (exclusive traditional Japanese restaurant) in Tokyo’s Kagurazaka geisha area, where his mother worked. Eleven years later he opened Den, which moved to its current location in late 2016. They won the Art of Hospitality Award 2019, sponsored by Legle.
- Frantzén is back with a bang. From humble origins as a bijou dining room in Stockholm’s old town, Frantzén shut up shop in 2016 to relocate to larger premises. Set across three storeys of a spruced-up 19th-century townhouse in the Norrmalm district, the restaurant re-opened a year later to justified rapture.
- Under the umbrella of their El Barri group, Ferran and Albert Adrià command a total of five restaurants, all in Barcelona’s el Paralel neighborhood. The group offers everything from modern Mexican to Japanese-Mediterranean and 40-plus course progressive Spanish. In 2015, Albert Adrià was voted The World’s Best Pastry Chef.
- Chef and co-owner Julien Royer may look like he’s barely out of his teens, but he has serious pedigree. Having apprenticed under Michel Bras in his native France, Royer worked in the Caribbean and London before arriving in Singapore a decade ago. He established himself as the region’s rising star while at Jaan, before opening Odette in late 2015 at the grand National Gallery Singapore. This year, he cemented Odette’s status by winning The Best Restaurant in Asia 2019, sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in Macao.
- The Clove Club’s interpretation of ‘modern British’ is refreshing and full of surprises, with fresh produce from all over the UK reinvented in creations that put forward natural flavours and playfully mingle with tradition.
- Alain Passard has retained three Michelin stars at Arpège for more than two decades during times of great personal and culinary change, and in 2019 he was the recipient of the Chefs’ Choice Award, sponsored by Estrella Damm, at The World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards in Singapore.
- Housed within Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, Nerua Guggenheim Bilbao’s chef Josean Alija draws from Basque ingredients to create culinary masterpieces worthy of the location. His professional path hasn’t been easy: after recovering from a motorcycle accident that left him in a coma for 21 days in the year 2000, Alija had to relearn how to recognise flavours.
- Elkano Restaurant in Getaria, Spain: Aitor Arregui’s father used to say that to buy the best fish, you have to look the animal in the eyes and see that it still retains the brightness that means it is fresh. Today, his son and family run the most prestigious grill in the Basque Country.
Features of a WordPress Restaurant Website
- Simplicity
- Flexibility
- Publish with Ease
- Publishing Tools
- User Management
- Media Management
- Built-in Comments
- Fully Customizable
- Browser Compatibility
- Multilingual Blogs
- Own Your Data
Online Ordering for Restaurants Integrated with Your Website
The Online Ordering For Restaurants provided by GloriaFood is the best online food ordering plugin for WordPress restaurant websites. As of today, it is being used by about 14,805 restaurants around the world.
You will get a restaurant menu, online food ordering and restaurant booking system. All free, no fees, no hidden costs, no commissions – for unlimited food orders and restaurant reservations.
Below are the features.
Restaurant Menu
- Visual, drag & drop online menu editor
- Support for uploading own images, plus a generous collection of food images available to use
- Customizable food menu items: sizes, choices, and add-ons with multiple select
- Suitable for any type of cuisine, including complex pizza or burger menus
- With support for promotions
- Responsive design
Online Food Ordering for Takeout / Food Delivery
- User friendly, single page checkout
- Data autofill for returning customers
- Restaurant app for receiving orders (Android / iOS)
- Real time confirmation of the order and fulfilment time
- Different opening hours for pick-up and delivery
- Multiple delivery zones with different minimum order value / delivery fee
- Order for later with scheduled fulfilment
- Cash, online payments (premium feature) and other payment options
- Support for tips (for online payments)
Restaurant Booking System
- Simple restaurant reservation form
- Receive and confirm table reservations from the restaurant app (Android / iOS)
- Order food ahead for dining in
Other Features
- Alerts when the ordering app is not reachable and follow ups call when the restaurant staff is not taking the orders
- Restaurant ordering stats, website analytics, delivery heatmap, exports of clients and orders
- Promotions engine: 11 templates, coupons support, customers segmentation and targeting
- Multi-location support
Conclusion
How can you get the benefits of having online ordering for restaurants while avoiding the huge commissions charged by online ordering sites or the huge upfront restaurant business software implementation costs?
A WordPress eCommerce website with the off-the-shelf Online Food Ordering System for Restaurants product can be a very cost-effective way to beat your competitors.
