A Complete Guideline of How To Make a Food Ordering Website

Covid-19 has changed the way restaurant serves their customer drastically. While the pandemic was forcing us to stay at home for safety reasons restaurant business suffered the most. So restaurant owners and operators or managers discovered new ways of serving their hungry customers. With the help of the internet, restaurant owners created websites with online ordering facilities. And deliver the food to the doorstep of their customers. Now in the post-pandemic situation, restaurant owners have noticed people have just not started to become used to placing online orders but also like it. Moreover, with an online ordering website, restaurants can make more revenue. So if you are wondering how to make a food ordering website, then you will get full guidelines in this article.

What Is A Food Ordering Website?

In simple words, a food ordering website is a platform where customers can place online food orders, and the owner or manager of the website can receive and manage online orders.

Now online food ordering means placing a food order over the internet through a platform like a website or application.

Restaurant owners can take help from professionals who provide online ordering system for restaurants. There is a lot of company that provides restaurant online ordering system. Such as Restor POS. If you are a beginner, don’t worry because RestoraPos sells an online ordering system for small businesses. Restaurant owners can also create a website and add a third-party food portal app for their customers to place a food order.

Top Online Food Ordering Websites

There are a lot of food ordering websites that are currently leading the food industry. If you are considering making a food ordering website, you should deeply analyze what your competitors are doing to lead the market. This will give you ideas and also guidelines to create your website in a very professional way.

Let’s look at some top online food ordering websites and understand how they work and why they lead.

FoodPanda

FoodPanda is one of the best online food ordering websites in the food industry. It lets customers place online orders and delivers the food to the customer's doorstep. Besides food, it also delivers groceries. Foodpanda provides its service through its website and also mobile applications. It allows restaurants to make connections with customers in a given area.

Customers have to create a user account and enter their location. Then, the list of restaurants providing online food ordering facilities and delivery will automatically appear on the screen. Now customers have to choose a restaurant. And customers can see the full menu as soon as they choose a restaurant. Finally, customers have to select what they want to have and place an order. Then, any rider available will deliver the food. Foodpanda allows its customers to pay both online and offline. FoodPanda was founded in 2012 by Delivery Hero.

Uber Eats

Uber Eats is a daughter company of Uber. It delivers food to about 6000 cities in 45 countries. Uber Eats lets customers have full access to the restaurant menu. Customers can place a food order from their desirable restaurants and get deliveries. It lets customers add ratings and give reviews. It can be used by web browsers and iOS and Android platforms. Uber Eats is also among one of the best food ordering websites. 

Delivery.com

Delivery.com is an American online platform with almost 1 million users. It not only allows its users to place online food orders but also groceries, alcohol, and even tailoring and laundry services, including folding clothes after washing and dry cleaning. Users have the option to pay in cash or by credit card. Other payment methods, including PayPal, Apple Pay, and Visa Checkout, are available on this platform to pay restaurant bills. Users can place an order from their website or use the iOS or Android application to place an order.

Grubhub

Grubhub is a daughter company of Just Eat Takeaway.com, with more than 19 million active users. It allows users to save multiple delivery locations with names like home, school, work, etc. Users also can filter their search results based on the type of restaurant or food they are looking for.

DoorDash

DoorDash is the largest food delivery company in the USA. Outside the USA, DoorDash has served the people of Canada, Australia, Japan, Germany, and New Zealand. It has almost 20 million consumers. Users can enter their location, select a restaurant, and place a food order. Users can also purchase alcohol using this platform.

03 Top Food Ordering Business Model

A food ordering website for your restaurant can skyrocket your revenue. But before jumping to make a food ordering website, you should choose a business model. Of course, you must understand your business's needs and requirements before selecting a business model.

There are three business models widely used around the globe for food ordering platforms. Let’s look at the details of these models and decide which is the best for you.

01. The Order Only Model

Order only is a business model for food ordering platforms where they connect customers with restaurants. Restaurants then handle the rest of the activities along with the delivery. Restaurants must pay 7 percent to 15 percent commission on each order to these platforms.

Example:

Grubhub is a platform that serves food to its customers using this model. In addition, platforms like Delivery Hero and Zomato also follow this model. 

02. The Order And Delivery Model

Order and delivery is the second type of business model where food ordering platforms connect customers to the restaurant and deliver the food to the customer's doorstep. The best policy of this model is the fast delivery service. Food must be delivered in 30 minutes. But the platform charges delivery fees from customers for fast delivery service. This model is famous as restaurants don’t have to keep dedicated employees to deliver food and vehicles. As a result, restaurants save on employee expenses like salaries and vehicle expenses like buying or renting the vehicle and fuel costs.

Example:

Uber Eats started their food ordering and delivery business with this model. Other platforms such as Deliveroo and DoorDash also run their business based on the order and delivery model.

03. The Fully Integrated Model

The fully integrated model is a type of business where the platform takes the order, prepares the food or cooking, and delivers the food to the customer's doorstep. This business model is costly as the platform has to bear the cost of refrigerated trucks, ice packs, heaters, etc. And also the cost of employee expenses like chef salaries.

Example:

Domino’s Pizza is the best example of this model. However, this model is best for food chain restaurants. Though food chain restaurants serve individuals, Metabolic Meals prepares and delivers meals to corporate offices. They ensure healthy meals are prepared by Masterchef and deliver them right on time in the office.   

A Chinese company named Ele.me is also running their business successfully with the help of this model. It is a daughter company of Alibaba Group. It uses drones to deliver 70 percent of its food to the customer's doorstep, reducing delivery costs.

How To Make A Food Ordering Website?

A website with a food ordering facility can impact your restaurant's revenue. It will also create an online presence by representing your restaurant in the internet world. But creating a restaurant website can be scary if you do not know about coding or website development. Don’t worry, as these steps below can help you overcome your fear and create a professional look website.

Find A Suitable Website Builder

If you want to build a website for your restaurant, you don’t have to get a degree in web development. Instead, you can choose a website builder to create a website for your restaurant. You can find a large number of website builders in the market.

Like,

• WordPress
• Wix
• Weebly

If you are a beginner, you should choose Wix or Weebly. Because these two website builders are very easy to use, you can drag and drop things like text, images, videos, etc. And design a top-notch website for your restaurant. 

Speaking of top-notch, WordPress comes to mind. WordPress is a great website builder with outstanding facilities. WordPress gives you the authority to fully customize your website as it gives you access to the source code. If you like coding, you should choose WordPress. You can also hire a professional for this job. Hiring a professional can be expensive but trust me, “It’s worth it”.

No matter what you choose, keep in mind that each platform offers a different level of technical support and features. As you are not an expert, you never know when you will need extra support along the road to website creation. Therefore, before you spend your most precious time setting up a website for your restaurant using a specific website builder, you should dig deep down and know more about that particular platform. 

Most website builders have permanent features. You can’t edit those features and make them as you want. You have to use these features as they are build-up by the platform. You can’t connect your website to all the apps available in online stores, as some website-building platforms have restrictions.

Chose A Domain And Hosting Name

Firstly you need a domain name because you need a domain name to create your online identity on the internet world. At the same time, people need a domain name to search your website on the internet. As you have a house address and anyone can come to visit your house by the address. You also need an online address or internet address. Internet users can visit your restaurant by that address. You can buy your website address along with your web hosting service.

Now web hosting is a service. It helps to make your website visible on the internet. You must carefully choose web hosting as web hosting plays a vital role in your restaurant website. Good hosting is responsible for your website loading fast and giving your visitor a good experience.

Web hosting is a service. Some provide free hosting, which has some drawbacks. Some require you to pay a certain amount of money monthly or annually. 

Design Your Website

People have become so dependent on the internet that people search and inquire about a restaurant before visiting the restaurant. Your restaurant website represents your restaurant. So your website needs to look very professional. And you need to design your website that way. If your restaurant website doesn’t look professional, people might not visit your storefront. So don’t underestimate the power of a well-designed website.

Now website builders offer a wide span of themes with free online food ordering website templates. You can use them at the beginning by editing colour schemes, texts, images, videos, etc. Now the most important thing is to make your website mobile-friendly because most people use mobile phones to browse the internet, about 52 percent.

Customize The Order Placing Process

Now it’s time to customize the process for placing orders by the customer. The order placing process can be done in many ways. You have a lot of options.

Like,

1. Install necessary plugin
2. Create an online form
3. Add apps

You can install necessary plugins to create an order placing process for your customers or create an online form and attach the form's embed code to the website. Besides installing plugins or making a food order form, you can add apps for the job.

Add A Payment Platform

You can add multiple payment getaways to your website by website builders or installing plugins. But it is best to let an expert do this on your behalf as you don’t have to deal with legal restrictions.

Add CTR Button

CTR stands for the call to action button. You can make a potential customer place an order through the CTR button. It can be something like Order Now. Create a CTR button and attach it to a location on your website where it catches visitors' eyes. CTR button helps visitors turn into customers with really less amount of clicks.  

Online Food Ordering Statistics

Every business is adopting new techniques and technologies to make their work easier and make more out of their business. So is the food business. And the most important thing is that human beings love convenience. For this reason, the food business is using new ways to offer comfort to its customers. And guess what? Customers love it, and food business owners are making more revenue. But adopting new techniques and technologies is not always convenient. Sometimes it’s necessary.

For example, during Covid-19, people could not leave their homes for safety reasons. Everyone had to stay at home so the Corona Virus didn’t spread. But humans still need to have food to survive. And those businesses that make money selling food also need food for themselves and their family. And they need to sell food to make money to buy food for themselves and their family. As a result, they must keep running the business. But it was impossible during Covid-19 as human gathering was restricted. Then the restaurant business started a new way: online ordering and delivering food to customers' doorstep. Also, some dine-in restaurants started ghost kitchen service.

The online food business has seen its maximum growth during Covid Lockdown. But still, it is a very famous business even after the Covid situation. It existed before lockdown but in a minimum ratio. Experts say online food ordering would have been famous over time even if the pandemic didn't happen. Corona Pandemic just made it quicker. Because online food ordering is a great convenience and saves a lot of time, you can order online and enjoy food when you are extremely busy and can’t leave the house. The benefits of an online ordering system for restaurants are uncountable. But let's look at the countable statistics below.

Study shows that,

• Statista says people spend at least 25 to almost 300 US dollars per online order.
• Over 60 percent of customers place food orders online at least once weekly.
• The study revealed that 70 percent of customers like to place orders directly from restaurants than third-party food ordering websites or food portals.
• Restaurants with online ordering websites or applications make 30 percent more sales than a restaurant with no online ordering website or application.
• Almost 63 percent of people prefer placing an order over dining in.  

These are the strong reasons your business should have online food ordering website or application to remain competitive.

Final Thoughts
A website with online food ordering facilities is the best choice for your restaurant. It can increase sales, and your restaurant can generate more revenue than ever. People like convenience and also need to be fed. And if your restaurant can provide both, your restaurant will become a good choice for your customers. So if you want to be a good competitor in the food industry, create a dynamic website for your restaurant.