Building Website for Pizza Delivery

[Sacha]

Hey,

I currently have a basic 1&1 website just to have a presence. www.danteitalian.com. Yes I know it's not that great but I had only a few days to sort it out and it's better than nothing.

I'm looking now to make a proper website where people can order the food through the website. I imagine I will need some kind of machine in the shop so that the order comes into the kitchen once it has been paid also.

How would you proceed in my position? Should I try my hand with Shopify or WordPress? And does anybody have experience with linking up a machine like how JustEat has it? I'm also aware of some companies than will build the website and provide the machine and take a percentage of the sales through the website however I am reluctant to try that.

Many thanks for your time.

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

In your position I would use just-eat / hungryhouse / whatever is popular in your area, focus my website on my USP (food quality and such).

They might take a cut, but you don't have to develop any systems yourself, can just link to them off your website and they often bring new business from regular users you may not otherwise have (I have tried many new places I never heard of otherwise through such sites).

 

[ryedale]

If you wanted a basic solution, you could get a internet enabled printer. These print out automatically when an an email is received at a specifc address so just get whatever E-Commerce solution you use to send order confirmations to that address.

eg https://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/jsp/epson-connect/mobile-printing/email-print.do

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

Also, once you tried somebody elses system, you will know the problems and improvements that could be made / what is involved for a much lower cost than re-inventing the wheel from scratch yourself.

 

[Elliott Stevens]

Hi Sacha,

I would agree with PipeTen-Carl. I think you'll find the cost of developing your own solution prohibitive, and it'll take a lot longer to see a return on your investment than you would if you used something like Just-Eat.



Elliott

 

[Sacha]

Hi thanks for the quick responses.

I already use JustEat http://www.just-eat.co.uk/restaurants-dantes-b70?opt=0a344914

I think there is a demand from our existing customers to order through our website however. Also a lot of people don't use JustEat/Hungry House so I want to provide both options.

 

[Faevilangel]

I have done this for a sandwich (for office workers) and works well, used WordPress and woocommerce. Just need a computer next to the pizza maker who can then see the orders.

You would have to build a custom order management page (in the admin) as the default woocommerce order page doesn't show the order information.

 

[Sacha]

what do you guys think of this company?

http://www.ordys.co.uk/home

 

[BigTree]

My local Indian take away uses eTakeOut which appears to offer customisable websites for take aways.

They've also created apps for customers.

I personally prefer to order using their site rather than phone them plus they give me loyalty points.

It was such a good website for a small one off take away it prompted me to check who wrote the site.

 

[soundengineeruk]

Did you ever decide/find a service you going to use?

If no, what is stopping you going ahead...?

 

[Paul Norman]

Personally, I would not attempt this myself. I would contact Faevilangel above who has done it, and has a good reputation both here and elsewhere, and pay him to build it for you.

 

[Sacha]

I'm busy in the day to day service as it is just my business partner and myself at the moment. Also I'm making the menu more simple, introducing sandwiches, and I need to take pictures of everything. I'm thinking about eTakeOut platform as BigTree suggested. That way if I make any changes to the menu I can quickly update it. http://www.etakeout.co.uk/index

 

[Audrey Wright]

Unless you've a decent team of developers and are a large brand with big budget for branding and marketing, there is absolutely no value in you developing such a system.
Instead, you can use one of the many pre-built systems and CMS solutions and just hire a developer to link all those together in a neat website.

Option two: use an already established marketplace for food ordering and become an affiliate. They get a cut, but they also bring you times more business than you'd get through your site alone.

Option three: mix the two together. Nobody said a customer should only reach you from one website.

 

[MASSEY]

Hi OP, your pizzas look a lot nicer than the crap i get served up in Bearwood.

How much of a cut or a general cost is just eat and hungry house to join? Do they take a percentage of your order as well as the fee to get the terminals etc?

If they charge a cut out of every order then i would think your desire to set up a site and cut them out isn't that bad. You could poach the customers that just eat and hh send by inserting a leaflet in with the deliveries 'we've got out own site, order from blah blah and get free chocolate cake with your first order' etc and then to keep people checking back offer random discount days in a similar way hungry house does.

Although you would also need to work out what your fees are for accepting paypal and processing debit cards and credit cards etc in order to compare your risk vs rewards for setting this up.

I wouldn't ditch hh or just eat, you seem to get a lot of reviews. If what they say about the percentage of customers who leave reviews is anything to go by you seem to get a lot of custom from just eat.

 

[Sacha]

Hi OP, your pizzas look a lot nicer than the crap i get served up in Bearwood.

How much of a cut or a general cost is just eat and hungry house to join? Do they take a percentage of your order as well as the fee to get the terminals etc?

Thanks.

To do delivery with JustEat will cost £1,200 fee plus 12% of sales. We started with collection which was £600 odd plus 12% then upgraded. All plus vat of course.

If they charge a cut out of every order then i would think your desire to set up a site and cut them out isn't that bad. You could poach the customers that just eat and hh send by inserting a leaflet in with the deliveries 'we've got out own site, order from blah blah and get free chocolate cake with your first order' etc and then to keep people checking back offer random discount days in a similar way hungry house does.

Yes exactly what we were thinking. JustEat are good advertisement, an electronic flyer in every home in a way. Obviously only if you get good reviews, if you get a lot of bad reviews a JustEat presence could be detrimental.

Although you would also need to work out what your fees are for accepting paypal and processing debit cards and credit cards etc in order to compare your risk vs rewards for setting this up.

Well the eTakeOut platform I was looking at is an upfront fee of £350 for the printer connected to the website plus £25+vat a month (for basic package) with a 2.4% plus .20p transaction fee through nochex. Much cheaper than 12% transaction fee from JustEat.

I wouldn't ditch hh or just eat, you seem to get a lot of reviews. If what they say about the percentage of customers who leave reviews is anything to go by you seem to get a lot of custom from just eat.

We get a fair amount of reviews, about 1 out of every 10 orders I think. Well last month JustEat accounted for 24% of our total sales.

 

[cory beevers]

Please give me a call if you are still stuck on 07944679824, i have only just seen this post and would be more than happy to help

 

[justintime]

I have done pizza delivery and I looked at something suitable for my boss to use. Although I can't vouch for how good they are because my boss never took it up, I did come across this outfit and it seems relatively inexpensive http://www.touch2success.com/

 

[Dan_HiHosting]

@Sacha great thread, very interesting to read how JustEat has worked for you in terms of percentages.

I think it's better to compare eTakeOut with paying a developer and having your own hosting.

If you get a respected UKBF member like Faevilangel to build your site, and get decent hosting, then the only ongoing cost after paying for development is the hosting - which will be far better and more cost effective from a dedicated provider.

This would be the more flexible option.

I think @MASSEY's points are good, and running your own system alongside your own website could work very well.

Whatever you do, I'd recommend ditching 1&1! Your website is currently hosted in Germany, and your visitors and Google will thank you for using proper UK web hosting.

Best of luck.

Will certainly have to grab a slice if I'm in the area, looks tasty!

Dan

 

[Andrew Fairlie]

Hi Sacha.

I see that you're already on Just Eat. That's what I would recommend in the first instance, so that's good news.

I would take the approach of testing the market demand before investing in your own booking system. You can probably get them cheap, but to get a good one it'll probably be bespoke and cost quite a bit.

Use a link tracking system, like Bit.ly to shorten a link to your Just Eat page. Next, make a new link on your website's navigation called "Order Online" - use the new Bit.ly address instead of the normal Just Eat address.

Now, every time somebody clicks on "Order Online" you will be able to track that somebody clicked on it through your Bit.ly control panel. After a month or two you will be able to better evaluate if you think it would be worth you investing in a custom booking system.

 

[Martin Gallagher]

Personally, I don't think the host location is going to be an issue so long as the geographic location is near, i.e. Western Europe - personally I use OVH / Kimsufi, super affordable.

For sake of SEO and usability I'd suggest against using Bit.ly and fully own your URLs - use Google Analytics events integration for example - then you can marry actions and user activity against each other in you Google Analytics dashboard.

 

[Andrew Fairlie]

Because the Bit.ly link would be going to Just Eat and not his own property there's not going to be any real SEO implication. If 1&1's website tool allows you to use Google Analytics with custom events then that is definitely the better option, but I would doubt they give you that much control.

 

[Martin Gallagher]

I agree there, but regarding GA, if 1&1 don't allow Google Analytics, move pronto. Don't limit your ability to gather business intelligence by using a poor hosting provider.