A look at our online takeaway ordering website's functionality
By Darren Hiles
As our new FREE Online Ordering Websites start to roll out and begin to function I thought it would be a good idea to shout about what this wonderful little system can do!
The Basics
At its simplest level the Online ordering websites that we set up for you free allow you to list all of your products online in an easy to navigate structure by category.

All items are listed alphabetically inside of those categories and wherever a description is included this will be displayed on screen with the appropriate item name and cost.

The slightly less basic
Not only will the website display your products and list them for sale but it also lists opening and delivery information.


This is extremely handy as it opens up your highly important information to Google and other search engines meaning you do not have to work to get your site ranking well and providing relevant information to the searcher.
As well as serving as a "living advert" for your takeaway it also serves as a point of contact by providing a secure email contact form for your customers to send you a messgae direct from the site. No more listing email addresses in plain site allowing spammers to bother you about things you really dont need...well we assume you dont need them!

The site also keeps you covered legally by including links to terms and conditions, privacy and cookie policy pages.
The not at all basic
So thats the simple stuff out the way with!
Simple? From a programming perspective yes thats quite simple. Now we move away from that.... Non techy people might just want to put their head on the desk and go straight to sleep at this point... I'll wake you up if anything important happens.
Up first has to be...
The Basket

This allows your customers to build up their order, change their mind, remove and add items. All of this is tracked and keeps a running total of the total cost of the items and any extras that have been chosen.
The Product System
Or Multiprice, Extras and Choices... oh my!
The product part of the system has been engineered to work seamlessly with any type of cuisine.
All items have numerous attributes such as spiciness rating, vegan & vegetarian to name just a few of an always growing and evolving list.
Having worked closely with a number of takeaways in preparation of this system we have managed to make this starting system as flexible as possible.
We have hand-crafted a system that can cover any eventuallity of product.
- Want to list Chicken Nuggets in quantities of 6 and 12? Not a problem, use the multiprice option.
- Want to give the customer a choice of boiled rice or fried rice? Use the either or part of the choices system.
- Want to let the customer select 2 main course dishes as part of a set meal? Use the choose from a main category part of the choices system.
- Want to allow a customer to add extra garlic sauce? Use the extras system.



As you can see we've pretty much got it covered. The beauty of this system is it is an evolving beast, with each new site that goes up we get either a seamless fit or the spark to add something new to the system.
Delivery
The most complex part of the website by far is the delivery system. Now before you get your hopes up sorry but we can't put food down the internet yet so you're still going to have to deliver it yourself BUT our system removes the worry that you will end up delivering to the wrong place or that the delivery charge has been worked out incorrectly.
The system will automatically calculate the delivery cost of an order based on the delivery address provided dependent on the rules you set. Our system allows you to choose from between 10 completely configurable types of delivery.

Standard Delivery
The workhorse of the delivery system.
- No delivery
- All order charges at £x
- All order charges at £x for y miles
- Free delivery when order is over £x, all other deliveries charged at £y
- Free delivery when order is over £x, all other deliveries charged at £y for z miles
- Free delivery when order is over £x, all other deliveries are declined
- Free delivery when address is inside x miles, all other deliveries are charged at £x
- Free delivery when address is inside x miles, all other deliveries charged at £y for z miles
- Free delivery when address is inside x miles, all other deliveries are declined
Postcode Delivery
Using this part of the delivery system you can set up specific postcodes that you deliver to and have a separate charge for that postcode, or if you're feeling generous (like us) for FREE!
The finalities
So that's what the system does, apart from that it does the most important thing which is to finalise the order... or more specifically it... Sends you and the customer an email...
- Name,
- Phone Number,
- Email address,
- Delivery type choice,
- delivery address (if applicable),
- All items chosen on the order and relevent costs,
- all choices and extras listed with the main item,
- totals,
- payment type choice,
- whether the order has been paid,
The system also allows you to accept card and other types of payment using Paypal.
Using the secure Paypal API we can check payments are valid and not fraudulent before any confirmation is sent to you for preperation of the order.
This means you will not get stung for the cost of wasted food due to fraud.
The more than finalities
I beleive that this system is a great little system. It covers everything we think a simple takeaway online ordering website should cover. It does what you would expect out of the box.
However I do not believe that all of that is the best part of this offer... OH NO! It's not the price tag... in case you missed it... IT'S FREE!!!!.
No what I see as being the best part is the automatic upgrades to the system.
Everytime something new is needed for the system, everytime we think of another great service to offer you through your website, or think of a great new service you can offer your customers through your website we will update the system.
Now we will give you fair warning of these updates and all updates will be tested with a live version of the code on our demo site that way we avoid breakages and unexpected errors.
However we will let you know it is happening but you will not need to do anything yourself. At the appointed time we will let your website know that there is an update to get and it will do all of the hard work for you!
That's right! You won't have to do a thing and your website will continue on with new features for you and your customers.
Just one more thing...
I know we have our nice little outro but I feel it would be amiss of me not to say...
Remember...
Good menu design makes you money!
But a great online ordering website makes you even more! heheh
Remember