Online ordering system for takeaway shops

A takeaway lives on the hour everyone wants food at once. The phone, the window and the marketplace tablet all speak at the same time, and the order that matters is the one the kitchen can actually cook. Chefzi is the ordering page and the Chefzi app for that hour. The customer orders collection or delivery on your site. The ticket rings until someone accepts it with a prep time or rejects it with a reason. You keep the marketplaces for people who have never stood at the door. The direct page is for the regular who already knows the menu.

The online menu should follow the board you already sell from, not a template that renames the dishes. Meal deals, sizes and the extras the counter asks about every time belong on the ticket as choices with prices. A wrap, chips and a drink is one item when that is how you sell it, with the drink named. Garlic sauce, no onion, or an extra portion that changes the price is a modifier. A sentence typed into a comment box is the line that gets missed when six bags are waiting. If the paper menu uses numbers, keep the number in the dish name so a regular can find it.

Sold-out is a switch, not a phone call after you have taken the money. When chicken, a special or a side finishes, mark it sold out and the page stops selling it. There is no switch to hide a whole category. Mark the finished dishes and leave the rest of the menu open. Deleting a category removes the dishes in it. Prep time is the other control that keeps a Friday honest. Accepting an order asks for a time, and that is the time the customer sees. Lengthen it when the grill is behind. A promised fifteen minutes that arrives at forty is a worse evening than an honest thirty-five.

Collection is how a lot of takeaways make the rush pay. People are already outside, or they are ten minutes away and they want a time, not an “as soon as possible” that means whenever the pass clears. A requested collection time stops everyone arriving in the same five minutes. You set the lead time. Closing time is the cut-off, and there is no extra cut-off before that. There is no cap on orders that share a time. Collection hours and delivery hours can differ, which matters when the driver has gone home and the counter is still open. The customer sees which one is available before they build a basket.

Delivery is only for the streets you already drive. Draw that area, or use a distance if a circle really matches the run. A ring road, a river or a hill is a reason to draw the shape instead. Put a fee and a minimum on each area, and say both at checkout before the customer pays. The close streets can be a smaller fee. The far side should cost more, or ask for a higher basket, so a small order does not send someone across town. You can turn delivery off for the night and leave collection on. Chefzi does not supply drivers and does not force a town-wide zone. The fee is your rule. This page does not publish a recommended pound amount, because two shops on the same road have different wages and different distances.

Chefzi does not take a commission on the order. It is £39 a month per location billed annually (£49 if billed monthly), excluding VAT, with everything included. There is no setup fee and no minimum term. Cancel any month and you pay nothing for the next one. Just Eat, Uber Eats and Deliveroo still charge their own rates on the orders they take. Leave those tablets where they are if they bring new customers. Put one direct link on the Google profile, the window, the receipt and your own packaging. Do not put a code on a Just Eat bag, so the next meal from a regular does not go back through an app. One link, used everywhere, is enough to start.

The tablet has to be heard over the extractor and the radio. The Chefzi app keeps ringing until the ticket is accepted or rejected. Ordering stays open until you pause it yourself. A quiet tablet is not a closed shop. If you need to stop orders, pause them in the dashboard and resume with one action when you are ready. It runs on the phone or tablet you already have (Android now; the iOS app is included when it launches). A charger that stays in the wall is part of the setup, because a tablet that dies at eight o’clock is not a backup plan.

If the button on the site today is GloriaFood, that product retires on 30 April 2027. After that date a button which still points at it is expected to stop taking orders. The menu move onto Chefzi is included. Send the board, the meal deals, the extras and the streets you deliver, while the old link still loads. Then check four things on a phone: one item with an extra that changes the ticket, one address inside the zone, one address outside it, and one item marked sold out. Change the website, Google and the QR code only after those four behave. Run the old page and the new one side by side until a real customer order has been accepted on the new tablet.

How a takeaway online ordering system works on a Friday night

1. The customer opens your link from Google, Instagram or a flyer QR code.
2. They choose collection or delivery. Delivery is checked against your delivery zones, each with its own fee, minimum and time.
3. They build the order with required extras (for example, sauce choice with a minimum of one).
4. Your phone or tablet rings until someone accepts or rejects. If it drops offline, Chefzi sends a text and then calls.
5. When the kitchen is slammed, pause ordering. When the doner runs out, mark it out of stock.

Takeaway ordering system vs phone orders

Phone orders tie up a member of staff, get misheard, and have no record of who ordered. Online orders arrive written down, with the customer’s details, and the customer can order again from the same link. Keep the phone for the people who prefer it, and put the link on your Google listing, receipts and bag stickers. If most of your regulars order through an app today, see how to move customers from Just Eat to your website, and our guides to the Just Eat Partner Centre and the Deliveroo Partner Hub.

What it costs

First month free. £39 a month per location billed annually (£49 if billed monthly), everything included. Your own branded app (Android & iOS) is included. Per location, ex VAT, 0% commission ever, no setup fee. Put your own figures into the commission calculator to compare with marketplace commission.

Honest limits

There is no cap on orders per time slot, no courier integration, and no half-and-half pizza builder. Delivery uses your own drivers. See delivery zones, fees and your own drivers.