In 2024, online ordering and delivery platforms have changed the restaurant industry. As customer expectations for convenience and contactless services rise, integrating a digital ordering system has become crucial for restaurants aiming to thrive.
From streamlining operations to expanding customer reach, these platforms are key to boosting sales and enhancing the dining experience. With the global food delivery market booming, powered by high demand and technological advancements, now is the perfect time to use these platforms.
So, in this blog, we explore the top features, leading platforms, and significant benefits that an online ordering and delivery system can bring to your restaurant.
What is an Online Ordering Platform?
The online ordering platform is a digital system that allows restaurants to take orders online from customers.
These platforms are increasingly popular in various industries and provide customers and business owners convenience.
The primary purpose of using the online ordering platform is to:
- Give your restaurant more exposure
- Increase your sales
- Collect more information from customers to provide them with a better experience
- Provide a seamless way for customers to use your services or products
Furthermore, the online ordering platform is a valuable tool that will not only help more consumers find your restaurant, but it can improve operations, increase sales, and drive repeat business.
Enatega’s online restaurant ordering and delivery platform helps them grow their business.
Supercharge your deliveries with Enatega.
What Are The Benefits of Online Ordering and Delivery Platforms?
The online ordering and delivery platforms provide benefits to both customers and restaurants.
With these platforms, the online food ordering process is simple and helps restaurants provide customers with a top-notch experience.
Let’s discuss.
For Customers
The online ordering and delivery platform has become the only source of enjoying your favorite delicacies from famous outlets in the safest manner.
Look at several benefits of an online meal ordering and delivery platform.
Time-Saving
Customers can save time and effort with an online ordering and delivery platform. They can place and get their order to their doorstep with just a few clicks.
Ordering Process Easy
The online ordering and delivery platform makes the ordering process seamless and without any mistakes. Customers can easily browse menus from the vast selection of restaurants from the comfort of their homes without visiting the physical stores.
Large Variety of Choices
The online ordering platform provides customers access to products and services from local restaurants and international cuisines. With these platforms, customers can explore cuisines they might not have encountered otherwise.
Minimal Contact
Minimizing human contact and social distancing has been the talk of the entire world. Many people prefer contactless delivery to protect themselves from any type of virus. People enjoy their favorite meal without worrying about transmitting or catching the virus.
Exciting Perks
Several online food ordering apps offer enticing promotions and deals to keep customers happy and get more sales. With deals and discounts, customers can save a lot of money and enjoy their favorite meal at an affordable rate.
Instant Delivery
With a restaurant food ordering system, the customers get their order on time without standing in the long queues and waiting for their order to be received.
For Restaurants
The online ordering and delivery platform is the best solution for restaurants, SMBs, startups, franchises, and big enterprises to establish a unique identity for their brand in the market.
Below are some great benefits that an online ordering and delivery management system provides to restaurants.
Create a Custom Ordering Experience
You can easily tailor your online food ordering system to your brand requirements to attract more customers. With an online restaurant menu ordering system, food business owners can effortlessly customize it, from the content to the app’s design, to draw customers’ attention.
Free and Cheap Marketing
A strong online presence keeps customers happy and satisfied. But how without paying for expensive social media advertising and billboards?
With an online restaurant order system, you can easily promote your brand without putting a hole in your pocket. Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn can be utilized for audience engagement.
Invest some time in creating a solid company profile on Google My Business. With this, your restaurant can appear in local searches, and people can easily find you.
Flexible Payment Support
The open source food delivery app provides multiple payment options that streamline food ordering. It will help the food business owners to improve their operations and attract more customers. Also, the open source delivery app can be easily integrated with various payment gateways, which include credit/debit cards, digital wallets, and more.
Stay Ahead of the Competition
With an online ordering and delivery platform, you can stay ahead of the competition and make your restaurant available to your customers at their fingertips.
With the growing demand for food delivery apps, customers can prefer to order food online, and it helps small to large restaurants grow their business.
“At least twice a week approximately 31% of American customers use third-party food delivery services”, according to Fundera by NerdWallet.
Improve Efficiency
The best online ordering platforms streamline the ordering process and reduce the burden of managing business resources. With an automated system, businesses can reduce operational costs, increase productivity, and manage orders efficiently.
Online Food Ordering Platforms
“Which platform is best for food delivery?”
“Which is the best app to order food online?”
These questions are in the minds of customers and restaurant owners. But worry not; you get the answers to all these questions.
Online food ordering platforms have become a staple in the tech industry. These platforms are popular and play a major role in the success of the food delivery business.
Here are our top picks for the most successful online food ordering platforms worldwide.
1. Enatega
Enatega is the best food delivery management software. From order management to real-time tracking, you can manage everything with Enatega. With the help of Enatega, you can start your food delivery business from scratch and provide a seamless ordering experience to customers.
Features
- Fully customizable
- Transparent pricing
- Built with the latest technologies
- No subscriptions needed
- Openly available documentation and tutorials
| Pros | Cons |
| No additional charges per delivery | Marketing tools are not included |
| Lifetime access to all future updates | |
| Free 2-hour technical consultation with Enatega developers | |
| Includes admin, rider, restaurant, and user apps |
Pricing: Pricing starts from $1,997 but it depends on your app requirements.
Check what customer say about using the Enatega online food delivery platform for their business.
2. Grubhub
Grubhub is a successful online multi restaurant online ordering system. Both Android and iOS users use the Grubhub app to place orders online. Customers can search restaurants by a specific menu or search by cuisine. It is accessible in more than 3,200 American cities as well as London.
Additionally, Grubhub tells you the restaurants that deliver as well as the pickup restaurant near you when you enter your address.
Features
- Menu management
- Customer relationship management tools
- Email and social media marketing support
- Customizable user profiles
- Restaurant ratings and reviews
- Promotions and loyalty programs
| Pros | Cons |
| Increased efficiency | Commission fees |
| Reliable delivery service | Loss of direct customer relationship |
| Data and analytics | Increased competition on the platform |
Pricing: Grubhub charges restaurants a commission fee of 5% to 20% per order depending on the Grubhub pricing package.
3. Foodpanda
Foodpanda is the largest online food and grocery delivery platform in Asia. Its headquarters is in Singapore, and the company operates as the lead brand for Delivery Hero in Asia.
With just a few taps on your mobile phone, Foodpanda provides food and groceries to your doorstep. Everything from home groceries to food items is available on the Foodpanda app. This multi restaurant online ordering system is free and available on iOS and Android.
Features
- Instant tracking
- Order management
- Catalog management
- Food completion updates
- GPS navigation
| Pros | Cons |
| Access to a large customer base | Dependence on the third-party platform |
| Provide marketing and promotional tools | Lack of customization |
| User-friendly platform |
Pricing: FoodPanda charges a 20% commission fee on every order placed through the platform.
To start your food delivery business, you can create the Foodpanda clone app with more unique and advanced features.
4. UberEats
UberEats is the trusted online food ordering system that safely delivers food to your desired location. In 2020, UberEats is globally used by 66 million people, making it one of the World’s largest food ordering platforms.
Furthermore, UberEats is available in hundreds of cities around the world. The app connects customers with several local and international restaurants. Therefore, you can order from your favorite one whenever you want.
Features
- Delivery tracking
- Menu and content management
- User management
- Payment management
- Delivery history
| Pros | Cons |
| Reduce overhead costs | Increased competition |
| Increase efficiency | Additional service fees |
| Reliable delivery service |
Pricing: Commission fees are charged by UberEats, ranging from 15% to 30% of the order value.
5. Postmates
Several food delivery apps in Europe are available. However, Postmates is a famous food delivery service in 2940 cities across the United States. On Postmates, 600,000 restaurants, retailers, grocers, and more are available.
The Postmate’s exceptional services are timely deliveries and excellent customer support available 24/7. Plus, the app is available on both iOS and Android.
In December 2014, Postmates opened its API (application programming interface) to help small businesses compete with large companies in the consumer goods delivery business.
Features
- Route optimization
- Payment management
- Menu management
- Order management
| Pros | Cons |
| Increase brand visibility | Lack of branding control |
| Deliver anything from anywhere at any time | Pricing challenges |
| Locates the best restaurants in customer areas to help them find what they want |
Pricing: Postmates uses a new three-tiered commission pricing model. It starts from 15% for basic plans and goes up to 30%.
6. DoorDash
DoorDash is another popular platform for online food ordering. It is a San Francisco-based company that runs as a food delivery platform and an online food ordering site. DoorDash is available in over 7,000 cities in all 50 U.S. states.
The company has 32 million users, most from the United States. This online restaurant ordering system provides services across Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The DoorDash alternative apps also provide the same services.
Features
- Order personalization
- Customizable reports
- Customer assistance
- Activity dashboard
- Customer history
| Pros | Cons |
| Cost-effective | High commission fees |
| Easily reach more customers | Loss of control over customer experience |
| Improve operational efficiency |
Pricing: DoorDash charges restaurants a commission and delivery fee ranging from 15% to 30% of the order value.
You can build the DoorDash clone app at an affordable cost and succeed in the food delivery business.
7. Delivery.com
The best app to order food online is Delivery.com. It helps customers to order online from local stores and restaurants. The company has over 1 million users and is available in over 2400 locations throughout the United States.
Delivery.com delivers its customers groceries, food, beverages, and dry cleaning services. Also, the app is free to download and available on both iOS and Android devices.
Features
- Restaurant management
- Customer relationship management
- Contactless deliveries
- Data analysis
- Order management
| Pros | Cons |
| Flexible delivery options | Increased competition |
| Marketing and promotional support | Limited branding control |
| Customer loyalty programs |
Pricing: Delivery.com charges restaurants according to their chosen pricing plan.
8. Swiggy
Swiggy is the well-known Asia’s food ordering platform. It is currently available in India with 1.5 million active users. Under the name Instamart, this platform provides on-demand grocery delivery services.
The company has partnered with Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King, and many others to offer delivery services. Also, Swiggy uses the Swiggy Wallet feature to deliver food online to customers. The company is not charged from the customer’s card but will be debited from the Swiggy Wallet account when placing the order.
Features
- Restaurant listings
- Real-time order tracking
- Menu browsing
- Discounts and offers
- Payment gateway integration
| Pros | Cons |
| Interactive user interface | Additional delivery charges |
| Take care of the quality and hygiene of products | Dependence on the platform |
Pricing: Swiggy’s pricing for restaurants typically includes a commission fee that ranges from 9–22% per order, depending on the average order value.
9. Zomato
From Zomato, customers order meals online or browse menus from the best restaurants. It provides customers with restaurant information, user reviews, menus, map directions, and photographs.
In addition, Zomato provides the option to reserve the table online. The contactless food delivery and dining options are available on Zomato. It is available in many regions, which include:
- Qatar
- Turkey
- UAE
- Italy
- South Africa
- New Zealand
- Poland
- Australia
- India and more
Features
- Table booking
- Electronic payments
- Route optimization
- Rating system
- Push notifications
| Pros | Cons |
| Increase brand visibility | Commission fees |
| Marketing tools | Limited local options |
| Reviews and ratings |
Pricing: Zomato charges restaurants a commission fee of 10-25% on each order placed through the platform, depending on the specific plan and services used by the restaurant.
10. Deliveroo
Deliveroo is an online food ordering platform in London that operates in over 200 cities, which includes:
- Italy
- Ireland
- France
- Belgium
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Spain
- Kuwait
- HongKong
- UAE and more
It helps restaurants that don’t have a traditional setup for dining. Deliveroo is one of the most successful meal delivery apps, with USD 365 million in sales in 2019.
Features
- Delivery sales update
- Menu management
- Order management
- Track payments
- Track delivery
- Secure Login
| Pros | Cons |
| Secure payment options | Deliveries sometimes take longer time |
| Quick and reliable service | Customer service issues |
| Easy-to-use app |
Pricing: Deliveroo charges restaurants around 25% to 35% commission fees.
Features of Online Ordering and Delivery Platform
The good features make the online ordering and delivery platform successful. Here are some features that make the online food ordering system for restaurants the best one.
| Features | Description |
| Easy to Use Interface | It is the main trait of successful online food ordering companies. The interface should be simple and easy to use for customers. So they can easily place an order without any difficulty. |
| Secure Payment Options | It is one of the main features of a food delivery app. Customers can pay directly via the app using the available payment methods. |
| Order Tracking | Customers can easily track their orders from food preparation to delivery. With this feature, customers get informed about every step. |
| Customization | The single and multi restaurant online ordering system allows customers to customize their menu according to their requirements. For example, if you place a pizza order on the Enatega restaurant app, you can customize the crust, toppings, and more according to your preferences. |
| Reviews | The customers provide feedback and reviews that help improve the online food ordering platform and encourage future visitors to place an order or not. |
| Table Reservation | Customers can reserve a table in the restaurant with just a few taps on their mobile phones. |
| Push Notifications | Push notification is a great feature to keep your customers informed of new features, menu items, special deals, and discounts. |
| Personalization | This feature allows customers to customize their orders according to their preferences and add special instructions. |
How to Create an Online Ordering Platform?
Below are some steps to help you create an online order platform.
Define Your Business Model: First, define your business model by deciding what products or services you’ll offer. Also, identifying your target audience, and determining your revenue model, such as commissions or direct sales.
Conduct Research: Next, conduct thorough market research to analyze competitors and understand customer needs through surveys or focus groups. Search ordering platforms and understand their working, strengths, and weaknesses.
Select Features: Once you have all the information, plan the on-demand ordering platform’s features. You should include user accounts, product listings, a shopping cart, payment processing, order tracking, and an admin dashboard for management.
Select the Tech Stack: Selecting the right technology stack is crucial; choose frontend frameworks like React or Vue.js, and backend languages such as Node.js or Python, along with a suitable database.
Designing the Interface: After establishing the technical foundation, focus on designing a user-friendly interface. Create wireframes and prototypes to visualize key pages, ensuring the design is responsive for both desktop and mobile users.
Start Development: In the development phase, set up hosting, and build the frontend and backend. Implement all the functionality and create the platform that meets your business needs.
Testing: Conduct thorough testing to address any issues. Remove all the bugs and errors from the online delivery platform before the deployment phase.
Launching and Marketing: Once the online food ordering and delivery platform is ready, launch it and implement marketing strategies, including SEO optimization, social media promotion, email marketing, and potentially paid advertising to reach a broader audience.
Online Ordering System Cost
How much does it cost to develop a food delivery platform?
If you run a food business startup, you are well aware of the overall cost. The cost of the online ordering system will depend on the features you need, the size of your business, the number of platforms, and the complexity.
The basic online ordering systems can start as low as $20 per month and the advanced systems can cost up to $500 per month.
Tips for Selecting the Online Ordering System for Restaurants
Below are some tips to help you find the best online ordering system for your restaurant.
- Make sure the system you choose is user-friendly and your staff can easily use it without hassle.
- Conduct a thorough research of the pricing structures of various ordering platforms, making sure to compare and contrast their costs. However, it is crucial to refrain from solely focusing on the cheapest option. Instead, consider all other relevant factors before making a final decision.
- Read the reviews of previous customers and check what they say about the best restaurant online ordering system. This will provide valuable insights into the platform’s performance and the reputation of online ordering companies.
- Consider your needs and select the ordering platform that best matches your business requirements.
- Before you begin your search, allocate a clear budget to your restaurant ordering system and stick to it.
- The food online ordering software must be scalable and adaptable to meet the business as well as customer requirements.
Build Your Own Online Ordering and Delivery Platform with Enatega
Enatega provides the best food delivery platform with a website and mobile app that are easily accessible on iOS and Android devices. With Enatega’s single and multi vendor food ordering system, you can attract more customers.
The Enatega food delivery app solution provides various features that help restaurants boost their business and manage their online brand.
So, if you want to create the Foodpanda clone, UberEats clone, or any other food ordering platform, schedule a call with us.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the functions of an online ordering system?
The main functions of an online ordering system are to:
- Provide services to clients online
- Simplify the ordering process
- Help customers expand their business
- What are the advantages of food delivery services?
Below are the main advantages of food delivery services.
- Saves time
- Convenience
- No cooking
- A wide variety of options are available
- What are the three main food delivery services?
The three main food delivery services are:
- Enatega
- Uber Eats
- DoorDash
- What is a grocery delivery system?
The grocery delivery system is software designed to allow customers to order groceries online and get them to their doorstep.
5. What is the best online ordering system for restaurants?
Below is a list of the best online ordering systems for restaurants.
- BentoBox
- Toast
- ChowNow
- Bbot
- Upserve
6. Why is it better to order food online?
Here are some reasons that show why it is better to order food online.
- Save time and effort
- Access to a wide range of restaurants
- Get deals and discounts
7. What is Web-based ordering?
The web-based ordering allows customers to browse, select, order, and pay for their order through the website.
Supercharge your deliveries with Enatega.
Conclusion
The online ordering and delivery platform for restaurants is used worldwide. These platforms are the right choice for restaurants to offer online ordering.
So, to create a single and multi restaurant online ordering system, consult the best food delivery app development company, Enatega.
Book a demo now and get the best food ordering platform for your restaurant.
About the author
Hudaibia Khalid is the creative force behind the blog—a maestro of words and ideas. Her distinctive style not only imparts wisdom but also leaves an indelible mark, transforming each post into a captivating journey through her unique perspective on the world.
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