How to set up online ordering for your restaurant (2026)

Short answer: to set up online ordering for your restaurant, pick a direct-ordering platform, build your online menu with photos and modifiers, set your pickup and delivery zones and prep times, connect a payment processor, then put the ordering link on your website, your Google Business Profile and your social bios. Wire orders into a kitchen display or ticket printer, turn on loyalty and follow-up, and market the launch. With a modern tool you can be live the same day from the menu you already have, and you pay a low per-order fee (from around 2.5% with Plattr, plus card processing) instead of the 15-30% the big delivery apps take.

The most important decision is not which button you press first. It is whether you build ordering you own or rent it from a marketplace. Direct ordering keeps the customer, the data and the margin. Marketplaces bring discovery but take a large cut and keep the relationship. This guide walks the direct route step by step, then shows the fee math so you can decide with your eyes open. Plattr publishes this blog, so treat this as an informed but interested view; the steps and the comparison below are written to be useful whichever platform you land on.

Direct ordering vs the marketplaces, first

Delivery marketplaces (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub) are genuinely useful for one thing: discovery. They put you in front of hungry people who have never heard of you, and for some sites that reach is worth paying for. The problem is the price and the ownership. Marketplace commissions run 15-30% per order, and pickup or "lite" tiers still take a meaningful slice, so all-in you are often handing over 30-40% of an order. Just as costly over time, the app owns the customer: the name, phone, email and order history stay with them, so you cannot easily bring that person back.

Direct ordering flips both. You pay a small per-order fee instead of a large commission, and the customer relationship lands in your account so you can remarket to it. The healthy pattern for most restaurants in 2026 is direct ordering as the default channel, with the apps kept on as paid discovery you can turn up or down. Set up your own ordering first, then decide how much marketplace exposure you actually want to buy.

Figures are indicative 2026 rates for illustration; check current pricing with each provider, as marketplace tiers and processing rates vary by region and plan. The point is not the exact cent. It is that on the same $40 order, direct ordering typically leaves you several dollars better off and hands you the customer instead of renting them.

How to set up online ordering: the steps

Here is the full launch, in the order that keeps you unblocked. Most of these steps take minutes once the menu exists; the menu itself is the part worth doing well.

1Pick a direct-ordering platform

Choose the tool that will host your ordering. Look for four things: a low per-order fee rather than a percentage commission, a menu that supports photos and modifiers, control over pickup and delivery rules, and customer data you actually own. Some platforms are ordering-only (ChowNow, Flipdish, GloriaFood), some are POS-first with ordering attached (Toast, Square, Lightspeed), and some, like Plattr, bundle ordering with the POS, loyalty and marketing in one login so you are not stitching four subscriptions together. If you are weighing the free and low-cost options, our roundup of the best free online ordering for restaurants at /blog/best-free-online-ordering compares what "free" really means on each, and the wider best online ordering system at /blog/best-online-ordering-system ranks the paid tools by fit.

2Build the online menu with photos and modifiers

This is where most of your effort should go, because the menu is your storefront. Import your existing menu or type it in, then add a photo to every top seller. Items with photos consistently sell better than plain text lines, and a hungry customer scrolling on a phone buys with their eyes. Set up modifiers and option groups next: sizes, add-ons, "no onions", protein swaps, spice level. Clean modifiers mean fewer kitchen mistakes and higher average order value, because the upsell ("add fries for $4") is built into the flow. With Plattr you can publish from the menu you already have and be live the same day, then add photos over the first week as you shoot them.

3Set pickup and delivery zones and prep times

Decide which fulfilment types you offer and configure the rules for each. For pickup, set a realistic prep time so quoted collection times are accurate. For delivery, draw your zone (by radius or by suburb), set a delivery fee and a minimum order, and set a prep-plus-drive time so customers are not promised 20 minutes when it takes 45. Getting quote times honest is the single biggest driver of good reviews on your own channel, because a late order feels worse than a slightly longer promised one. Turn on order throttling if you have busy rushes so the kitchen is not buried at 7pm.

4Connect payments

Link a payment processor so you get paid directly. On most modern platforms this is a short onboarding flow (business details, bank account, identity check) and card processing runs around 2.9% + 30¢ online, which is separate from any platform fee. Take card up front on the order so no-shows do not cost you food. Watch for platforms that lock you to their own processing at a rate you cannot negotiate; the flexible ones let you keep a competitive card rate while you pay the small ordering fee on top.

5Put ordering on your website, Google Business Profile and social

A live ordering page nobody can find earns nothing. Add an obvious "Order online" button to the top of your website (not buried three clicks deep), and put the link in your Instagram, Facebook and TikTok bios. The highest-intent placement of all is your Google Business Profile: add your ordering link to the "Order online" field so when someone Googles your name or "food near me", the order button sits right there in the result. If you do not have a proper site yet, our guide to how to build a food business website at /blog/how-to-build-a-food-business-website walks the whole thing, ordering link included.

6Set up the kitchen flow

Orders need to reach the line reliably. Route incoming orders to a kitchen display screen (KDS) or a ticket printer so nobody is refreshing an email inbox during service. A KDS cuts paper, times courses, and reduces the "we never saw that order" mistakes that kill your online rating. Test the whole path before you announce anything: place a real order from your phone, watch it land on the screen, make it, and mark it ready. Do this at least once for pickup and once for delivery.

7Turn on loyalty and follow-up

This is the step that turns a first order into a regular, and it is the reason owning your customer data matters. Switch on a loyalty program (points or visit-based) so people earn a reason to come back to you rather than the app. Set an automatic follow-up: a thank-you after the first order and a gentle win-back to customers who have not ordered in a while. Because direct ordering captures the email and phone, these run on your list, on your terms. SMS in particular gets read: open rates sit around 90-98% versus roughly 20-30% for email.

8Market the launch

Do not soft-launch into silence. Post the new ordering link across every channel, pin it, and give people a reason to try it now: a small first-order discount, a free side, or double loyalty points for the first two weeks. Tell your existing regulars by email and at the counter ("order ahead next time, it is on our site"). Add a table tent or QR code in-store that opens your ordering page. The goal of week one is to move a chunk of your existing customers onto a channel you own, which quietly reduces what you pay the marketplaces every month after.

Your setup checklist

Run this before you announce your ordering to the world. Each row is a quick win, and the last column is why it matters.

Mistakes to avoid when setting up online ordering

These are the ones that quietly cost the most.

• Only listing on the delivery apps. It feels free to switch on, but you hand over 15-30% per order and the app keeps every customer. Run your own direct ordering as the main channel and treat the marketplaces as paid discovery, not your whole strategy. Our breakdown of food delivery commission rates at /blog/food-delivery-commission-rates shows exactly what each app takes.
• A menu with no photos. A wall of plain text on a phone is easy to close. Photograph your top ten sellers before you launch; it is the single highest-return hour of the whole setup.
• Hiding your ordering link. If "Order online" is buried in a footer or a linktree three taps deep, most people give up. Put it at the top of the site and in every bio, and make it the first thing a returning customer sees.
• Forgetting your Google Business Profile. This is the highest-intent place a hungry customer will ever see you, right in the search result. Skipping the ordering link there sends that ready-to-buy person straight to a marketplace instead of to you.
• Promising times you cannot hit. A 20-minute quote on a 45-minute reality generates one-star reviews on your own channel. Set prep-plus-drive times honestly and throttle orders during rushes.
• Not capturing the customer. If your setup does not collect the email or phone and wire it to loyalty and follow-up, you are leaving the repeat business, the most valuable part, on the table.

Where Plattr fits

Plattr is built for owners who want direct ordering they control without gluing five tools together. It bundles online ordering, the POS, a kitchen view, loyalty and marketing in one login, so the eight steps above happen in one place instead of across four subscriptions. Direct online ordering runs from 2.5% per order (region-dependent, plus card processing), which is a fraction of the 15-30% the delivery apps charge. It goes live the same day from the menu you already have, works on the devices you already own with no hardware lock-in, and is month-to-month rather than a multi-year contract. Most importantly, the customer data lands in your account, so you own your customers and can bring them back. It is free to start, so you can build your menu and take a test order before you commit to anything.

Frequently asked questions

How do I set up online ordering for my restaurant?
Short answer: pick a direct-ordering platform, build your online menu with photos and modifiers, set your pickup and delivery zones and prep times, connect a payment processor, then put the ordering link on your website, your Google Business Profile and your social bios. With a modern tool you can be taking orders the same day using the menu you already have, and you pay a low per-order fee instead of the 15-30% the big delivery apps charge.

What is the cheapest way to take online orders?
The cheapest per-order route is direct ordering from your own site, where you pay a small per-order fee (from around 2.5% with Plattr, plus card processing) instead of a 15-30% marketplace cut. Some tools like GloriaFood offer a free ordering widget that takes no per-order commission, and ChowNow charges a flat monthly fee rather than a commission. Marketplaces feel free to switch on but are by far the most expensive way to sell once orders flow, so most owners run direct ordering as their main channel and treat the apps as paid discovery.

Do I need a POS to take online orders?
No. Online ordering can run on its own and simply email or print tickets to your kitchen, or route them to a kitchen display screen. Many owners start with online ordering plus a display and add or keep a separate POS for the counter. Because Plattr bundles ordering, a kitchen view and the POS in one login, you can start with just ordering and turn on the rest when you need it, without buying new hardware.

How long does it take to launch online ordering?
If your menu is already written down, a same-day launch is realistic with a modern direct-ordering platform: import or type the menu, set your zones and hours, connect payments, and publish. Building a branded mobile app or a full custom website takes longer, often a week or two, but you do not need either to start taking orders. The slow part is usually photographing the food and writing modifiers, not the software setup.

Should I list on DoorDash and Uber Eats or take orders on my own site?
Do both, but make your own site the main channel. Marketplaces bring new customers you would not otherwise reach, which is worth paying for, but they take 15-30% per order and keep the customer relationship. Direct ordering costs a fraction of that and lets you keep the customer data so you can bring people back with loyalty and email. The healthy pattern is direct ordering as your default plus the apps as paid discovery you can dial up or down.

Why does owning my customer data matter for online ordering?
When an order comes through a marketplace, the app owns the customer: the name, email, phone and order history sit with them, not you, so you cannot easily invite that person back. Direct ordering puts that data in your account, so you can run loyalty, send a follow-up offer after a first order, and win back lapsed regulars. Over a year, the repeat business from owning your list is usually worth more than any single order fee.