Restaurant app or website: what to launch first

Someone who spots your pizza on Instagram and wants dinner needs a link to your menu, prices, and delivery options. A regular who buys lunch every week may find an app useful: it makes returning to an order easy and lets them receive updates about the lunch menu.

When choosing a restaurant app or website, start with how guests find you and how they come back for their next order. This will help you decide which launch to spend money on now.

When to start with a website

If orders arrive by phone and through messages, a website can simplify the work. Guests choose their dishes, enter an address, and submit the order themselves. You can put the link in your social profiles, map listings, and on your packaging.

New guests can open the page in a browser and immediately see what they can order. Registration requirements and payment options depend on how the service is set up.

Before launching your restaurant website with online ordering, check where guests will arrive from: is the link visible in your restaurant’s profile, and do regulars know about it? Decide who will update the menu and handle orders.

If you already have a website, try placing an order on your own phone. Find a dish, select delivery, complete the fields, and test the payment step. Compare your observations with guest feedback and data on incomplete orders to identify specific problems you can fix before the next launch.

When to add an app

An app is worth considering when you already have guests who return regularly. Before launch, work out how you will ask them to install it and what would make it useful day to day.

Suppose a restaurant changes its lunch menu every week. It could send push notifications about the menu to guests who frequently order lunch and have agreed to receive them. In the Eatery Club™ app, a notification can remind guests about the restaurant and take them to the offer page.

Someone on the team needs to prepare those offers, choose when to send them, and check the results. Count the guests who used an offer and placed an order. That is one measure to consider when reviewing notification costs, but the count alone does not prove that the spending paid off or that the notifications caused those orders.

The website can remain an easy entry point for new guests, while regulars are offered the app. For this, the mobile version of an Eatery Club website includes a banner linking to the App Store and Google Play. See the website settings for details.

How to check loyalty and menu updates

Guests should understand what earns loyalty points, where to find their balance, and how much of their next order they can pay for with points. The Eatery Club loyalty program covers the website, app, and kiosk, with earning and redemption rules set for every ordering method.

At the demo, ask to see a scenario the guest would recognize: an order, points added, and those points redeemed on the next order. Check it on the website and in the app to assess whether the program’s terms are clear to guests. The loyalty guide covers setup details.

Before launch, confirm compatibility with your POS system and ask how the menu and prices update from it. Guests should see the current price after a change, and a dish marked as unavailable should not be orderable. Menu updates do not require a new app version to be published in the stores.

Which costs to include

Request separate quotes for a website alone and a website with an app, using the same expected order volume. This lets you compare the options and see what you would pay for by adding the app.

Each quote should cover these parts:

• Platform charges: the subscription, percentage per order, included services, and support. Eatery Club terms are listed on the pricing page.
• Setup: the one-time fee, any conditions for waiving it, and possible custom integration costs. For a chain, request a quote covering all locations and any applicable discounts.
• Online payments: processing fees under your contract.
• SMS, including confirmation codes: charges at a separate SMS provider’s rates. Ask that provider about prices, payment terms, and availability in the countries where your restaurant operates.

Estimate message volume for SMS costs and online payment volume for processing costs. Billing rules and charge dates may differ. Compare recurring costs over the same period, such as a month, and list one-time expenses separately.

Include your team’s time for the launch: preparing the menu, checking orders, training staff, and telling guests. For an app, also account for the work of preparing offers and push notifications.

What to do about your domain

A familiar restaurant web address is usually worth keeping. It may be printed on packaging, and links from search, maps, and partner websites may point to it. Before moving, confirm that you control the domain and that your chosen plan supports connecting it.

A new domain may suit a new brand or a separate project. If you are changing addresses because you lost access, first check whose name the domain is registered in and ask the registrar to recover it.

If your current website has a blog, location pages, or other useful content, discuss how to keep them when launching online ordering. The agreement about connecting the domain should cover those pages too.

If page addresses change, plan redirects from old pages to their new equivalents. Update your own links and check indexing after the move. Google’s site move guide describes the steps.

How to decide what to launch

Come to the demo with a specific goal: simplify orders from Instagram, remove an awkward payment step, or offer regulars an app with lunch offers. Ask to see the complete guest journey and get a launch quote that accounts for your POS system, payments, and domain.

Before launch, record the current figures that match your goal: completed online orders, repeat orders, or orders following notifications. Use them as a baseline when reviewing results so your next investment decision rests on your own restaurant’s experience.