Website Ordering
Your website can show your menu and take orders for pickup. Guests order from the menu on your own site, or from an ordering page with its own link and QR code. Their orders land in the Online orders queue on the Orders page.
Two pages set it up:
- Menu & online › Web menu, on the Setup tab: what the menu does, when guests pay, and the rules for timing and messages.
- Menu & online › Your website: the code for your website, the sites it may appear on, and the Ordering link.
How the menu looks is set on the Appearance tab of Web menu. See Styling the Website Widgets.
Turn on ordering
On Menu & online › Web menu › Setup:
- Show the menu on my website must be on. Turned off, the menu disappears from your website; the rest of your site keeps working.
- Under What the embed does, pick Display the menu and take orders. Display the menu only shows the menu with no way to order.
- Accepting orders right now opens and closes ordering. Turn it off when the kitchen is too busy: the menu stays visible, guests just can't order.
When customers pay
When customers pay can be changed once What the embed does is set to take orders. It has two choices:
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| At the restaurant | The guest orders now and pays when they collect. |
| Pay first, online | The guest pays online before the order reaches the kitchen, then gets a number to listen for. An unpaid order never reaches the kitchen. |
Pay first needs your Stripe account to be able to take payments and pay out to you. Until it can, the option can't be picked and the page says why, after Pay first isn't available yet. If Pay first is already on and your account stops being able to take payments, the page warns that guests can't pay right now. See Payment Management to finish your Stripe setup.
With Pay first on, two more lines appear:
- Unpaid orders expire after (minutes): an order not paid in this time is cancelled, and nothing is charged. Pick from 5 to 30 minutes; it starts at 15.
- Refund fee: if you turn down an order the guest already paid for, it is refunded in full. This line says who pays the card refund fee, SSP or your restaurant. It is set by SSP for your organization, so there is nothing to change here.
A paid order waits in the Online orders queue like any other, marked Paid online, until someone accepts it or turns it down. To give money back after that, see Refunds and changes to a paid order.
What the guest is told
- Offer "Text me my order details" adds a box the guest can tick at checkout. A guest who ticks it confirms their phone with a code, then gets texts when the order is confirmed, delayed and ready. Each message carries a small charge. The box only reaches guests while Text customers about their order (below) is on; until then the page warns Customers don't see this yet.
- Show customers their order number shows the number you call out (#42) on the guest's confirmation, status page and texts. It is on to start with.
Timing
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Minimum time before pickup (minutes) | The soonest a guest can ask to collect their order. |
| How far ahead customers can order (days) | How many days ahead a guest can place a pre-order. |
| Time to accept an order (minutes) | Orders nobody answers in this time are turned down automatically, and the guest is told. |
Checks and messages
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Confirm the customer's phone by text | Sends a code the guest types in before ordering. Cuts down fake orders; adds a step and a small charge per message. |
| Text customers about their order | Sends a text when the order is received, confirmed, turned down, and ready to collect. Turning it on also turns on phone confirmation. Each message carries a small charge. |
| Accept orders automatically | Skips the accept step during your opening hours: orders go straight to the kitchen, and you don't get the chance to turn one down first. Without opening hours set, orders always wait for someone. |
| Require an email address at checkout | Name and phone number are always required; this adds email. |
Share the ordering link
Open Menu & online › Your website. Once your location has a website code, the Ordering link card offers your ordering page on its own, for a flyer, a social post, a sign at the counter or another website:
- The link, with a button to copy it.
- The button code: a ready-made button to paste into any web page. Copy it with the button beside it.
- Download the QR code, to print. The QR code opens the same page as the link.
A venue such as a food court or a theatre can add &table=…&src=… to the end of the link, for example &table=A12&src=mall-x. The table and the source then show on the order, in the queue and in the order panel, and the Source filter on the Orders page keeps one source's orders together. These two values come from the link as the guest opened it; SSP doesn't check them.
When an order comes in
- The order waits in the Online orders queue at the top of Service › Orders until someone accepts it or turns it down, there or on the kitchen screen. See Orders and Web orders and pre-orders in the Kitchen documentation.
- Open the order to follow it on its timeline, and press Picked up when the guest collects it. See The pickup box.
- If the guest calls to cancel or drop a dish, see Refunds and changes to a paid order.
Related Features
- Orders
- Styling the Website Widgets
- Payment Management
- Pickup orders from a website, in the Guest documentation: what the guest sees