What Percentage Of Your Sales Are From Online Orders?

Since POS has just released their online ordering, I’m strongly considering it. But, I wonder how much it will get used. The $250 would be fine, even if it didn’t get used much. My issue is the monthly fees and whether it will be worth it.

It really does depend on how well you promote it and how flexible the online order system is.

In my case I consistently receive around 30-40% of my orders (by sales volume) online sometimes even higher.

I have online meal deals, I promote an online offer on my menu and have promoted my online order system via postcards, box toppers and now email, text and facebook etc. I often have weeks where I have a really strong online discount which also helps attracts new users.

If you do offer meal deals or other offers on you menu you are unlikely to find a system which can match the flexibility you have ‘over the phone’ so be prepared to consider things such as a set discount %'ge of $ off (say when you spend over $20 or $30.

I can’t imagine life without online orders now. Good luck.

Hi Indie,

One of our online ordering providers shared some summary data with me for our restaurant clients who use their service integrated with SpeedLine POS. In a month (Oct-09), those restaurants ranged from a low of 5 web orders to a high of 684.

The average was 88 orders; the median was 50.

Since the range was so wide, you might find the detailed breakdown more helpful:

In October, restaurants with:
<10 web orders: 7%
10-20 web orders: 5%
21-30: 17%
31-40: 12%
41 to 50: 9%
51 to 60: 7%
61 to 70: 5%
71 to 80: 7%
81 to 100: 5%
100 to 125: 2%
126 to 150: 9%
151 to 175: 2%
176 to 200: 2%
201 to 225: 5%
251 to 300: 2%
351 to 400: 1%
650 to 700: 1%

It’s possible that this may include some locations that just went live with web ordering in October; I don’t have that information. But overall, 44% had 40 online orders or less in a month. 10% had more than 200. The rest came in somewhere in the middle. The differences are partly a function of location and demographics, and a big part promotion.

The other thing I hear consistently from clients is that their web orders are larger than their phone orders (they’ve given me percentages from 7 to 35%). Some of them (especially the ones who are also doing local AdWords PPC and/or Facebook advertising) are also seeing a significant percentage of new business coming through their online ordering sites.

Wow,
I’ve had on-line ordering for 14 months, never have I seen or heard anyone with % like that man. I’m slightly above the national average of 8%, ( Did about $48,500 our first year on-line) I am very happy with that. personally I don’t see the reasoning behind giving any discounts for on-line ordering, my conception has always been the users spend more time browsing your menu with no server or time pressure, thus consistently ordering more than dining in. My dine in check average is 34.68, my on-line ordering either for pick up or delivery is 48.24. I do believe in the formula of discounting to expand your guest base which effects your bottom line which I’m sure is your goal here, and apparently working extremely well. Kudos bro, keep up the great sales!

                                                        Willi

Wizzle: Who do you use to handle the online orders?

Thanks in advance.

Sorry, I’m not in the US so it wouldn’t be of my use to you.

Hi

I decided to build my online sales in 2006 and started in Oct to mail out a postcard to ideal customers. At the same time I put an online ‘offer’ on my menu. We are delivery and collection only. I use every opportunity to mention our website, menu, box toppers, basically every time I’ve something with our name on it we have the ‘order online and the website’

Re the discounts there are two aspects:

  1. getting the customer to try you - you need to be able to offer something in order to change a customers habit of calling the store. It does take longer to order online, and you have the computer on etc etc.
  2. In my business I offer a few meal deals and offers such as buy one get one half price when you order in store or over the phone. If you don’t do this then you may not need to offer this online. I know not everyone has offers but we use them in our business model. We’ve used a %'ge discount when we started as that was all that was available. Even now I have meal deals and buy one get one half price and the 20% off when you spend over 20.00. Even though the 20% off may not be the best offer (its not as good as bygo half price) it is the most redeemed coupon probably because its on the menu and has been around for years. A lot of customers even though they have access to discounts and deals won’t even use them.

I can, as needed, do other great deals when we anticipate we have a quiet week. I’ve often said on TT that I will offer great deals when its quiet and online allows me to do this very quickly using email and text.

It very odd in store some nights. I may be away from the make line and thinking gosh its really quiet tonight as the phone has only rung once or twice then look up and see the whole make line screen full of online orders - marvellous!

The key though - get people using it and make sure you promote it all the time.

We’ve been using online ordering for 8 years now and had it in place before any of the other pizza shops in our area had it, incuding some of the big 3. We are take out and delivery only and are now seeing over 350 online orders per month. We offer no special discounts, only specials we have currently running in the store. Our customers love the online ordering and in fact, when it happens to be down for a night - they are calling us wondering why they can’t use it. We have used the same company for our online ordering system, but it is the case where we receive a fax when the order is placed. We consistently are seeing approximately 30 new customers using it every month. We love the online ordering, our customers love it, and we would never not be without it. We are now about ready to go with the Point of Success online ordering since it is now available.

Awesome Wizzle,
Once again, goes to show you how deep the brain power is here on TT and how each one of us can customize every aspect of each idea and feature. I call for a TT summit very soon! Maybe in Vegas or a beach location! we can all write it off as a networking event.

                                                                                           Willi  :D

Here’s my question before I drop $80/month on the POS add-on - does online ordering INCREASE your sales (even if promoted). It seems to me that it has just become one of those things that customers increasingly expect but that it doesn’t drive any new customers.

Does anyone have some before and after statistics?

Patrick
www.nextdoorpizza.com

It seems to me that it has just become one of those things that customers increasingly expect but that it doesn’t drive any new customers.

Does anyone have some before and after statistics?

I haven’t started using the online ordering so I do not have the statistics. But a recent conversation with my niece who in college led me to believe that I must get online ordering running if I hope to maximize my sales to my college market. She said that she and her friends ALWAYS order pizza online, she cannot remember once calling an order in. Her impression was that this was true for most of the students at her university. If this is the case, what am I leaving on the table by not even offering online ordering? Are there a lot of customers in my college town that simply do not order from me because someone else makes the order process more convenient for them? I personally find online ordering to be a pain in the a$$, but I guess the current 18-25 year olds do everything online.

Hmmm…just got an email from POS today with deals on software, including BOGO on several, including Online Ordering.

Anyone want to go halvesies on a couple of them for $100 each?

(I’m guessing Jeff will shoot this down, but it’s worth a shot).

They are $100 each now until Friday 11/20 with no cheating required :wink: