Click and collect software for restaurants, cafés and takeaways

Click and collect software lets customers order and pay on their phone, then pick up their food at a set time without queuing. For a restaurant or café, that means a menu link, a collection time, an alert to the kitchen and a message when it's ready. Menuthere gives UK food businesses click and collect from their own ordering page, with 0% commission. Start free for 50 orders a month.

Create your free ordering pageSee how pre-orders work

Click and collect for food is not the same as retail

Most click and collect software is built for shops. A parcel can sit on a shelf all day. A flat white can't. Food needs three things retail tools don't handle well:

• Timing. The order must be ready when the customer walks in, not 20 minutes before.
• Options. Sizes, milks, toppings and "no onions" need to reach the kitchen clearly.
• Allergens. UK law says customers must get allergen information before they buy and again when they collect.

So look for an ordering system built for food, not a general online shop.

Four ways UK restaurants set up click and collect

How click and collect works with Menuthere

For the customer:

1. They tap your link on Google, Instagram or your website, or scan a QR code on your window.
2. They choose Collection, add items with sizes and extras, and add a note.
3. They choose "as soon as possible", where checkout can show your average prep time, or a collection time (pre-orders, Lite and above).
4. They pay online by card (Lite and above), or pay when they collect. Apple Pay and Google Pay work if you switch them on in your own Stripe account.
5. They follow the order on a live status page. On Pro, they also get WhatsApp messages when it's accepted and ready.

For your team:

1. The order rings on the partner app until someone accepts it, or you switch on auto-accept.
2. A kitchen ticket prints with the collection time and any notes. See kitchen printing.
3. Pre-orders sit in their own Prebookings tab, with those due within the hour at the top.
4. Staff mark the order ready, and the customer's status page updates.

Collection times: set them so the kitchen keeps up

With pre-orders on, you decide:

• Fixed slots, such as 12:00–12:15, 12:15–12:30, for a lunch rush.
• Rolling slots, counted from now, such as "ready in 30 minutes".
• How far ahead customers can order, such as up to 7 days for celebration cakes.
• How much notice each dish needs. A whole cake might need a day. A sandwich needs none.
• Orders while closed. Customers can pre-order at 10pm for tomorrow's 8am coffee run.

There's no cap on the number of orders per slot, so set your slot length and notice times long enough to cope at peak.

Make the pick-up point work at peak

The software is half the job. The other half is the counter.

• Give click and collect its own shelf or spot, away from the till queue.
• Label each bag with the name and order number.
• Put hot and cold orders in different places. Hot food goes out last.
• Seal the bag with a sticker. It shows nothing was touched.
• Put a sign on the door: "Ordered online? Collect here."
• Check ID at hand-over if the order includes alcohol, just as you would at the bar.

Who uses click and collect

Cafés and coffee shops

The 8am queue is where you lose sales. Regulars order on the walk in and skip the queue. See Menuthere for cafés.

Sandwich shops and office lunches

An office sends one order at 11am for a 12:30 collection. One person picks up ten lunches.

Bakeries

Celebration cakes, Christmas orders and Saturday bread need notice. Pre-orders let you bake to order. See Menuthere for bakeries.

Takeaways, pizza shops and chippies

Friday night collection is the cheapest order you'll ever take: no driver, no app commission. Our takeaway ordering system page covers takeaways in detail.

Pubs and restaurants

Sunday roast to take home, or the Christmas Eve pre-order. Collection slots stop the kitchen being swamped.

Pay online or pay on collection?

Many venues ask for online payment on pre-orders and allow pay on collection for "ASAP" orders. You can't add a surcharge for paying by card in the UK. Build card costs into your prices.

What it costs: a worked example

A café takes 200 collection orders a month at £15 each. That's £3,000 of sales.

Menuthere plans are billed in US dollars; your bank converts it. Even if only half of those orders move to your own link, you save more than £150 a month. See Uber Eats commission in the UK for the full rates.

UK rules for click and collect food

• Allergens. Give information on the 14 major allergens before the customer orders and again at collection. Put it on your online menu or one click away, and label the bag or tell the customer at hand-over (FSA). On Menuthere, you tag the 14 allergens and calories on each dish (every plan, including Free), and customers see them when they open the dish.
• Prepacked for direct sale (Natasha's Law). Food you pack before it's ordered, such as grab-and-go sandwiches, needs a full ingredients label. Food made to order after the customer orders doesn't. Read our Natasha's Law guide.
• VAT. Hot takeaway food is standard-rated at 20%, whether collected or delivered. Most cold takeaway food is zero-rated. Menu prices must include VAT. See VAT on takeaway food.
• Late-night food. In England and Wales, selling hot food or drink to the public between 11pm and 5am needs a licence for late night refreshment from your council. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules.

Set up click and collect this week

• Create your Menuthere account and import your menu from a photo or PDF.
• Switch on Collection as an order type.
• Tag the allergens and calories on each dish, keep an up-to-date allergen matrix for staff, and check every price includes VAT.
• On Lite: switch on pre-orders and set your slots and notice times.
• On Lite: connect your own Stripe account for card payments.
• Choose a collection spot and print a "Collect here" sign.
• Add your ordering link to your Google Business Profile and Instagram bio.
• Print a QR code for the window: "Skip the queue. Order ahead."

You can take your first collection order today.

Create your free ordering page